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I have a Century and use it quite often. It has never failed me. When I bought it 15 years ago the salesman (who I trust) of a large welding supply company said it was better because it has copper windings instead of aluminum. The duty time is a lot longer than the others at the time. Compare the duty cycle of each you are looking at, I know things have changed over the years since I bought mine. The good thing about aluminum windings it's lighter, mine is heavy.

Could someone explain Duty cycle and what it means



Duty cycle is the time that the unit can work vs. the time it needs to rest. A 20% duty cycle means that if its worked for two minutes continuous (meaning striking an arc) it should then rest (in cool down mode) for 8 before being cycled again. Of course there are thermal protection devices to shut it down if the operator overheats it, but it not good practice to do so.
So a 30% duty cycle is more robust than a 20