I want to disclose that I purchased this welder, so my review is not biased in any way. I am an experienced welder in TIG, MIG, Flux Core, SMAW(Stick), and own several high-end welders including a Miller 200, and an Everlast Multiprocess with pulse function. First, let me say Jent, my Decapower contact, was great in providing information about the welder in a timely fashion, and was enjoyable to communicate with. I saw the Ultramig 230 Expert on youtube videos and thought the display was one of the best I’ve seen in any price range. I ordered the welder from Decapower and it arrived in perfect condition. I bought it without the mig torch and ground, since I have several extras in my shop, so I can’t comment on the quality of the torch and ground that comes with the welder. The welder is only about 14 Kg (30 lbs), and has a strong carry handle, making it easy to move or take to a different location. It is made of quality heavy gauge steel.

The power cord is 12 gauge, and about 2 meters (6 feet) long. This gauge thickness should be ample size for the 230 Amp output. I upgraded my welder with a longer 10 gauge cord, and while the cover was off, noted the quality components inside the welder.  

An excellent feature is the dual roller wire feeder. I have a similar system on my Everlast Thunder 255. The dual roller significantly reduces pressure on the wire, which is especially helpful for flux core, and aluminum wire, where overpressure can “oval” the wire and cause problems feeding. The drive build quality is excellent and is something I would expect to see in a welder 3+ times the price. The electronics seem well laid out and securely mounted into the chassis, and the main conductors to the welder output are solid copper bars, not aluminum. The Ground and Stick welding connections are the larger Dinse 35 inputs. The on/off switch is heavy duty, and conveniently located in the back, near the gas input. For my shop, I like the threaded gas connectors (5/8-18 thread standard gas connection). This welder has a barbed connection which is fine but I modified it to take a threaded gas connection. It was actually easier than I thought, since the barbed connector threaded mount is a standard 1/8″ Straight Pipe Thread, so I cut off the barb part, and threaded a 1/8″ NPT adapter to a 5/8-18 gas adapter, which only took about 30 minutes.

The cooling fan is pretty quiet compared to some welders. The high quality display looks just as nice as it looked on the youtube videos. There are many, many features to fine tune this machine if the user wants customized features. The manual seems to be well written but I think it is in Russian, and unfortunately I don’t read that language but with the pictures and easy-to-navigate on-board menu, I was able to figure out how to set all the parameters for welding. If a person is less experienced in welders, using the automatic settings (synergistic), will create good welds. The Ultramig has as many features as some welders costing many times more money.  

MIG/MAG WELDING TEST

The first tests involved four welding processes: Shorted Arc, Pulsed MIG, Double Pulsed MIG, and Spray Arc. Lincoln .035″ (.9mm) ER70S-6 was used for steel, and Hobart ER5356 .040″ (1mm) was used for the aluminum. The mig cable had a Teflon liner installed). 1/4″ steel plate was used for the Shorted Arc settings on Synergistic (automatic settings) . One great feature of the Ultramig is that, in all welding functions, there is a material thickness selector, so the material can be selected, then the welder will automatically set the parameters for that metal type, and thickness. Once the material type, wire diameter, shielding gas is selected, the welder will auto adjust to the thickness of material being welded. This is one of the most convenient features of this, or any welder but many welders lack this capability. The settings for Shorted arc welding were close to perfect but the voltage can be adjusted + or – to suit the particular welding condition.

For the tests, 1/8″, 1/4″, and 1/2″ plate steel, and 1/4″ plate aluminium, are selected, using the PULSE setting. There are several settings including pre/post gas, which is important, especially when welding stainless steel or aluminum. Only 1/4″ plate steel was used for the Shorted Arc settings. The machine created a smooth, uniform weld that had little arc wander, and the weld pool was controllable. The Synergistic setting was close to perfect but adding .5 volts made for good welding penetration.

PULSE WELDING 

Each material was welded in 1G, 3G, 4G (horizontal, vertical, overhead) positions to evaluate the quality in different weld positions. Synergistic settings were used, except for the 1/2″ plate steel, where 1.2Volts was added to the settings to make good root and fill pass welds. The 1/2″ plate steel was cut in half, then prepared with a “V” profile to evaluate root penetration and fill quality using PULSE mode. On all welds, a “Pushing” gun position was used. The welder performed beautifully, even in the difficult vertical and overhead positions. On vertical and overhead welds, there was minimal sag. Both vertical-up and vertical-down welds were performed with vertical-up looking slightly better. Penetration was very good, and the “toes” of the weld edges were wetted to the plate with very little undercut, even in the vertical position. Aluminum welded equally well with good root penetration, and no burn-through.

DOUBLE PULSE

The same welding parameters were used as in the PULSE tests, including fillet welds (two plates at right angles to each other). There are several additional settings for peak voltage, pre/post gas, but the welder was left on the factory settings. It’s hard to say if the weld strength is increased or not when comparing single and double pulse but it is easier to create a TIG weld-like appearance (“stack of dimes”), especially when welding aluminum when using DOUBLE PULSE. 

SPRAY ARC

This type of welding is not needed if the welder has a PULSE feature but it is a good way to test the welder at its limits. Many 250 Amp welders I have used fail to have the output needed for Spray Arc welding. The .035″ wire required about 27.5 Volts and 400″ (10 meters/minute) wire speed, and shielding gas is 90/10 Argon/CO2. The Ultramig did a great job in the Spray Arc mode, with little difficulty in keeping the welder in Pulse Spray mode for multiple passes of 18″ of weld length. Again, this is a good indicator of a powerful welder, capable of high amperage/voltage outputs.

TIG

Unless I missed a feature for TIG, the welder works as a “lift TIG” machine. This requires a TIG torch with a gas valve, so I couldn’t test this function, since I don’t own such a torch. But looking at the settings, there are many advanced features for DC-only TIG welding, and the amperage capability would make this machine capable of welding thick materials.

SMAW (STICK)

The Ultramig 230 Expert has every feature needed for Stick welding. There is a Hot Start feature, which increases the amperage at the start of the weld, to aid in starting the arc, and reducing “cold welds”, that are common on the first part of the weld. The Arc Force is fully adjustable, and is important for difficult to use welding rod, such as 6010. There is also an Anti Stick feature that if the welding rod sticks to the work, the welder reduces the voltage, preventing the rod from burning up if the rod clamp isn’t released in time. The Material Thickness selector is a nice feature but the welder has no synergistic settings based on the type of welding rod being used. For example, 7018 welding rod will require more amps than 6010, so one of the many welding charts on the internet can be downloaded for the novice user.

TESTS for SMAW(STICK) welding

1/4″ and 3/8″ steel plate were used, with several rod types such as 6010, 6013, 7018, in a thickness of 3/32, 1/8, 5/32, and 3/16″. The Hot start was valuable in easy starting of all rods, including 6010, and the larger 3/16″ diameter rod, which is typically difficult to start and maintain an arc. Arc Force was adjusted to evaluate its effectiveness, and it worked very well, allowing the welder to penetrate even thick steel. Overall the SMAW function of the welder is excellent. The welder can go to 200 Amps in SMAW mode, making it capable of using up to 7/32 rod, easily able to weld 1″ (25mm) plate steel.

OVERALL IMPRESSION

Decapower is producing one of the best welders on the market today, at an affordable price. The display is one of the easiest to read, and the many settings and features make it very customizable. The synergistic mode makes it very easy for the novice welder to use. There is ample power, and the PULSE and DOUBLE PULSE features makes it enjoyable to use. The machine produced high quality welds in many different welding scenarios. The manual appears to be detailed but even without the manual, the machine’s display and layout made it easy to figure out, even without a manual. This is a capable machine for light industrial use or for professional and amateur fabricators in need of a high quality, capable welder.