For the money, the thing basically works. I worked on 230V for almost 12 hours and the machine worked fine for the most part. My machine has many problems maintaining the arc on 6011 or 6013. Welding is fine with 7018. I use 1/8 rods. I think the machine just doesn't have enough arc tension to handle many 60 series rods. As for the impulse functions, I'd say they seem fine. All the features seem to work, but I'm still doing sweat tests to see how well they work. The killer for me is that I can't run a 1/8 or 3/32 6011 on less than 155A for 1/8 or 125A for 3/32 at max excavation and you can do a lot with those settings. more cutting than welding, but it works. I still doubt that some of the throbbing features actually work as advertised. I think the car only has a little low voltage on the amp and it really is as good as it could be. All in all it does stick welding ok and it does TIG ok but you need to be very experienced to get this machine working well enough to get satisfactory results, the machine just doesn't seem stable enough to put into a get a good rhythm. It always seems like you're struggling with an arc flash. This can be a good training machine, but be aware that you must be extremely careful when working overhead or on vertical welds as it will kick you when you least expect it and when you are not ready, it will you blocked.