XL-PRO Battery life?

[HaroldILL.]

I was wondering those few out there with a XL-PRO that use alkaline Battery's how far down the number scale due you run them down? The Manuel says till it doesn't respond to metal? I have mine at 50 and it still hits coin's and wonder how much farther I can run them down as they eat battery's pretty quick it seems and want to get the most out of them. And by the way I hate using rechargeable's just a pain to keep charged. Thanks.

 

[Monte]

usually get about 20 hours of in-the-field search time. Sometimes a little longer, but that depended upon the quality of the alkaline batteries used, if I were using headphones or not, and how long the detector was actually turned on and operating. I guess we can also factor in the power level used and the number of targets that kept the detector busing Discriminating or responding to.

I wear headphones, unless doing a demonstration for others, and that can extend battery life. I use quality batteries, preferring Duracell or those made by the same company, the Kirkland AA alkaline which is a Costco house brand label. When my health was better [size=small](aka I was younger and not as fallen apart)[/size] I could hit open park lawns and sports fields and the like and put in several hours of continuous duration hunting, usually with an 8" coil. At times I did shorter duration searches, for maybe an hour or two at a time, using a 6½" coil, and hunting brushier overgrown areas of older parks looking for better stuff.

They state in the Owner's Manual that you should get about 16 hours and change out the batteries, if the battery strength level drops to or below the '50' mark on the VDI scale. I never monitors the time so closely, but I know that I would easily get 20 hours or run-time with the 6000 Pro XL or the renamed XL Pro. Use of headphones can help extend battery life a little, plus I didn't run those models for the longer durations as I would be using the 2-filter models I owned [size=small](White's Classic series and Tesoro Bandido's, etc.)[/size] or the 3-filter detectors [size=small](White's MXT, M6 and MXT Pro)[/size]. Therefore they did a little "self refreshing" while dormant.

Beside using the XL Pro's battery check, I could pull a battery tray and check the voltage in my MXT or MXT Pro and get a more accurate reading that way. So, I know I would get 20 hours, or more, of general use operating time. It will vary for each of us based upon the batteries used, headphone use or not, and how much non-stop run-time we put on the detector.

Monte