[ec12348]

I am in the market for a plasma cutter. I was orginally going to purchase the miller spectrum 875. It came down to a toss up between the miller 875 and the hypertherm 1000. When I decided to go the hypertherm route I stepped up to the 1250. I guess my question is does any one know how they torture test these machines. Miller does a very good job of showing you what they subject the plasma to but I really could not find to much on the hypertherm machines. The big deciding factor was how easy it is to get replacement tips and electrodes versus other brands.
I see Jimcolts name up on alot of sites and that is one of the main reasons why I made the switch so if you could help with the answers of how much abuse the machines take I would greatly appreciate it.
If any one else has one of the machines either the 1000 or the 1250 could you tell me how you like it also. I will be using it on a hand torch
Thanks
Eric

[BYTHEBOOKBOB]

We have a new Hypertherm 1250 as well as an older small 110v unit. Both machines perform flawlessly. Consumables are readily available from our local welding supply dealer from whom we purchased the plasma cutters. I can't vouch for how the units are tested by the maker but I must say that the fiends that work for me will break anything that can be broken and so far, knock on wood they have not succeeded with these.

Good luck,

Bythebookbob

[mc-motorsports]

Which ever you end up with, buy it from your local welding supply so that #1, if there are warranty issues, you can get warranty service. Miller doesn't like when you buy stuff on ebay, atleast they didn't a couple of years ago, they want you to return it to the authorized dealer for inspection/service. #2, if they sold you the machine, they should sell the consumables for that machine.

You can always ask your local supply to price match. Although you may be able to save sales tax on an internet order from out of state, but then you have to pay shipping.

I love Miller welders and I love Hypertherm plasma machines. That is a good question. But me personally, if I was to do it again, I would just buy a machine with a 3/8" rated cut. A machine capable of more makes sloppy cuts on thicker material just because of the nature of the hand torch cutting. And I rarely cut anything thicker than 1/8", a smaller more portable machine would be nicer than a big machine that is rated for 5/8" and capable of 7/8".

Just my experiences.

[jimcolt]

Eric,

Sorry I didn't notice your post sooner! We at Hypertherm like to talk about reliability and the severe level of testing equipment during the design phase....as well as literally hours of testing that every unit we manufacture goes through before they are shipped.

I've been with Hypertherm for 31 years.....and when I started with the company (I was the 13th employee we only had one product, our PAC 500 - a 1000 Amp mechanized water-injection plasma) and we built 3 to 6 of these units monthly. We built pretty good systems...every one of them was thoroughly tested before leaving the plant....tested by installing the system on a cutting machine and cutting metal.

Today.....with at least 14 different plasma systems in our product line (from 12 amp hand held to 760 Amp mechanized)....along with many other products ranging from consumables, to torch height controls , CNC controls and cutting and nesting software....we produce thousands of plasma systems each month. Every one of these systems is live tested...in fact every single powermax system goes through hours (as many as 4) of full duty cycle load bank testing to ensure that the unit works as designed when the customer opens the box.

More important, and in my years at Hypertherm I have watched the reliability of our products steadily increase even as our production rates have dramatically increased, is the level of testing that is done during the product development stage at Hypertherm.

A new product...such as our recently released Powermax 45 takes between 1-1/2 and 2-1/2 years to design, test and release as a new plasma cutting product. In years past we could design a new hand held plasma in a much shorter period of time....but now this development time is lengthened due to required testing in our state of the art reliability lab. This facility has equipment that operates our plasma systems with a live arc (not a resistive load bank) at output current at least 20% higher than the system is being designed for....and at high and low input voltages. While these systems are running under these conditions...the humidity and temperature are drastically altered....further stressing the system. All system components are also subjected to our "shake and bake" chamber which oscilates the system, while under power, at up to 50 G's (50 time gravity). Another required step in the process is operating these power supplies in a dust chamber...where conductive iron powder and dust from plasma cutting ooerations are circulated in high volume through the system. Further testing that includes drop tests (power supplies and torches) as well as mechanical stress test that simulate pulling a power supply around by its torch leads...and many more...are part of the design process as well.

All of the above torture tests are designed to make our systems fail under conditions that we expect to be tougher than normal field conditions....and the systems do fail during this process. When they fail, our engineers disect the units, determine the weak link, make some changes to minimize this issue from happening again...then the system goes back in the torture chamber. By the end of this time in the reliability lab...the newly designed system does not fail.....a review is done by the development team, is presented to management....and ultimately a new Hypertherm product is released to the public. This is a costly, time consuming process that Hypertherm has now been using for over ten years on all of our new product development teams. By looking at our success (looking at warranty failure rates, customer satisfaction, out of box failure rates, etc.) we know that the expense we put into this testing process is well worth the effort!

Hypertherm products are not the least expensive...however we are quite sure that we are the best performing in terms of reliability and performance.

If you are ever in New Hampshire...look me up, I'd be proud to give you a tour of the manufacturing and research and development facility!

Best regards, Jim colt

[michael.duffin]

Could not agree more with the post from Jim,

I have worked with Hypertherm Units for a number of years now,
from the PowerMax range upto the new XD400's

My Employer Esprit Automation UK will ONLY use Hypertherm Kit.

Their aftersales support is second to none.

[ec12348]

HI, Jim

I would like to thank you for the reply and the information. You explained just what I would have expected from such a quality unit. I am going to purchase the 1250 model. I do not need one that large but I will at times cut up to a inch. I would rather have the extra power and not need it then need the power and not have it.

Thanks again for the replies from everyone

Eric

[jimcolt]

You won't regret it...the 1250 is a great plasma. Keep us posted on how well it works for you!

Best regards, Jim