Spectra V3i comparison to F75 and E-Trac first post

[Andy Sabisch]

All of the units you mentioned are solid performers and will serve you well with the requisite time in to learn what it is telling you. There are a lot of adjustments on the V3/V3i but to be honest, once you have the settings dialed in for your area and particular types of targets, it can be an turn-on-and-go detector. The same goes for the E-Trac.

Where big differences start to appear is if you need service for your purchase. As you can see on the posts on the Minelab forums, the service and support from Minelab USA has reached dismal levels of late . . . no way to talk to someone directly, lengthy delays in getting repairs completed, no spare parts for purchase . . . . and when you loose 2 months of prime hunting time, you might have second thoughts as to what you paid for. A lot of us miss the personal touch provided by Dick and Sandy when they ran that department.

On the other hand, Whites has taken customer support to the opposite end of the spectrum. If you have a problem - any problem - it is addressed IMMEDIATELY. Coils overnighted to customers, personal phone calls to the customer to update them on service status, calls answered by a real person that actually works at the factory and can help you . . . . . and a dealer / distributor network that actively works to solve issues rather than pass them off to someone else (Minelab dealers want to do the right thing . . . . . getting factory support to do it in many cases is not there).

First Texas is another company that services what they sell and supports those that buy them . . . . .

So while performance, complexity and availability are all important factors in making a purchasing decision, think about the value of after the sale support and service . . . and if you feel it is a factor to include in your decision, research what you can expect from the company you are looking at giving a big chunk of change.

Andy Sabisch

 

[Larry (IL)]

Well said Andy, thanks.

 

[Rob (IL)]

Yes thanks Andy..............Rob

 

[Daniel Tn]

I've owned the F75-LTD and in the past, did have an Explorer II. And I've got a V3i as my main VLF machine now days.

Here's my take on it.

The F-75 and F-75 ltd were one of my favorites. Well the original F-75 was; in my red dirt, I couldn't use the boost modes of the LTD so it was kind of useless and noisy to me. I had done the original videos on the F-75 and I've dug a lot of nice relics with the F-75s. They are a relic machine; I still preferred the original over the LTD, but I know there are just as many on the LTD side that prefer it over the original F-75. There are no thrills and frills with it; its just a high octane power horse. Kind of like a high octane drag car vs a rice burner. With that said; it DOES take some getting use to. It is a really powerful machine but that can be bad in some ways too. If you are in a real trashy area, it can drive you crazy. Once again I will use the drag car analogy. That drag car will torque the doors off the rice burner on a race track, but put the two in heavy city traffic with stop signs and stop lights and the favor goes to the rice burner. So that said, the relic woods and open fields are the race tracks for the F-75s. They do a really good job in just plain detecting deep. The meter is so-so; it ain't got a lot for it in adjustments but it has enough to get you by and for most folks, that will be all you need.

The Explorers/Etrac. The Etrac is suppose to be a little faster than the Explorer II was; but I didn't really find the Ex II to be THAT bad. It wasn't as bad as some folks on the forums let on. Now granted I had the 8" Sunray coil on mine so that helped a little bit but over all, I think Minelab makes a really good target ID machine. If you can handle the balance issue, they are worth looking into. It's not that they are heavy; its just they ain't balanced worth a flip. One thing of note though; I was hunting an old football field's concession areas. This football field was in use back during the 40s and peaked about '72. Anyway there is lots of trash but in the mix are some silver coins. I'm not much on coins but I do like silver. Anyway I had my Ex II there, and had it wide open....no disc at all. And was digging some coins here and there. I had just gotten the Garrett Ace 250 to play around with, and decided it would be a good place to play. Well I got a good coin reading on the Ace 250 and was going to use the Ex II because it was hot and dry, and the Ex had the Sunray probe....so little holes and thus not being worn out digging as fast in the summer. Anyway I tried to pinpoint it with the Ex II first and wasn't getting anything more than an occasional chirp. I thought maybe it was junk and that the Ex II was seeing it better. But it sounded so sweet on the 250 that I had to dig it. Lo and behold at just 4-5 inches comes a silver dime. This repeated 3 other silver dimes and 6 wheat cents....only 2-3 of which the Explorer gave a signal at all on. I don't know whether the trash was masking them to the Ex but that lil Ace 250 put a whoopin on it that day.

And finally, the V3. What I like about the V3 is there ain't no "programming" it. Don't let some folks here fool you. It's not like an XLT or DFX was where you had to scroll through the menus to find settings and then hope you got them right. The engineers made this thing as simple as they could. There's no having to hunt around for stuff in the menus. It's all right there and easy to get to. It's got simplicity for those that want a turn on and go machine and it's got the capacity to be customized for specific needs. I've never seen a machine to be able to handle so many applications with ease. Usually there is a trade off with machines like this; they are usually better at one thing than they are the other. The V3 is at home in the relic woods, in the lawns coin shooting, or on the beaches looking for coins/jewelry. Before I sold my F-75 I done some testing between it and the V3. I hunt in all metal and the V3 and F-75 both have very good all metal modes. As good as the F-75 was in all metal, the V3 bested it depth wise on signal strength and ID. The F-75 in red dirt would read things as iron; most VLF machines do. But the V3 has a way of "averaging" the signal out and in other words, it can ID pretty good at some really good depths but like most machines, it can detect farther than it can ID. There is also a wider selection of coils for the V3 as of me writing this.

 

[Jason in TN]

I love my v3 and would not want to be with out it been a bit hot here so I have not got to hunt a lot in the last month or so. When I do I have been trying to learn my new TDI.
Have owned bothe the f75 and the Etrac. The etrac is gone the F 75 I still have. The V3 is a much more adjustable than the F75 bothe are about the same for depth. Only advantage of the 75 is it is lighter to hunt with. If I had to sell one the F75 would be the one to go. But for now I will keep them both.

Jason

 

[Rob (IL)]

Ok, We try not to compare the different detectors as that is not the purpose of the forum. People have had the chance to reply. If anybody have the other detectors and want to continue the topic you can continue off line. I'm going to close the topic . Rob