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Hi, i bought a minelab gpx 4500, it will come with 11" coil. i will use the detector at places heavly searched with for example xp deus 2, ctx3030, and other detectors. the sites are medieval, roman, bronze age, etc. so... i need a deep coil to go deeper than the others detectors. question 1-wich coils do you recomend? question 2- i read that the mono coil are the deepest, but in places with a lot of iron, it would be a pain... i was looking at the detech website, they have mono coils, dd coils, and concentric coils, this concentric coils will go deeper than the dd coils? wich type of coil will be better for this type of conditions? question 3-detech coils vs commander coils, with the same size, they will work almost the same? question 4-i will receive the detector without battery, so i need to buy a new battery. i saw a guy selling a homemade battery, are this type of batterys something i can trust? they will work like a original, and the detector will get the same deep? or its better for me to buy a original battery? thanks

Just a bit about myself. Grew up in outback QLD, Meet my Partner in NT when I was doing tag along tours, prospecting for Garnets and Zircons in the Harts Ranges. We meet up with Mels parents and friends going to WA to prospected for Gold for 3 months. I wasn't into gold really but I did live in a gold area as a child and my parents brought me a gold pan when i was 7. I joined the group traveling with them to find camp spots and where to find watering points, so for the first 2 months I learnt to pan and finely they convinced me to try the 4500 which I now own. We stopped at a spot they showed me how to start the detector and all went off, so I just went near the car detecting and got my first signal under a tree, they all come to see me dig and there was my first piece a gram worth. Off they all went 5 mins later I got another signal so they all came back, another good bit of gold bang I was hooked and have been ever since getting over 1 ounce of gold in WA. Now in Vic, but I have a dam hard time finding gold here as the countryside is so different. I have hit some good patchers over the years here and found gold up to 10 gram nuggets' last one was a 9.6 grams with the GPX 2300 at Christmas time. Also compete in the Gold panning comps at Blackwood and Wedderburn scoring a first and second, but after a serious work accident nearly 2 yrs ago, its a battle to just get out to detected or to compete, but still having a go. One of my daughters just competed in her first gold panning completion and came 3rd she was so happy, and she just done her first token hunt with a detector at the Celebration of Neville Perry Day and for her effort won a gold nugget, so proud of her. G'day everyone looking forward to reading the forums and see all the photo's Cheers Kel

It has to be bundle wound due to the size. Spiral can't fit in there. I have a new model 10x6" bundle mono X-coil on its way to me soon to use on my Agoforce, it's a good size to give a bit of ground coverage but still hold some good sensitivity, I liked the Coiltek 10x5" Joey mono on my 4500 for that reason. 11x6" should be similar and perform well for you. A larger spiral coil will be more sensitive to smaller targets, and deeper though.

For hoard/Relic hunting i mainly use the Coiltek 18'' Elite Mono on my 4500,its not as heavy as i thought it would be and after i ordered it i was wondering if i had made a very expensive mistake,that is not the case and made the right decision for sure,my No1 Choice was the Detech 15'' Spiral DD but although its a big favourite of many folks the weight was going to be the deciding factor and the Coiltek won the day. Yes i am aware that the question was mainly related to larger DD coils and i can for the most part only post what i find related to larger Mono coil,i do have both 15x12 Commander coils but never use them and they just sit in a cupboard gathering dust.

Got my new steelPHASE 01 enhancer from Rob's today.... Let's try and see if it helps the 4500 find elusive gold.... Anyone using these ?

I recently purchased the Detech 11'' DD AI coil for my 4500,as yet not done any serious detecting with it as i mainly purchased it for one roman trading villa site which is right next door to a massive pumping station,also have the Coiltek 6'' Mono...but the coil that i have been using the most on the GPX is the Coiltek 14x9 Mono its as light as anything because its foam filled and that mainly stays on the detector almost all the time.

You can run the DD coils with the mono switch activated for puesdo-mono for a little more sensitivity when running in sens-extra or normal timing modes on the 4000. The Smooth timing on the 4000 is best used in mono mode using a mono coil for handling the more mineralized ground areas. The DD would not work well with the Smooth timing as they were designed for handling difficult ground conditions with a mono coil and a DD would only give you less depth in that timing. So basically, mono’s do have more depth over DD coils but generally mono coils cannot handle the more difficult ground mineralization unless you are using the Smooth class of timings. The 4000 only has one Smooth timing for mono’s and the 4500 has Smooth and Enhanced while the 5000 has both previous model timings plus another smooth timing called Fine Gold. Hope this helps. Sounds like you have some hot ground there.

Tell me about it NK, don`t think we age taller, but it seems we have to go a lot higher to get up after a dig 😉. The sensitivity of the E1500 will be much appreciated by 4500 & 5000 users, especially if they have spiral coils already in their kit.

I agree with phrunt that you'll definitely find smaller pieces, with the E1500 that the 4500 has missed. The lighter weight will be a blessing, but the extra sensitivity means you'll be up and down a lot more recovering those small previously undetected targets. I'm 60 and that's what knock's me around. Seems to be a long way down there these days, I'm doing a lot more grunting and groaning than I used to. LOL 😆

I have had the 3500, 4000 and currently the 4500 which I have had for a long time now. I'm 69 now so hopefully the lighter weight will stil keep me activley enjoying being out there, as such I'm not so concerned that it won't measure up to some of the other minelab machines.

So Olly, as you being a ex electronics techie, I’m curious to know what detector/s you are experienced with if any and if so what attracted you towards this new gold PI gold detector? For me it was definitely the weight factor and it’s edit: just reread your post and saw mention of the 4500... doh.

Yesterday, JW and I went for a bit of a hike to a remote spot in the mountains, I hadn't been here at all since my GPX 4500 a few years ago, and JW had been a small few times since trying out his GPX 6000 and found a few bits. The hike in is what puts it on the backburner all the time 🙂 It's a close drive from JW's house, but a big steep uphill hike, and from my house it's about an hour's drive so by the time I get home I'm stuck to the car seat, man it's hard to stand up after a massive hike and an hour's drive home after a day's detecting with the hike back to the car, at least the hike back is downhill all the way. I ran the car's seat heater the whole drive home to help the muscles recover! JW has a few years of age over me, but he is certainly fitter. It's a really cool place to go though, with great views of the surrounding mountains, unfortunately I can't put up scenery photos for fear of revealing the location to prying eyes, as you can work out the basic location by using the bigger mountains to get an idea of where I was. There has been a bit of mining in the area, and reworked in the depression years, but the earlier mining was done with a lot of work and water monitors (canons) blasting water at the hillsides to recover the gold. The Chinese hit it pretty hard too, staying longer than the other miners going over it again. It's interesting how they get somewhere, then just stop. The soils an interesting colour, almost white. Quite the drop off here down to the ground below, but oddly at least I think you'd be crazy not not to detect these high areas, as gold often pops up in the most unusual of places. My first bit of gold for the day was a bit of a surprise to me, it was a fairly faint signal, yet it was very shallow, I thought it is more likely a pellet although this area barely has any pellets at all, in fact it barely has any targets, if you get a target the chances are high its gold, aside from the occasional old bit of miner's junk like cans and a few nails most targets are gold so it's certainly a dig it all location. I took a little video of the target, so weak of a signal for the size of the gold I thought, although I'm more used to using the 10x5" Coiltek which is more sensitive but still, I was pretty disappointed. This is the little scrape of a hole it came from. The piece of gold. And its weight, quite a reasonable size piece for me, anything over .1 is pretty decent size for me 😛 I was so taken back by how weak the signal on it was I tested it this morning with the Algoforce to see how well it would do, even though it has the larger 10" round coil on it, I thought the Algoforce gave a better signal response on this particular piece. It's a bit of rough looking piece. The other interesting thing is it was right next to someone's previous dig hole, probably JW or I, we were likely using older technology at the time, as I'd only been here with my 4500 which no doubt would miss this piece of gold. It's very unlikely this person didn't go over the nugget and they missed it. The joys of newer technology. Next piece was in the path you walk on to hike to this area, there are tracks all over the place, mostly from old miners I guess however now they're hiking trails and go all through the area, you can even walk from one of my favourite ski fields to this area on tracks. This is it's dig hole, another very shallow target, an OK signal. This is the little guy Smaller than the last bit, but a much better signal. Just ignore the shaft twist in this photo, it's a feature of the 6000 🙂 After that I was walking along detecting the path, but no other gold to be found in that particular area, I did find old boot tacks though which is pretty cool, one spot had a bunch of them in one hole so I gave up recovering them, that miners boots must have fallen apart at that spot 🙂 The gold spot is the dig hole just above the pick in this photo. Here is a little video of it, I haven't watched the videos back yet but it likely shows this one had a better target signal than the previous bigger bit I found. It was pretty easy to film gold finds here as there is so little junk about, so filming bits of digs is worthwhile knowing they're likely gold. Next piece was on top of a little ridge It was my biggest bit of the day, had trouble carrying it for the hike back to the car. Deepest of the holes too. A smooth bit. This is its spot. And a little video of it, the second target next to it was one of 2 pellets I found all day. That was my last bit for the day, the day felt like it went really quick though, we finished up detecting about 7pm, but both of us didn't realize the time and thought it was about 5pm I guess. A benefit or a negative depending on how you look at it coming from the GPZ and GPX 5000 is the 6000 can have the pick so close to the coil it's not funny, it always surprises me how close the pick can go, even when you lay it down recovering targets so while using it I have a belt attached pick holder and in this location I am glad I did, as sometimes its half an hour between targets so nice to holster your pick. The super strong magnet I've got in my pick handle makes life easy too, if I'm using it more regularly, I can just attach it to my pick holder using the magnet to save the effort. It stays there when walking around as long as the pick doesn't bottom out on the ground. So other notable things from the day, this piece of quartz was so weird, it doesn't show up as well in the photo but its flat smoothed off and much like a tile or bench top, and really glossy, so weird. You can see the shine on that one side, but the entire flat surface of it is like that, and its smooth and flat although the photo doesn't show that well. It's like someone's cut it smooth and painted it with polyurethane. And my junk for the day, there was also a nail which I left behind and you can see why I say it's a dig it all location. I'm used to digging hundreds of pellets on the farm land locations, this spot, 2 🙂 Both big pellets too. And last but not least, some old miners' tins I found, I left them where they were, a bit of history. I think this tin can was never opened. This one looked like a giant sardine tin. I think I'll get a bit fitter so the hike and day of swinging a detector around going up and over hills and mounds of soils doesn't wear me down so much and go back to this spot more often, I do really like going there, it just takes it out of me. It's very difficult to E-Bike there too as much of the path is on a cliff side with a big drop and very skinny path no more than 40cm wide in many spots, I've done it before but ended up walking the bike much of the way as I wasn't crazy enough to ride it through the steep drop off areas. Today I'm completely jelly legs and walking is a challenge 🙂 JW doubled my gold count, he came away with 6 pieces, pretty small ones too, he was using the GPX 6000 and 10x5" Coiltek coil, a better choice of coil for the day, I think. I only had the NF coil on as it was left on there from a previous time. It was good to take the 6000 out though, leave it much longer and the old motor may seize from lack of use.

I went out for two days in the NV desert to use my new Axiom. I played with the setting for the first day trying to figure out the machine and what it was telling me. By the end of the day I was running a negative threshold. Day two I spent the morning in an area that looked promising. Tons of quartz and thermally altered schist with veins of quartz mixed in. This area was absolutely silent except for a 22 bullet down about six inches. I decided to give Rye Patch district a go on the way home. The Axiom ran so quiet in the morning I thought I was way off on what I was doing. At Rye Patch I started picking up minuscule bits or iron. I was also finding tiny fragments of bullets. I met a fellow detectorist while I was there. He was using the 6000, a 4500 I think, and a goldmonster. Preferring the 4500 over the 6000 which he said was giving to much feedback with the underlying clays being so wet. Since I was finding so many little fragments and bits I knew the machine was working as it should. When I found a target I would scrape the top 1-2" and check to see if it moved. Most of the little bits were surface. A few troublesome pieces of wire were 4" down. It was getting late and I was still working on the skunk. I was headed back to the truck and got a nice hi low sound that gave a similar result when I turned on it. I scratched off two inches and it sounded better. Went to 4" and it sounded better. At 4" I was hitting some rocks. I pried the first one out and poked the nose of the coil in the hole. The sound was so good. I pried the second rock out and stuck the coil in the hole. Nothing. Checked the rock and it's a fantastic signal. I scraped the clay off the rock and ran that glob over the coil. I had it. My first nugget ever! Update of first impression. The Axiom battery seems like it will run forever. It dropped 1 bar day one and 1 bar day two. I did re-charge it overnight. The arm cuff felt tight the first night I tried it but it flexed into a good fit. The Zlink headphones will drop out if not positioned properly. The settings I settled were 7 and -7. Very little ground noise.

Got my Algoforce the other day, only tried it out in the backyard at the moment. Won't be able to get to the goldfields for a few weeks yet. Backyard testing with some tiny pieces (about .25 gram) and some speciems with only a trace of gold in them and all seems well. Coils used were 12" evo round , 14 x 9 nugget finder and a old 14" round white spoked nugget finder. I intend to use the Algo after the mornings detect with the 4500 and the evo coils. Then use the Algo in the afternoon to give my aching back and shoulder some respite. (the joys of getting old). Thats the plan anyway I'll see how that pans out.

Looks like everyone is having a different copy version made of all the older Minelab technology. A definite sign Minelab needs to start filling the demand for newer better detector technologies unless of course they have hit a wall. I doubt that is the case as they have the largest electronics engineering team ever known for hobby detector development and have had these engineers on board for a long time now. Surprising they have had no new releases for such a long time in the gold detector series. So what has happened in comparison to the early years when the SD/GP/GPX releases were quite frequent, seems every 2 years or sooner then. Even though they were mostly minor upgrades until the GPX series they were enough to get the buyers interested. The GPX-5000 is about 14 years old and has been still a great selling detector, now it’s not available in the U.S. and you can only get a fake on the knock off marketplace now. SDC-2300 is 12 years old and still no Platypus coil for it. ZED is 9 years old. GM-1000 is 7 years old and still single frequency. So other companies have had plenty of time to make similar designs in a lower price range. Seems like we should have had had an upgraded wide variety and selection of the above mentioned models out by now. Give me a GPX-5500 in a light package and includes the SD2200d or original GPX-4500 depth range and Micks mods incorporated into it and you would have the professional gold hunter market covered. The GPX-6000 should have been called the GPX-auto lite since it has no larger coil options and would of been a great entry level for beginners with a lower price point than the above professional option mentioned. Hopefully things change for the better with the current Minelab corporate leadership and that they get back into the top player market again.

Hi All, Mostly been a Lurker on various forums over the years but on browsing this forum it seems to be a good place to be. About myself I have been chasing the gold since the early 80's both detecting and dredging, and as most of us older fellows have seen some pretty good days chasing the colour. Nowadays with the colour harder to get I seem to be enjoying the scenery much more. I have used a lot of different machines over the years starting of with a Whites Coinmaster, through most of the Garrets to Minelab. However I have been using the 4500 since the day it came out and just cannot part with it. Anyway enough of all that and I hope I can contribute in some way. Cheers Pete.

Considering that there is at least 100 of them out there, the reports have been scant. Those reports I have seen have emphasised the ergonomics, and cheap price, but not much else. My guess is that if you came in to an area behind anything more recent that a 4500, your chances would be limited, at best. There are currently 2 here in Victoria for sale second hand at the moment, that I know of. I really hoped that this would be something special, with auto ground tracking, given the pedigree of the maker. Maybe future models will be! Rick

NOTE THIS IS A TWO YEAR OLD THREAD REVIVED AND SO THE FIRST FEW POSTS ARE DATED. Simon reminded me I needed to do an update, and boy did I. It has only been exactly a year since the last update, but wow, what a lot of changes! I had to drop the Minelab X-Terra 705 Gold, Nokta/Makro Gold Racer, Nokta/Makro AU Gold Finder, and Minelab GPX 4500 from the list, because all have been discontinued And only one addition, the Garrett Axiom. The field is narrowing folks. There was one big shift in the order, as the Fisher Gold Bug 2 went up $100, and the XP ORX went down $150. That changed my view of the ORX in a big way. It wandered a bit when it came out with coils and price, but now has settled firmly into its' role as XPs nugget detector, and an excellent VLF option at $599. Anyway, it is a first draft, I'll edit again later after my mind clears, but there will be no major change, just tweaks for extra info, and to edit mistakes in grammar, etc. I did add a summary at the end for those that just want a simple, straight up opinion on what I'd use and why, since the listing is still long enough to confuse, with too many options to choose from.

Hi all. A fella I know, who we will call Jim, has been given (yes GIVEN!!) a GPX 5000 and has asked me for help to set it up. I think it is a year or so old but never been used as the original owner is unwell. I recently helped my sister's boyfriend who had issues with his 4500 so had roughly read the manual. The 4500 actually had a speaker issue as well so although we got it working OK the Threshold was still quiet. My less than expert diagnosis (from a bit of research here and PA Forum) was that his curly cord might be a bit defective and it isn't boosting the audio to the speaker. Anyway, I stopped around the other night and helped the bloke with the 5000 as best as I could having roughly ready the manual again. Now this bloke is technology illiterate and is not someone who is going to sit down and read or understand the 112 pages of the Minelab GPX 5000 manual. I did give him a print out of Steve H's GPX 5000 bit from the Detector Review area of this forum but even that is beyond him (the Timings/Mineralisation diagram for example). So, I have set the 5000 up to a point where the Threshold is humming nicely and we were finding targets in the bush quite easily. With the 5000 are an 11" mono Commander and I think it was a 17"X11" mono Commander. No DD which I thought was unusual but maybe they came in a package without a DD? The original owner might still have a few bits and pieces too as it seemed there were a few things missing. Have written up what I think are the absolute essentials for Jim to know about and change if he feels confident to do so. There are sooooo many controls on a 5000 that I feel like a 5 year old is in control of the cabin of a jumbo jet! The following is 112 pages condensed down to 2 😳 Wondering if those with the knowledge would be happy to peruse it and advise if they think it is a reasonable synopsis of all that is important. I have left out anything which I don't think is imperative for Jim to know or play with - at least at the start anyway. Things like battery voltage, etc. Have left many other things like Target Volume at factory presets. I also don't want it running really hot and Jim digging lots of ghost signals. So are my timings suggestions reasonable for moderate mineralisation ground with some hot rocks, moderate amounts of red, wet clay, etc? I generally cannot run Normal mode on the GPZ or the GPX6 in the local area if that is some guide. Rx Gain and Stabilizer - I think this is maybe going to raise the most discussion 😀 I have another old mate over near Mt Beauty that has a 5000 but he is a bit the same as Jim as he has no idea about technology either. But, he does find more than his fair share of gold and his detector runs very smooth and appears particularly sensitive to genuine targets without digging a lot of ground noise. He was previously running his 5000's Rx Gain and Stabilizer at settings provided by the dealer he had purchased off. He was then told by another old bloke to try the Stabilizer at half of the Rx Gain. Whatever the Rx Gain was, make the Stabilizer half. So that is what he has done ever since and he feels it is heaps better. Having never used a GPX 4500 or 5000 other than twice in the past 2 weeks I would really appreciate some constructive feedback before I pass this on to Jim 🙏 Cheers, N.E. GPX 5000. Front Panel:: Search Mode: Choose General. Deep is for detecting a small area slowly and carefully. Custom - then provides you with Patch, Hi-Mineral, Hi-Trash and Pinpoint. Soil/Timings: Normal - best wide range of performance. Enhance - cancels most ground noise and hot rocks. Special - If you choose Special on the Front Panel the following settings will then be available on the Rear Panel. - Sensitive Smooth - For severe soils. - Fine Gold - Good for small gold in mineralised soil. Ignores a lot of hot rocks and ground signal. - Sensitive Extra - Can increase hot rock signals. Better for mild ground. Good with Double D coils. - Salt/Gold - For very salty areas - salt lakes, high salt content gold fields, beach. - Sharp - More powerful but will increase false signals. - Coin/Relic - For low mineralisation areas. Poor ground balancing ability in high mineralisation. My suggestion is to start in Enhance. Could also try Special (Front Panel) and then Fine Gold (Rear Panel). Coil/Rx: Double D. Mono. Use this always unless you actually use a Double D coil. Cancel. Ground Balance: Tracking or Fixed - use Tracking. Back Panel:: I have only covered the things which you might need to alter from the Factory Preset settings. Rx Gain: Has a Range of 1 - 20. Adjust upwards until the Threshold starts to break up/get wobbly and then slightly reduce until the Threshold is stable again. Stabiliser: As Stabiliser increases it increases the sound of faint signals. But, it also increases the sound of EMI and ground noise, etc. Old mate thinks it should be half of what Rx Gain is. So if Rx Gain is at 10, then set your Stabiliser at 5. Audio Tone: Set it to suit your hearing. Factory Press is 50 but lower tones for older people can be better. On a day of detecting: Set up your Front Panel - Search Mode - Soil/Timings - Coil Rx - Ground Balance. Turn on the detector. Set the Threshold so that you can hear it easily. Do an Auto-Tune. If the Threshold is not nice and quiet - do it again. If it is still noisy check you Rx Gain and try turning it down. Set your Rx Gain (rear Panel) so that it is as high as you can go without the Threshold being wobbly. Set your Stabilizer at half of the Rx Gain. Perform a Ground Balance. Turn the Threshold down so it is just an audible Mozzie Hum. Start detecting.

So I just received a slightly used elite in the mail today. Won't be able to try it out for a week or three. I have seen posts and had the 15" nf recommended. The one I got was a price I could afford. It's going on a gpx 4500. What are the comparisons? I've tried several different searches here but must not be wording it right.

That seems a reasonable assessment to me, and why I've been pointing out all along 6000 and 7000 owners don't need one unless there is an attribute of it that they particularly like, like 7000 owners wanting a lighter machine to use for some particular reason or they want a PI they can use for stuff other than gold with its excellent Target ID's. I genuinely think GPX 4500/5000 owners would benefit from it, it's doing noticeably better on small gold than those models, along with its ability to find the gold they often miss, the prickly stuff and not just that, I tested a bunch of regular small nuggets commonly found here, and the Algo was doing better than the GPX 5000 by quite a bit, some the 5000 didn't even hit the Algo did. For them it's of even more benefit as they can share coils between detectors, and their Bluetooth transmitter and headphones. While I've never used an Axiom, I've not really known its comparison. The SDC is an iffy one to me, mainly due to my milder soil environment and it was a pretty poor performer here with the original GPX series being far better when fitted with a spiral or smaller bundle coil except for it being poor on the prickly type gold, so that one makes me wonder, as the Algo for me here in my soils is doing better on the smaller gold than the GPX, I have no doubts a GPX will be deeper on big targets though. What I see with the Algo is a whole lot of bang for the buck, half the price of an Axiom, way less than the 6000 and of course the 7000. The perfect detector for people not wanting to spend a lot of money and still get a very good performance machine, but not by any means the best and is filling a large hole in the market for that reason. Its other notable benefit is its very good EMI handling, it can run well in places others cannot. Now the big question hanging over it is benefits outside of prospecting with its Target Id's, how beneficial is that going to be in parkland and beach settings, for me so far, it's looking good.

On my GPX 4500 it comes with a full harness but i all ready had a new full harness anyway,do you mount the shaft mount for attaching the bungy above or below the camlock ?? only tried the once today above the camlock and suspended from the right handside anchor of the harness.....how do most folks use the bungy on the full harness especially when using the GPX.....only used it today with the 11'' stock coil,do you use the same setup when using a larger coil like say 18'' or do you move the mount down to the lower shaft just below the cam lock ?? Many thanks

Although I do not have a GPX 4500 I have been using that little Avantree Relay and the Avantree Torus with every detector I own other than the Legend which has built in aptX LL Bluetooth and that little Relay that @Wiggins sent and it works great no Lag and no cutting in or out, with my Axiom I have not noticed any kind of interference or background noise at all. I keep wondering what Avantree is cooking up since @Wiggins thread

I bought somebody's GPX 4500. It came with 4 coils. Then I realized that I don't have a clue what are the strengths and weakness of the different coil configurations. What are some general principals to guide folks in matching coils to the situations that they encounter? I don't recall having seen any guidance on this. Thanks

I presume you are using the 4500 PI because you want depth. Otherwise you would use VLF with target ID. If you want depth then the larger monos are your coils. Iron discrim doesnt work very well at depth anyway.