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Garrett XL500

P

PennyFinder

New member
How many of you folks still use the Garrett XL500? What is the best thing you like about it besides it just drums along like the Energizer Bunny after 20 years! Now that's a quality product. Thanks Charles!

PennyFinder
 
I have one. It still works great. I compared it to my Fisher 1280 and my Excal. Both of those 'air' tested a lot farther than the 500. That's all relative I guess. I still found enough to loot to pay for the tector a couple of times over. Not to mention the fun I had with it. When you have people talking about leaks, etc., I am thankful of the design of the XL. Made in an Ikelite housing with honest to god "O" rings to seal it. I still have it and it works perfectly. Offered it to some man last week for a song and a dance and he got confused, I think, by people here who were telling him it was a PI machine. The manual says it's a VLF ground balance machine and a TR discriminate machine.
I think I paid about $600 for it..l.won't say what year. I had to replace the batteries one time. Open it and unsnap the 9 volt batteries and snap new ones in. Just like on any other 9 volt electronics. Lube the "O" ring and close the case and forget it. Over the years I have lost the DC charger for it. Everything is still with it including the manual. Hey! What's a fair price to get it out of my closet? I don't have a clue what is fair. Jim
 
Yup, the very eary Garrett XL500 units were indeed VLF units and VLF is marked on the machine. All the later XL500 machines were pulse induction. The XL200 was PI as well.


PennyFinder
 
Oh Man here we go again!! Heres the pictures. It's an XL500 and you can see it says TR discriminate right above the meter. The manual says it VLF ground balance operating at 15 Khz . IT IS NOT A PI!!! It is not a PI.

Sorry but I am so darned frustrated about this. Could somebody who really knows correct the mass confusion about why everybody insists I have a PI because it's a Garrett XL500? No! It is not and XL200. The XL500 is one that is made for dive configuration only. The XS 500 was a wading type with some kind of shaft.

Here are two pictures of the unit. You can see the model number and the controls on the front. No way those are the controls for a PI. Even GH thought I had a PI because he told me it would be a better unit to take to the Bahamas than the Fisher 1280. I think he had a PI by Garrett at one time and somehow thought this was like his. It isn''t is it GH?

Sorry...I have the manual. Use the unit. Have had it for 25 years or so and it's not a PI. I'm sure this is not a mislabled detector or one of a kind. If it is, I'm hanging on to it as it has to be a rare bird worth bug bucks. Jim

Penny finder you have the answer I think. While I was writing this you posted the answer. Thanks...
 
Man O Man,
I like the idea of the battery charger on the headphone jack idea.
Minelab, wake up boys, I think that is a you beaut idea that should be incorporated into the next generation Excal's
Beast regards and HH
Now I'm off to WA to do some tectin'
aushunter:ausflag::minelab::bounty:
 
Yunno, the VLF/TR technology put in the early XL500 was the same as the ADS Groundhog land machine.
Later it was morphed into the Goldhunter, the Australian AT2,3 and 4 and finally and currently I might add, the Scorpion Gold Stinger.
Of course there were circuit revisions with each model but the basic ADS Groundhog circuit was its genesis.
I still use the Scorpion, just last night actually.
The VLF/TR Garrett MasterHunter Deepseeker was responsible for the 62 pound Australian "Hand of Faith" nugget,find.
My VLF/TR MasterHunter will air test a '73 US dime @ 11", no slouch eh? This machine works well on the mineralized salt beaches we have, where little discrimination is desired for jewelry capture anyway. Dynomite on silver with the lower 5.5khz frequency (the Groundhog has 15khz, which is better for gold).
The discriminators on the new VLF machines have been improved today with computers, bells and whistle razzle dazzle, but not really much on detection power since the mid 1980's. Simplicity is efficiency I always say! Now get out there and spark up that bad boy!

PennyFinder
 
There is a typo in my above post, it should read: the Australian A2B, A3B machine as well as the American AM series Sorry there.

PennyFinder
 
I sold it to a gentleman today. He was wanting to modify some kind of land detector to use in the water. He didn't have a lot to spend. So...I sold him this one for $100. I think he got a good deal.

PennyFinder...where did you get all that technical data about the Garrett model transition? Jim
 
I think he got a good deal too!
All the tech history on the Groundhog was gleaned from posts on the VLF/TR Groundhog and Goldstinger right here on findmall, plus the multitude of Garrett Ram books, and detectors I've owned and taken apart.
I've been detecting since 1989 or so and am a Garrett fan.

PennyFinder
 
The water detector line up was

XL 500 Pulse

XL 200 Pulse

XS 500 Pulse

and XL 500 VLF

The L (after the X) signified longshaft (for beach and wading)
The S was for short shaft for underwater use.

By 1983 there were all on the market at the same time.
 
In 1982 I purchased my first XL500PI machine and in 1983 my second as a back up for those times when the batteries were charging.

I used both the large coils and the smaller coils 8"? and found plenty of gold rings in a three year period.

When I bought the first one the VLF /TR machine was still available if memory serves.

I have never had anything but fine performance from the machines and last year I rebuilt the battery packs and both machines work like new.

I decided to upgrade to the Infinium LS, but not before I found four nice gold rings with the 500s.

In its day the XL was the finest machine available in my estimation!

GL&HH Friends,

CJ

PS I'll see if I can get a good copy of the pictures I have of three years worth of recovered treasure from '82, '83, & '84 and post them.
 
I loved my XL's. I had a total of 7 over the years. I used them in Hawaii during the 80's. I started using a White's Surf Master, which was t/r machine that could detect a dime to maybe 6". When I got the XL I finally started really finding rings. When the PI version came out I bought a total of 5 of them and my wife and I used them for many years. I wish I had taken pictures of our finds. A normal day for us 6 to 9 gold rings a day. Needless to say we worked at the beach as often as we could. I was an enlisted man in the Marine Corps at that time and we had six children. The XL's kept us off food stamps and welfare which we qualified for. We really do love these machines. HH and 73 to all, Mike.
 
Hey Mike,

I have been searching in a "worked out" area and am taking home only an ocasional gold ring.

It occured to me that perhaps it is time to break out the old XLs.

They are still operational after 25 years and last year I found a few gold rings with them.

I'm thinking I may give the large coil a trial run to see if it can surpass the Infinium at a "worked out beach".

I'll keep you posted.

GL&HH Friend,

CJ
 
Just dusted off my XL500 and charged her up and went down to a wet heavy blacksand Pacific Ocean beach that'll make the mightiest VLF machine whimper like a little girl.
The Garrett performed flawlessly, digging pulltab after pull tab and clad. That's where the rings are. Bottle caps give a different sound with a wider signal. My discriminator set to zero. Found a small piece of gold which was worn down to the size of my baby finger nail. Don't know what it was.
Maybe some of you ol' salts could share and elaborate a little more on different target sounds and ring hunting tips with the XL500, t' would be much appreciated. Am I doing it right?
Sure like this old girl.
PennyFinder
 
After many hours of searching with the XL I seemed to develope a sense of knowing when the tone was "right".

It would be imposible for me to describe except to say it just sounds right!

Or maybe I've just been "lucky"!

I still dig a lot of junk too, just to be sure.

GL&HH Friend,

CJ.
 
Ditto!

I have been thinking about using my large coil to see if I missed anything with the Infinium.

It should be an interesting comparison.

GL&HH Friends,

CJ
 
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