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How important is a warranty? Are defects common in metal detectors? Should a warranty or lack of one be a big influence? Those of you who have owned many detectors, have you had many failures?

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I owned one of the largest detector shops in the US starting in 1976 that in latter years was selling around 500 detectors a year. I have also owned a large number of detectors over the years. Roughly one or two a year at the dealership were found to be defective when sold. The cause in most of those cases was a bad coil. Coils fail far more often than control boxes. Of new detectors, waterproof detectors are more prone to warranty issues than other models. Some detectors we sold may have had issues at a later date not reported to us but I would think a failure rate of new detectors under warranty of under 1% is reasonable from what I experienced. You may think it is more from what you see on the internet sometimes, but happy people never post. All you hear from are people with problems, and in very many cases those problems turn out not to be real. Number one cause for detectors to come back to dealers of get sent to factory? Batteries dead or in backwards.

As well built electronic items, if a detector is good for a year, it often is good forever. I am being perfectly honest with you in saying that when I buy used detectors, and I do, I really do not worry about warranty at all and have no problem buying detectors ten or more years old. If they work - they work.

Waterproof is where the concerns are. I have only personally sent back three detectors ever for warranty work, and two of those were waterproof detectors. One was a White's Surf PI on my first real underwater detecting expedition to Hawaii. Leaked like a sieve brand new! Kind of ruined my trip also, and I have never traveled with less than two detectors ever since. White's had problems with those early models and later redesigned the control box.

The other was a Tesoro Stingray. I could see water pour into the control box under the clear cover the first time it went underwater. That was after a long hike into a canyon and suiting up in a drysuit so also a ruined trip. Now my new underwater detectors spend a day submerged in the bathtub before I even think of taking them out.

The last detector was more recent - last year. It is sctually waterproof also but this problem was unrelated to that. My brand new Minelab CTX 3030 went for over a year before I even bothered to try the GPS system. When I finally tried it, it would never acquire a satellite. Not a big deal but not as it should be. I contacted Minelab, they paid for return to fix, fixed immediately, and returned postage paid. The units mentioned above were also serviced immediately.

Not quite personal purchase but almost. I purchased four Garrett Infiniums for use by our customers at Moore Creek Mine. All four of those units had either control box or coil issues with use that required return for repairs. Rather surprising as the unit looks to be built like a tank. So there are some more waterproof detectors with issues.

The ones I saw in store as I said were usually coil issues and usually spread around by manufacturer. Nothing you can pin down real hard. My impression is that White's and Tesoro have above average quality control, Minelab average, and First Texas (Bounty Hunter, Fisher, Teknetics) and Garrett maybe below average. First Texas in particular seems to have problems with every new model introduction as of late. The real issue out there is that many detectors work but may be substandard in performance and many owners may not even be aware of it.

All the manufacturers have excellent service and support. Minelab went through a period some time ago where it was horrible, basically non-existent. But they are well past that now and top notch from what I and others have experienced recently. I would have to pick White's out as the company that stands out for service. They will repair 40 year old models if they can get the parts.

So bottom line just my experience and opinion, I am very confident buying used detectors that are out of warranty with the exception of waterproof models. Those I prefer to buy new with warranty.

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One other factor perhaps worth mentioning. As detectors moved to surface mounted components and even multi-layer circuit boards, repair has become mostly a matter of swapping out boards. This can get VERY expensive.

I only have first hand experience of paying for repairs with Whites and Tesoro. Both of these companies are extremely reasonable on their charges - pretty much anything can be fixed for $150 or less.

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thank you for the  replys steve. and rick.  steve, can you explain this more.." The real issue out there is that many detectors work but may be substandard in performance and many owners may not even be aware of it." (snip)

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Well, I am not a tech, but it goes like this. Electronic components vary within an acceptable range, plus and minus. How much depends on how much the manufacturer spends to source the components. In theory the pluses and minuses average out, but sometimes you get a cascade effect where everything goes plus or everything goes minus, and you get a detector performing out of specification.

Coils are the real biggie. There is a huge variance in coils as manufactured and many just get tossed in the dust bin. This goes along with the fact that there are detectors that are tuned as a set with the coil they come with. If the owner changes the coil it may now be out of spec to a greater or larger degree.

These things were more common in analog models and in theory should be less common with modern manufacturing processes. Yet on-going events at Fisher as I type see people reporting widely varying results with recent machine upgrades and purchases. So it is an issue to this day.

The key to everything should be quality control. Every detector should be tested to within spec before it goes out the door. The question is, how wide is the acceptable variance? And how good is the final check process? The fact that I could buy detectors that were dead on arrival means some get past somehow. I have no idea how the process actually works and how it differs at the companies. It may be like everything else though - dollars get short, and the first guy laid off is the quality control guy.

The ones that you never hear about and nobody thinks about though are the ones that get out the door and basically work. But are an inch or two short in depth. How many online detector wars are the result of two people getting two different versions of the same detector, one that works well and one that does not. If you have nothing to compare to the assumption will be that is just the way they all are. Given that most people who buy detectors have no idea how they should work, and that huge numbers get little or no use - well, you tell me, what is the reality with that whole can of worms?

This I and virtually everyone that has been around knows for sure. There are really hot units and some real duds, and the vast majority are somewhere in the middle.

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I would have to pick White's out as the company that stands out for service. They will repair 40 year old models if they can get the parts.

 

I'm not brand loyal to anything, but I do have to admit that after doing some careful research, and from reading of the many people who rave about their exemplary service and attention to their customers, the White's products are all that I currently own at this time. TDI Pro, GMT, and TRX pinpointer. All good products in my book, and if the factory stands behind them, that's even all the better.  B)

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I wonder if it is possible to come up with a standard test to check depth performance?  That would be a good reason for a bunch of us to meet up, all with the same detectors, and see if they perform the same. (and beer) I bet someone with 20 years detecting(steve) can tell if say two identical detectors perform the same.

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All the problems I've had has been with NEW detectors. From defective coils to detectors the do not function correctly.

I sold Tesoro and Minelab in the 90's and don't remember any problems then. Only in the last 15 years.

Warranties covered everything, no problems.

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No manufacturer can check every unit of a product before shipment unless they can charge a high premium for it. I worked in high tech and low tech Purchasing for 35 years. Consumer grade articles are produced and shipped without each item being tested. High tech, high risk and military items are the only ones that get 100% inspection of finished goods. The $1000 toilet seat and the $500 hammer of government procurement mythology are only "sort of" true due to the inspection paper trail which has to accompany every item. That takes manhours, shophours and $$$$$.

Good manufacturers have qualified processes and use statistical Process and Quality control,to hold "escapes" to the minimum. Sadly, our detectors are produced in an environment which falls between the two peaks of quality. The manufacturers can't charge enough to have 100% inspection and the production runs are too short to allow satisfactory statistical,quality control.

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I agree with Harry that this problem is more prevalent in recent years. It was not long ago that most detectors were pretty much hand made one at a time and each had to be individually tuned prior to departure. The tuning process WAS the quality check as the person tuning it up knew if something was wrong.

Now you get parts and components simply put together and shipped. Mass production demands the end of the hand built through hole circuit board process in favor of a machine assembled surface mount circuit board.

There is another big elephant in the room also. The Internet. One of those older companies could ship out ten bad detectors to ten places around the country and basically you just never heard about it. Each customer would be told they were the only one having the problem. The Internet not only allows people to catch things collectively much quicker but to magnify the impact since complainers are far more vocal than happy people.

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