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Well.. It Finally Happened...


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A little over 2 years and a lot of water hunting and the ears snapped. I’m not surprised after all I’ve heard about that problem.

Had another breakdown a couple months ago. All 4 screws with inserts pulled out of the pod. Minelab had to review and decide whether or not to warranty it and finally said it was a one time replacement because I was using a CF rod and not original equipment. They said it was probably overtightened. I stated the inserts were corroded from salt water immersion and constant torque and pulled out. 

Earlier on, the sleeve on the armrest broke which they also gracefully replaced. Glad it is all under warranty. So it will be like brand new again. 

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50 minutes ago, Chase Goldman said:

Dave - with all the beach hunting you do in the surf, does your control head/battery compartment  look as corroded as okara's?

Mine was not when I had it replaced.  Too rough by me to go in the water. So the control head will only be splashed. 

I am going to guess by looking at the picture, much of that damage looks like torque  on the unit. It is the reason I do not use my unit as a grip, but installed a padded hand grip right in front of the control head.
Going to say torque on the case probably causes some of the water infiltration as well. 

I fully expect to see more issues like this from beach hunters. 

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10 minutes ago, midalake said:

Mine was not when I had it replaced.  Too rough by me to go in the water. So the control head will only be splashed. 

It is apparent ML did not design this thing for the abuse it would be subjected to for the hard core water hunter.  Especially for salt water.  It does great in the rain, wet salt sand, for some light wading in standing water or light surf, hopefully won't die if you drop it in the drink.  But day in and day out water hunting the coil ears can't take the load and water intrusion is always going to be a concern.  Always have a backup.

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15 minutes ago, Chase Goldman said:

But day in and day out water hunting the coil ears can't take the load and water intrusion is always going to be a concern.  Always have a backup.

I think you responded before my edit?  I see the picture of the control head Okra posted it appears the molded in, knurled  pieces that pulled out and the most damaged were from the part that is away from the user. 

Which would have more stress holding the machine up, or pulling the machine up from water.  So yup, I think more of this will surface. 

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Yep... I broke it good. I do hunt constantly in the water with the pod never seeing air for hours on end and swells that lift me off my feet. I rarely hunt knee deep and prefer waist to chin depth. Wet sand on bad wave days or try to tackle my honey do lists. My backup is an Excalibur with the modified pinpoint which is somewhat new to me so will be using that until things get straightened out. Those knurled pieces did destroy the plastic on two areas with cracks forming on the others. Funny...When I spoke to Minelab they asked me if I was using the factory shaft. I knew this was a "trick" question and I could have easily said it was factory, but I could not lie, so told him it was a CF shaft by Steve. That's when he said they would have to look into it. So in a nice manner I told him I could have lied and said it was factory but didn't... so please take that into consideration. He then said he would mention that to someone else who made the decisions. Long story short they replaced it, no problem. It's a tough environment in salt water.

Bob K 

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3 hours ago, xlbsa said:

Can the disk be repaired for free if it is broken?

They should replace the coil. I will hear from them after the weekend.

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Although we don't know the statistics (ML probably does...), it's sounding like this is more than a percent or two of units which are used in water, and particularly salt water.

I don't know if the Codan reports indicate the profit they've made on the Equinox.  I suspect it's significant.  Hopefully they are 'sharing the wealth' so-to-speak by replacing broken parts/units for those customers who have suffered the shortcomings.  So far it appears they are in at least some cases.

In retrospect, should ML have made two models -- one for dry land hunters (rainproof is good enough, or maybe one that can handle an accidental drop in the drink) such as me, and another (with a higher pricetag) for detectorists who want to take it into the water?  They've shown with the Excalibur family that they can build a detector which takes the punishment.

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