What’s Next In Metal Detectors For 2018?

[Steve Herschbach]

On 7/31/2018 at 11:40 AM, Mike Hillis said:

Is the new throw away design of the Equinox the new marketing model?   Do you think more manufacturers will move to this model for their waterproof designs?    If the term 'throw away' troubles you,  replace the phrase with "planned obsolescence".  

It is interesting to think why a company would even think they could get away with something like that.   But the market has shown that for Minelab, they can pretty much do what ever they want as people are willing to pay the premium price for their tech.   

With 'planned obsolescence" they don't need to obsolete it with technological advances,  they can force the obsolescence with a non-repairable design.  

and kill the used market at the same time.

HH
Mike

Hi Mike,

What's not repairable? Minelab has stated “fixed cost and affordable repairs will be available for Equinox outside of the warranty period”. You are implying that fixing something by opening it up and soldering something is inherently superior to simply replacing an entire board or entire pod. In this day and age that is simply not true. If it costs more to fix something than it is worth, get another one or get something else.

I used to sell high end Husqvarna chainsaws - professional models. Quite expensive, and I had a service shop to fix them. As labor costs piled up over the years fixing a chainsaw got to be a not inexpensive option. Finally even Husqvarna started making models that were good enough and low enough in cost they would work great for average users, yet taking them into a shop for repairs would quickly approach a significant portion of the replacement cost new. The market split. Pros still might get a $900 chainsaw and spend money repairing it. Most people though get a decent lower price model that A. will probably last their lifetime and B. if it finally does die, is not worth repairing. This scenario repeats endlessly these days as labor costs for trained technicians rise faster than manufacturing costs.

I used to really push getting top end expensive product as being a "best value" option. However, when it came time to get a lawnmower in Alaska I faced two options for a place where the lawn is under snow half the year. Spend a lot on a Honda lawnmower with the idea it would last me forever. Or just buy a much less expensive model that would probably do the job (and did) and figure I would just replace it if it died. Even two cost less than the Honda. Turned out to be the right decision for me - heck, I never even really needed to change oil or sharpen the blade with the amount of mowing I did.

I don't think this is a marketing model per se. The Equinox is simply a detector design, though it is not hard to see others following suite due to the fact it is selling well. If the physical design and all that goes along with it troubles you I am sure at our age Mike that alternatives will exist for as long as we are around. Minelab is far from the only brand, and Equinox far from the only detector they make. There is a vast used market. Don't worry, be happy 

[Mike McGriff]

Does anybody have experience with the Goldmaster 24K in saltwater, salt sand and dry (on top) beach sand?

[Steve Herschbach]

The Goldmaster 24K has just barely started shipping to customers so not too many out there yet who can report. Having run one I can’t imagine it working on anything but bone dry sand when near saltwater. Any detector that picks up the saline content of my hand is going to be very unfriendly with saltwater or sand damp with saltwater.

Be a great machine on the (dry) towel line for micro jewelry though or for freshwater beaches.

[Mike McGriff]

Thanks Steve. My main purpose will be gold prospecting, I live in N. Nevada but my brother lives by Ventura, Ca. I don't have my equipment yet but I have settled on 24K and Tek-Point. With discrimination and all filters maxed will that detector still go berserk near salt water?

   

[Steve Herschbach]

I can't honestly say Mike but if you turn the controls down enough and dial in the disc you can probably make the machine ignore wet salt sand. It depends mostly on the ground balance range. If the machine can ground balance all the way into the salt range it would be a major help. Regardless you should be able to use the Iron Reject mode and dial in enough discrimination to eliminate the salt signal. Of course your gold sensitivity is going to be negatively impacted by doing so.

Just realize saltwater is not going to be friendly to the machine. If you look at all the things a metal detector can do, the thing the 24K is going to be least good it is saltwater beach detecting.