Parweld XTM 211Di Multiprocess AC/DC Inverter Welder 230V Multi-Process Package

It's not easy to admit when you've made an expensive mistake, but here I am, owning up to it: I was taken in by the impressive features, the promising performance specs, and the 3-year warranty this welder boasted – and then it arrived.First off, don't be fooled by the fact that Parweld is a "British" company – this welder was made in China, and it’s obvious. The first warning sign: one of the clips holding the wire compartment shut arrived broken, with the spring poking out of the bottom. Lovely. There was no sign of external damage or anything else that could have caused it, so it doesn’t say much for either the quality control or the machine’s durability. The screenshots in the instruction manual don’t match what you get on the screen: They’re in that ominous “SimSun” Chinese-English font we’ve all come to associate with cheap tools and tacky electronics.The next red flag: When selecting CO2 as the MIG welding gas in synergic mode, you can’t even choose 0.6mm wire (only selecting mixed gas allows that – and yes, I know Argon/CO2 mix is better for thin stuff, but that’s no excuse to lock it away), and to top it off, no 0.6mm feed roller was supplied anyway. Not impressed.Then there’s the juddery wire feed that took ages to get even workably smooth. No welder I’ve ever owned required this much faffing about with. The burnback selection feature doesn’t seem to work either, as the wire inexplicably kept welding itself to the tip every few seconds, with about 5mm of wire still sticking out of the end and refusing to feed, regardless of settings or torch distance. This kind of issue typically happens when the tip is worn out, not on a brand new machine with brand new wire. Even with the voltage turned up on freshly-linished steel, the performance was poor with excessive weld build-up and an ugly, irregular bead height and width. Just look at the photo - it looks like the work of a complete novice rather than someone who’s been welding for almost 30 years. These settings were supposedly configured by a professional welder at the factory - I have a hard time believing that. Maybe there’s a reason Parweld doesn’t showcase this welder’s MIG capability on their YouTube channel.Okay, so the MIG welder sucked, but what about the other processes? I didn’t even try them out - why bother? I'd might as well have just bought a dedicated TIG/MMA machine at that point, which would have been cheaper. Speaking of which, the supplied MMA electrode holder looked and felt cheap and tacky, with faded reddish-pink plastic near the clamp that just screamed low quality (although the supplied TIG torch seemed far better made); by then, I just wanted the whole thing gone. This machine was nothing but a disappointment that I had no intention of wasting any more time tinkering with. A supposedly high-end welder should be more convenient to use, not less. Produce better results, not worse. Thankfully, I managed to get a full refund, and I suggest anyone considering this model (and perhaps brand, too) steer well clear.