Garrett Ace 250 Newbie Advice Needed

[Steve Herschbach]

You have to appreciate the Ace 250 for what it is - an entry level detector, discontinued, and one long in the tooth even then. Trust me, it blew lots of people away when it came out. But that was then, and this is now. I do not expect any of the old teardrop control box designs to last many more years. That all said, it should operate properly.

Garrett currently makes four Ace models:

Ace 200
Ace 300
Ace 400
Ace Apex

Garrett Ace Series metal detectors 2021

[kac]

Think my buddy uses the 300, has had it forever and even wore out the pinpoint button. His doesn't have any issues falsing and when hitting bad ground he drops the sensitivity down a click.

[mayfly]

Thanks to everyone for your replies on my Garrett problem.

In answer to a few queries that came up - 

 It was bought new from Regton Ltd. Via Amazon.

It came with a manual which I’ve followed to the letter.

I’m not searching for anything specific – just general interest.

I will be acting upon the suggestions on here when I can get out again.

Tightening the cable and doing some tests with various metals etc.

Meanwhile I’ve just discovered that the seller – Regton – are just a 20 minute drive away.   A visit could be on the cards.

Also joining a club seems like a good idea.  Let an ‘expert’ have a go.

Or it could just be my inexperience.  I will persevere.

Thanks again to all for your help.

[Steve Herschbach]

On 5/5/2021 at 4:45 PM, kac said:

Think my buddy uses the 300, has had it forever and even wore out the pinpoint button. His doesn't have any issues falsing and when hitting bad ground he drops the sensitivity down a click.

300 is a solid performer for the category. Yeah, the answer to everything when people ask is a “better detector”. People want help with what they have, and that’s not much help to people that are not looking to buy a new detector.

”Can somebody help me with the running problem with my Yugo?”

”Heck no, get a Maserati. Loser” would not be my choice for best answer. If people don’t want to help, then step aside while I and others at least make the attempt.

[Jeff McClendon]

22 hours ago, mayfly said:

Thanks to everyone for your replies on my Garrett problem.

In answer to a few queries that came up - 

 It was bought new from Regton Ltd. Via Amazon.

It came with a manual which I’ve followed to the letter.

I’m not searching for anything specific – just general interest.

I will be acting upon the suggestions on here when I can get out again.

Tightening the cable and doing some tests with various metals etc.

Meanwhile I’ve just discovered that the seller – Regton – are just a 20 minute drive away.   A visit could be on the cards.

Also joining a club seems like a good idea.  Let an ‘expert’ have a go.

Or it could just be my inexperience.  I will persevere.

Thanks again to all for your help.

Sounds like you are definitely sorting out some of the issues you noted in your original post. I hope I did not discourage you too much. My apologies if I did..........   I hope you keep coming back here with your questions and experiences. Good luck.

Jeff

[phrunt]

I have an Ace 350 (Euroace) which is very similar to the Ace 250 with just a different coil, higher frequency and enhanced iron scale being the main differences and I've also got an Ace 300i and I find them to be both excellent detectors for their price range.   I have a real soft spot for my Ace detectors, especially the 350 which was my first decent detector. 

Depth on it is fantastic in my soils (mild) with the right coil on it, right up there with the best VLF's for depth on coins, it doesn't handle junky areas well though with the slower recovery speed.

The 250 doesn't have a frequency shift like some of the newer models so perhaps you're experiencing EMI which may explain your false signals so it's best to lower sensitivity and see what happens.  Big alloy cans will come up good targets, discriminating iron won't rid you of those and you can use the pinpoint mode to try and size targets, a can size target should be easy to size with pinpoint.  I find even a couple of notches off full sensitivity my Ace will get fantastic depth on coin size targets.  Discrimination can help with bad EMI, raising the discrimination sometimes helps a bit.  I even found at one location two particular notches were the ones sounding off with EMI, so I just notched them out as they were not the notches that had the local coins I was searching for anyway.

I'm surprised a dealer had an Ace 250 in stock to sell you as that models been discontinued for quite some time I thought.

The Ace 250 has a concentric coil and the 350 has the DD coil, in Garrett's info about them the 350 handles mineralised soil better due to the DD coil so perhaps that could also be why your detector is falsing on the soil, maybe you're in a mineralised area causing it to false and when you dig and break up the soil a bit the mineralisation is toned down by breaking up the soils structure which is why the target seems to disappear, again lowering sensitivity may help.  I have used my Ace 350 in a highly mineralised river area that's loaded with black sand and just lowering the sensitivity down allowed it to operate, in fact it works better there than some of my other VLFs that have much higher frequencies.  The lower frequency is not so sensitive to the black sand.  I managed to do quite well on coins there with it.

Unfortunately the earlier Ace models are a fixed ground balance so you can't attempt to balance out the soil.   Being such a popular detector it's probably quite easy to pickup a DD coil for it on the second hand market.  I really like the Nel Tornado coil on my Ace Detectors, a world of difference with Target Depth and ID stability using that coil over their standard coils in my mild soils.

Don't be shy to ask questions about the Ace, I'd happily answer your questions if I know the answer, others I'm sure will also help if they can.  I for one think the Ace is a great little detector for it's place in the market.

[Jeff McClendon]

Phrunt !!!!!!!!!

[Chase Goldman]

Phrunt!!!!

(I know...not too original, but hey)

[kac]

Was thinkin where's Phrunt at when this thread first popped up hehe. WB.

[Bob'ke]

A bit off topic, but the question of the OP has already been answered....:

Hi Phrunt, if it's really you?!, welcome back and you have been missed by me. The forum seemed a little "stale" without you. ☺️

Greetings, Bob'ke