New Excalibur II owners questions

[Kizmo]

Hi all from Finland !

After playing in water with XP Deus I got badly bitten by underwater metal detecting bug.

Few days ago i came by a good deal of slightly used Excalibur II and hardwired 15" WOT coil (with WOT end plug) + harness and modded, longer stem. The detector is about 3 years old but has very few hours on it, despite some scratches it looks like brand new.


I have few questions about the machine:

1. After reading bunch of old forum posts I think I may need to replace the old battery sooner or later. As far as I understood, todays recommended battery is lithium-polymer pack and smart charger. Where should I purchase these items? Since Im located in Finland, Europe is preferred.

2. Is there official o-ring replacement kit or do I just go to nearest hydraulic fitting store and get them from there?

3. I am mainly hunting in freshwater lakes and beaches for coins and jewelry, the usual stuff. Any tips and tricks about running this machine and coil combination in general?

4. Does Minelab have known good out of warranty repair service in Europe? I do realize that the machine may fail some day and i would love to have it repaired on pcb level.

 

[bootyhoundpa]

If the machine is as new as you state there really should be no need to mess with the orings yet..as far as i know there is no official oring kit being offered to the end users. ..the wot excal combo should cover more ground faster and may give a little extra depth but may struggle with masking when hunting in areas with bobbypins and such.. still probably worth a go if price is right.. good luck....

 

[Kizmo]

Im not too worried about large coil and target separation. Our beaches are fairly clean and trashier areas are in shallow waters where Deus will do the trick just fine

But as usual, we need to go deeper.

 

[dewcon4414]

Lith is now an option........but dont discount those 1600s available for half the price either with the smart chargers. Charge in an hour or so, have a light on the charger, and shut off when fully charged. For most people they last longer than they would ever hunt. The Xcal II OEM is 1000 mah.

Check out Ole Beach Nuts U-tube videos, i believe he showed how to replace the 0 rings and gave the size you need.

The machine is as simple as you get. Its the one machine that HATES iron so set it at 1 disc. If you are running in disc, run it in manual sensitivity. You should be able to run it around 10 o'clock sensitivity.......... if she gets to chatty of you get some coil flip falsing you can turn it down. Volume full on.

Coil options........... as you know they are hard wired. IF i went to a larger coil it would be the 12" NEL or SEF. They PP easily off the tip and you still cover a lot of ground. If used in salt water you will have to reduce the sensitivity. Im not a fan of the 7 1/4" coil and apparently neither was ML since they discontinued the 800 Xcal. Larger coils will depend on why you want to go larger and conditions........ and the COST if you cant do it yourself. In most cases that standard coil is pretty darn good.