Electrical Question for EL Tech Guys

[RP62]

To all the comments:
Why not plug it in to the back of the welder - The receptacle on the back of the welder is 220, my cooler is 110 and I though it was overkill to keep it running the whole time.

Use delay before break relay - I had considered that but there's really no residual heat so far (although I've been welding thin steel so the highest amps I've gone to so far is 125). So far the head of the torch stays cool to the touch and I never saw a temp increase on the coolant temp. If I decide to go that route, I'd probably build the relay driver circuit myself as I've done several similar circuits.

Use a SSR - I don't have experience with them, but was under the impression that they weren't designed for inductive loads and would slowly burn up in this application.

Trigger with a transistor - thats an option I hadn't considered. I may go that route if the verdict is that it won't handle the extra 10 mA. I'm really trying to keep it as simple as possible.

Thanks much guys, I appreciate all the comments.
-RP

[Jake98]

How about an additional switch/relay, on the torch or wherever, and keep it independent of the rest of the unit?

[Paul Moir]

I would be shocked if it didn't have plenty of excess capacity; on my LX225 the solenoid is triggered by a relay that's got a 5A contact rating. IIRC (memory) it runs 115VAC to the solenoid, which makes other solutions a little more complicated.

The post flow should take care of the residual heat I would think?

(Some SSRs will have inductive spike protection in them. If not and you want to use one, simply add a MOV (varistor) or back-to-back zeners across it's "contacts" for protection. SSRs would be pretty useless if they couldn't drive inductive loads.)