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I figured I needed a smaller coil for the Apex, so ordered and it just showed up. Ground is thawing so should be able to use very soon. I like this detector and this coil makes it a real featherweight. 2 lbs 7.7 oz or 2.48 lbs with scuff cover. I like small coils and this is a sweetie, well made, and nice to buy a coil and a cover for reasonable price for once, $119 plus $10 for scuff cover. Garrett part# 2223800 Garrett 5" x 8" Ripper coil for Ace Apex Ace Apex with Ripper coil

Jan 25, 2021 NQExplorers - In this video we explore the advanced features of the Garrett Apex metal detector in more depth and give some insights into how the machine works and ways you can use these features to maximise your success. Thanks for watching! Warren and Colleen.

How would you rate it's performance for the places and way you like to hunt so far at a scale of 0-10 ? 10 being the highest.

This is a Garrett forum for people who like Garrett detectors, so they can learn about how to get the best out of them. If you want to compare brands, or just state your negative opinion of Garrett or it's products, please use the appropriate forums, like the Advice & Comparisons Forum. Thanks.

Hi guys. Waz from australia here, Perth. Curious to see if the apex has a niche in our goldfields. I have purchased one and are waiting. I could see it of use on mullock heaps and scrapings for fine gold. Do you agree? What settings would you recommend for this type of detecting given mineralised ground, hot rocks etc. Hoping it will be an ok prospecting detector in this sense, along with treasure hunting and prospecting on salt lakes..cheers waz

My primary-use Garrett Apex sports the excellent 5X8 DD 'Ripper' coil that is ideal for most of the places I like to hunt, in town or rural and remote. On my 2nd Apex I keep the really functional 8½X11 DD 'Raider' coil mounted for working plowed fields, similar range-land, or wide-open / sparse-target parks and similar places. I ordered my 3rd Apex just to keep the smallest search coil mounted where it needs to fit in and around and between dense brush, rocks, building rubble, etc., etc. For now I am going to mount the new NEL 5" 'Sharp' DD coil because that is the smaller coil currently available for the Apex. I've been hoping for them to offer their functional 4½" Concentric coil, if it is designable for the Apex. It can be worked on the single-frequency models and i am hoping it can be made to work on the Apex. I like smaller 4½ to 5" coils to get in and around really tight cover, especially Relic Hunting older sites. Plus I would like it to be a Concentric coil deign for the Apex in that smaller-size. I have used DD coils as well since 1971, and while I have DD coils now for my three Apex, and on my V-540 and Simplex +, I have Concentric coils o my XLT, F5 and two favorite Tesoro models. There's a time and a place where both coil types have some advantages, so I'll keep hoping. I'm curious how many Garrett users currently make use of the 4½" Concentric coil on which models, and do any of you have a desire for one for the Apex? Monte

People keep saying the Apex cannot be updated over the internet. Can anyone provide a quote from Steve Moore or Brent Weaver saying that it is not updateable?

I put the Apex on eBay a few days to see if it would sell at $340 plus $20 shipping (that's $65 less than the going price new). Got a lot of questions about how I liked it and why I was selling it. Also got a bunch of low ball offers at $250-$300. I assume from this the Apex isn't going to be a hot seller used. When I sold my Vanquish 540 pro package it was gone at $425 plus $20 shipping in a matter of hours. So if I have to give the Apex away I guess I'll keep it and see what additional coils/updates come out in the future. From the 20 hours or so I have on the Apex I really can't see myself using it for anything but urban clad coin hunting. If they bring out a smaller coil it might do OK in a ghost town.

I got my first chance to take the Apex out for a test drive in a local park. I chose U.S. Coins mode because the area I was hunting is home to a Carnival with Rides and Game Booths every year. I must say, it ran fairly quiet until it hit a target. I will most likely use Zero in the future as the “Pre-set” modes may have more discrimination than I’m used to. Or I could “Accept” some of the blocked-out segments to create a “Custom” Program. Overall impressions: Simple, nice and light weight, well balanced, easy to adjust settings plus the Wireless Audio that you can hear your Pin Pointer through! However, I watched a You Tube video of a hunt at a Boy Scout Camp. The videographer mentioned that the Depth Gauge seemed to be “off”. I experienced the same issue. One target read 4” when it was right under the surface. This happened more than once. My 1.5 hours netted me some Clad coins, a Cinemark Token, a Fleur-de-lis snap or button cover and three strange washers. I only found one other piece of “junk” which appears to be cast Aluminum. Comparing it to the Minelab Equinox Series would be a bit unfair. While they share similarities like Simultaneous MF, GB, Noise Cancel (Frequency Shift) and Preset Programs including Beach Mode, that’s where it ends. The Nox has way more Features and Adjustments putting in a completely different league altogether! The APEX is simply an entry level Multi-Frequency Metal Detector for those starting out or an upgrade for the many Ace Enthusiasts. I’ve mostly worked with the White’s TRX which reads off the tip. It will take some time getting used to the 360 degrees of the Garrett and Nokta Pin Pointers. My only real concern other than the Depth issue is what problems, if any, may occur due to them being put together so quickly to fill the many preorders and back orders.

This is a video that Garrett has done in response to some of the user videos made about the new Apex. It’s possible this was posted before and I missed it... been busy lately! “Iron targets can “mask” or change the Target ID of adjacent good treasure targets. Two examples of target masking are presented, along with a demonstration of successfully scanning coins mixed into a row of nails. Although the presence of iron can change a target’s ID, this video shows how easy the Garrett Apex can pick out the treasures in such trashy detecting environments.”

Hitting a NEW PERMISSION, fields surrounding a Manor House with the Nokta Makro Simplex, Minelab Vanquish and Garrett Apex

Video of the Apex on Monte's Nail Board Test.This is Monte's official Nail Board Test he sent me Years ago.I think for the large size of the stock coil and DD its quite Good!!Test done with factory tone break.Zero Disc.Multi Freq and some other solo freq's at one point for a comparison. Keith

If you want to see the Apex in the action in the field here is a video I did over the weekend. Didn't compare it to anything in this video just got out and hunted with it.

I am an extremely new user and just received the apex as my first detector.....did I make a poor decision?

I want to start by saying that I really hate posting reviews like this when I'm disappointed in the results. Makes me feel like the bad guy or that maybe, just maybe I had the metal detectors setup wrong. Anyway here is a quick review. Garrett Ace Apex Review Part 1 Got a Garrett Ace Apex delivered today, work is slow right now so I got right to testing it out. I’m going to post my review in 2 parts. Part 1 will be about the separation abilities of the Apex. Part 2 will be about the depth capabilities of the Apex. First wanted to say, I’m pretty impressed with the build quality and ergonomics of the Apex. I won’t bore you with the overview of the machine. I’m sure there are others that will give or have given a full run down of the physical qualities of the detector. In my mind (and I might be wrong) the question most educated (meaning they already own a metal detector) perspective buyers will have is how does the Apex compare to the Minelab Equinox and Minelab Vanquish. Minelab pretty much has the multi-frequency thing figured out, so how will the new Apex compare in multi-frequency. Historically multi-frequency machines haven’t been known for their lightning speed separation abilities. So not only will I compare the Minelab Equinox but I’m also going to through in some other popular detectors. There are 2 tests I like to do that will give me a pretty good idea of how a metal detector performs in iron. The end to end nail test with coins in between and Monte’s nail board (I used my own rusty square nails, not an official board you can buy from him). On the nail board (your results may vary, I think mine is tougher) I tested XP Deus 9” HF coil (sonar), Minelab Equinox 6” (park1), Fisher F19 5 x 10 coil, Nokta Makro Simplex 5 x 10 coil (park 2) & Makro Racer 2 7 x 11 (3 tones) against the Apex (zero mode MF). Results are as follows: XP Deus 7/8 hits, Minelab Equinox 5/8, Fisher F19 6/8, Nokta Makro Simplex 8/8 Makro Racer 2 7/8, Garrett Apex 4/8. If you remember my test of the Minelab Vanquish I was not impressed with either the v12 or v8 coil in this test. The end to end nail test has nails end to end with a penny, dime and nickel in between the nails with a space of about 1.5 inches. I like this test vs the coin between 2 perpendicular nails as most metal detectors can hit a coin between 2 perpendicular nails without a problem. Not a real good test IMO. Results from end to end nail test are as follows: XP Deus 9” passes even with a fast sweep speed, Minelab Equinox 6” coil struggles 11” coil has no problem, Fisher F19 5 x 10 passes even with a fast sweep speed, Makro racer 2 7 x 11 passes but sweep speed needs to be slow, Nokta Makro Simplex 5 x 10 passes but sweep speed needs to be slow, Garrett Apex will not hit any of the coins in any mode at any frequency. If you remember my test of the Minelab Vanquish with both the v12 and v8 coils neither coil could hit any of the coins either. The thing that’s interesting about the above tests is that some of the detectors excel at one test but not the other test and visa versa. For example the Nokta Makro detectors excel at the nail board test but kind of struggle with the end to end test. This is the very reason I like doing both tests it show performance in multiple scenarios. When I’ve taken the above knowledge into the field and compared one detector to another the performance results for the most part mirror the results I got doing the above tests. I read about people all the time saying I took this new machine to a place I’ve pounded in the past with this other detector(s) and I found this awesome coin/relic. This new metal detector is the best on the market. Well that all fine and dandy but if you didn’t compare the two prior to digging the target how do you know one’s better than the other. Maybe you just missed that patch of ground or you approached the target from a different direction, or, or, or. You get my point. But if you get a target and run another detector over the area and get no response, or better response, etc. then you can say, yes this is a better detector. Otherwise there are no facts to back your claim. I’ll probably do a video of the above results when I have more time. In the end I’m not impressed with the Apex compared to other machines in it’s price range. Slightly worse separation performance than the Vanquish 540. The Apex has a lot going for it, wireless, rechargeable batteries, light weight, looks good and weatherproof. But honestly, I’ll take a Simplex over the Apex. Hopefully the Apex can redeem itself in the depth test like the Vanquish did.

I said I was done with the videos about the Apex but I had to do one more that does show some improvement on the in-line nail coin test. I have no problem admitting that sometimes there's a better way to do things, I would like to see Garrett succeed just as much the next guy, so anything that shows improved performance is welcome. If you're only interested in those results skip to 2:46 in the video. FYI Monte Berry posted somewhat of a review on metaldetectingforum.com that pretty much matches what I've been saying about the Apex. He's also the one who suggested using iron audio off for the best results. Monte does pretty thorough tests and misses very little. You can see his comments here Apex comments The rest of the video addresses some of the comments made on Facebook about my previous videos. The only link I posted to the video was on this forum but someone posted it to an Apex users group and let the fun begin. You'd think I killed their favorite dog. It is what is. So i'm sure someone will find this video and post it there as well, not going to be me though. If people watch it at least they will know where I'm coming from.

Submitted by Detector Ben in eastern Nebraska. He is an independent user of his new Apex testing on deep targets and his own test bed/iron separation. Comparison with the Nox 800. (I wonder what his iron bias and iron volume settings were on the Nox 800) He actually answered this question on another forum. He had his iron bias on F2=4 and his iron volume was on its lowest setting (which is why we could not hear it on the video going over the square nail). Sometimes the Nox will give an iron tone on deep targets with no VDI. Thanks for the great video Ben!!!! I'm keeping my money in my wallet. Jeff

OK new comparison and probably the last one for me. Doing this one because Monte made a comment on another forum about the Apex needing to have iron audio off in order for it to perform better on the nail board test. I thought I would throw the F19 into this video since it's in the price range of the Apex. IMO the Apex is just another choice in the $250-450 price range and it's going to come down to the features and performance you want as to which metal detector you chose. Like Steve, I feel like it's closest competition is the Vanquish 540 at $369 and to me the Apex isn't worth the extra money. Funny I should say that because I don't have the Vanquish anymore.

Garrett Ace Apex Review Part 2 Part 2 is the Apex depth test and comparison. Let me say right up front that my soil is 4-5 bars on the F75, so not mild ground. So, you’ll probably get different results if you have really hot ground or mild ground. The multi frequency feature of the Apex is what most interests me. I want to see how it compares against the Equinox (for target ID and depth) and other single frequency machines with similar sized coils. I’ve got a test garden in my yard of buried items, some in polluted holes. They are quarters buried at 2, 4, *6 & 8 inches. Dimes buried at 2, 4 & *6 inches. Nickels buried at 2, 4, 6 & 8 inches. Small pewter button (is a close representation of a $1 gold coin) buried at 2, 4 & 6 inches. *indicates polluted hole. In the above test, I’m not only looking at whether or not a machine can detect the item but how accurate the ID is at each depth. The Apex was tested against the following metal detector and coil combinations: Minelab Equinox 800 (park 1) 6” coil (closest size for comparison), XP Deus 9” HF coil (deep mode), Fisher F19 5 x 10 coil, Nokta Makro Simplex (field mode) 5 x 10 coil & Makro Racer 2 (deep mode) 7 x 11 coil. I’ll try to make this short-Equinox with 6” coils sees all targets, and accurately ID’s the 2, 4 & 6 inch targets it will also accurately ID the 8” nickel. Nokta Makro simplex accurately ID’s the 2 inch targets, hits the 4” but ID is off, can also see the 6” targets except the dime and small pewter. Fisher F19 can accurately ID 2 & 4 inch targets. XP Deus can accurately ID the 2 & 4 inch targets can also ID the 6” quarter and nickel. Makro Racer 2 can accurately ID 2 & 4 inch targets. Garrett Apex can accurately ID all 2” targets but after that it can hit all targets but ID is for the most part all over the place. I only did a video on the Simplex and the Apex. Would just take way too long to video every detector. You can find the link to the video at the end of this post. Also, in my yard I have an IHP buried at 3” with 2 nails on the surface 3” out from center. A 5” coil can get between the two nails but regardless of the metal detector/coil used I’ve yet to find one that can hit the IHP (even with a 5” coil). The nails always win, might be my mineralized dirt. But, in any case the Apex can’t hit it either. The only other metal detector I wish I had access to is the Minelab Vanquish 540. But I know that unit well enough to know that performance in iron would be about the same as the Apex. However, the Vanquish I feel would have a clear depth advantage. Overall I feel like the Apex (as far as depth goes) fits nicely in the price range it falls in with other similar detectors. It looks good, feels good, has wireless headphones and a rechargeable battery. Performance would best suit it for open park areas and wet sand on the beach. In a trashy environment the Apex seriously lacks performance and I personally feel like I would be walking over too much in a ghost town or trashy relic site or any trashy site to justify using it. Here’s the video If you want to see the Nokta Makro Simplex and Garrett Apex being compared on a separation and depth test.

In the last 24 hours, there have been some rumblings over on Friendly that a YouTube video was posted showing a pre-production model in moderate iron trash performing very poorly. That video has been taken down by someone.......... Enough people saw it to comment and a couple of them know what they are talking about usually. I did not have a chance to see the video so I can't comment. There have been a couple of recent vids by Ohio Farm Hunter which really put me to sleep (not a bad thing) that showed a tester model which did not impress me. Jeff

Missing the flap that covers the outside battery recharge port. I was at my dealer when it arrived. Looks to have been opened by someone prior to shipping. You can also see where it was torn off. He has four more coming so I will let you know if they also shared my fate.

Way to go Garrett.

It’s official, they are rolling off the production line! 👍🏻

Aug 13, 2020 NQExplorers - In this video we test drive the all-new Garrett Mutli-Frequency, Multi-Salt APEX metal detector, overlanding more than 500km in three days from the salt water beaches of the Gold Coast to the highly mineralised goldfields of Queensland, Australia. The new machine proves to have outstanding salt water detection qualities (Multi-Salt mode) making it a superb beach machine, while Multi-Frequency hits big deep silver and 20kHz delivers on our small gold nugget in highly mineralised soil. At almost 40 minutes this video is a lot to take in so you may need salty snacks and some kind of refreshing beverage to get you through it. Short cuts to each part of the video: Beach: 0.00 Bush: 15:41 Goldfields: 33:02 Thanks for watching and subscribing and Happy Fossicking! Warren and Colleen.