Bounty Hunter QSI Quick Silver - trouble after getting wet in ocean

[TreasureMonkey]

I have a Bounty Hunter QSI Quick Silver and was using it at the beach yesterday. I was sweeping at the water's edge when the coil got wet from an ocean wave. The water completely covered the coil, but didn't go any higher than that. I figured there wouldn't be an issue as the coil is said to be waterproof. Since then, the detector is beeping erratically, especially at the end of each direction of my sweep. When I sweep left and then stop to return sweep to the right, it beeps. Same in the other direction. I played around with the depth settings and noticed it's happening much more when I have "deep" selected, and much less when I have "medium" chosen.

I can't use it now because of all the false alerts it puts out. Could I have a short in the coil cable? The unit also beeps like crazy when I don't have the coil cable plugged into the control unit. I'm not sure if it would do that even if I hadn't placed the coil in the water.

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[MI-AuAg]

Hello TreasureMonkey,

The coil on that machine SHOULD be waterPROOF. Sometimes if they are cracked they can take on water, If it started acting erratic only after you dunked it, maybe it did take on water. To be honest, I would have thought that it would have already started acting erratic when you were in the saturated wet sand area.

Single frequency VLF detectors such as yours, normally don't work well in salt water, wet salt sand environments. A lot of owner manuals of single freq. detecectors, specifically warn against using them in such conditions. The salts are highly conductive, and a detector reacts as it would a metalic target, only the "target" is literally everyhere around the coil. It usually causes most single freq. machines to go somewhat berserk. When staying in the dry sand they are fine. Fresh water has no adverse effects.

I would suggest that you remove the coil cover (if you have one), rinse any sand/salt residue from the coil and cover. Try it in a non salt environment. That may cure the problem. If not, the coil may be bad.

If that cures the problem, I would stay away from the water/wet sand area at a saltwater beach.

Good Luck

 

[TreasureMonkey]

Thanks. I don't have a cover on the coil, but I took your advice and tried to clean mine off. I rinsed it with fresh water and let it dry, but it's still beeping erratically, particularly when it gets jostled at the end of my left or right sweep.

I appreciate your insights about salt water and detectors. I will certainly keep that in mind going forward.

 

[MI-AuAg]

Another thing you might check. Make sure the connection of the coil wire is good. The wrap of the coil wire around the shaft should be solid too. If the coil wire is not snug around the shaft it can wiggle as you change swing direction, which can sometimes cause the problem. There are usually velcro straps provided for that purpose.

If you have a spare coil, or temporary access to a known good coil, (making sure it's a compatible coil first) do a switch. If the erratic behavior stops with a coil switch, it's a good bet that the coil is bad.

Finally, make sure your sensitivity is not turned way up too high, and check that your ground balance is done properly.

Hope you get it figured out.