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been there, done that. I had a v3i and could not get the hang of it. Started looking at the difference in finds and out with the v3i and in with the e-trac. I am not saying the v3i is not deadly in the right hands but just not my hands.
I couldn't find much with the v3i LOL and I was at a virgin site that was loaded with silver and my buddy who had an e trac would follow right behind me plucking silver dimes effortlessly , needless to say I had an e trac within a week or so and the silver started to come out of the ground with a quickness
I ran the DFX and the V3 (before the i) and have found more silver and gold in the past two months with the ETrac than I did with either of the other machines. I did find some nice silver with the V3, but nothing like I have with the ETrac.
It the tones i think , and the numbers are more acurate than almost any other machine.
The CTX is similar though i still think the ET is best on tones.
Try the ********* page, I was leaning towards one and started following the ********* page. all I found was repair questions, coil comparisons, complaints on performance, and tons of technical discussions. And Occasionally someone finds a silver coin and the predicted response.
One of the ways I can get a feel for a certain detector is to follow the forums, If lots of people are finding and posting stuff, and there are few complaints or requests for help it generally means things are well and its a good detector.
I went back and censored the detector name because I felt it was unfair to those who can't afford another and have to make do. But I still believe its one of the ways for judging a detector's worth.
I recently thought I would try another V3i. I thought maybe I did not give the last one a chance. Let me say first that I am familiar with it and have owned one in the past so it was not operator error. And this post is not meant to trash the V3i, just state some facts. I could not belive how poor the performace was. I was hunting with another forum member, I won't mention his name, he can chime in if he wants. It was frustrating to say the least. He would mark a few easy targets that the Etrac would find and then I would go over them with the V3i. In most of the cases if the V3i saw them the TID was all over the scale from iron to coins. They were not signals I would have dug. I marked some more targets with the Etrac. One particular target was locked on as a nickel with the Etrac. I mean one of those no doubt nickel signals. I went over it with the V3i and it registered anywhere from iron to high coins range. The VID was jumping all over the place. Again I would have wrote it off as trash. I adjusted many settings and tried the factory programs to try and get some reasonable performace out of it but to be honest it just isn't there. I know some may say the coil was bad or something but I do not believe that was the case. I bought the machine brand new. If you look on the V3i forum you will see posts about air tests of 7", etc. Too bad because I really like all the features of the detector but the truth is the performace it horrible.
I was just reading on the main manufactures forum. There are a some complaints like the same things I was experiencing with the one I had. One poor guy can only get 4 inches on a quarter and the ID is all over the place. I wonder if something isnt going on. I had a V3 that would air test at like 15inches. I think I have a video of it. I once buried a quarter a foot deep and was able to detect it with a decent ID too. I wonder what is going on with the V3i's.
Couple quotes from another person.
"I planted a coin garden. It was then that I realized that my V wasn
It is funny that no one thinks it MIGHT be operator error on the poor performance of the V3i. Although I use the CTX 3030 as my primary deep silver hunter, I am also well versed in the Whites V series, it is like most top end detectors, a very good detector in the right hands.
I have helped many "experienced" users on the V forum who simply did not have a clue what they were doing with their V3i and had theirs so screwed up, it was no wonder they were not finding anything, not even a quarter at 4 inches. It is way too easy to blame the machine and not yourself for failure.
As far as posting finds, the Minelab forums blows every other forum away and I would wager that total posted finds on the combined Minelab forums will exceed all other forums combined. Does this really prove anything? Not really, it it is just that Minelab users like to post finds whether they actually found them in the ground or a coin shop...... Aww come on, we all know it happens and all too often.
I've owned 2 White Machines (M6, MXT) in my lifetime and both were great machines that I had no complaints about. I would not hesitate to buy another one as I believe (IMO) that Whites makes a quality product. I stayed away from the V3I because I had heard the same thing about it from several members of my MD club. If indeed there is a technical problem with the V3I machines, I would not be surprised if Whites issues a recall on them.
I agree that sometimes it is operator error no doubt. Look at the picture of the MXT guy I posted on the MXT forum.....Lol But there are just way too many people reporting problems with the V3i for it to be operator error in every case. As far as someone buying coins from a coin shop that is pretty sad......
I've never used the V3i or any other Whites machine (except for my old Coinmaster from years ago), so take this for what it's worth. I was the first person in our local club (of over 100 detectorists) to own an E-Trac. Most of the other folks used Minelab Explorers, Whites or Garrett machines. We have a local forum that we post on daily, so I get a pretty good idea of what's being found (as everyone else does too). Many of these people have been detecting since the hobby started, so they are extremely experienced. In the last 2 years, at least 15 of the club and forum members have purchased E-Tracs and they are all at the top of our leader board in silver/old coin finds. That is pretty good empirical evidence in my opinion of the quality and usability of the E-Trac over anything out there (except the CTX, which I run as well these days).
Like I posted earlier the v3i is probably deadly in the right hands and also whites customer service is second too none. I will argue with anybody about whites dropping the ball on the v3i. One thing they advertized is you could adjust it a 100 different ways to customize it for every site. That ended up working against them because too many adjustment to contend with. With the etrac you make a couple adjustments and you can hunt anywhere. I took the v3i to a old campground once and it performed pretty well and the next time I took it there it would not settle down no matter what and I did not change a thing on it. I do not agree with one brand of detector users posting more pics than another group either. If you find goods you usally post them if you can. I started finding good targets with my etrac almost from day one!
I owned the V3i for about a year and what I discovered is you had to stick with the factory preset programs if you wanted any kind of performance. I dug many a deep coins and would get rock solid TID numbers. Most of what I was reading on forums was people where cranking up the RX gain thinking they would get max depth and getting frustrated. I found keeping the RX gain turned down helped the deep ones to sound off because they weren't lost in all the noise of high RX gain
.
Once I got digging around in the expert settings, performance went out the window. I once spent my day detecting on a picnic table trying to figure out what I did wrong with the settings. In the end I sold it off because of ergonomic issues, it was a boat anchor. I could only detect 30 - 45 minutes before upper back pain caused me to stop.
I own both the V3i and the Minelab SE. Let me say that I don't post finds on either forum, been there done that. Like Larry I help people on the V3i forum and if you understood how a V3i works you would also understand from many questions asked that they don't have the faintest idea either.
We gave a seminar and many guys weren't using some of the basic features. I looked at a Blisstool and thought, how would they cope with all those knobs. The V3i only has so many settings that affect performance. Many of the setting are there just to make it a detector that is a joy to use.
I have better things to do than try to make trouble. I have both the V3i and SE and would have no reason to keep the V3i if it wasn't a solid performer.
Like I posted earlier the v3i is probably deadly in the right hands and also whites customer service is second too none. I will argue with anybody about whites dropping the ball on the v3i. One thing they advertized is you could adjust it a 100 different ways to customize it for every site. That ended up working against them because too many adjustment to contend with. With the etrac you make a couple adjustments and you can hunt anywhere. I took the v3i to a old campground once and it performed pretty well and the next time I took it there it would not settle down no matter what and I did not change a thing on it. I do not agree with one brand of detector users posting more pics than another group either. If you find goods you usally post them if you can. I started finding good targets with my etrac almost from day one!
"I took the v3i to a old campground once and it performed pretty well and the next time I took it there it would not settle down no matter what and I did not change a thing on it."
This is the one facet about the V3i that drives me nuts, and it should. My V3i is on it's trek back to Oregon now, it is the first health checkup I've had done in the nearly 2 years I have owned it, so just maybe there has been a problem there for a long time. As far as posting pics amd stories of finds with the V3i...I have always thought the same thing, there just aren't as many from the V3i people. Whites MXTs, M6 and DFX owners tout their finds a lot more IMO. Life will be great if I get the V3i back and it is solid. I haven't given up on it yet. The thing has got to work the same 24 hours later though, over the same established targets, with no settings altered. That's simply textbook sanity IMO. martin
Hi Martin, You said, there just aren't as many from the V3i people. Whites MXTs, M6 and DFX owners tout their finds a lot more IMO.
Many of us myself worked our way up through detectors. We usually start with less expensive detectors, like the MXT. At that stage in our hobby we are more interested in showing our Merc's. Really now unless it is a very unusual find I don't bother.
You said, My V3i is on it's trek back to Oregon now, it is the first health checkup I've had done in the nearly 2 years I have owned it, so just maybe there has been a problem there for a long time.
As I've told you, I'm really interested in the results. Please post the results when you get them.
ive found alot of money with my v3i... enough in 2 yrs to buy a beachunter 300.......... it took me awhile to figure it out but with the help of the awesome forums here and there it finds money almost everytime out and the best part is generally speaking i know what im digging .....yup hard to beat the v3i when you get it tuned to your ground.......
My only experience with Whites is an MXT which I like very much. One of the things that appealed to me from the start is the fact that it isn't packed with settings that can be screwed up beyond belief for the newer or average user, yet still gives respectable performance. Over the years, I've read posts on the DFX and other machines that point out that all the options may give somewhat more depth or performance when tweaked right can also do the opposite. For those that like to spend their time tweaking a machine, more power to them, but I'm from the keep it simple crowd.
BB
Aww come on, we all know it happens and all too often.