Purchased an Esab 875 for use in community college welding program. Had problems with it from the start. Esab was not very helpful. My local supplier finally did repair to machine at no cost for our program. The local sales rep has stopped dealing in Esab unless someone specifically asks for it because of the attitude from Esab reps. Don't know if this problem is representative of all Esab equipment but it sure makes one think before considering the brand.

Generally they make very good cutters, but it is sometimes model dependent. I owned the 1125/1500 models and used a 500i, micro 380, 550 model. I will say the 875 will not have the consumable life of a Hypertherm or Thermal dynamics. The older torches are just not as good as the newer models on the Esabs. My 1500 torch parts would last way longer at 90 amps output then the 1125 torchs parts at 70 amps. That was by a wide margin too. Our Esabs rebs out here are really good and just got better, because the Thermal rep just joined Esab. He is the best rep of any of them by a wide margin.

If you do not like the torch of the esab you could retro a Thermal one torch to it. I have a Thermal 101 cutter now but to tell you the truth the esab pretty much kicks it butt. I have the Thermal for my cnc table and it tha area the Thermal works better out of the box. For hand cutting the Esab is way beyond most machines. I used the new Miller 3050 too, and I am not relly impressed with that unit either. The smaller Millers work really nice with their new torch upgrade.

Spend your money on a Hypertherm or Thermal Dynamics unit. You will be much happier.

Stay away from Miller and Lincoln. Their plasmas work, but not to the level of Hypertherm and Thermal Dynamics.

Good Luck

brande

yes buy the 1250 esap cutter it hands down over anyother plasma cutter in use, i use a 70 amp tip with no problem at all , use this more then a oxy weld set up