Excalibur comparison 1000 vs II?

[sdesic]

Can someone compare old model Excalibur 1000 with new Excalibur II.
What are the upgrades?
Is it worth buying used for both ... waterproof stuff must be changed over time?

 

[dewcon4414]

Ive put a lot of hours on both and prefer the more stable Blue. The blues battery needs an upgrade...... its 700 mah vs the II which is 1000 mah. Some of the IIs have 3 wires inside the cap to the headphones.........that third wire goes to the headphones from the board for no apparent reason. Unless....... some of the machines knobs when entering the water cause a ramp up briefly in threshold. The coil on the IIs seems more chatty especially near the surf or anytime there is coil flip. You can curb that a bit by simply reducing the threshold a tad. Most of the Blues were made in Ireland not Malaysia and seem to have a better build. I say that because i had about everything that could break break.......... once repaired never broke again. I bought used Blues and have not had a repair except a cable casing on one that some of the older models seem to have. The Xcal IIs headphones are not as comfortable or nearly as crisp as the Blues either. I recommend you get with someone who might have both and you can hear the difference.

I highly recommend used. That year warranty goes fast........ and frankly, you will still have less into one even with repairs. If Kelleyco does the repair they have a warrant on their work and will go over the machine completely and pressure test it. So you will basicly have a new machine. They also do the mods..... i understand they do the warranty at that time because MLs will be void.

They now have upgrades to the batteries........you can go to a SMART charger with a 1600 mah battery and charger for about $50......... or a lith for half the price of a new ML battery/pod. IMO the upgrade is needed on the blue just because of the mah and age of most of these machines.

 

[sdesic]

Thank you Dew, it is hard to get all that info without experience with those two machines.
I am in Europe so no service for me - it would be too expensive ... like for my Fisher 1280x...
no service in Europe can do pressure resistant repairs.

 

[adamBomb]

Thank you Dew, it is hard to get all that info without experience with those two machines.
I am in Europe so no service for me - it would be too expensive ... like for my Fisher 1280x...
no service in Europe can do pressure resistant repairs.

If I were you I would probably buy new because you are going to pay and arm and a leg to get it fixed if you buy it used and it needs some small repairs. If you did need to use the warranty at least you would only need to pay shipping.

 

[robinb]

Check the cables carefully on the older blue one, they're prone out cover shredding due to sun exposure.


I had rewrapped coil cable and this happened.
It looked fine before hand but the sheathing was quite thin and you could see the underlying cable bulges.

 

[Kossie]

Hi Sdesic,

Service for Europe is Minelab in Ireland. I was absolutely amazed by the quality of their service. I live in the Netherlands and own and Excal 1000 and a II (also an Explorer for the beach, a Tesoro Tigershark for the finer gold, 2 Garret Aces for quests and an Ebinger 720c for scuba). I hunt under various circumstances as you may notice. I bought most of my detectors second hand.

My Excal 1000 was send to Ireland for repairs on two of the potentiometers. The threshold and pin-pointer. The pin-pointer was broken shortly after purchase but that didn't bother me since I hardly ever used it. I rigged the blue one with Anderson knobs. It was send to Minelab for repairs on the threshold. It came back with replaced knobs, the Andersons were taken of and included separately, the decals were refreshed and both potentiometers were fixed for 75 euros including shipment. So two big thumbs up for minelab.

The Excal II came by a special opportunity and low priced. The headphones was busted but I managed to do a quick fix and after years it still runs smooth. I see no difference between both. The blue one is supposedly more stable but I ques I have no difficult circumstances or the stability issue one occur in the all metal mode which I don't use.

What I m trying to say, don't be afraid to buy a second hand Minelab and don't be afraid to ship it for service to Minelab. I can recommend testing before buying. My experience is that the Minelab product is absolutely high quality. Both machines work fine and I m sure you won't find discernible differences between the 1000 or the II. When you have an opportunity to buy one second hand test it and go for it.

Regards Kossie.

 

[robinb]

Unfortunately minelab Ireland service centre is now closed. (it shut down in april this year).

However there are several water certified repair centres in Europe, if you look on minelab website you can get their details.

 

[sdesic]

Thanks for the info, I will try to find a good deal on one first, and go along with it.

Last time I got large amount to pay for postage and customs.
My 1280x was 400$ and postage was discounted at 60$ from USA,
and paid 175$ customs fee...
Will try to get detector closer to home and within the EU.

 

[goodmore]

I have had both and I have never seen any difference in performance.

 

[mike k.]

I agree the blue headphone excal just keeps on ticking . I bought one used about 10 years ago or so ,and Ive never had any problemlemskys . I use it a lot in the great lakes under severe conditions . Just upgraded battery .