YESWELDER 135A MIG Welder Review: Big Capability, Small Price

A compact, budget 110V 3-in-1 welder that delivers surprisingly stable flux-core MIG and useful stick performance for light-duty garage and farm work.

Price: $104.99

Original Price: $149.99

Rating: 4.4/5 (2655 reviews)

Pros

Cons

If you’ve ever fought with a bargain-bin welder that sputters, sticks, and blows holes through thin metal, the YESWELDER 135A feels like a minor miracle for just over a hundred bucks. It’s not a pro shop workhorse, but in our testing it did something many cheap welders fail to do: it made welding feel controllable and predictable for beginners while still being useful as a compact backup machine for experienced users.

A compact 3‑in‑1 that doesn’t feel like a toy

On the bench, the 135A immediately reads as “budget,” but not “throwaway.” The case is light-gauge metal with plastic end caps, but there’s no alarming flex and the handle feels secure when you carry its 11.4 lb frame around the shop. Our fabrication editor carried it between a home garage, a small farm outbuilding, and the lab without babying it; the shell picked up a few scuffs but nothing loosened or rattled.

The layout is simple: a large LED display, a single main adjustment knob, and a small mode button to cycle between MIG (flux-core), Stick, and Lift TIG. The digital readout shows the welding current in real time, which proved more useful than we expected when dialing things in on unfamiliar material.

Cables and accessories are exactly what you’d expect in this price class: functional but not luxurious. The ground clamp is stamped steel with a modest contact area, and the MIG torch is permanently attached rather than using a Euro-connect. For a sub-$120 machine, we didn’t consider that a deal-breaker, but if you’re used to heavier-duty gear you’ll notice the difference right away.

Flux-core MIG: where this welder actually shines

We started testing the YESWELDER 135A where most buyers will use it: gasless flux-core MIG on 110V power.

Using the included 0.030 in E71T-GS wire, our welding tech ran a series of beads on 1/8", 3/16", and 1/4" mild steel coupons, cleaning only with a flap disc and acetone. The machine’s synergic control ties wire speed and voltage together: you set the wire feed, and it auto-selects a voltage, with a ±3V trim range available.

Arc behavior and control

The standout trait was the arc stability. On properly grounded, reasonably clean steel, the arc was surprisingly smooth for an entry-level inverter. I intentionally pushed the settings too hot and too cold on 1/8" material; even when the bead started to ride high or undercut, the machine never surged or dropped out unpredictably. For someone learning, that consistency matters more than raw amperage.

Spatter is present (this is flux-core on 110V, after all), but it was manageable. On 1/8" plate at a mid-range wire speed, we were able to run multiple 3–4" beads with spatter levels that cleaned up easily with a wire brush and light grinding.

Realistic thickness limits

YESWELDER claims up to about 2/5" capacity. In our tests, we’d call that optimistic if you’re thinking single-pass structural work.

For the common DIY jobs—trailer patching, mower deck repairs, angle-iron frames, BBQ projects—the 135A had enough grunt to do the work as long as joint prep was decent and duty cycle limits were respected.

Stick and Lift TIG: useful extras, not the main event

We don’t think most people will buy this as a stick welder first, but we did spend an afternoon with it on 3/32" 6013 and 7018 rods.

Stick welding experience

Our welding instructor found the adjustable Hot Start and Arc Force actually made a noticeable difference. With both turned up, we got very easy arc starts on 1/8" plate with 6013, and the machine kept from snuffing out when we shortened the arc to simulate a new user’s hand wobble.

That said, this is a 110V inverter with limited output. With 3/32" 7018, anything thicker than 1/4" felt like asking too much—arc stability fell off and we’d trip the thermal protection if we tried to run long beads. For field repairs on gates, light brackets, or farm odds and ends where MIG isn’t practical, it’s perfectly serviceable, but it doesn’t replace a true 220V stick unit.

Lift TIG capability

Lift TIG support is there on paper, but the machine doesn’t ship with a TIG torch, gas regulator, or any of the consumables. We connected a generic 17V-style torch for a quick check on mild steel sheet.

Arc initiation via lift was reliable, and the current control tracks reasonably well, but this is a straight DC output with no TIG-specific features (no foot pedal, no slope control, no pulse). Our TIG specialist summed it up well: “If you already TIG and need a tiny DC box for occasional welds, this will do it. But I wouldn’t _learn_ TIG on this as my only machine.”

In practical terms, we consider the TIG function an emergency bonus for light DC work, not a reason to buy the welder.

Living with it in a real garage

One of our testers took the YESWELDER 135A home for a week and treated it like a typical weekend-warrior machine. It was plugged into standard 15A and 20A 110V circuits (properly wired) and hauled in and out of a small shed.

He used it to:

Some notes from that use:

The only real annoyance in day-to-day use was the ground clamp. It works, but it’s light and benefits from being clipped to clean, bright metal. We ended up upgrading to a heavier clamp for more reliable starts.

Where it stands vs. other budget welders

To see where the YESWELDER 135A sits in the entry-level landscape, we pitted it against a few common alternatives we’ve had in the lab.

Compared to the Hobart Handler 140

The Hobart Handler 140 (often in the ~$550 range) is the go-to 110V MIG for many serious hobbyists. It’s more than four times the price of the YESWELDER, so it isn’t a direct competitor, but it’s useful as a performance benchmark.

If you weld frequently, have the budget, and care most about long-term reliability and service, the Hobart is worth saving for. But if you’re just dipping your toes into welding or need a light-duty backup, the 135A hits a price-to-performance sweet spot the Hobart simply can’t touch.

Compared to the HF Titanium 125 and similar 110V flux-core boxes

Harbor Freight’s Titanium 125 and similar 90–125A flux-core-only welders are much closer contenders.

If you want the simplest possible machine for occasional flux-core work, the Titanium has its appeal. But for only a bit more money (and in our case, slightly less when sale pricing factored in), the YESWELDER’s extra amperage and modes made it the better all-rounder.

Quick comparison snapshot

*Approximate street prices at time of testing.

Controls, display, and learning curve

One reason we’d recommend this to someone buying their first welder is the way the control scheme lowers the barrier to decent results.

The combination of:

means a new welder can do what our novice tester did: start with suggested wire speed for the material thickness, run a test bead, then bump the ± voltage trim until the sound and bead shape look right. Within an hour, they moved from ugly, inconsistent beads to acceptable fillet welds on 1/8" angle.

Our more experienced staffers still grumbled that independent voltage and wire-speed control gives more fine-tuning, but nobody denied that the synergic approach worked well enough for the intended audience.

The only caveat: the manual is thin and occasionally vague on suggested settings. We found ourselves relying more on experience and a few online charts than the included documentation. A true newbie may need to spend some time on YouTube to fill in the gaps.

Where this welder makes sense—and where it doesn’t

This machine fits extremely well into a few specific roles:

If you’re planning on:

then this isn’t the right tool. You’ll outgrow its duty cycle and output quickly, and the light-duty accessories won’t hold up to sustained abuse. In that scenario, a 220V MIG, a dedicated stick inverter, or a higher-end multi-process machine will save you frustration in the long run.

For what it is—a compact, 110V, budget-friendly 3‑in‑1—the YESWELDER 135A hit above our expectations. It’s not perfect, but it delivered clean, repeatable welds on the kind of projects most DIYers actually tackle, and it did so without the erratic behavior that plagues many cheap welders in this price bracket.

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