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Anyone here used a eastwood mig 175.

Eastwood is an older respected company. I have never seen one of their machines but I did looked up the Eastwood175 on line and it does include a spool gun which can be a nice feature but on the other hand it requires another tank of shielding gas for AL (remember to price out owner tanks locally). For $600 you can get a cart (usually the first thing you build with your welder. Look at DaleM's post on the cart he built) along with the welder plus some other goodies. You will probably want to get a good auto darkening helmet although some prefer the old style of helmet.

Since Eastwood probably does not make their own welders, I would see if I could find out who makes them and see if a local repair shop can get parts for it otherwise you may have to ship the welder to Eastwood or their repair facility which can take a longer time than a local shop could do it. Look at consumable availability locally; things such as tips and nozzles. It may behoove you to look into shielded wire if you don't have any Welding shops near you.

Did you compare prices locally and compare prices and models/makers that the local welding shop may have? Also when comparing prices, remember there is going to be shipping costs involved.

Lee

If it breaks, you get the opportunity to make Fedex a lot of money, from your pocket, as you pay shipping.
That long warranty is only useful if you can afford to ship it.

I thought eastwoods customer service was great, (full refund and paid shipping)
...but I will never buy a welder from them again.

Buy something that takes std consumables and that you can get parts for and/or fixed locally.
Buy something the sellers customer service at least understands.

A 20 year old MIG welder with a hundred or so in fresh parts from Miller is more likely to meet your needs, and it will likely last another 20 years with proper care. Old "real" welders are NOT complex.

The Home Depot/Lowes versions are especially to be avoided, they aren't built near the same as the normal versions.

There are also a few models that are to be avoided for one reason or another.

I ended up with a new Thermal Arc 181i, which seems very solid and very portable, and runs great on a 220v 100' 10 ga extension cord... It can do MIG with the spoolgun, with the std MIG stinger, burn stick (arc weld, for big stuff) or DC TIG.

There are ~no plastic parts in the wire feed. This means more than you would think.

If I ever blow it up the local welding place where I picked it up (airgas) is a Thermal Arc service center.
(Along with Miller and Lincoln, and believe it or not, Everlast)

It takes std Tweco consumables. (Tweco is a division of TA)

Ol'fogasaurus comments noted, pile i had a look at this welder sometime ago and i am thinking about it since it has all 3 welding units that i need.

I'm looking at Miller, Myself..... I've seen the unit Piledriver has..... Nice machine. Does almost everything (Well.... It doesn't do Oxy-Acetylene).... but is more than sufficient as an "all around" machine.

I will agree, fully, that Buying at a welding supply store is one of the better ideas. And an older Used Miller beats hell out of anything at Lowes or Home Depot.