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GPX 6000 Faults - The Definitive Poll


Have you had a fault with your GPX 6000  

44 members have voted

  1. 1. Have you had a fault with your GPX 6000 coils

    • Yes, I've had to have one replaced
      8
    • No, all good for me
      36
  2. 2. Has your detector itself had a fault, this includes intermittant errors like an ! mark error on the screen and batteries

    • Yes
      10
    • Not yet
      34
  3. 3. Does your GPX 6000 shaft twist?

    • Yes, it does
      20
    • Not yet
      24


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There has been a bit of debate about how widespread GPX 6000 faults are, so what better way than to do a poll and see.

I didn't bother including accessory faults like headphones into the mix as they don't really matter as much but would likely increase the number of people with issues.

It would be interesting to see how widespread the problems are so a poll seems the best way to work it out.

Please be honest with your answers or there is no point to the poll.  If you haven't had a fault don't say you have just because you're disappointed about the build quality overall.  If your shaft twists but it doesn't bother you you should say yes it twists, this sort of thing helps Minelab be aware problems that they may offer us a solution for, so why hide it?   They replaced everyone's Equinox shaft when they had wobbly ones.

I've changed the poll to anonymous as some people prefer that they don't reveal who they are in this case.

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  • The title was changed to GPX 6000 Faults - The Definitive Poll.

The aim of this poll is anonymously clicking boxes showing if people have had problems or not so we can get an idea if the problems are widespread or not.  Nobody can vote twice of skew the results as you have to be a signed in member to vote.  Please keep your answers honest as the point is to determine how bad the problem with faulty detectors is if there even is an abnormal number of faulty ones to put it to rest if there are an abnormal number of those rather than having to read around threads all over the place where people have had problems or haven't had problems.  It just makes it easier to get a general idea.

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Oie Phrunt, I`d like to add some meaning to your poll with honest answers but the scope of your poll question does not allow this, eg. early on I thought I had troubles with a number of things.

1. EMI, I let the thorough bred 6K teach me by altering my use methods to suit as is par for all new ML detectors in particular because their thorough breds which by their nature always require you to give them their head.

2. Battery not sometimes making contact, clean contacts ensuring the spring contacts are free not clogged up with dust.

3. Shaft tightness, simply cut a thread off nut seems to work, plastic threads suffers from a condition similar to stainless steel again suspect caused by dust.

4 Error messages, only audio one when it hits a nugget....... touch wood it keeps on keeping on.....

Crikey, you young fellas 😉

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Thanks Norvic, yes but the poll was more about genuine faults where people have sent it into Minelab to get replacements and obviously if it was sent in and comes back no fault found then that wouldn't be included as a fault, it's more if they've had something replaced under warranty.  Sorry for my lack of clarification there.  The shaft one is tricky as we all have different views of what a quality shaft is it seems.

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I thought I'd give some detail about the 1 issue I've had with my GPX6000.  After 3-4 outings I noticed a rattle from the control box.  I figured a mounting screw inside to attach the shaft was loose.  I didn't want to send it in for that, so I kept using it.  After about 1 dozen days out detecting for nuggets, I noticed the whole control unit was separating from the shaft.  Pondering the cause and looking for a solution, I figured out the screws would be behind the speaker cover and sure enough both were completely out of their screw holes.  

I applied some blue thread lock to the screws and replaced them.  Everything is all tight again and I doubt will loosen up.  I hope this will help diagnose and fix any "rattling" problems other users encounter.

I haven't had any other problems and overall the 6k has been great for finding the deep, smaller nuggets previously missed.  I've been happy so far.  

P.S. I replied "yes" to question #2.  And my brother is not a member of this forum, but has a GPX 6000 also.  Zero problems for his unit, though he does have the shaft twist issue.   

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So far the poll is doing as expected, it's showing the results in favour of less problems than it sounded and after reading threads of GPX problems it does look a lot worse than it is because you hear from people with faults far more than you hear from people without them,  with electronics the average failure rate is usually under 5% throughout the warranty period, with often more failures in the first few weeks than through the rest of the warranty period and when faults go over a certain threshold the manufacturers start to take notice and find the source of the issues to correct in future production runs.

There is even various software companies making software to help manufacturers deal with this stuff, and it estimates the cost of warranty repairs and the components they need to set aside to get them through the warranty periods.

A poll like this is likely to show the problems with the GPX aren't as bad as they seem, shaft aside so it's not really trouble making, it's putting things into perspective and showing the problems may not be as bad as it seems.

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My guess is 50% of people have had some sort of problem, mostly the shaft obviously, we'll see the final tally with the other stuff over time albeit in a short time sample as it's a 3 year warranty and most haven't had theirs long at all.  It really was intended to be a harmless exercise to put everything into perspective rather than all the speculation.   A poll on somewhere with a lot more 6000 users would likely give a better sample of data but a smaller sample still gives an idea.

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I understand from a retailers perspective, I've been there, there is nothing worse than customers who think they've got faults and it turns out they just don't know how to use something and it happens far too often 🙂

I've dealt with many thousands of warranty claims in my time.  This poll is likely really beneficial for someone selling the detector, and for Minelab, the results may well fall into a normal percentage for the level of faults on a product, if it's under 5% then there is really nothing to be concerned about for customers as it's pretty normal for electronic products.

There is no question people will get any faults resolved and that's not the issue at all, that's what warranty is for and LAWS protect the customers there, no matter what any genuine faults get fixed so the poll has nothing to do with if Minelab is good with their warranty, they have to be and they've mostly always been excellent with my warranty claims.

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As a GPX 6000 owner, I have been learning to best use my GPX 6000 in really bad ground that also has substantial EMI. JP and everyone else that has offered tips and hints about how to best use the Normal/Difficult settings, Cancel and Salt settings, sensitivity settings on bad ground, warm-up time, which coils do best in certain situations.......all of this is helping me as an end user deal with this really great PI that acts like a super hot SMF VLF at the same time. 

I don't see where this poll is hurting anything when looking at the big picture. Judging by the poll responses so far, it helps me personally trust my investment in the GPX 6000 and in all of you that have been reporting in your experiences and finds.

I have not had a super rosy time with this detector. It is not the detector's fault that the only places that I have been able to detect with it are very difficult sites. But with everyone's honest input and with this impromptu poll, I know it will get easier.

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There is another big flaw in the poll too, people that have had multiple problems, some have had their 6000 replaced twice, or two coils fail, all these extra figures don't get to count in the final tally as they can't vote twice.  If anything the poll is very in favour of giving a result skewed towards less problems than their really are.

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  • The title was changed to GPX 6000 Faults - The Definitive Poll

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