Whats A Good Water Detector

[JBEXPRESS]

I want to know what is a realy good water detector? I own a Whites Dual Field and I hate to say it but I hate it. I just dont like it.
I would like an Excal 2 but I cant see myself paying $1200 for 1. What about the Tesoro Tiger Shark? Garraett Sea Hunter? If anyone can give me any info on what detector you like best for the ocean please post.

 

[Cootie]

I
I would like an Excal 2 but I cant see myself paying $1200 for 1. .

I felt the same way about shelling out $1500 for an E-Trac but figured what the heck might as well get what I want. After all I'm only going to buy it once and I didn't want to put myself in a position of using a lesser machine thinking I should of spent the extra money and got what I wanted.

 

[therover]

For salt water beaches, the Excal, CZ21 or Beach Hunter ID 300 are the top VLF machines. The Garrett Sea Hunter is a PI just like your Dual Field, so not sure if you want to swap PI machines. ? Tiger Shark great for fresh water, but what I have read, it has some problems in salt water. Possibly due to it being a single frequency detector.

Not sure if you will just be wading or actually getting out into knee/chest deep water. If you plan on getting into the deeper water, forget about any machine that is not water proof. A water proof machine is just safer to use, and you can wash it off thoroughly with a hose to get all the salt particles and sand off of it.

Another brand that costs less but does perform well in salt water and wet sand, is the Detector Pro brand. Some hunters had problems with the headphones leaking. I had a HH Wader and it worked great, but I never had the headphones underwater, so I cannot validate if my unit would have flooded or not.

If you don't want to purchase a water proof unit, any of the multi frequency Minelabs or dual frequency machines like the CZ's or Whites DFX or V3, will work very well in the wet sand and suds. Just don't get em wet or dunk them.....then you are out of luck.

 

[gilfordberry]

Does it have to be new? Have you considered a used Excalibur? I'm not familiar with the differences, but for an in-the-water, especially saltwater, detector, the Excalibur is hard to beat. I own a PI pro but several my md'ing buddies have the dual coil and love it - except for the coil weight - which is not a problem if you're using it in the water. Of course, if you want to really reach down a get the gold with an Excalibur, you'll probably opt for a WOT coil sooner or later - and they are heavy, too (need that swingy thing!)

Until you've used a pulse machine for a long, long time, though, digging hair pins and iron nails seems to take most of your time. Even though the characteristic "dual beep" on iron targets eliminates a lot of junk, I still get fooled enough to understand your dislike of a pulse machine (I'm assuming your dislike stems from the lack of discrimination with a pulse induction machine) and I'm always wondering if the double beep wasn't two gold rings lying side by side .

I understand that the White's TDI is a pulse machine with some discrimination capability but have never used one. Of course, the TDI is not a submersible machine. I do own a Eric Foster Deepstar pulse machine which I believe to be a predecessor to the TDI in as much as pulse repetition rate, pulse width, and amplitude are configurable so there is some discrimination capability. Unfortunately, that machine runs at 14.4 volts and is a heavy current user - The battery pack consists of a NICAD bundle of 12 C cells (that IS heavy).

By the way, you should be able to get a good price for your Whites dual field - most guys that have them say they are very good machines and are still much in demand - that should bring that $1200 price tag on the Excal 2 down to a reasonable sum.

 

[GunnarMN]

[size=x-large]whites dual feild pulse[/size]

 

[slowmotion]

Anyone that doesn't leek. I hate leeks.
Willard in Spokane.

 

[UK Brian]

Its the other way round with the Deepstar and TDI. Eric developed the Goldscan range (now up to the 5c version) all with adjustable ground cancelling that allowed a degree of discrimination. Then the TDI for Whites. The Deepstars (versions 1,2 and 3) ran along side the Goldscan's all with no ground cancelling designed as primarily salt water and beach detectors.

My Deepstar outperforms the Whites DF, has a lighter coil even though its lead shielded and can be used for hours with little strain as the control box is suspended round the neck so you only really have to deal with the weight of the coil and shaft. Unfortunately as you say not waterproof and Eric's waterproof versions are very expensive and he doesn't seem to have anything in production at the moment.