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Minelab GPZ 7000, The Controversy Ends?


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I am interested to hear what JP may have to say about some of these questions that have been raised.

Normally he is pretty quick to tend to the issues that he has knowledge of - and he has a lot of knowledge.

 

Some of what I read sounds uncomfortably like other corporate moves that have been made in recent times:

Basically they let the customer base be the beta-testers. 

 

I am disappointed to see the lack of follow-through or even clarification of 

the batteries and coils that were supposedly forthcoming.

Sadly Minelab seems to have become just another for-profit-only-and-the customer-be-d*mned business entity.

 

Most glaringly, the cost of remedying most of these issues is EASY AND CHEAP to fix.

What is up MineLab?

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Tortuga, I tried electrical tape at first to increase the diameter a bit and it was too thick to get the shaft back in. I tried duct taping it on the outside but that only works for about half a day.

 

I'll be back out in the field again soon, will let you know if I run across anything that works, let me know if you find something too.

 

On another 7000 note, I break 2 or 3 nylon bolts a year on my GPX. I keep a little bag of them in my pack. Does anyone know if they sell replacement uh...thingmajigs...to hold the 7000 coil to the lower shaft? I wouldn't mind having at least one in my pack just in case because that would suck to have to wait however many weeks or months to get one shipped while out in the field.

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Jasong, check Ace-true value hardware they carry all kinds of nylon all thread bolt nuts, probably a lot cheaper. I was good at loosing bolts and nut when I use to carry my MD on my bike, a stick would get me through the day.

 

Ivan

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The mid shaft on mine always had a bit of swivel from the get go. Then recently I  was extending the shaft, and the cam looking piece on the end of the tube broke off - separated.  Lesson here is to be gentle when extending the shaft from the collapsed travel position.

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Steve I agree with you entirely, but what about something like what Wes is talking about?

 

This may seem picky (but it's not).

On a mulit-thousand dollar piece of equipment

supposedly built for rugged use in remote areas, 

why in the world should the customer have to be "gentle"

when extending a shaft from the collapsed travel position?

Shouldn't these detectors be rugged enough to withstand thousands of times extending that shaft?

 

If we do not demand equipment that works

we are going to get caught out in the middle of nowhere

with some plastic piece that breaks if it is not used gently.

 

A badly designed part is something a customer should not have to accept

on a multi-thousand dollar product.

Minelab should jump all over issues like this.

They should acknowledge problems and correct them immediately.

The customer confidence that would build is incalculable.

Instead, we have silence.

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I feel the GPZ is a great gold getting machine! But they do have some issues. Like the wireless module loosing connection with your head phones. This was a ongoing issue with mine and I called minelab and they sent me a new module out to check if that was the issue. That was not the issue so I called them again and they said send your detector back and we will replace it. I'm thinking wow ok. Why can't they just fix it. So they send me a new machine and it's doing the same thing as the last one. So where is quality control.

This also goes with the SDC and the batteries loosing connection and shutting the machine off every time

you bump a rock or something. We pay a lot for these detectors and you would think these issues would not

leave the factory.

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I have been very very pleased with my GPZ 7000.   I don't use it in trashy environments and I love its ability to see deep stuff and small stuff and wiry gold in quartz in one machine with one coil.   Now that I'm used to the controls and audio it absolutely is my go to detector.   I've got several hundred hours on it now and I have absolutely zero regrets about the purchase.

 

Is it perfect? No, and neither is my iPhone 5s.   I am not plagued by early catastrophic failures or twisting shafts.  (Maybe cause there is so much grit on mine the shaft doesn't twist.   Stop cleaning it!  :-)  )   There are a few user interface things that make me go "huh?", however all are very workable once you're used to it like so many other modern devices.  It's heavy and the harness is not practical where I hunt.

 

I don't share the views of others who are unsatisfied with general ruggedness.  I am sure I am as hard on mine as the vast majority of users and mine is used every week 2-4 days.  

 

Some ferrous discrimination in the future would be awesome. It was fairly advertised as an all metal detector.  

New timings for heavily mineralized environments people are having trouble in (me included a small minority of my time) would be a big win for the future.  I can understand this could be very frustrating if it was the majority of your hunting .   To the point of Minelab not listening to the customers, they came out with the ferrite ring and ground balance procedure a few months after release on this issue.

 

Admittedly I've only been doing electronic prospecting for a year, the last 9 months very intensely.   Therefore I don't have a long history on many predecessor VLF and PI detectors.  (I own three other detectors and have used two others belonging to colleagues.)  I have been designing military, industrial and consumer wireless electronics for 30+ years and I am quite impressed with the Zed overall.

 

I'm a very satisfied customer.    It is "worth $10K" to me and my budget.   I find it completely reasonable that someone else in their environment, their existing investment in detectors and their budget might not think it is worth $10K to them.   It's justifiable business that Minelab would price it at $10K and see how that goes - basic economics supply and demand.   

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By memory, I have had two days without gold since using the GPZ this gold hunting season, albeit some days only sub-grammers, those sort of results in the field I hunt in were only achieved by the 2100 and the A2B over 30 odd years of detecting. It is without doubt a gold magnet, has some issues and in defence of Minelab I believe those issues come about because they followed the CTX stem setup. Coin detecting is not as demanding as gold detecting on gear, perhaps they should have kept with the agricultural build of the GPX, but than it would have not had the futuristic looks it has to sell to the market that require such. I guess as a proud OZie I`m defending our home grown company but it has given the results as Minelabs detectors always have.

 

By the time my shaft lock has worn beyond repair it will have well and truly paid for complete replacement and a good wage behind it, what other hobby machine gives those results?

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Obviously quite a few people have issues with Minelab as a company and Minelab would be wise to take note of it and perhaps try and address it in some way. Unfortunately because of my association with Minelab as a product tester I do not think that I am regarded as being totally unbiased as regards all this and so it is best if I just remain silent. The thread was started precisely with the intent of allowing GPZ owners who have used the machine for an extended time to express their opinions and I will leave it at that.

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My view on this is that those that have taken the time to get best out of the GPZ have all gone quiet so no one else finds out how much gold is being pulled up.

 

Also justifying owning a top of the range detector can be likened to hunting, you are not going elephant hunting without an elephant gun, Australia is the gold equivalent of elephant territory so it follows that you need the best elephant gun.

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