10 Things I Like And 5 Things Don't Like About The Garrett Apex

[abenson]

So having used and test the Garrett Ace Apex for a bit now. I've come up with some things I do and don't like about the machine. If anyone is on the fence about buying one this might help you make up your mind.

I think Garrett is heading in the right direction with all the modern features they have included on the Apex. Here's what I really like about the Garrett Ace Apex.

1.    Wireless headphones

2.    Backlight display

3.    Rechargeable battery

4.    Easy to navigate menu

5.    Easy to read display

6.    Great sleek look

7.    Light weight

8.    Ground balance capabilities

9.    Weatherproof design

10. Adjustable frequencies

What I don’t like and why, yea I know you can’t have everything you want with a $425 machine.

1.    Lack of accessory coils-IMO the 6” x 11” Viper coil is too big for trashy sites and not big enough for clean sites.

2.    Iron audio-IMO the iron audio on the Apex is pretty much worthless. It’s too loud even on 1 and the machine can’t reset fast enough and drowns out good signals close to iron when iron audio is used.

3.    Notch discrimination-notching out 5 segments at a time is too many. With the Apex already struggling at depth and in iron, you need to be able to notch out one number at a time so you don’t lose targets in iron or make them even more jumpy when the target is deep.

4.    Lack of adjustable tones-5 tones on this machine doesn’t work well, especially in iron trash. The iron tone and the very low conductor tones are too close in sound. Yea you can hear the difference but since this machine pulls down target ID so bad in iron, a 2 tone option or even a 3 tone would be much better so there is a distinct separation of the audio.

5.    Lack of usable search modes-Really all you get with the Apex is set discrimination patterns, not search modes. When you change modes you simply notch out different segments you may not want to dig. Depth and separation remain the same, many other machines on the market both more and less expensive change the recovery and depth in relation to the mode you choose.

For those of you that have the Apex or even if you don't, I would be interested in what your thoughts are on the Apex.

[JCR]

I'm interested to see what Garrett adjusts & adds to an AT platform version. Iron volume would be a deciding factor for me. Coils will come in time knowing Garrett.

[Chase Goldman]

1 hour ago, JCR said:

I'm interested to see what Garrett adjusts & adds to an AT platform version. Iron volume would be a deciding factor for me. Coils will come in time knowing Garrett.

They really need to pay attention to recovery speed rather than treating it like an afterthought and then making unsupported and ambiguous claims of "fast" recovery in their spec sheets.   At that point they can work on iron volume in a meaningful way.  Otherwise, the are just checking a features box without regard to real life functionality. [Iron volume, yeah we got that.  Except that the meh recovery performance makes it useless as abenson mentioned above].

[palzynski]

Hi , my answer at 

 

[Coinboy]

16 hours ago, abenson said:

So having used and test the Garrett Ace Apex for a bit now. I've come up with some things I do and don't like about the machine. If anyone is on the fence about buying one this might help you make up your mind.

I think Garrett is heading in the right direction with all the modern features they have included on the Apex. Here's what I really like about the Garrett Ace Apex.

1.    Wireless headphones

2.    Backlight display

3.    Rechargeable battery

4.    Easy to navigate menu

5.    Easy to read display

6.    Great sleek look

7.    Light weight

8.    Ground balance capabilities

9.    Weatherproof design

10. Adjustable frequencies

What I don’t like and why, yea I know you can’t have everything you want with a $425 machine.

1.    Lack of accessory coils-IMO the 6” x 11” Viper coil is too big for trashy sites and not big enough for clean sites.

2.    Iron Volume-IMO the iron volume on the Apex is pretty much worthless. It’s too loud and the machine can’t reset fast enough and drowns out good signals close to iron when iron volume is used.

3.    Notch discrimination-notching out 5 segments at a time is too many. With the Apex already struggling at depth and in iron, you need to be able to notch out one number at a time so you don’t lose targets in iron or make them even more jumpy when the target is deep.

4.    Lack of adjustable tones-5 tones on this machine doesn’t work well, especially in iron trash. The iron tone and the very low conductor tones are too close in sound. Yea you can hear the difference but since this machine pulls down target ID so bad in iron, a 2 tone option or even a 3 tone would be much better so there is a distinct separation of the audio.

5.    Lack of usable search modes-Really all you get with the Apex is set discrimination patterns, not search modes. When you change modes you simply notch out different segments you may not want to dig. Depth and separation remain the same, many other machines on the market both more and less expensive change the recovery and depth in relation to the mode you choose.

For those of you that have the Apex or even if you don't, I would be interested in what your thoughts are on the Apex.

 

Couldn’t agree more. I despise the tones on it and the recovery speed is pretty terrible. One thing i’d add is a problem with false signals, i’m really struggling with those and frequency shift doesn’t help.

[palzynski]

47 minutes ago, Coinboy said:

Couldn’t agree more. I despise the tones on it and the recovery speed is pretty terrible. One thing i’d add is a problem with false signals, i’m really struggling with those and frequency shift doesn’t help.

Hi coinboy , have you read my report/thread  on the Apex ? I have the same pb as yours , false signals , So we are at least 2 on this forum having this issue ...  I know that other French Apex users have also this pb ,so it looks like Garrett might have a major issue with this ..  

https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/14043-testing-the-garrett-apex-false-signals

 

[Coinboy]

5 minutes ago, palzynski said:

Hi coinboy , have you read my report/thread  on the Apex ? I have the same pb as yours , false signals , So we are at least 2 on this forum having this issue ...  I know that other French Apex users have also this pb ,so it looks like Garrett might have a major issue with this ..  

https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/14043-testing-the-garrett-apex-false-signals

 

Yes i’ve read your post, very honest and true. The falsing is driving me nuts. I may have to contact Garrett.

[abenson]

As far a s false signals go I haven't really experienced that in clean ground (other than 1 park I went to). But when you enter a patch of iron. look out! The closest thing I can compare it to is the Equinox when running it hot, which I do most of the time. By hot I mean sensitivity all the way up, iron bias at F2 0 and horseshoe on. The difference is with the Equinox you can pretty much tell a false on a nail vs a good target pretty quick. The good target on the Equinox will lock in and tune out the iron.  With the Apex it's weird you can't really hone in on the target even when it's good. It's like close nails tend to steal the strength of the signal so you get a centered hit on the good target then a hit off to the side and as you circle around the good signal the center moves. Drives me nuts! It doesn't help that iron pulls the ID and audio so far down on the Apex either. And Garrett is in the background doing videos trying to explain iron masking, like we don't already understand that issue. Well it's a different story when you can see the coin/target next the the nail on the surface and it's beeping on a dime with an ID at 37-40. But try going out in the field and use that theory. You have a group of signals all over the place in the 15-40 (yea nails false that high I've experienced it first hand) range trying to pick out a good target, and the good target is only coming in at 37-40. On top of that you can't get it to lock in. Maybe I have a bad machine, but I know it's not me. I've got enough experience metal detecting that I know it's either a bad machine or a bad design, not sure which. 

[Coinboy]

59 minutes ago, abenson said:

As far a s false signals go I haven't really experienced that in clean ground (other than 1 park I went to). But when you enter a patch of iron. look out! The closest thing I can compare it to is the Equinox when running it hot, which I do most of the time. By hot I mean sensitivity all the way up, iron bias at F2 0 and horseshoe on. The difference is with the Equinox you can pretty much tell a false on a nail vs a good target pretty quick. The good target on the Equinox will lock in and tune out the iron.  With the Apex it's weird you can't really hone in on the target even when it's good. It's like close nails tend to steal the strength of the signal so you get a centered hit on the good target then a hit off to the side and as you circle around the good signal the center moves. Drives me nuts! It doesn't help that iron pulls the ID and audio so far down on the Apex either. And Garrett is in the background doing videos trying to explain iron masking, like we don't already understand that issue. Well it's a different story when you can see the coin/target next the the nail on the surface and it's beeping on a dime with an ID at 37-40. But try going out in the field and use that theory. You have a group of signals all over the place in the 15-40 (yea nails false that high I've experienced it first hand) range trying to pick out a good target, and the good target is only coming in at 37-40. On top of that you can't get it to lock in. Maybe I have a bad machine, but I know it's not me. I've got enough experience metal detecting that I know it's either a bad machine or a bad design, not sure which. 

Abenson I got the same problem, iron really cripples the apex and this hybrid audio system is very annoying. I did a test with a dime in between 2 nails and even when im right over the dime barely moving the coil into the iron, the dime is down averaged so much it becomes an iron tone. I can imagine it only gets worse if the dime is under the nails...

[Jeff McClendon]

I'm reviving this thread in the hope that some of you who have actually used or still own the Garrett APEX in the USA and Canada can report on the latest software update and how it may have improved the 5 Things above plus the one that I have experienced both on the APEX I tested a year ago and the one I own now which is lack of target ID stability unless for example: a modern US coin is basically on or within 2" of the surface in relatively clean ground and the Viper coil is perfectly centered over it. At least in my testing and field hunts, I have to have that scenario for decent target ID accuracy no matter what frequency I am using including MF and MS. Otherwise I get iron responses (in Zero or a Custom mode with iron accepted) along with low/medium, medium, medium/high and high tones and their corresponding numbers on any US coin that is at 3" or deeper. The Apex I own now has the latest software update. I don't think these are false responses.........I just don't know what they are, really.

The Viper coil seems to me to be ultra or almost hyper sensitive on its outer edges. That is all I can point to for this issue unless Garrett really designed the APEX Multi Flex technology to detect this way for some reason and I need to rethink how to operate this type of metal detector..........or once again, another detector, even one with simultaneous multi frequency operation, just can't handle moderate to high mineralization like I detect in around here. The Vanquish has zero problems with target ID stability here. Even the single frequency Simplex performs much better as far a target ID stability.

Basically, if I was a newbie I would go crazy.  If I was handed the APEX I own as a newbie, I would hope someone was around that would tell me to only dig repeatable signals that actually stabilize with roughly the same tone (targets straddling one tone break included)  and the same number range and ignore everything else. These would turn out to be recent drops and shallow targets for sure but at least I would not be going nuts chasing every wayward sound that the APEX makes over most deeper targets no matter what they are. I recently dug a 3" US nickel (and many other deeper than 3" coin sized non-ferrous targets with the same behavior) that was not poorly oriented in fairly clean ground. Its target responses covered the entire audio and numerical target ID gamut including iron responses...........

My Apex was experiencing intermittent pairing issues between the MS-3s and the control box which resulted in  annoying losses of pairing while swinging over targets or just changing settings which are accompanied by audible beeps..........I was factory resetting and pairing my APEX multiple times during 2 to 3 hour hunts and yes, I know what I am doing. I have owned MS-3s for years and operated them with no previous problems. I just ended up using the onboard speaker or brining backup wired headphones.

So my APEX is on its way back to Garrett Repair. I also asked them to check my Viper coil due to the target ID instability issue noted here. I am very interested in seeing what they find and what they report to me.

I actually have more than 10 things I really like about the APEX. If the two that I sent it back to Garrett Repair for get sorted out I hope to be able to share them later.