Excal Frequency of Repair Concerns

[berryman]

I currently own and hunt the SoCal wet sand beaches with the Soverign GT. I'm thinking about picking up an Excal 1000 so that I can venture out into the surf without having to worry about water incurrsion issues. However, I've read quite a few posts by folks who've had their Excals fail (for a variety of reasons) and had to send them back to the manufacturer for repairs. For those of you who've had experience with both machines, does the GT, in fact, have a lower frequency of repair than the Excal? If so, why?

 

[bootyhoundpa]

I have an older excal I bought used and a gt I bought new like 5 years ago..... the issues ive had with both machines are common issues that many others have experienced.... on the gt the coil mount detached from the lower shaft within the 1st couple weeks I had it..-- easy fix ,I glued it back in with sub floor adhesive,no problem since... the other thing was I had one of the gt battery clips snap off..-- works fine with remaining clip..other than that the gt has been fine.... with the excal I had the knobs fail ... -- replaced with radio shack knobs which I prefer over the factory knobs anyway as they have an indicator point on them that I can feel in the dark .... also the battery ikelite connector cracks after so many years and lets water weep into the pod.... oh ya that reminds me my upper and lower shafts are seized together again.....I just don't know what I would do with out either of these machines, even with there issues they are still great and I would probably buy another one of each if finances permitted..

 

[berryman]

Interesting - so for the most part the failures are not catastrophic (with the exception of water weep into the pod). Have you been able to fix the pod problem?

 

[Fletch88]

Love my GT and Excal 2.
The stock shaft balance is terrible. A straight shaft by Plugger has better balance and clamps that don't freeze up. No issues with mine at this point.

 

[Nauti]

Hi berryman,i've owned a lot of detectors over the years and never really had a problem with any of them.I've owned two sovereigns and never had a problem and I know people with excals who have never had a problem.If you think about how many people own excals and sovereigns,there is bound to be the occasional time that somebody has a fault with one of these models.Also,after seeing the state that some people let their machines get into it's hardly any wonder that some machines get problems.These machines are sensitive instruments that need constant looking after....it's no good coming back from a hunt and leaving your machine covered in dirt or saltwater....they need cleaning.If any machine is cared for properly,they should give very few problems.I would say that a lot of problems,but not all,are caused this way.

 

[GeorgeinSC]

I worked in the sporting goods (hunting, fishing, camping, water sports etc) of a Big Box Sporting goods store for about 13 years. I found that when someone had a problem with a product (Usually caused by their mistreatment of the item) that they complained loud and long. Even though they knew that the product was a good item it then became the worst piece of junk they had ever owned. I have both the Sovereign GT and the Excal. No problems with either one of them. As Neil said if you mistreat an item it will fail on you.