LOTOS CT520D 50 AMP Air Plasma Cutter, 200 AMP Tig and Stick/MMA/ARC Welder 3 in 1 Combo Welding Machine, 5/8 Inch Clean Cut, Brown

I have worked in the industrial maintenance field for 30 years and have a shop at home. I was really wanting a plasma cutter for home and was searching the internet and found this machine. The reviews were mixed but for the price I thought I would give it a chance. All I can say is WOW. It has paid for itself over the years! I have used it now for 3 years and have no complaints. As a plasma cutter it is as nice as the hypertherm I have at work. I have had no problems cutting up to 3/8" steel with it. The leads are a good length and can handle a lot of cutting The arc feature works good too. The duty cycle is a little low for big, high power jobs but it works great! The tig feature works great for small jobs. There is some limitations to this machine... it only really works good when running 220v, it works ok at 110v but really doesn't have the punch to do much work. The arc leads are small, short and not made for a lot of work. Overall it has been one of the best investments in tools i have ever made. If it died tomorrow I wouldn't be upset. Update- 5 years now and it still works great! It has hundreds of hours on it and still good a new! Great machine for home shop or farm! I have ran this with my portable generator for field repairs and it works great!!!

Purchased in 2021 and it's now 2025 so thought I'd give it a review. I have now used every feature that this machine offers. I have stick welded, TIG welded (with gas) and plasma cut. It has done all 3 surprisingly well. I am no professional welder but everything I have worked on has managed to stay together and it has included attachments for my camper van and implements for my tractor so I have tested it pretty thuroughly I think. At the end of the day, I think this machine has been WELL worth the money and would recommend it to any of my close friends if they were looking for something like this that was versitile and easy to use. TLDR: I've had it for 4 years now and have used it a fair bit. I am very pleased with my purchase.

I purchased this welder/plasma cutter about 4 years ago and since then it's done what I need it to. I am an armature maker so it gets used for a whole day about once a month. While the manual was a little light on details, the welder was easy enough to figure out (it was not my first time with a TIG). I had trouble using the plasma cutter. It was my first time using one, so that might be the issue tho. In case you're struggling there, start with low amperage (8 amps) and lower air pressure (30 psi) and go up on them until you're cutting through the material. If you start with either too high, the machine may abruptly shut off. The welder is all that I need it to be. I've made consistent, strong welds with it. The max of 200 amps is more than I need. I mostly work with 16g steal tubes, but I've also welded 3/8 steal as well. As mentioned earlier, this welder has been working for me for 4 years without any significant issues except for some small things noted later below. I purchased a foot pedal which should come with the tool, if you ask me, as that's the only way to modulate the power while welding. I've used it on a standard 120V outlet and a 240V dryer outlet. It is much happier on the 240V; that's the only way to get higher amperages (100 plus I think) and the electroncs just seem to work better there too. Additionally, after using it on the 240V for the first time the mode selector switch stopped working on 120V. It needs a lot of persausion to switch off of plasma cutter mode at 120V now, of it will even do it at all. I only use it with 240V now but I could see this being a big issue for others. Another complaint is the shortness of the ground cable. At about 4 feet, I have to move the welder pretty close to what I'm doing, which can be annoying. I've not tried the stick welder so I can't report on that. All in all, it feels like they went cheep on the unimportant things and made sure the important things work as they should. I would buy this again and expect simple but reliable functionality.

I agree with the reviewer that said something to the effect of quality where you want it to be.

Certified welder mig/tig and stick. My honest opinion straight out of the box I was hesitant for how light the whole machine was. No instructions were necessary for installation of hoses, adapters torches etc..for everything is fairly cut and dry. So here are my unbiased opinion(s); Cons: I didn’t care much for the 30 amp twist connect prong plug at the end of the whip. I removed this and added a 50 amp 3 pole connector. (Lincoln plug) no big deal just didn’t fit my shop outlets. Second, I didn’t care for the 1/4” hose barb adapter on the rear for your comp air and argon connection. I removed this and added a 1-4 male npt threaded adapter and also installed two ball valves on a tee for faster air to argon change over. Then I put quick connect air chuks coming out of the ball balves. Attached an air chuck to the provided hose for the argon(which I cut down and use my 500psi fire rated air hose mainly for the plasma cutter). No big deals really just suites my faster paced commercial worksite in the shop. Not being negative towards these things but wasn’t my preference so no loss of starts there. Thirdly, the argon gauge worked perfectly but is a bit soft and on the cheaper side l. I get this due to the amazing low price of this machin so no biggie. I used my own gauge and regulator. Again, nothing wrong w product just not my preference. Lastly, I don’t like how you have to run the argon gas thru the machine and use the setup provided. I have my own tig rig that I clamp my stinger to and run argon directly from bottle to torch. No big deal after a bit of brainstorming I came up with a fix to use my rig. No big deal the factory tig set worked great I just like my stuff better. So No negatives really just a preference type opinion. Pros: First, ( I only run 220 on all my machines. Won’t use the 110 adapter unless I truly have to-not provided)I fired up the arc welder and burned 3- 7018 3/32 rods. They went smooth and good bead. The machine was quit and didn’t sound like a Harley but more like a Vespa scooter. None the less it burned fine. Then I fired up the TIG setup, and keep in mind I used all the factory components first, the button on the torch is a bit different but the high frequency start worked 100%. Very nice. The amp gauge was a bit tricky. Either too hot or not enough, will need to play a it more. Otherwise the tig worked perfect as did the arc welding. The plasma cutter cane next and I layed out a piece of 3/16 diamond plate 4 ‘ long by 2’wide. I cut thru the 2’ side in about 25 seconds. A bit of slag on bottom and had to hit a few places twice but if you go slow, like you’re supposed to, it left a nice clean top surface and cut thru it like warm butter. I sliced thru the 4’ side in about 45-55 seconds. Never phased the tip or cullet whatsoever. You need plenty of good air pressure but unit and component work flawlessly. Overall I am 100% percent satisfied with this machine. Not one single problem or glitch to contend with and for that I’m giving it a 5 Star. Would buy again and would recommend. Hope this helps and good luck

Bought it when a sale was on. wired it for 230VAC only and have used the plasma cutter a fair amount- including cutting a complete 1970's car into pieces to be taken to the metal recycler. Stick welded for the first time in 20 years and the welds came out fine. Seems to have plenty of amperage available. Also tried tig welding for the first time- I will need some practice but it's not the welders fault. Would like to state that there are no free consumables or anything else offered , regardless of the review- this must have been a practice that was dropped (imo that's a good thing)... Concerns: The 3 year warranty that was being offered has been cut to 1 year and return shipping costs are $$ also the repair cost after the warranty expires appears to be $ 319.00 ( over 3/4s of the NEW purchase price) and not sure if that includes shipping?? Also if there is a problem down the line it would be nice to be able to source schematics ( not included in manual), circuit boards and individual parts. (some manufacturers offer this). for myself and other electronics technician DIY. Update: been using it for over a year now with no complaints, Has never shut down from running up against it's duty cycle on any of the processes. Once again- very pleased with this combo unit- The $399.99 price for such a capable multi function cutter / welder is the best deal i have seen. but would feel better if the warranty were longer and parts could be sourced without sending the unit in if a problem develops after it is out of warranty. added pictures of a hydraulic press that the plasma did all the cutting for and a set of pallet forks converted for my tractor. which also used plasma and stick functions for. Update 2 almost 4 years of Use. Have had to clean the plasma cutters torch switch, would not trigger consistently until the contacts were cleaned. Working great now in all functions. It has more than paid for itself. Update 3 4 1/2 years of use. Plasma torch button failed. As posted before I cleaned it but it finally died. Bought a $6 replacement switch from plasma dyne with a better quality switch. zip ties and some electrical tape after soldering in the 2 wires. Plasma cutter works great again Also still stick welds and TIG welds Excellent interim update: Lotos has updated the circuit boards - should simplify wiring and maybe even improve reliability see my pics versus reviewer who bought more recently and posted the circuit board pictures Going on 7 years of use now. Really can not complain. Still Going Strong Had a rush job to cut up a 55 foot mobile home frame. Did it all straight through, the only breaks were for me.... Every weld that this unit made has held up. No failures Several more projects including severing 5/8 steel for a Backhoe hydraulic thumb and modifying a Harbor freight backhoe bucket to fit the older TLB. In September the 3 in 1 Lotos will have provided ten years of service. It paid for itself in successful jobs years ago.

Never plasma cut before but I did a considerable amount of stick welding over the years (Lincoln Electric) . My Lotos LTPDC2000D arrived today. I immediately popped the case open to verify all connections, etc were intact (plus, I really wanted to see what I bought). Found the power output connector bolts and the pilot arc connector nut to be loose. I tightened those up and also went over all the screws securing the MosFETs to the heatsink (I'm an electronics guy)..... see pics, especially check the points indicated with blue arrows. I note lots of sensor feedback points in the circuitry for current, temperature, voltage, etc (which is impressive). The electronics is very well laid out and the configuration maximizes airflow over all components especially through the two massive MosFET heatsinks. Also made certain the fan was free to rotate. With that done, I closed it up and gave it a try. This thing works exceptionally well, much better than my expectations. I've been plasma cutting and stick welding all day with it, building a welding cart. The pilot arc starts immediately when triggered and the compressed air continues to flow for a few seconds after trigger release, to ensure proper torch cooling (two user settings for this 2.5 & 6 secs). Only peave is, it starts up in the default plasma mode, does not remember last used mode setting, but this is certainly nit-picking on my part and not a real concern. Excellent machine, very good price point, well engineered construction and good attention to details. Very glad I finally bought it!

I'm a diy hobbyist. I've been welding for 7 years, but wouldn't consider myself a pro. Here's my impression. I chose this unit because it was only another 200 for the 3in1 ability. Review based on using 220v. Have not (and don't plan to) used 110v. Plasma Has pilot arc! Means all you need todo is pull trigger and it arcs as aposed to scratch start. Cuts 1/4 inch steel very well. Might do 3/8, but wouldn't buy it if that's what you cut the most. I run it off a a 21 gallon harbor frieght compressor. The cfm the unit needs isn't too high. Not a fan of the supply line for air, but the I haven't changed it so it works fine. Nice air regulator. Stick/ Arc Leads are short. Real short. Otherwise works well. Goes up to 199 amps, I use it anytime I need to weld dirty metal together. Usually running 1/8" 6010 Lincoln rods. TIG D.C. ONLY. DOES NOT WELD ALUMINUM. I've used this quite a few times. Comes with regulator, but the unit uses the same supply line input for both tig gas and air for plasma. If using both often, I recommend a 3 way ball valve. It sucks having to change the hose each time, but again I haven't changed it lol. I bought the pedal, it's worth it. Again pilot arc, no destroying tungstens trying to strike an arc. I've penetrated 1/4" before testing it, but mostly use the tig function for thin sheet metal and small parts. uses a wp17 torch. Lots of machines use this torch, tons of consumables available. Overall it's a pretty good machine for the money. I use it often building off road trucks mostly plasma and tig, but it's nice having the stick welding option. Giving it a 4 out of 5 because it does have a few little things that bug me, but they have nothing todo with the functionality of the machine