Jump to content

For The Price Of The Apex?


Recommended Posts

15 hours ago, tvanwho said:

my local detector dealer told me the Apex uses a built in lithium battery and a replacement costs a bunch of moola if it ever goes bad? He doesn't like them for that reason alone. Is this an issue or not?   Main reason I decided not to buy one.

-Tom V.

Should not be an issue you should ever really have to deal with.  The battery should last hundreds of recharge cycles before it begins to lose significant capacity (usually defined as a loss of 20 percent capacity).  You’ll likely be ready for a new detector in the 3 to 5 plus years before that happens, even if you detect 8 hours a day on nearly a daily basis and that is well beyond the Apex 2-year warranty period. Note the Garrett warranty explicitly states that batteries are not covered under warranty, but I suspect that clause pre-dates the Apex and is intended for user replaceable batteries and not a built-in battery.  Note also that Garrett customer service is really good from my first hand experience and others I know that have dealt with Garrett.  I am sure they will take care of you appropriately if the battery should fail while the Apex is under warranty.

If you do need to replace the battery after the warranty expires...read on.

While I do not have any concrete information on how much it would cost to replace the Apex battery out of warranty, my experience with multiple detectors with built-in batteries (Deus, Orx, Equinox, Simplex) indicate it should cost only a small percentage of the cost of the detector.  I'd say no more than about $50 and since the Apex is not designed to be watertight, you’ll likely be able to purchase the replacement yourself for about half that cost and do it yourself via the you tube video that will inevitably be posted to tell you just how to do it.  Think about that in the context of how much you would spend replacing disposable batteries over the lifetime of your detector or purchasing a good set of replaceable rechargeable batteries.

FWIW, I own 6 detectors with built-in or user replaceable Li-Ion batteries (Deus, Equinox, Simplex, Tarsacci, GPX and ORX) and have, so far, had no issues whatsoever.  

Believe me, if a prospective future detector does not have a built-in rechargeable and/or user replaceable rechargeable battery feature, it would have to bring something really spectacular to the table or be really, really inexpensive before I would even consider it.  For the most part my days of buying AA or Nine Volt alkaline cells are over, except for my Carrot pinpointer and a couple legacy detectors.

Your dealer is either very uninformed or is motivated for some unknown reason to steer you away from the Apex.  Either way, he has a credibility problem and he needs to either get real with his customers or get up to speed with the state of today’s detector technology and quit disseminating outdated advice before his customer base catches on, especially those who are tech savvy.  HTH

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites


15 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

Your dealer is either very uninformed or is motivated for some unknown reason to steer you away from the Apex.

If it's the one I'm thinking of, they also sell LRL's.  I think that's all you need to know....

  • Haha 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/8/2021 at 4:54 PM, tvanwho said:

my local detector dealer told me the Apex uses a built in lithium battery and a replacement costs a bunch of moola if it ever goes bad? He doesn't like them for that reason alone. Is this an issue or not?   Main reason I decided not to buy one.

-Tom V.

That gets brought up by old timers, who have no real evidence on which to base their remarks. Just negative speculation on things that have not occurred, nor will that battery cost much. We heard the same thing on Equinox, and after three years it has been a non-issue. Like Chase, I have had quite a few detectors with built in batteries, and they are generally no issue at all. Deus owners seem to be doing fine after many zillions of hours of combined field use. Long story short, this kind of argument is not supported by what we are seeing from multiple brands and models.

https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/12561-garrett-ace-apex-battery-system/

garrett-ace-apex-metal-detector-parts-explosion.jpg

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, GB_Amateur said:

If it's the one I'm thinking of, they also sell LRL's.  I think that's all you need to know....

Doe the LRL's they sell have rechargeable batteries? If so what is the warranty on them? LOL

  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, kac said:

Doe the LRL's they sell have rechargeable batteries?

If so that's the most valuable part.

  • Like 1
  • Haha 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, Dances With Doves said:

If Garrett comes out with a At apex  type machine( higher end machine)  with a all metal mode how much are you willing to pay considering  what the price for a Nox is at this point ?Would you pay $900.Also would you buy one early or   watch what field  tests reveal.         

Garrett first has to show me that they actually care about engineering a variable and fast recovery speed scheme and better ferrous handling into their detectors as well as tones options.  A true threshold-based all metal mode option with several multiple discrete frequencies would be great as even Equinox does not have this capability.  Garrett needs to come up with additional sophisticated multi-frequency profiles like the 7 or 8 included on the Equinox (not just discrimination/notch presets)...they just have 2 at the moment land and salt (not sure what the actual difference is between those two MF and signal processing schemes under the hood).   Also, the Apex AT would be at best Garrett's 2nd generation of simultaneous MF.  Note that Equinox and Multi IQ is ML's fourth generation of simultaneous MF and by the time Garrett comes out with their next simultaneous MF machine and/or AT series successor, who knows where ML is going to be at that point.  So if putting a detector out there at the same price point as the Equinox is Garrett's goal, they have long hill to climb in terms of capability and versatility to be able to compete with the same level of value as Equinox.  If they indeed accomplish that feat, they could proudly dub their detector the "AT Pinnacle"  :smile:

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/8/2021 at 3:25 PM, GB_Amateur said:

Is there a particular kind of detecting you do that would make you lean towards the Apex as your first choice?  I seem to recall you've said in other posts that the N/M CoRe and Relic and the Tesoro's get priority in some situations, but that was before the Apex was released, I think.

The "particular kind" of detecting I do is 'multi-purpose' or 'general-purpose' in that I enjoy hunting any type of site I might encounter,  be it Urban or Remote, littered or not.

I like to use a detector that is versatile enough w/o being overly cluttered with unnecessary adjustment fluff.  I like to use a detector that provides me with one, two or possibly three good search coil choices to handle a variety of tasks.  I prefer a detector that is lighter-weight, comfortable to use, and has ample adjustment functions for my needs, can handle common Iron nail an other ferrous debris better-than-average, provides a quick-response and recovery, and has a good audio quality for my hearing. 

The Garrett Apex checks all,those boxes and is a pleasure to use.   There is no 'perfect' detector, so I keep an assortment in my Regular-Use Detector Team for various applications.  I o have my Tesoro Bandido II µMAX and Silver Sabre µMAX, and for places like tot-lots, the Silver Sabre µMAX can make quick work of them where visual and audible Target ID isn't useful.

The Nokta FORS CoRe, and especially the FORS Relic, are both outfitted with their smaller-size coil, and that's all I use on them when I put them to work in some of the toughest, most densely-contaminated ferrous debris sites.  Those would include some of the very challenging ghost towns we hunt from the 1860 to 1920's era.

Other than those 'special application' models I do have a waterproof Simplex + w/5X9½ DD for times and places where I might get wet, or the detector could take a dunk in the water, even if unintended .... and that happens.

Otherwise, I have found the Apex, with the three coils I keep mounted on them full-time, to be a very good general-purpose detector that is very light and well balanced.  That works great for my impaired mobility.

Monte

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...