I've had my F5 for almost a year. I've always really liked the detector, but one aggravating quirk it had was whenever I would hold the coil still with the gain above 20 or 25 (no matter the threshold setting) it would chatter. The chatter would go away when I swung the coil, so it was something I could live with. But still annoying. When I got the 11" DD to go along with the stock I still had the same problem, so it wasn't an issue with the coil. I also had a problem with the pinpoint button sticking and one of the little plastic battery clips 
thumbdown:design using flimsy little pieces of plastic to hold the batteries in place) breaking off.
Until recently, all of my hunting had been in urban areas. Then I had a chance to take the F5 to a deserted rural ghost town. With no electricity around the detector ran smooth as silk. I could run it hot with zero chatter when the coil was still. It was so enjoyable that I said I've got to see if I can get this EMI issue resolved. Especially when I read the post from FT's legendary Dave Johnson saying that the F5 and Omega 8000 are the least prone to EMI problems among FT's mid to high range detectors.
So I contacted FT and sent the detector and both coils in. Now I have the detector back and it runs like it never did before. I took it to an old pocket park surrounded by high power lines where the problems with EMI had been probably about the worst of anywhere I had hunted. And it ran smoothly with a setting of 75 gain and -3 threshold. And every other place I've used it I was able to run it even hotter. And in that park, right after getting the detector back I found my oldest coin yet, an 1875 seated liberty dime at 7". The fact that the condition of the dime was strictly filler didn't diminish my excitement one bit.
So I want to thank a lot of folks at FT who were so excellent to deal with and who went the extra mile for me.
Thank you, Felix
, for being so friendly and professional.
Thank you, Maria, for being the technician who did such a fine job with the repair.
Thank you, Jorge Anton Saad, for contacting me to make sure everything was OK.
And especially thank you,Dave Johnson , for taking the time to personally get involved and make sure my detector was fixed right. Mr. Johnson personally checked out my unit and told me I had what seemed like EMI problems the likes of which they had never seen on any F5 in their office. He also told Maria (the tech) don't try to troubleshoot and fix it, because it would be too easy to think you've got it fixed and it ain't actually fixed. So they replaced the electronics and most of the plastic stuff including a new front panel assembly.
Obviously I'm grateful to
FT. To say I'm impressed would be an understatement.
And all done at no charge. I'd always buy a FT detector new as opposed to used, to take advantage of the 5 year non-transferable warranty.
thumbdown:design using flimsy little pieces of plastic to hold the batteries in place) breaking off.Until recently, all of my hunting had been in urban areas. Then I had a chance to take the F5 to a deserted rural ghost town. With no electricity around the detector ran smooth as silk. I could run it hot with zero chatter when the coil was still. It was so enjoyable that I said I've got to see if I can get this EMI issue resolved. Especially when I read the post from FT's legendary Dave Johnson saying that the F5 and Omega 8000 are the least prone to EMI problems among FT's mid to high range detectors.
So I contacted FT and sent the detector and both coils in. Now I have the detector back and it runs like it never did before. I took it to an old pocket park surrounded by high power lines where the problems with EMI had been probably about the worst of anywhere I had hunted. And it ran smoothly with a setting of 75 gain and -3 threshold. And every other place I've used it I was able to run it even hotter. And in that park, right after getting the detector back I found my oldest coin yet, an 1875 seated liberty dime at 7". The fact that the condition of the dime was strictly filler didn't diminish my excitement one bit.
So I want to thank a lot of folks at FT who were so excellent to deal with and who went the extra mile for me.
Thank you, Felix
, for being so friendly and professional.Thank you, Maria
, for being the technician who did such a fine job with the repair.Thank you, Jorge Anton Saad
, for contacting me to make sure everything was OK.And especially thank you,
Dave Johnson , for taking the time to personally get involved and make sure my detector was fixed right. Mr. Johnson personally checked out my unit and told me I had what seemed like EMI problems the likes of which they had never seen on any F5 in their office. He also told Maria (the tech) don't try to troubleshoot and fix it, because it would be too easy to think you've got it fixed and it ain't actually fixed. So they replaced the electronics and most of the plastic stuff including a new front panel assembly. Obviously I'm grateful to
FT. To say I'm impressed would be an understatement. And all done at no charge. I'd always buy a FT detector new as opposed to used, to take advantage of the 5 year non-transferable warranty.