Fronius definitely knows what they are doing. Since making the video I spent a lot of time actually welding with the machine (including trail welding) and it stick welds perfect. When you get to a high enough skill level you like a welder to weld a certain way, and the accupocket (with virtually no screwing around with settings) does exactly what I want. I didn’t mention it in the video but my introduction to fronius was from a KZfaqr (chuckee2009) years ago, and I made the assumption they were average welders because nobody around where I live sold them. Not to mention a KZfaqr was reviewing them (they sent them to him for free). It wasn’t until years later I realized how they are actually high end and well designed machines. I may be making the switch to the same tig machine you have (the 230) over my dynasty. I feel that the dynasty lacks overall polish and I think the fronius would be a step above it. I am glad to hear you like the machine you have, that’s what I heard from everyone that has owned them.

@@makingmistakeswithgreg Hey Greg, the 230i AC/DC is really an awesome machine. The TAC feature works so well when fitting up but it is a little unusual at first use, just use it for fit up only, don't weld continuous. And I love the fact you can run 300 feet of extension cord and it still works plus I think it will weld up to 170A on 120V. The Fronius TIG torch is very foreign at first, especially to us in North America, it takes some time to get use to. I do like it and do use it often. One torch feature I really like, with one click I can swap out the head for another type or one that may be set up for a different process. The torch head will rotate 360 degrees as well for repositioning but don't use the release tab to do so like so many unknowledgeable you tubers show on their videos, or it will leak gas and/or water. Torch head will rotate while in locked position as designed. As you know torch quality is second to none, but I also use the CK Superflex with the adaptor as my go to torch when using the Fronius wireless foot pedal. The CK is more like a familiar "home comfort" torch that I am use to. Oh and that wireless foot pedal with hook is fantastic for repositioning, how the hell did we get along without it in the first place! You will love it. But be careful of the battery door, I managed to damage the plastic around the captive crew not understanding how to open the door at first, but a little epoxy fixed it up. Otherwise pedal extremely robust, surprising reliable as any metal pedal, it's actually heavy duty. Cheers Joe

Hi, has the iWave 230 got all the stick features we see in this video? Its a pricey machine!, have to sell a Kidney.

@@engjds Yes it does except for battery powered.

I got an htp last summer but the primeweld sure looks darn nice for the money.

Both of those machines offer a lot of capability for the money. You will see a everlast machine or two sometime soon, I ordered one to show you can do excellent work with very minimal equipment. I am glad it’s possible to get a decent welder for affordable prices 😀.

Bought the HTP Revolution 2500 about a month ago. If you ever have the funds get one. I have used quite a few different machines but HTP is in a league of their own.

@@Proto.Fabrication All the reviews point to HTP being a cut above. I'm sure they are worth the money.

I am definitely with you on the price. At some point the machines will come down in price. For the average person the rogue 180 or 200 are awesome machines. When you look at the fact you can get a rogue 200 and $2500-3500 more in other tools/welders over the fronius it’s a no brainer.

How applicable is this to most jobs? Thin sheet metal I can weld full penetration with a clean backside from one side. Thicker metal with an open root/bevel you can do the same. Is the theory with it you weld both sides of a butt joint without a bevel, and because you have an arc/molten pool on both you achieve full penetration/fusion with no bevel, minimal gap? I could see that working since it would save a lot of time on setup. I would imagine it also produces a cleaner internal weld? I never thought anyone would comment that actually has done that, thanks much for chiming in. 😀

@@makingmistakeswithgregyeah happy to share! not exactly sure how applicable it is outside food industry, I'm not a welder, just an industrial engineer. Types of welds we do is 7-14 gauge sheet where welds on inside have to be ground flush and polished, and no pits or scratches allowed. Stereo welding allows very minimal defects in that sense with 2 pools meeting each other. Doing each side sequentially with a backing tape works but you have to back grind to get the full pen high quality welds we're after that have minimal failure potential or necessary rework. Personally think only better options are seam welders with gas backing or robotic welding with the same. Next capabilities we're looking at is hot wire Tig through EWM.

Fronius also has cool cold wire feed TIG called dynamic wire, which is dead easy and quick too

No, Fronius IS way better engineered. You have to try it! But be careful, you be wanting one.

@@joeg7755 nah. It’s pretty good. I won’t argue that. But all manufacturers have their own thing. And they play catchup with each other. Fronius and ESAB are the two most reliable welders I’m familiar with. As far as features go, a lot of the little things are nice, but are we really making better welds because of them? With some, but not all. And a number of these little extra features require that you be a pretty good welder to make use of them and then, the effects are minor. A lot of it is just different ways to do the same thing. These battery models are aimed at different audiences. The /fronius is aimed at the kind of work Greg needs it for. The ESAB is intended for heavier, longer cycles.

@@melgross Hi Mel, you raised good points! Cheers Joe

The slightly smaller compact Fronius Transteel 3000C also has pulse but it's also 3 phase only machine. And because the same 3000C, and 4000 Pulse, and 5000 Pulse all have true syncropulse mode (double pulse), they require 3 phase power to cover the headroom demand on the inverter power to do so. The standard 4000 and 5000 are also larger machines in capacity thus 3 phase as well.

Hi, can it weld thin materials like a mm or under? the 2200 is number one on my list just now, 2nd is the Ignis Tig-because I love the portability and price but would lose out on mig.

@@engjds both can weld very thin material. A lot depends on the welder as well.

I will be opening it up soon on video to see what’s inside 😀.

@@makingmistakeswithgreg , don’t you dare threaten me with a good time Mr Greg Sir… 😁. I thought the Lorde Almighty “Ave” and myself were the only ones who tear down perfectly working tools 🛠️ and stuff hahaha !

I ended up selling a bunch of stuff I had to fund it, and the payoff should be worth it in the long run. I am doing a lot more repair work and the time savings combined with the capability should make sense. I really wish they sold for much less money. I know the prices will drop at some point. My favorite welders are the small compact units, and I would like to see more people be able to afford a battery powered welder like the fronius. They are so useful and make you wish every welder could weld without a power cord lol.

I am not sure why but in the U.S. welding machines are arguably far behind other countries like Germany with welders. The tech that has existed in other countries (like LCD screens, touch displays, and super adjustable parameters) for a very long time is just getting here. I looked up Rehm and they are a great example of this, their whole interface is way ahead of American companies. What I thought was the most puzzling, is that miller told me that they don’t write the software for their new lcd machines (like my dynasty). To be able to produce a high end product that is basically a computer, and have the best functionality, you would think everything would be done in house.

I never knew how important a fan on demand was until I welded with a everlast machine that didn’t have it. It was a 275 amp tig machine and its fan for both the cooler and the welder ran anytime it was on. Welding at 50amps in a quiet shop with a stupidly loud fan on was too much for me. So far I really like the fronius I have. Little things like a nice knob that clicks when it turns shows they put thought into it. I will be opening it up soon to see what’s inside, I am unsure as to what can even be seen but I have a feeling the inside is well engineered too.

My ESAB 205 gas fan in demand.

A long time ago I wheeled with a guy that had one. I never saw it used, or got to use it, it’s quite the idea. Believe it or not that type of setup (basically an alternator with a control box) was actually used in a few micro engine drive welders. I am sure they weld great. I have used the car battery powered spool guns (like the ready welder 2) and they work ok. To me stick is far more useful, trying to get clean welds on 1/4in or thicker steel with flux core is tough since .030 and .035 flux core has issues with internal porosity on thick steel. If I had a choice I much rather have an alternator drive welder setup over a car battery powered spool gun. Also, I didn’t mention it in the video, but I ended up using the fronius for a trail repair last weekend. I ended up welding a tire spoon bar to a tie rod that was toasted, in the middle of a stupidly hard trail wind rock off road (Tennessee). Literally 10min of work and it was fixed, the fronius welded perfect. I wish they were cheaper, it works as good a normal stick machine.

@@makingmistakeswithgreg That’s awesome. I am intrigued by the Fronius but yea the cost is up there. I am seriously considering getting the Premier welder for my TJ. I haven’t seen one in use myself but have watched Rory at Trail mater use one and they seem to work great. Keep up the great content!

So I have used it for a ton of random jobs. I repaired a bunch of a pipe railing on a beach last week. I have a 500a engine drive on the truck, but that was 140’ away from where I was working. I would have needed to run 140’ of leads, and had the big diesel idling for 1 hour while I did the job. Not a big deal but I needed to make numerous amperage changes (paper thin pipe being welded at 36 to 45amps) and that would have required me to make multiple trips back to the truck to adjust. Plus lugging tons of cables, and of course the diesel idling right by people sun tanning and eating lunch 😅. I also welded some fencing sections at random places in a festival ground that I couldn’t get to with the truck easily. When the battery got low I found a random outlet to charge it while I ate lunch. The main benefits is small oddball jobs in the field because very easy to do, and you get a lot of output off battery (with very low current draw to charge). It’s actually a very solid setup and more useful than I planned on it being.

@@makingmistakeswithgreg Ok, that actually makes a lot of sense. At first blush it seems like a solution in search of a problem, but in the end it is solutions to a lot of problems.

I never knew they made a welder combo, I just looked at their specs/models. I have used their straight generators and some of their other equipment before, they are pretty popular around here. From a construction point of view i could see their combo unit being popular. You’re not likely to see one on a pipeline soon, but for general use I bet they would work great. I am not surprised it welds better than the bobcat 250. I have ran a bunch of bigger engine drives (my repair truck is outfitted with a miller big blue 500) and when you start getting into 400+ amp diesels they just weld effortlessly. Don’t get me wrong, I like the bobcats and smaller engine drives, but running air arc or laying a ton of rods down I much rather have a bigger unit. Even cooler with that multiquip being able to run dual outputs, definately could get more stuff done. Edit: I am not sold with all the controls a lot of the newer engine drives have. Either it welds the way I like or it doesn’t. I have been burning rods on a miller xmt350 lately and it welds exactly like I like, and it only has adjustable amperage and arc force. 😀

Thanks for you input, I’ve never had the opportunity to try on of those bigger millers it would be interesting to compare the two side by side.

I live a few hours from fronius’s American headquarters apparently (I just found out lol). I am not sure if employees get them for testing and then sell them, but the stick only version sells on marketplace for 2-2300$ in basically new shape, and there are multiple people selling them. To me for around 2k I think that would be an extremely useful price. I can’t count how many repair jobs I have done that took 10-12 3/32 rods or 6, 1/8th rods, which the machine will handle on battery. My buddy and I were even doing a bunch of welding with it when it was charging. I was cranking out a bunch (over 30) 1/8th 7018s and it had no problem doing that while pulling under 15a from the wall while charging. I love my little esab rogue 200, but even that can’t get more than 120a on 120v. To be able to run 130a plus hot start on a 1/8th 7018 off battery power is huge, and to do it for 10+ rods while on a simple 120 outlet is great.

It’s 24 lbs for the main unit, easily portable, especially with the shoulder strap. The battery longevity will be good from what I have found, and it is replaceable. I believe (don’t quote me on it) that they use standard samsung type cells in the pack. It’s not a custom cell made from sheets. I will be doing a video soon where I open it up and look at whatever I can see. I am also going to contact fronius to get a battery replacement cost. Realistically they are the only company in the us that offers a battery powered welder that makes sense. The esab volt at 45+ lbs and the size of a mini fridge is not portable, and I doubt it’s nearly as efficient as the fronius. The fronius clearly was designed as a ground up package for functionality and efficiency, the fact they have history making similar things is more proof that it will be reliable.

This one uses a special gas through dinse which an adapter does fortunately exist for. Most of their other welders use a more standard hookup. 😀

Sounds like a "premier power welder" that runs off an alternator. some people also modify a regular alternator to a "weldernator".

@@jake-mv5oi not sure on brand but it does work like that ! Matts off road recovery

It’s probably either a second alternator setup or a mini spool gun setup that runs on 2 batteries. Both of them work well for their intended use. I will be doing a video on shtf welding with two batteries and a stick electrode, it will be interesting to see how well that works.

Definitely high class around here 😀. I only have to impress my welds and am I am never good enough for them so clean cuffs is the least of my worries 😅

When you have 800 amps a lot of things become an electrode lol. That welder/generator is basically a power plant in the bed of the truck. I would like to arc gouge with that at 800a with a 1/2in carbon rod. Basically a mini foundry in your hands lol.

That’s an interesting thought and I didn’t even think of that. A inverter could definitely output that much power and the charger wouldn’t have an issue running on an inverter. I am going to open the welder up in a future video, and I will test its efficiency (aka power draw of the charger). I will know for sure how big of an inverter would be needed. I might just pick one up, thanks for the idea.

Yea I had never heard of this brand so as you wud say, it’s interesting. And yes I just recently seen a guy demo the esab battery machine and it laid a wicked clean bead and like flawless slag peel I cudnt believe it actually

I’ve been patiently waiting for this video. After using my transpocket 180 I can attest to the superb quality of the brand. Like you mentioned about everything being proprietary, I have to second that. I bought my machine used and the insulator on the stinger was missing. I was not able to track one down, and I went through an insane amount of hoops to even find the oem replacement stinger. I usually always use tweco 200 amp stingers but I wanted to keep this all intact and original. I ended up having to buy the whole 400amp whip and stinger. I don’t think there is even a comparison between the fronius and the esab battery operated welders. It’s pretty wild how small of a generator is needed for the accupocket . Hopefully you get much enjoyment and use out of this machine and keep the content rollin!