Leaderboard

This is just a preliminary review of my QED PL3 which has the August 2019 update, a Sadie NuggetFinder 8X6" coil, Detech 12.5" mono coil, Commander 11" DD coil, the small control box and the battery and guts of the detector under the arm cuff. It looks similar to the one in the second photo above except that mine has a Whites S curve TDI SL type shaft. Unlike the stats listed by Steve H, mine weighs 3 lbs 8 oz with the Sadie and with an 11" Commander or Detech coil it weighs 4 lbs. My QED is not optimized for USA 60 Hz power sources so I cannot use it very close to power lines or near my house. At any rate, when I am able to use it away from power lines and urban areas it works very well. I like that it is easily adjustable for target size by optimizing settings for small, medium and large size coils by changing the pulse delay. The pulse delay range is 7.5uS to 12.5uS which makes it very sensitive to both very small gold and larger gold/targets. It does have high/low and low/high audio changes according to target size and will double tone on elongated targets like nails, etc. Waterproof coils are available for the QED and the latest update will work with DD coils too so I can see using a QED on wet sand or very shallow calm surf as a real possibility as long as I use a waterproof DD coil and am careful with the electronics which are not waterproofed. Two 4.7 volt 18650 Lithium batteries provide plenty of power for this compact PI. However, its 3D printer made plastic parts are a definite drawback in my opinion from a durability standpoint. I have not broken anything yet but...........? After doing some head to head testing, I found the QED PL3 to be almost as sensitive on very small gold as my SDC2300. It outperformed the SDC2300 on larger gold simply because I can put any sized coil on the QED I choose and change the settings for larger coil/gold accordingly. Plus, it is far more comfortable to swing, has easy coil changes, has a threshold tone that can be adjusted from silent to as loud as one wants while not being unstable and very annoying like the SDC2300 threshold audio and it has plenty of user adjustable features. Where the SDC might be preferred over the QED for small gold detection is the SDC's rugged construction, waterproofing and simplicity of operation. Can the QED compete with a GPX 4000 to 5000 for depth and sensitivity on gold over 1 gram in size...........not from my experience so far. Is it an alternative for the SDC 2300.....definitely. Will it out perform a Whites TDI SL.......absolutely. Extreme magnetite iron mineralization testing will be coming as soon as the snow melts.