Norm S

It's takes about 4 hrs the 1st time and maybe 3-1/2 if you run it till it shuts down.. I have charged mine 3 times and once it took about 3-1/2 hours when it shut down on it's own due to low battery. The other time it was about 3 hrs with 25% or so left. I also use my 2.5 amp charger in my truck for headphones and wireless module and it seems like no time and they are charged.

Nice finds. I get excited everytime I find a wheat penny. I sold a 1909 V.D.B. penny for $35 a cpl of years ago. There is something about a wheat penny that reminds me of my childhood when pennies could buy candy

I have had a V3i and believe me there is nothing wrong with a V3i they are great detectors. I just could never seem to get to like it. I had an AT Pro before the V3i and I knew the AT Pro so well the V3i never shined for me. I then bought and E-Trac and that was a better coin hunter than the V3l but again it just never shined for me. Then I bought the E-800 and it is a game changer for me. I love it and that dog can hunt so well I bought the companion E-600 as a backup. I liked the 800 from the 1st day out. I haven't found any gold rings but I am at 3 silver rings so far.

Awesome

I am now the proud owner of both the Equinox 800 and 600 and I no longer have any use for my E-Trac, My E-Trac is 2 yrs old and has no extra accessories. I do have a cheap harness I bought for it but found it to be more trouble than it was worth. Does anyone know what a used E-Trac is worth.

I can't go to the beach this weekend with either detector because of Black Beach Weekend and it's chaos all weekend so I will have to hunt somewhere else away from the beach and nearby parks. I may go to an old soccer field that is no longer in use and try the 600 at. I tried it with my E-Trac but never had any luck. I suspect the depth on both the 800 and 600 may be an advantage

My 800 is repaired and shipped. I don't know what they did to it but maybe there will be a repair ticket with an explanation. My 600 that I bought as a spare is also on it's way and both will arrive on Thursday. I guess I will charge the 600 and take the 800 out on Thursday afternoon. On Friday I will take the 600 out and try it out. After viewing many YouTube videos and reading about the 600 I don't expect much difference but it will make a great backup detector or even the primary detector. It looks like my E-trac will go into mothballs and will most likely sell it. I been using it since last Thursday and I have no complaints with it because it will hunt but I have to work harder on sketchy signals and the signals bounce around a lot more. I admit I am not very proficient with it but the Equinox 800 makes me look like a pro vs the E-Trac

The few little quirks I noticed with my 800 were chalked up to inexperience with the 800. Things such as pinpoint going silent and then coming back. I read as much as I can from those that know detectors well and extract what I can learn from them. I am getting my 800 back on Thursday but have no idea what they did to repair it. What I do know if it would have not totally quit working I would have kept using it. Hopefully whatever they did to fix it can be used in a firmware update later on. To be truthful my biggest take away from watching the experts and reading what the experts have posted is the preloaded modes by Minelab are close to perfect unless a person is in an area where the soil is highly mineralized. Everytime you tweak a mode to get what you're seeking you give up something to gain something else. That's my observation only.

I have tried pinpointing over the target and from the side. Sometimes it starts out quiet or a real low sound but if I move away and try again it is fine. Never really bothered me. Most often I do the wiggle so I really only pinpoint on targets that I can't pick up with my TRX or Carrot. Most often that tells me whether to dig a plug or a flap. When my 800 went haywire it started screaming in pinpoint mode but when I laid it down it was in detect mode and started screaming on it's own. I am getting my 800 back on Thursday hip hip hooray

I am guessing I will know in a year or so when my battery dies but what is also cool you can use an alternate power source but not sure it would work if you have a bad battery

What needs to happen is a video on the correct way to replace the batteries. Most guys won't have any problems at all but not all people have the mechanical inclination to be able to do it properly. There will always be that 5% that try to replace the battery and screw it up and void the warranty somehow.

I did buy a 600 more as a backup when the 800 batteries are low and to have a spare if someone is visiting and wants to go detecting. I can't understand the shaft wobble unless they have the shaft extended to the max. My shaft was very tight and the cam lock was tight as well. I wonder if some of the guys didn't put the neoprene washers in where the coil connects. I only read a few of the FM posts. Since I found this forum I rarely go to FM or Tnet. Minelab told me they would try and have my 800 back to me by Wed. the 12th. Just in case they don't I bought a 600 which I hope will be here by Wed. I think it was a smart move by Minelab to service detectors themselves rather than have Kellyco be their service rep. I guess I am not that good at math because I counted all my clad I found with my 800 last night and I was surprised that I had $78.40 not counting pennies. I thought I had like $67.00. I was hoping to find $100 by the time I had it 3 weeks but it bit the dust 3 days to early. Not sure if I would have found another $22.60 in 3 days but if I knew I was that close I would have stayed out a few extra hours to get it, Does anyone know what a 2 yr old E-Trac is worth. No extra coils or accessories.. I am going to need to sell it because when the wife finds out I bought the 600 she will surely find $650 to buy something for herself.

Dubious I have had the volume drop to nothing and the pinpointing feature still working but have never had a button stick, When mine went haywire it was lying on the ground next to me while I was digging a target. It started screaming on it's own like it was dead center on a target.

Very successful 1st hunt.

Duke I emailed everyone on Minelabs list of dealers that had a website. All I wrote was do you have and Equinox 800's in stock if so please contact me and I left my email and phone number. All together I had 4 replies in two days and bought the 1st one I copied and pasted about 50 times

I know, I may try it but I am going out of town on Wed.. Maybe I will get lucky.

If there is some sound latency it is very slight. Certainly not enough to impede detecting in anyway. I learned to compensate for it almost immediately if there is any. I never had wireless headphones in the past so it was no different than getting used to a new set of wired headphones.

I am looking for an in stock 600 I can get by Wed the 11th

Mn90403 Yes I did make a post earlier about why it needed to be repaired. It started screaming in pinpoint mode on it own while I was digging a target. I turned it off and back on and none of the buttons worked and the VDI'S were going crazy so I tried a factory reset and got a FP message meaning pre sets were restored but it didn't help. None of the buttons worked so I called Minelab and sent it in for repair

I am going to add a E-600 as a spare, hopefully I can find one in stock

Well relicmeister I am looking for an Equinox 600 right now.. If I find one today maybe I can get it by Wed before I leave on my fishing trip..

Yesterday morning I sent my 800 to Naperville for repair so I decided to hunt the same area with my E-Trac. I went out this morning and the 1st 15 minutes I would have traded the E-Trac for a coffee and a donut. Then I realized I was swinging way to fast so I slowed down and hit a cpl of targets. I wanted to hunt the same area I had been hunting with my 800 to get some sort of a comparison based on previous finds with the 800. I know it's not scientific because it's possible there wouldn't be anything in the area. I found a little over $4 in two hours and two of the coins being Liberty $1 coins. I had been averaging $6 in clad for two hour hunts all week with the 800. What I found is I have to work a lot harder with the E-Trac than the 800. Aside from swinging slower when I would hit a target area with multiple VDI's I would have to slowly cover the area where I was getting tones and especially if I seen a quarter VDI flash. It does not separate targets well and I dug a lot of cans this morning. I don't think I dug 3 cans all week with the 800. I also dug an unusual amount of pennies . The ratio was 4 pennies to each dime. I didn't get as clear of tones as I do with th 800 and nothing as deep as I been getting with the 800. I admit I am a bit rusty with the E-Trac but the 800 is ready to go out of the box. The pre programmed modes of the 800 are much better suited to hunting out of the box without tweaking anything. Right now I can't say the 800 is better than the E-Trac because so much of it is skill level. If you compare cost of detectors the 800 is a clear winner. I am no expert with the E-Trac and know it has much more potential than I am getting out of it even though I have downloaded most of the popular programs. As of right now I am not ready to dump the E-Trac but I will have a better idea which detector I think is best when I get the 800 back. If I feel the 800 is the clear winner when i get it back I will sell the E-Trac and buy a 600. I have had so much euphoria over the 800 and I am trying to be honest with myself but I sure hope my gut feeling is right

Sounds pretty much the way I set my 800 for parks. I can even run sensitivity up to 25 at times but usually around 22. The nickels and square tabs are the same for me.The tabs that trick me are usually the shallow tabs. I have been hunting behind someone all week but still managing to average $6 a day in clad. I have it open between 12 - 14 for nickels then 21- 39 open. You're also right about the dimes. Anymore I find 3 dimes to every penny. My quarters rarely ring up at 30. Most often 28 -29. I get a lot of 32 beeps and a few 38 - 39 and I love the sound but have only found worthless medallions. I have had good nickel days where I find 5 or so and bad nickel days where I only find one. The park I been hunting has a lot of trash because it's along a parade route and there is often public activities and vendors set up in the park. When I went out yesterday afternoon after the rain in the morning I could not find any of the plugs or flaps I dug however I could see almost every spot the person before me dug. They never stomped down their plugs and barely covered the holes.

I tried factory preset several times and it was stuck in field 2 and the VDI'S went crazy and none of th buttons would work. I didn't hardly finish telling the lady at Minelab about it and she said she was emailing me prepaid shipping instructions. It's on it's way so tomorrow I will go out with my E-Trac in the same park and see how it compares based on what I been getting with the 800. Can't really compare unless I cover the same ground with the 800 but I am in the detecting mood so even the lil GoFind would do in a pinch.

I got return authorization from Minelab minutes ago. I will be sending it UPS within the hour. I am going on a fishing and detecting trip next week and they said they would try and have it back to me by then but if not I still have the E-trac. I can't ask for better service than they are trying to provide especially since they are trying to get it back to me by next Wed.