PowerMaster 226 HF AFU!

I'm a once-proud owner of a PowerMaster 226 (bought new in 2009 after upgrade from 205 w/HF arc problem!). I'm just a hobbyist welder and have a total of about 160 hours give or take behind the TIG and Plasma functions. Admittedly, I've never used the ARC function. I was plasma cutting on the frame of my truck about a month ago when the plasma arc quit (right in the middle of my cut!). I called Everlast and after troubleshooting learned that the HF function on THIS UNIT has failed. Oh yeah...it's conveniently out of warranty, too. I would have thought that after only 160 hours (granted it's over the course of 4 yrs, but like I said, I'm a hobbyist and not a production worker) the machine would stand the test of time, but I guess that's not the case. So, I'm debating whether or not to spend a ridiculous amount of money the get it 'repaired' (am I just chasing my tail here?) or chalk it up to junk Chinese crap and dole out big bucks on American technology. My option at this point is to send it off (not warranty) to Everlast's repair facility (I think in Idaho; from Nebraska), have them test it and determine what it'll cost me to repair, and then pay for return shipping to what, get another 160 hrs (or less?) out of it?
I have severe buyers remorse since I bought into Everlast's claim of quality when I originally bought the unit and have little trust that I'll be satisfied down the road. Any thoughts/comments?

With the cost of shipping 2 ways, if it was mine I'd get on the phone with Everlast tech and trouble shoot the possible problem. Maybe just a simple board they could ship to you. Certainly worth looking into as far as saving money. Just my opinion.

Do you have your receipt to verify the original purchase date of the original unit? The warranty is 5 years. Even if it's out of warranty, the cost to repair it is far less than the purchase price of a new unit from some other American company. Then you'd be getting a product mostly made in China and assembled here in the US. If it's lincoln or TA, it's likely a Italian product. Also you'd be buying at least two different units to replace the one you have. You'll also find countless threads where "name brand" product fails right after warranty expires (3 year long at that) and costs the owners 1200.00 or more to fix...even with little use. Electronics age too. Capacitors can go bad over time. And that's one of the components of the HF start circuit. With all the cold weather you have up there, it could have frozen one...who knows? We use name brand capacitors in our products too...so likely it wouldn't be any different. IF it IS the HF board, there's typically two wires that need to be unsoldered and resoldered to put it in.

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Originally Posted by performance

Do you have your receipt to verify the original purchase date of the original unit? The warranty is 5 years. Even if it's out of warranty, the cost to repair it is far less than the purchase price of a new unit from some other American company. Then you'd be getting a product mostly made in China and assembled here in the US. If it's lincoln or TA, it's likely a Italian product. Also you'd be buying at least two different units to replace the one you have. You'll also find countless threads where "name brand" product fails right after warranty expires (3 year long at that) and costs the owners 1200.00 or more to fix...even with little use. Electronics age too. Capacitors can go bad over time. And that's one of the components of the HF start circuit. With all the cold weather you have up there, it could have frozen one...who knows? We use name brand capacitors in our products too...so likely it wouldn't be any different. IF it IS the HF board, there's typically two wires that need to be unsoldered and resoldered to put it in.

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First, let me say "Thanks!" to Mark for his post and our long conversation on the phone tonight. Mark was really helpful in explaining the potential HF point gap (.030 - .045) adjustment and contact cleaning that I should try FIRST to see if this simple test/fix solves my problem. The PowerMaster 226 model that I have is an early generation that doesn't have a lot of really good documentation that could have driven me to this test when the problem surfaced. But that's ok, since knowledgeable guys like Mark are eager to help. My plan for this weekend will be to remove the cover, recheck for any loose connections, measure the HF point gap (and adjust as needed), clean the contacts, test, and determine next step(s). The GOOD NEWS is that I was wrong when I claimed my unit was no longer under warranty...it's a 5-year warranty and I have roughly six months left. I'll contact Tech Support if the HF point fix fails to see about getting a new HF board shipped out for a swap. I'll provide another update once I perform this initial check/fix. Thanks again, Mark!

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Originally Posted by azsprint6

With the cost of shipping 2 ways, if it was mine I'd get on the phone with Everlast tech and trouble shoot the possible problem. Maybe just a simple board they could ship to you. Certainly worth looking into as far as saving money. Just my opinion.

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That may be a completely viable option. Thanks for the suggestion.

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Originally Posted by BigMacWelds

"If it's not broken, you're not using it hard enough..."

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Does that apply to your welding machine, too? ;)