Critterhunter, my persosnal preference is a white colored coil.

[Monte]

There are two reason for this:

1.. White's will stay cooler than black coils because they reflect the light more than absorb it.

2.. I hunt a lot of ghost towns and out-of-the-way places that are a bit brushy and I can spot and visually track the lighter-colored white coils under sagebrush and other growth than I can the darker black and brown search coils.

The only real negative related to many of the earlier white coils is that, over time, they would discolor to a yellowish tint as is they had been hanging out in a smoke-filled roof for a while. I think that is the main reason so many manufacturers made the switch to black plastic coil housings instead of white.

You are right, however, about some aftermarket coils, names not mentioned, that didn't seem to have very good stabilization of the windings. I've experienced it with factory coils and after-market coils. Sometimes the windings have been glued on cardboard, stapled on cardboard, wrapped around little plastic studs in the coil, set is a Styrofoam cut-out that sits in the coil, and all sorts of different attempts to make a coil and trim the budget on building them.

Monte

 

[Critterhunter]

Monte, it also depends on the type of coil. Winding alignment is far more critical on concentrics than it is DD coils. That said, if the coil windings are locked in solid epoxy there is virtually no risk of them getting too far out of alignment due to temperture changes so that it would even be noticed in stability. The certain solid white coil I mentioned with the temperture stability issues not only was not filled with epoxy, but it was also a concentric coil.

 

[Monte]

Both were made in the USA by different coil makers, and were so light-weight that they couldn't have had epoxy in them.

I understand what you're saying, and have experienced bad DD and bad Concentric coils, my only comment was with regard to the benefits of coil color as they relate to my types of hunting sites. Those are often brushy, and dusty to boot. Also, I like to do a lot of night hunting when summer temps make daytime unpleasant and, for that, I do like a white colored search coil.

Monte

By the way, I appreciate your "In Loving Memory" close as I feel the same way about my yellow lab, Katie who hasn't been around since May 9th. The past three months seem more like three years, especially when I have been on the road or out hunting sites where she was my great companion and good friend.