I'm walkin away from the AT Pro... Too many problems.

[fir469]

Well for the second time in 2 months it's going back to Garrett. First time was for the Pro Mode failing to work and now she has taken on water through the screen and completely died... Garrett will be sending me a brand new replacement this time and covering the shipping and for that I am so very grateful... absolutely stellar customer service. However, losing 2 weeks of detecting time the first time around and now most likely another week or so in freshwater season it's killing me and now given me a bad taste for the AT. It's a nifty machine with a lot of nice features, but I don't think the time was spent in engineering to make it a waterproof detector. Water resistant? Absolutely... waterproof not so much. So to not take my chances with underwater and keep it just for park hunting doesn't warrant holding onto the $600 machine. I'll be placing the brand new boxed one for sale when it comes in. I may one day return to the AT when all the bugs have been worked out (Maybe a Version 2?). Until then, it's been a fun ride. It's like buying a new car only to have it break down off the lot...

-Jason

 

[Woodstock]

Sorry to hear the bad news. I hope the bad taste washes away and you can return. I only wonder why if your waiting for Garrett to get the bugs out that you won't even give give the new one a shot? In any assembly process manufactures have faulty units and depending on the production run for that day or week only 1 in 10 or 1 in 100 will be tested for being air tight and water tight. It's probably a housing that doesn't match the face. These are injection molded and wouldn't be noticeable to any human eye. When you sent the dud in they repaired what they assumed was the problem using Murphy's law and missed the real cause. I used to work in injection molding and spec's a difficult to maintain.
So if your getting a new replacement from them I'd check it out before I passed judgment on it, maybe that bad taste will be replaced with the sweet taste of success. If the totals of dud's were many Garrett would just have a recall. But they must be following ISO requirements with both their inspections and what percent would required a recall do to malfunctions. I know your upset and it's all up to you what you decide to do.
And I'd like to add that their are many of us who use or have used machines for coin shooting at twice the price. It's only the AT Pro that made some of us change. All the other $600 machines I've used don't come close to the AT Pro. It the Pro's ability to do better what those more expensive machines that lead me to it, plus the Garrett warranty. So it's sad to see ya go but I wouldn't until I gave the replacement a shot to see if the "bugs" are gone. Happy Trails and Hunting, Woodstock

 

[fir469]

I hear ya on that Woodstock, but being let down in the field is not something I take lightly when it comes to detectors. The leaking screens seems to be a common occurance with those that have been water detecting with these. I'm mainly a relic hunter and have my needs filled with machines that have not once let me down in years of use. My other detecting is done in the water or on the beach and sadly the AT Pro is a single freq machine and not cut out to hunt with the big dogs in salt water environments which relegates it to freshwater use, which it can't seem to handle all that well. I wouldn't be surprised if they do a revamp on the housings to make them better. Here in Jersey we don't have many center of town old parks like the rest of the country has so the ones we do have are pounded so hard you need a machine to punch past the others into the 12" range and the AT isn't a consistant producer at least for me at those depths. Yeah it may chirp on a target that deep but the tone id 90% of the time for me isn't correct at those depths. I have other machines that perform much better on those deep fringe targets. So to hold onto a machine that can't get deep enough for the parks or relic hunting and leaks when ya take it in the water tying up $600 I can spend on a unit that will excel where I need it just isn't wise. I was impressed with the machine in trash and iron but it didn't blow me away enough to deal with its inherit engineering flaws. Best of luck to the rest of the AT users, may there be silver and gold under your coils... I'm heading back to Minelab/White's country...

 

[kirk01]

Well for the second time in 2 months it's going back to Garrett. First time was for the Pro Mode failing to work and now she has taken on water through the screen and completely died... Garrett will be sending me a brand new replacement this time and covering the shipping and for that I am so very grateful... absolutely stellar customer service. However, losing 2 weeks of detecting time the first time around and now most likely another week or so in freshwater season it's killing me and now given me a bad taste for the AT. It's a nifty machine with a lot of nice features, but I don't think the time was spent in engineering to make it a waterproof detector. Water resistant? Absolutely... waterproof not so much. So to not take my chances with underwater and keep it just for park hunting doesn't warrant holding onto the $600 machine. I'll be placing the brand new boxed one for sale when it comes in. I may one day return to the AT when all the bugs have been worked out (Maybe a Version 2?). Until then, it's been a fun ride. It's like buying a new car only to have it break down off the lot...

-Jason

Sorry for your downtime with water hunting.

I was very fortunate to find a lightly used Tesoro Tiger Shark today at a fair price to keep me going in the water.

Won't get it until next week so I will miss the three day weekend going deeper, although my XT-705 does allow me to go in to about 3 feet depth.

Garrett is having UPS pick up my AT-Pro Tuesday.

There are more issues with this machine than a few with bad waterproofing.

I won't get into here, see my post "Beach Day Blues" if interested.

When our AT-Pro's come back maybe we should soak them in the bathtub to make sure they don't leak before selling them!

Good Hunting

Denny

 

[fir469]

\

 

[Jerry-Wi]

I tend to look at what the At Pro is capable of and go from there. Everyone has different expectations and that is the way it should be. However the At Pro will find coins in iron trash that a lot of other detectors just pass over and I would hate to think of walking away from that without a good plan B. I have found more silver and more nickels so far this year than I have for the last several years combined. I wish you luck with whatever you do.

Jerry

 

[John-Edmonton]

It's hard finding the "BEST" detector out there to suit our own needs. There are a lot of choices. I did a search on your posts going back about a year and noticed you have purchased and tried many machines. Now I am not criticizing you at all for this. You are probably in a position where you actually can do this. I hope you continue your quest to find that metal detector which will satisfy you. You have two choices.....get the machine repaired and continue to learn it well, or sell it and give someone else an opportunity to get an AT Pro at a great price.

Either way, best of luck.

 

[gregp]

I can understand your frustration. I was upset at first when a i had to send my machine back? After the repair and return i started finding items i missed with my MXT. I have been using my PRO only lately. I am finding more with my pro, hands down. These finds are in an area gridded by my MXT. Having said that I still really like my MXT. I have not decided to sell my MXT or not but I do know this, the PRO stays. Sorry about your luck. I bought a new 40K dollar ford truck a few years ago and had nothing but trouble. I ended up suing them under the lemon law, I won and ford bought my truck back. Not all ford are bad, I just had bad luck. A few years later i bought a ford excursion and love it, no trouble at all, just add fuel and go.

 

[Johnny Cache]

Any company manufacturing any product simply cannot be 100% perfectly consistent all the time. Once in a while a lemon will find it's way out of the factory, like in gregp's case with the truck. I actually had to have my Pro repaired too. I know it's frustrating, but Garrett is great for sending you a brand new Pro. I think you should have a nice glass of lemonade, and give that new pro a chance... it's worth it!!!