William1221
Member
I hear the MXT is costly to run because of its battery use is the M6 the same?
Find's Treasure Forums
Welcome to Find's Treasure Forums, Guests!
You are viewing this forums as a guest which limits you to read only status.
Only registered members may post stories, questions, classifieds, reply to other posts, contact other members using built in messaging and use many other features found on these forums.
Why not register and join us today? It's free! (We don't share your email addresses with anyone.) We keep email addresses of our users to protect them and others from bad people posting things they shouldn't.
Click here to register!
Need Support Help?
Cannot log in?, click here to have new password emailed to you
Changed email? Forgot to update your account with new email address? Need assistance with something else?, click here to go to Find's Support Form and fill out the form.
batteries
- Thread starter William1221
- Start date
Larry (IL)
Well-known member
It shouldn't be any more expensive than any other detector. Yes, I think the M6 goes just as long as the MXT.
BarberBill
New member
I've been using an MXT for three years now and have found the battery life to be excellent, not costly.
BB
BB
Even with the fact that some people like me replace batteries before they are showing 'low bat', usually change at 9 volts, I still get at around 30 hours or more on Alkalines. I hunt about 4 hours at a time and at least 8-10 hunts per set of batteries. If you use them to 8 volts you will get about 8 more hours. I buy 20 packs when they are on sale for about $10-$12 so it is pretty cheap to run.
I have no idea about the M6 but the MXT is not a big drain for batteries. For what the detector is doing it is quite impressive that it lasts as long as it does.
I have no idea about the M6 but the MXT is not a big drain for batteries. For what the detector is doing it is quite impressive that it lasts as long as it does.
BarberBill
New member
For comparison's sake ,the M6 is essentially an MXT using just the C&J mode without a threshold hum so it should be pretty much the same for battery life.
BB
BB
skateteacher
Member
I purchased a 40 pack of AA Duracell batteries for 12.95 at Costco last month. I believe this is their normal price making the MXT a bargain to run.
Ralph, Have you compared alkalines to your rechargables? I'm curious if your getting any chattering that would be gone if you tried alkalines. Rechargables only give about 9.2 volts at full charge compared to 12 volts of alkalines. Just the fact that depth is affected at lower voltages might be a reason to try alkalines and do a comparision.
The ones I use register 10 volts in the detector when charged. The mxt uses a voltage regulater, the electronics actually run on about 8 volts. Alkalines last longer than my batteries however alkalines discharge pretty much a linear fashion while rechargeables do not. Rechargeables drop some initially then hold a voltage plateau for almost the rest of the charge then drop voltage very rapidly at tthe end.. Or put another way after about12 hours or so (depending on machine settings and # of targets encountered) of use rechargeables are actually putting out more voltage than alkalines. Both types work well
Critterhunter
New member
Rechargeables that have lower voltage WILL NOT affect the performance of the detector. Detectors use voltage regulators that take any voltage about say about 8 volts and get rid of it, allowing only a constant 8 volts or so to reach the electronics. So it doesn't matter how high the voltage is coming in, it still only puts out the same exact voltage to the board that the regulator wants. The reason this is done is to keep machines stable. If the voltage changed going to the board over time the tuning of the machine would drift.
In my experience a good 2500ma or higher nimh battery has longer run times than an off the shelf regular non-rechargeable battery. The only bad thing about nimhs is they don't hold their charge well as they sit on the shelf and will discharge over time. If you haven't charged them in a few weeks then for that reason I'd do a top off before going out, even if you haven't used them that long since the last charge. In reality you can probably go a few months or so between charges, but then different nimhs hold onto their shelf charge longer than others...So I'm prone to recharge mine if it's been a week or two since the last charge.
The real improvement in battery technology are lipos. I run a 3 cell (12.6V) lipo battery in my detector now. Even a lipo with less capacity than a nimh will often have longer run times because lipos hold their voltage very high until the very end of the discharge, so they trip the low voltage cutoff later than a battery with even higher capacity. Lipos only take an hour to charge when drained and do not self-discharge on the shelf. They are also MUCH lighter than nimhs or regular batteries. The only drawback is there is special care that must be taken with them. You must use a special charger, and you can't drain them lower than 3V per cell (9 volts for a series 3 cell). Luckily my detector sounds the low battery alarm at about 10.2V or so. I had to wire a plug inside my regular battery holder for the lipo to plug into, but the lipo fits inside the regular battery holder no problem.
In my experience a good 2500ma or higher nimh battery has longer run times than an off the shelf regular non-rechargeable battery. The only bad thing about nimhs is they don't hold their charge well as they sit on the shelf and will discharge over time. If you haven't charged them in a few weeks then for that reason I'd do a top off before going out, even if you haven't used them that long since the last charge. In reality you can probably go a few months or so between charges, but then different nimhs hold onto their shelf charge longer than others...So I'm prone to recharge mine if it's been a week or two since the last charge.
The real improvement in battery technology are lipos. I run a 3 cell (12.6V) lipo battery in my detector now. Even a lipo with less capacity than a nimh will often have longer run times because lipos hold their voltage very high until the very end of the discharge, so they trip the low voltage cutoff later than a battery with even higher capacity. Lipos only take an hour to charge when drained and do not self-discharge on the shelf. They are also MUCH lighter than nimhs or regular batteries. The only drawback is there is special care that must be taken with them. You must use a special charger, and you can't drain them lower than 3V per cell (9 volts for a series 3 cell). Luckily my detector sounds the low battery alarm at about 10.2V or so. I had to wire a plug inside my regular battery holder for the lipo to plug into, but the lipo fits inside the regular battery holder no problem.