Safety
Welding fume was classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the IARC in 2017 — mild steel included, not only stainless. The exposure is cumulative and invisible, which is why extraction is the purchase everyone postpones. The good news is that placement matters more than power.
Welding fume was classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the IARC in 2017 — mild steel included, not only stainless. The exposure is cumulative and invisible, which is why extraction is the purchase everyone postpones. The good news is that placement matters more than power.
160 A · gasless only · 3-in-1 · €200
A gasless-only machine, on purpose: no bottle, no regulator, no shielding to be blown away — for people who weld outdoors.
Best for: Gates, trailers, fence posts and anything welded where you cannot close a door
≈ 200 €
200 A · synergic · gas and gasless · €330
The synergic 200 A inverter that most German workshops end up with, and the cheapest machine here with a genuinely adjustable inductance.
Best for: A first serious MIG that will still be adequate after two years of use
≈ 330 €
Position, and it is free: weld with the plume moving away from you rather than past your face, with a door or window open, and never lean over the work into the rising fume. After that, a bench extractor of around 180 m³/h at roughly €100 will capture most of the plume — provided the nozzle stays within a hand’s width of the arc.
No. A standard helmet protects your eyes and face from radiation and spatter, and does nothing about what you breathe. Powered air-purifying helmets do filter the air you breathe, and they are a different and more expensive product — with their own consumable filters and spark arrestors.
Prices quoted in these summaries are dated readings. The live price is shown next to each product.
Welders and plasma cutters swing by a hundred euros or more across the year, and the biggest "discounts" often land at prices the same model sold for six weeks earlier. UniverTrack tracks the real price history across retailers, spots fake reductions, and alerts you when it is genuinely the moment to buy.
