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Minelab Coil Cover Rant


mn90403

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I'm not one prone to rant but I think it is time.

My wife and I use Minelab products.  Between us we have an SE Pro, E-trac, 3030 (6, 12, 17), 5000 (4 Commander coils), 2300 and a 7000 (14 and 19).  I'd say that Minelab has a bit of our budget.

We go to the southern California beaches for jewelry and the states of California, Arizona, Alaska and Nevada for gold nuggets. (I hope to get to Australia before all the nuggets are gone.)  We are more successful on the beaches than in the deserts and mountains.

My recent purchase of the 19" GPZ coil is the straw that breaks the camel's back (so to say)!  I am embarrassed (and saddened) by the cheap and practically unusable out of the box coil cover included with this coil.  It is light, flimsy, captures dirt and will not last more than a few bumps into our local bushes and rocks.  How can we pay so much for a good product and get such shoddy protection for the coils inside?

Now that it has me going ... this same problem exists with the coil covers for the 3030 and SE Pro.  Years ago I removed them because it traps water, sand and salt which causes falsing.  Those coils seem to be more sealed than the 19".  I haven't found an aftermarket coil cover for these.

I have found effective aftermarket coil covers for the 2300 and 7000/14.  I had to because the soft material for the 2300 coil cover was almost as bad as this new 19" cover.  Holes appeared in the cover within the first few weeks my wife used it and scratches began to appear on the coil itself.  Our aftermarket coil cover is thicker (not much heavier) and more durable.  I've begun to spray it with an automotive truck bed liner.  It is sealed from the salt and sand with silicon.  It now works great.  I had to buy a similar cover for the 14" coil and seal it but there is not a similar way for this new 19" and there is not another solution yet other than the 'snowshoe' plastic some are making but our volcanic ash and sand will collect on top but I haven't heard of a better solution.  (What is anyone else doing?)

Would it take that much time for Minelab to design and supply a legitimate coil cover for the price?

I remember when I used the GPX covers that now seem to be light years ahead of the latest covers.  We just had to tape them to seal them and keep the elements out.  They fit pretty snug and you didn't feel like you couldn't or shouldn't use the coil cover that came with the coil.  It was good to go out of the box.

Minelab is my preferred detector company.  I own others.  Their detectors satisfy my need to find.  Many of their coil covers suck.

Mitchel

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Minelab has never been great at accessories...their bungy is little better than a rubber-band.

Grinding the cover on the ground is always going to ruin it and is not needed...Jonathan Porter has said that many times!

Mitchel, you are pretty good at bitching, I think you may have been a drywaller in a previous life!

merry christmas

fred

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Will you please let me know when you want to sell that junk. I'm just a sucker for buying trash.

Merry Christmas to all and if you too find some of the same junk under your tree don't cry Chuck is here to take your burden away.

Chuck.

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5 hours ago, fredmason said:

Minelab has never been great at accessories...their bungy is little better than a rubber-band.

Grinding the cover on the ground is always going to ruin it and is not needed...Jonathan Porter has said that many times!

Mitchel, you are pretty good at bitching, I think you may have been a drywaller in a previous life!

merry christmas

fred

Fred,

I'm not a grinder.  I do try to stick my coil where 'the sun don't shine' and that includes between rocks and under plants.  Stuff falls into this cover.

My first time out with the 19" all I hit were a few sand and ash piles in the desert and when I came home and took it off ... more than any GPX coil I ever used ... there was lots of sand.  I could see it out of the box so I was not surprised but I didn't have any choice.  Now I will seal it and be careful and add a nice coating to it often. (It would probably cost $100 for a replacement.)

The next couple of days are going to be spent trying to seal this one on with a more durable spray coating. (Would that be so hard for Minelab to put on this cover?)

I would have to say the coil was very pretty out of the box.  A nice white with black trim of the cover.  I even had a butterfly land on it and I tried to get a picture.  This I thought was a good omen.

The last time I saw butterflies on my coil was the day I was using the Nugget Finder 18" coil on my 5000 and I found the Goose Egg nugget.

Mitchel

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It's an interesting design for sure and I noticed the first place sharp rocks would pierce the stock cover on my 14" coil was around the edges so I thought Minelab mighta gotten smarter by adding the rubber edges.

I haven't had any field time with the 19" coil yet so we'll see how the tupperware coil cover holds up :unsure:

I only got about two months out of the stock 14" coil cover on my replacement GPZ after a couple trips to Rich Hill recently. Pretty nasty place to detect with lots of sharps rocks around. 

IMG_4682.JPG

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Mitch,

Both, you and Fred are correct!  I've purchased a train load of coil covers and used every trick in the book to prolong their use.  The GPX, in my book you needed that coil on the ground.  Now the GPZ, it depends on the ground.  Currently, with the GPZ, I keep it about 1/2 inch off the ground and have only wore one cover out, which is repairable.  Everyone swings their coil different and the above keeps my poke smiling!

Rick

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Maybe Steve or Chris  can contact Miner John to make a HD 19" coil cover, like the excellent covers he made for the 14" coil.:sad:

Merry Christmas,

Bill

 

 

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On 12/22/2016 at 0:57 PM, cobill said:

Maybe Steve or Chris  can contact Miner John to make a HD 19" coil cover, like the excellent covers he made for the 14" coil.:sad:

Merry Christmas,

Bill

It'll only be a matter of time until he comes out with one, I'm sure. 

It was mentioned that you can get the 19" coil to false if it's tapped on something hard. 

Now that I think about it maybe the rubber bumbers around the edges are to soften the blow and reduce falsing? I've never seen a coil or coil cover with little bumpers on it like that before. Maybe Minelab noticed the falsing and this was their bandaid for that?

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I've sprayed the bottom of the coil cover black and put a silicone bead around the double edges and the center.  There is actually a portion of the upper coil that is not covered.  It is just sealed with black epoxy inside the white plastic.  When I add some truck bed liner the next time it will have to be brush on because it takes a bit of time to silicon the thing.  I don't want to do that very often.

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The coil cover on the GPZ - no matter who you are and how you hunt -  

is going to get its share of scrapes, pokes and hits over time.

I understand Minelab didn't want to add weight to the coil

but I am not sure the oz's saved have been worth it for such a silly coil cover

that ultimately puts the coil itself at risk.

 

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