Tornado coil cable issues

[ivanll]

Has this happened to your Tornado coil? I know of 2 people who have the 10" Tornado coil and their cables are splitting.
It's a wonder I haven't heard of this happening before.

Just because the coil has a Minelab sticker on is not an indication that it was made directly by Minelab one might simply expect so since it was supplied with the detector in the same box which have a sticker proclaiming "Made In Australia"

One could ask who made the coil, or Where was it made the fact is still the same, this particular cable was not up to standard, that is probably why it's not used anymore. (well hopefully not)

http://www.minelab.com/aus/consumer/where-to-buy/buyer-beware

ivanll

 

[ivanll]

Has this happened to your Tornado coil? I know of 2 people who have the 10" Tornado coil and their cables are splitting.
It's a wonder I haven't heard of this happening before.

My guess is that the cable was exposed to extreme heat or the sun (Left in a car) or possibly a solvent or harsh cleaner. Occasionally applying a light coating of silicone or a UV protector such as Armorall or UV 303 Aerospace should help prevent cracking and hardening of the plastic.

Your guess is incorrect,..................... sunlight and UV rays in daily use yes,................ there is no excuse for inferior quality.

While Minelab can rightfully be accused of having inferior customer service, "Inferior quality" and Minelab coils rarely end up in the same sentence. Most of their coils are built like tanks and take years and years of abuse without failure. Perhaps these failing coils did have a bad batch of cable and hopefully Minelab will address it. I have had and seen dozens of the Minelab coils and have never seen failures like shown above.

Question is : Who made the coil or where was it made.

Logic says: One can't complain about bad service when one didn't get any.

 

[Mel Parker]

I feel something needs to be said about the quality of the cable that Minelab uses. It's crap and they need to find another supplier, there is no excuse for the cable shredding apart like it does. I have seen this happen on several of their coils and it appears that the outer jacket just dry rots after extended use. You shouldn't have to treat the cable with silicon to keep this from happening. As far as the white powder, that's put in the cable during manufacture to facilitate internal movement of the wire. I have never had this problem in the 35 years of detecting, using different manufactures machines and coils...only Minelab. Although for the most part they have superior electronics but lack quality issues. I don't buy into some of their lame explanations of why the cable breaks down due to customers neglect, good cable doesn't break down and the reason I know is I retired from a cable company after 30 years.

 

[Ron from Michigan]

I bought a dozen coils off of Ebay from a gentleman in Los Vegas NV couple years ago.All these coils had cords but needed connectors, at 5 dollars a coil,time to learn to like pinning connectors.A couple of these coils had cords just like yours.They were brittle and as I tried to shorten and repair another section would split.The only good point the internal wires were in good shape and no shielding covering to worry about.By the way the bad coils looked like they came off of the newer Ecals.My fix I went to a hardware store and got some clear plastic gas tube and ran the cord inside and re pinned,it prevented more splittings,flexible and even looked cool. My guess possible rejected or Salvage parts that were not meant to be sold.I sold some of my equipment and ended up using these(hard to sell these in this condition) and performed well except for the cosmetics.My guess possible rejected coils swapped out with a detector sale?? Good Luck Ron

 

[MagicMike]

I feel your pain!
I can say for a fact that it wasn't neglect in my case. The cable on my Excal fell apart sitting in my closet. I cleaned it very well before i put it in there. In fact it had only been used about five times before I moved away from the beach. Not sure how it got UV damage in my closet. It sucks, but it is what it is. It's still a great detector. I just did the ikelite mod for some gray ghosts and the WOT is next. I can also vouch for the duel wall heat shrink. Works great. Good luck.

 

[otlew]

I have the same cracking on a used (I am not the original owner) Excal 8" Tornado coil. Still I had never seen this, it makes me wonder if Minelab bought below specification cable from one of its suppliers at some time in the past. Also I have a much older 8" BBS and it shows no sign of coil wire jacket failure. Oh well.