The CTX 3030 is a "Leaker"... but does anyone have...

[GKMan]

I think it has to do if your putting one on that could potentially squeeze the unit to the point it becomes misshapen and then break the seal,I think you would need a heck of a rubber band to do that though...

 

[dirtjunkie]

That's very unfortunate to have to worry every time you take your waterproof detector in the water that it will get water inside. ML should fix that issue like last year.

 

[Johnnyanglo]

ML will care about their poor design when people stop buying their detector. Don't see that happening.

 

[Nes (south Coast-CA)]

Not to be too critical, but I have had both problems since I bought this machine. The CTX leaked the first time I used it, and the screen is rounded so a protector won't fit correctly. My post complaint about the leaking I made sometime in 2013 keeps popping up again and again as new buyers peruse the board and make new comments. I talked to Minelab about the screen problem, and if I send the machine in and it doesn't reach their specifications for a bulging screen, then it isn't covered.

Back to the leaking problem, I bought a kit from SunRay that Ralph put together for the CTX including 3 seal rings and other misc parts to guard against the same type of problems. I'm with those people who say that a $2500 machine rated at 10 feet or so shouldn't leak at all. Now I'm not a first time user of Minelab products, The first Minelab machine I bought was the first Sovereign model, then the original Excalibur, then another newer Excalibur, then the first Explorer, then this one. I started Metal Detecting in the early 80's with an early Fisher, then a Garrett, then a Tesoro. I'm not happy with the quality of this machine, and if people on this board constantly complain about the CTX leaking, then it isn't something they caused, it is a design problem... nes

 

[Little Richard]

Mine leaked in fresh water twice after the 2nd time I took plummers teflon tape and made 2 wraps around the battery and it has never leak again

 

[saltwater jim]

Hi seahunter I couldn't agree more with your post . My ctx has leaked 4 times battery 3 times & usb port once. Im not a rookie having detecting for 25 years plus. Had 3 excels a duel pi the old whites surf master and never had a leak until my loved ctx. You know I keep asking if sand can get by the flimsy gasket how can minelab expect no water getting in.

Now I have the excel but there is no finer machine for shallow water hunting than the ctx so when warranty runs out in june the machine will be retired to land hunting unless minelab comes up with a fix. I really love my ctx as I now have 2 1 set up with the big coil . For the money for the ctx they really need a fix , not using a elastic around the housing. I will say minelab service is greatly improved but when warranties run out who is gonna dare taking it in the salt water. jim

 

[Mike Moutray - St.Louis MO]

I borrowed a 3030 to take with me to Florida last year for my vacation. I enjoyed using it but noticed it did leak after the third day of use. Despite Minelab insisting on cleaning the gasket after every use, sand particles are virtually impossible to completely eliminate off of your machine as any beach hunter knows. The gasket is far too thin and does not provide ample crush pressure to seal water out of the battery.
I would suggest that you make sure that the temperature of your detector is lower than the water you use it in to aid in preventing leaks. Taking a detector out of your hot car, where it has soaked up some heat, and dipping it in cool water will produce a vacuum effect inside the battery housing area and greatly aid in moisture condensation inside or pulling water in from the outside. I noticed this happening and started "soaking" the machine in my car's air conditioning for 15 minutes before getting in the water, and experienced no more leaks. Maybe this can help some of you until a better solution comes from Minelab. Take care and HH, Mike.

 

[lytle78]

Cell phone manufacturers are happy about the fact that nobody in their right mind wants to use a five year old smartphone (or even a two year old one perhaps). TV manufacturers aren't so lucky, we tend to keep those much longer - maybe even 10 years.

Metal detectors tend to last a lot longer, and due to the fact that the limits of current technology as far as depth and target ID were reached years ago, we continue to use the darned things for dozens of years. It has been a tradition among US makers, to offer reasonable warranties and then continue to offer repairs and spares outside of warranty at reasonable prices. A typical out of warranty repair on a Whites or Tesoro machine for example, will run well under $200 with return shipping, and usually a good bit less. Whites or Tesoro would be way better off if the tens of thousands of older detectors were retired, but so far, they are happy to keep fixing them for cheap. This probably builds brand loyalty and I'm sure that they consider this to be a good trade off.

Plenty of data is now available to show that out of warranty repairs on ML detectors tend to be very costly, usually involving board level replacement of major components at the cost of many hundreds of dollars. They offer a long and transferrable warranty, but after that, the calculation of whether to fix a broken detector becomes problematic. When you throw in the spotty reliability of the CTX in the water, it has kept me from buying one although I am convinced of it's super performance.

Just my opinion - worth no more than that.

 

[Ray-Mo.]

I do make sure everything is clean and seated properly and I run the air in my car on the way to lake so it is cool when I hit the water . I only hunt fresh water lakes so no surf crashes to worry about.

 

[jerseyjim]

Minelab suggest that you don't use rubber bands around the battery or latches. When I went to the AC minelab day hunt they put rubber bands into each grab bag that they gave each entree. It fits perfectly around the battery? I am very concerned about fully submerging my CTX after reading this post. I do love the CTX and feel it is the best out there.

Jim

 

[GKMan]

These threads always get a lot of attention and a lot of "I did everything I should have and it still leaked" responses from a few folks chatting back and forth.
However, if there was a show of hands you would find that many many maaany more people have not had the issue, and most that did were imho self-inflicted one way or another. If this issue was as widespread as your lead to believe by reading this thread don't you think all the forums would be on fire talking about it? Of course if you have to dig into the forums to find mentions of leaking you are going to find what you are looking for so that doesn't count.

You have received a very good advice in this thread from seasoned water hunters about how to keep yours watertight. Follow it and you will be fine.

I speak from the experience of having a non "leaker" CTX that has been banging around on rocks and in rapids while it was lying down in the water during recovery of items in streams or snorkling in lakes and to boot I took no special precautions outside of Minelab recommendations to ensure it stayed watertight...

 

[greenmeanie]

Tell me about it.
With the warranty getting low I sold mine and took a bath on it.
I just can't afford to replace it if it leaks so it had to go and now I will try to find something cheaper for the water or if they come up with a better design in the future. The CTX is great otherwise.

 

[saltwater jim]

Gk glad your machine hasn't leaked yet, I water detect just about everyday so maybe that's why mine has leaked 4 times in 16 months, and mine were not self-inflicted . The leaking problem is a problem and buy talking to the techs in las vegas they will admit as much. I really wish everybody that had a ctx that leaked would post but not all ctx users are on forums. Its like before the salt water mode a few of us were saying how unstable the machine was in salt water but others insisted theirs ran stable hmmmm well minelab fixed it by introducing the salt water mode.

Even if it was a small % of the machines leaking it is a major problem as your expensive machine will be costly to fix when the warrenty runs out My hope is they come up with a fix maybe better gaskets or something before the warranty runs out in june. Not sure what the point is of your post GK except maybe you are saying there isn't a problem while the seasoned detectors that do have a leak are saying there is a problem

Anyways love the ctx have 2 now one for large coil one for stock coil and hope they come up with a improvement. Like the Toyota gas pedal problem very few had the misfortune of that problem,,, but a problem it was, and was fixed.

 

[GKMan]

Gk glad your machine hasn't leaked yet, I water detect just about everyday so maybe that's why mine has leaked 4 times in 16 months, and mine were not self-inflicted . The leaking problem is a problem and buy talking to the techs in las vegas they will admit as much. I really wish everybody that had a ctx that leaked would post but not all ctx users are on forums. Its like before the salt water mode a few of us were saying how unstable the machine was in salt water but others insisted theirs ran stable hmmmm well minelab fixed it by introducing the salt water mode.

Even if it was a small % of the machines leaking it is a major problem as your expensive machine will be costly to fix when the warrenty runs out My hope is they come up with a fix maybe better gaskets or something before the warranty runs out in june. Not sure what the point is of your post GK except maybe you are saying there isn't a problem while the seasoned detectors that do have a leak are saying there is a problem

Anyways love the ctx have 2 now one for large coil one for stock coil and hope they come up with a improvement. Like the Toyota gas pedal problem very few had the misfortune of that problem,,, but a problem it was, and was fixed.

Curious Jim, did you have four different units that leaked or one that leaked four times? If it was the same unit, it is probably something machine related, if it was four different units then I would have to say it's something you are doing wrong.

The techs in Las Vegas you mention are probably saying that the company needs to come up with a more foolproof design to help them keep it watertight, and I think Minelab probably will since most likely they replacing some user caused leakages and it is costing them money

As far as CTX users being active online , I would venture to guess a very large number of CTX users are looking at one forum or another perhaps just as a lurker. For evidence of this post something, anything on this forum and you will see the view count climb very quickly. The active folks on this forum are far far outnumbered by the inactive member or lurker and this shows it. I know if I was a lurker and I had this problem I would be the first one creating an account to join the conversation.

You talk about Toyota's while this is a Cadillac, and repairs, and maintenance don't come cheap. Furthermore this is the newest model of a Cadillac with features not found before in this line of machines. There was always going to be a chance something was going to go wrong.

In short, my first response was simply a counterpoint to your blanket statement "the CTX is a Leaker" which is simply not true. Your CTX is a Leaker, but mine along with many others isn't. The lack of hundreds of other raised hands (new responses from non forum regulars or regulars agreeing with you prove this point.

 

[OldBeechnut]

In short, my first response was simply a counterpoint to your blanket statement "the CTX is a Leaker" which is simply not true. Your CTX is a Leaker, but mine along with many others isn't. The lack of hundreds of other raised hands (new responses from non forum regulars or regulars agreeing with you prove this point.

I am a water hunter only and know many who do water hunt, the seven that have used the CTX as there regular water machines that I do know. When used often as there only water machine (And fully submerged & ruff shallow ocean water) I only know of two that have had no issues, the five that have had problems have retired there machines to shallow water and purchased Excaliburs. None of them post any where other then, Cliff (Navgov), and his has not failed...and he dives with his.

I use mine only in shallow water and never submerge the battery....the Excalibur can do anything the CTX can do when modded. And it does have issues also...Saltwater is hard on machines, you use any Machine all the time IN THE WATER and you will have problems, if there is a weak spot it will find it.

 

[GKMan]

Beech do you think it is a quality control issue, like malformed d rings or clips, etc.that are not sealing it as tight in some machines? That seems to be the other likely cause if we are getting mixed results

 

[nagov]

In short, my first response was simply a counterpoint to your blanket statement "the CTX is a Leaker" which is simply not true. Your CTX is a Leaker, but mine along with many others isn't. The lack of hundreds of other raised hands (new responses from non forum regulars or regulars agreeing with you prove this point.

I am a water hunter only and know many who do water hunt, the seven that have used the CTX as there regular water machines that I do know. When used often as there only water machine (And fully submerged & ruff shallow ocean water) I only know of two that have had no issues, the five that have had problems have retired there machines to shallow water and purchased Excaliburs. None of them post any where other then, Cliff (Navgov), and his has not failed...and he dives with his.

OBN, I have to correct you on the subject that my CTX hasn't leaked....it has, one time but it was only minor leakage in the battery compartment, caused by the one time I took a shortcut in my cleaning routine. Since I hadn't been in the water one particular day, I just pulled the battery and charged it for the next day....when you do that without removing and cleaning/checking the seal, you are taking a chance that a bit of sand will get into the sealing area (no matter how good you rinse it off)...that happened to me. The next day water hunting and when I came home and pulled the battery I noticed that a drop or less of saltwater had got into the battery compartment. Corrosion had started and I cleaned it up but it doesn't take long for saltwater to work on electrical connections! When sent in later for a different problem, Minelab replaced the corroded part.

Cliff

 

[OldBeechnut]

I have to be honest I am not 100% sure on any of this yet......It is something every time Before and after you go under you must be aware of and check. I just think since it is a weak design just about anything can happen, I have been working on water proof connectors over the past 5 years for the Excalibur, just finally have I come up with something that really works, water/saltwater will find its way in with continued use..... I know I have a little water proof box I put my truck key in when I go detecting, never had a problem till this past weekend. I noticed a small amount of water when opened, the fact I use it, 3 to 4 times a week it is under, it some how leaked. Why some leak and others don't, so many factors, so many possibilities. I bought the machine know this and I am going to do all I can to keep it alive, given time I will go under fully and report my findings and preventives.

Cliff make that one then, Howard uses his in the bay, calm waters..I will see him tonight and ask him what he does....Thanks Buddy...

 

[OldBeechnut]

Cliff the secret to my Excalibur water proof endcap is all the connectors are gold plated and I use silicon grease....do you think this would slow the Corrosive saltwater down if the CTX did leak?

 

[RichW]

There is definitely differences between machines. My battery latches require very little force to snap in place. The battery latches on my cousins machine require a lot more force to latch down.