The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

[klunker]

I'll start with the ugly. The lower shaft on the GPZ is made out of what appears to be a porous ABS plastic. Down close to the coil it is also ridiculously, disgustingly. unbelievably thin.

Now the bad. My feet are shaped like a 17" elliptical mono coil. And worse yet is the control cable to my brain sometimes looses connection. So I was detecting on some very steep and slick ground and stumbled and set my GPZ coil down instinctively to catch myself . I have done this at least a million times with every detector I have ever owned and never damaged any thing. Not so with the Z.  The shaft broke at the coil ears. I cobbled it back together with a couple of sticks, some electric tape and a spare shoe lace and finished the day (it was 2 mile+ hike into this spot).

Now the good. Doc had one in stock and went to great effort to get it in the mail that same day.

I somehow get the feeling that this shaft was designed on a computer by a computer genius who's computer told him that this design was adequate. It's not.

[Ridge Runner]

Hi Klunkler

 Have you had a talk with the powers that be ? I'd be ringing Minelab's door bell until they wanted to listen..They have a great detector but small things come up like the coil cover.

If I buy a car it has a bumper to bumper warranty for a set time. If you have a two are more years warranty I'd say it should whole true for my detector too. Now if replace one thing on your detector and here you back again next month. Just maybe you have reach my limit of what I'll do for you.

Call them.

Chuck

 

[Steve Herschbach]

All GPZ detectors ever sold are still under warranty.

I ran a warranty department and this type of claim is a fun one. I have seen three exact ways manufacturers handle stuff like this.

Warranties cover manufacturer defects, so all warranty claims at the admin level boil down to "was this a defect, or just somebody broke something"?

You can say " if it was made right, it would not have broke" or "it was made right, you broke it".

I have seen similar issues in big buck claims go back and forth with the argument, eventually to land in court. Usually it boils down to weight and cost considerations versus strength, and where do you draw the line. And fact is, that is a matter of opinion.

Then there is the third option. The manufacturer simply says "you chose to spend a lot of money on our product, the cost to fix this by comparison is negligible. Let's not argue, let's reward you for choosing us".

All designs face issues in real life, and the wise manufacturer uses the warranty process as a feedback loop. One breakage, well, maybe it was too thin but just cheaper to fix under warranty. But numerous claims for the same issue point to a real problem, and it needs to then get fixed.

Honda in my experience used this methodology as a fine art. I saw numerous first year Honda product issued, and folks, nearly all complex first run consumer products have issues. Anyone thinks otherwise is living on a different planet. But Honda was on warranty like nobody else and second year, every issue just went away. An amazing company in my experience.

I would therefore be very interested in hearing how this issue gets resolved for you Norm, one way or the other.

http://www.minelab.com/customer-care/product-warranty/warranty-conditions

"Electronic control boxes (with the exception of the Excalibur II and GO-FIND Series detectors), Minelab branded search coils, handles, shafts, headphones, bags and battery chargers are under warranty for a period of 3 years (36 months) from the date of retail purchase as set out in the Warranty Registration Card (“Date of Purchase”)."

[vanursepaul]

Sounds like you need me to fix it like i did the 7005 !!!!

Oh wait--that was the coil ears that snapped not the shaft----

Well good luck with it ...

paul

[nvchris]

If she were my girl, Id have designed a break away connection.

A low cost "key" (shear pin) that would snap first. 

Ill be holding a inservice on "falling with my Zed" this summer.

Free bone setting with plaster casts, and lunch with early registration!

Chris

[vanursepaul]

I can show you some of those "shear pins"------

I snapped a bunch of them with a 20 inch coil i had borrowed for my 3500..... the regular Minelab bolts would snap like glass when i leaned over  and put pressure on the outside edge of the coil----

One about put my eye out one fall day in Greaterville..ping!!!! zing-- there goes another one---- time to call Rob A for another gross....lol

[DDancer]

Only two things I've had fault with are the "feet" on the detector housing and the car port cable for the charger.  The feet I might get a fix for if I ever dig into it but the charger cable has bad pvc insulation and tends to crack and short at the car port connector strain reliefe.... happened to both my partner and I after a couple of months bush in the winter.  Fixed mine with a compatible cord from my Energizer recharger.... partner got hooked up with Matt at Finders Keepers in Kal for a new one.

Not bitching.  Just that there are ways and ways and warranties are warranties. Mayhap ML will issue fixes at a date.  You did good bush mechanics to keep going and for the price I expect ML is keeping tabs on breakdowns to improve future product.  But honestly.... catching yourself with the detector? Its not a walking stick. But then I may have broke a few handles myself ;) hehh

[Tortuga]

7 hours ago, klunker said:

I somehow get the feeling that this shaft was designed on a computer by a computer genius who's computer told him that this design was adequate. It's not.

Pretty sure you're right about this. I believe there was a shot of the engineers using CAD CAM or whatever it was in that video they produced showing what it was like inside the Minelab offices. The ears on the lower shaft have an "extruded" design (not sure if this is the correct terminology) that basically uses the least amount of material they can get away with while still maintaining its structural integrity. This is supposed to make it lightweight and strong. The plastic crossbar in the Pro-swing harness is the same thing. Sounds like they should have just made it a solid piece of plastic instead.

[Tortuga]

1 hour ago, DDancer said:

Only two things I've had fault with are the "feet" on the detector housing 

I broke the feet on mine too. The CTX 3030 uses the same part and I was able to buy it for $10 from Kellyco.

[Au4Gold2]

Join the club, did the same this week !! Broke the gpx handle with ground button yesterday, today I  slipped and tried to use the detector as a cane, but did the twist on me and cracked on the bottom near coil ears. So it's a ching ching week for repairs. I am sure I would feel different if I just bought a zed and the quality of the rod is inferior in relations to the price of the detector.