I’m going to assume that you’re looking at it as a repair guy in which case i tend to agree with you on that level. I think lincoln is the best for the average owner because of the sheer amount of manuals that they have online, and the fact that they go back so far – 30′s-40′s at least. If you pick up an old Lincoln welder, chances are good that they have an owners manual for it. Of course, i’m slightly biased in that i typically only play around with lincoln and miller welders.

One could also argue that there aren’t any older esab/miller welders left to work on. Kidding!

Esab and Hobart have decent manuals, but i’m not a big fan of their equipment in general. Let me note before i get flamed by their supporters that there is nothing inherently wrong with them, I just prefer lincoln and miller equipment. Although i do like some of the old hobart stuff, especially their military welders.

I agree completely on the chinese thing though. I avoid those at all costs.

Anyways, thanks for the comment!

In my experience, Lincoln’s site is not the “best on the internet”.

In the first place, almost none of their manuals includes schematics of the PC Boards. Conversely, many of the older Miller manuals I’ve downloaded do give a diagram of the board; making troubleshooting MUCH easier.

In the 2nd place, Lincoln does NOT have manuals on its website for many older products. As just one example, try to find the manual for the K-623-1 Wire Feed Module for the old SA-250 engine-driven welders.

In general, I’ve found ESAB and Miller to have the best manuals, followed by Hobart…with Lincoln actually in last place, for the US makers.

Which is vastly better than trying to find ANY manual for the chinese welders….LOL…

Richard