New to Forum and New 256S Owner

Good day,
I joined the forum just yesterday. By profession, I'm an auditor and work for an accounting firm in Southern California. In my "spare time," I build Hot Rods. While I'm not a professional welder, I do consider myself a pretty fair welder. Currently, in my arsenal of welders, I have a red AC/DC stick, a red 180 Dual Mig and a red 175 Tig Squarewave. As you all know, the Squarewave, is a transformer based machine, large and is just a basic machine. I have it for 10 years and it has been trouble free, but it is a basic machine, no pulse, no AC balance, and on and on. Earlier this year, I started researchingTig inverters and obviously I started with red and blue. Starting in June, I spent a lot of time on YouTube looking up red and blue products, reviewing the specs and considering the size, weight, and what controls each machine offered. At one point I had settled on the blue 210.

Although I subscribe to Weldingtipsandtricks, the testing to the Everlast 256 machine Jody did was from 2010 (I believe) and somehow, I missed the tests. In any event, I stumbled on the series that he did, pulled up the owners manual and read through it and started leaning towards the 256. I had (have) two concerns, how would it hold up, and where would I get it fixed if it needed fixing. Obviously, since I'm in California, there is an office in San Francisco, but I'm in Southern California and The City is an 8 hour drive. So I called the Everlast office and they indicated that there was a dealer in Pasadena, and gave me the number. Unfortunately the "dealer," is mobile, so how does that work? After more due diligence, and looking at Jody's series on the welder a few more times. I ordered a 256S from Sears on December 23rd.

Besides, the research that I had done, the compact size of the welder was a huge consideration. My "Shop," is a two car garage, and as you other hobbyist know, space is at a premium. Price was also a serious consideration as was the pulse 2T/4T, AC Balance, Upslope/Downslope and the Plasma Cutter among the other features. I'm looking forward to receiving my welder (week of January 5) and testing it out. Hopefully, I will have nothing but good things to say after I get a chance to use it.

I do have a suggestion for the Everlast folks, the fact that the hoses for the gas use hose clamps, in my opinion detracts from the overall quality appearance of your machine. It could not possible cost that much more to add brass, screw on connectors. While I recognize that it may not make any difference in terms of sealing capability, candidly, this was one of the things that I was most put off by.