Inverters have a short life.

[Goodhand]

I haven't looked inside my inverter tig machine, but would not be surprised to see some electrolytic capacitors on control boards, particularly power supplies. Some e-caps go bad in 8-10 years, so perhaps, we have this to look forward to. I have brought TVs and VCRs back to life by replacing bad caps.

[Dmaxer]

Inverter welders are more versatile than transformer welders but they have a weakness. Inverter welders have many, many more internal connections than transformer based welders and their components are more sensitive to sustained high temperatures. Time, temperature changes and use cycles have a tendency wreak havoc on inverter welders.

The only way to reduce the effect of these evils is to do what Cruizer suggested: keep the welder cool by blowing it out and (most important) periodically tighten the internal connections that loosen with heating/cooling (use cycles). It does not take much in the way of increased resistance to current flow, read this as connections not quite snug (remember, high amps require uninterrupted current pathways), to burn out internal components. The result of negligence can be very, very expensive.

[1havnfun]

and probably not worth that.
Owning a shop I look at the cost of equipment and what it can produce in the time it is alive.

If a $4000.00 machine lasts 12 years and can produce say 8 hours a day at lets say you get $50/hour. What is the value of the machine?

Go get another because you have set aside your $3/month for new equipment, haven't you?

Stop complaning, some of my equipment cost over $100K each and I have worked them 10 to 12 hours a day and 2 of them are 15years old. My hourly is higher than $50. My new equipment fund will buy replacements at this point for cash. If you prepare, do your maintainance, work the machines for profit, not just to get by you will be fine.

If you are a weekend warrior, you bought 1st quality gear, you should be smiling.

[cope]

Well, in 1998 I bought a PowCon 200SM that was made in 1976. I sold it in 2004 to buy a MM210. Two years later the new owner was still using it. I lost track of him after that.

[KenS]

It is a basic truism in the (especially capitalistic) world that if you produce crap, you are likely to have your business fail or underperform badly.

Wondering aloud: Are WalMart and Harbor Freight exempt from this "basic truism?"

Back on topic:

The one type of component that that limits the life of modern electronic equipment is the electrolytic capacitor. By its very nature it contains an electrolyte that will, over time, leak and/or evaporate. Of course there are exceptions to every rule and there are a few Atwater-Kent radios with huge old electrolytic cans-- or the earlier cardboard tubes-- that may still work, although by far the majority died decades ago.

Modern electrolytics are even designed with a safety top that allows them to more safely leak/explode when they die. Not that long ago, millions of counterfeit Chinese electrolytics made there way into even high-end consumer electronics such as cellphones, auto modules, even Apple computers-- leading to a premature death at considerable cost to customers.

Electrolytic capacitors are even designed with a life expectancy-- usually measured in thousands of hours at a given maximum temperature. Heat is their enemy which explains why the life of inverter welders is shorter than old transformers. Open a modern inverter welder or plasma cutter, and you will find its boards packed with small electrolytic cans.

In addition to being run right up to their duty cycle when they automatically shut down to cool off, inverters often spend their working lives in garages exposed to extremes of hot and cold-- all of which ultimately kill electrolytics.

If science can someday design a device to replace electrolytics, such device possessing the stability of components such as resistors, transistors, diodes, inductors-- including transformers and chokes-- and microprocessors, you can expect the life of electronic equipment to increase exponentially.

However such a mass-produced device is still in the theoretic world of optical buses.