I had a hard time with my E Trac at the beginning. Everyone was getting down on me and continuing to tell me how wonderful it was. But mine did have some problems. It's an electronic piece of machinery. Things happen. Mine was repaired by Minelab. It had 7 separate issues, six of which I was aware of. But aside from that, I paid a lot of money for it and extra shafts and coils hoping it would excel at the New England cellar holes. I was hoping it would out preform my DFX which was tuned perfectly to those type of situations. I was hoping to score lots of silver amongst iron. But that was not to be. NOT because the E Trac wasn't a great machine, but because I was trying to make it do what I wanted, as opposed to what it could do. For me, in my area, here's what it does or doesn't do for me. It can't penetrate this crappy colonial iron any better than my DFX, if anything it's a bit slower. So it won't do miracles for me there. Where it does excel for me, is in grassy areas where the DFX's depth can be cut down 2-4". It also excels in trap rock construction and sidewalk repair areas, areas where the DFX's tracking has issues with. So I learned to swap detectors for each application. If I visit a new cellar hole that I have never been to, I take the DFX for it's speed. If I get a chance to do a park or manicured lawn, I choose the E Trac for it's silver depth capabilities. In construction of basalt areas, I choose E Trac. I very heavy, non ferrous areas it performs SUPER. NO new machine is going to kill your old machine!!! Especially if it's been revamped. It will perform better in certain areas and that's it. If you are lucky enough to be in one of those areas, you are ecstatic. If you are not that lucky, you are disappointed. Both of you are correct and you can "discuss" this forever without resolve. Digitrich, you need to try and find the areas that it works for you. If it doesn't, then sell it now, since it will never perform in those areas. But try and understand that both of you are probably correct in your assumptions. I have seen a decrease in positive posts in cellar hole hunting. It's probably not a great cellar hole machine. Not that it can't find items there, but more like it can't find enough good items at a pounded cellar hole. So I don't use it there. The trick is to know when to use it. I will always have multiple machines for multiple reasons. just my thoughts guys.
