Who Has Had Issues With Their Gpx 6000?

[Steve Herschbach]

Minelab deserves a little heat on this one, and something tells me they can handle it just fine. Laughing all the way to the bank no doubt, as usual. As long as they deliver the performance edge, and they do without a doubt, they will remain the market leader. They can put spikes in the armrest so you have to bleed while using them, and if they bring home the gold, people will buy them.

[phrunt]

I'd like to know the percentage of failures of the GPX 6000, I'm sure it's quite low with how many appear to be in peoples hands.  Those with a fault scream from the hilltops so you know the faults exist, those that are content and happy with the product you rarely hear from.  It is abnormally higher than you'd expect but I doubt it's as bad as it may sound.

While the faults are real they haven't put people off the detector, it's selling in great numbers and very few people regret their purchase, most are extremely happy with it and many who own it have owned the other high end detectors so their expectations were very high and it's obviously met or exceeded those expectations.  The GPX 6000 didn't just have to satisfy the new to detecting market with little to no expectations of how it should perform, it's not really in the market they purchase in, it had to please the seasoned high end detector buyers and it has done just that.  Those that get faulty ones get the faults sorted out under warranty then they get to use it and find out what a great detector it is and many have come out saying how happy they are once they get a working one showing their recent gold finds with it.  One thing I've noticed the people that have had the faulty units are not the ones bagging out the detector.

Minelab would be just as annoyed with every faulty detector as the owner of the detector is, they lose money and reputation every time it happens.  I have had to warranty various Minelab detectors and have nothing but absolute positive comments to say about their warranty service, yes of course I was disappointed my products failed but I couldn't be happier with how the failures were handled, flawless. 

I will admit I was put off getting one early due to the faults, and am in no rush to get one after comparing it to what I've got, but I still would love to own one and may end up doing so, especially once they've had time to sort the issues.

[Jeff McClendon]

3 hours ago, Reg Wilson said:

Jeff McClendon, I am hoping that the QED that you purchased is the PL3 which was a good unit for the price. I am no longer involved with QED as I had a major falling out with the builder who insisted on putting the PL4 on the market without any testing. The new model was, in my opinion, inferior to the PL3 and after voicing my thoughts I was dismissed as a dealer.

Thanks Reg. 

I really enjoyed using the QED PL3 I owned for about a year. Nice detector. Difficult to ground balance in North American high magnetite iron mineralization.  Also, it was shipped to North America without being adjusted for our 60 Hz electrical system so EMI was hard to control......sounds familiar concerning the GPX 6000. How a mistake like that can happen is beyond me. I was told to just not use it near urban areas which happens to be where I live and often relic detect. Many of my prospecting sites are near big power lines too. Oh well.

I was an early owner of the GPX 6000. Like I mentioned above, I was turned off by its hyper sensitivity to US EMI using its mono coils. I was extremely impressed with the 14" DD coil and the seamless way the GPX 6000 could switch between mono and DD coils. I sold mine and regretted it. I picked up a used one recently for an incredible price that came with several extras. It behaves exactly the same as the first one. I will just patiently wait for a smaller DD coil from Coiltek.......hopefully.....please!!!!!

[Reg Wilson]

Jeff, I don't know why there have been complaints about the EMI in regard to the 6000. Is it just the USA or other parts of the world as well? Mine purrs like a kitten, but it has been suggested that perhaps it is the audio system that I use. Is the speaker the problem, or maybe the Bluetooth, neither of which I use. 

It has been suggested that I am just lucky. Maybe, but it seems unlikely.

[Steve Herschbach]

I’m not having EMI issues outside the norm in Nevada and  California at least. More like the GeoSense programming loses its train of thought for a bit, detector audio goes nutty, and it takes a couple resets to get it stable again. And even then it’s more like SDC stable, not GPX 5000 stable. I’d not say mine purrs like a kitten, more like spits like a cat! Whatever, it darn well finds the gold.

[Jeff McClendon]

11 minutes ago, Reg Wilson said:

Jeff, I don't know why there have been complaints about the EMI in regard to the 6000. Is it just the USA or other parts of the world as well? Mine purrs like a kitten, but it has been suggested that perhaps it is the audio system that I use. Is the speaker the problem, or maybe the Bluetooth, neither of which I use. 

It has been suggested that I am just lucky. Maybe, but it seems unlikely.

Reg, I have never used the GPX 6000 external speaker while detecting. I have used and really enjoyed the new model Minelab Bluetooth headphones. My GPX 6000 with the 14" DD coil works fantastic even in my backyard which has my neighbors 70 foot shortwave radio tower to contend with along with a crowded suburb full of Wi-Fi. The 11" mono.......I stepped it off recently........I could not get within 1000 feet of a big power line at a prospecting site. My former SDC 2300 had similar issues. I was able to get inside 100 feet with my GPX 5000 using its 11" Commander Mono using the mono setting. The GPX 6000 with the 14" DD coil, I could walk right under the power lines......go figure.

[Gold Catcher]

57 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

I’m not having EMI issues outside the norm in Nevada and  California at least. More like the GeoSense programming loses its train of thought for a bit, detector audio goes nutty, and it takes a couple resets to get it stable again. And even then it’s more like SDC stable, not GPX 5000 stable. I’d not say mine purrs like a kitten, more like spits like a cat! Whatever, it darn well finds the gold.

That's exactly my experience. But while the SDC remains unstable in unfavorable EMI conditions the 6000/11 can stabilize itself more effectively after some work, especially after a factory reset. GC

[jasong]

2 hours ago, Reg Wilson said:

Jeff, I don't know why there have been complaints about the EMI in regard to the 6000. Is it just the USA or other parts of the world as well? Mine purrs like a kitten, but it has been suggested that perhaps it is the audio system that I use. Is the speaker the problem, or maybe the Bluetooth, neither of which I use. 

It has been suggested that I am just lucky. Maybe, but it seems unlikely.

Not lucky, you're just in a much quieter environment.The USA is probably the noisiest place in the world when it comes to EMI. And some of us detect in the center of that noise. So when it comes to EMI performance, you cannot compare the US to AUS or vice versa. 

A quick Google shows: Just LAX alone does 700,000 flights per year while the entire country of Australia combined does something less than 1/3rd of that. And that doesn't even take into account the huge airports in Phoenix and Las Vegas or any of the medium ones nearby either, nor streams of tourist planes/helicopters in some places.

Now add in like 3 of some of the largest military bases in the world in that triangle of LA, PHX, and LV, places that are building and testing aircraft and technology we haven't even heard of yet. Also, one of the most built out cell networks in the world, one of the most dense concentrations of TV/Radio transmitters in the world, and one of the most built out power grids in the world with some very large nuclear, coal, gas, and hydroelectic plants and massive transmission lines. 

Also just LA, San Diego, Phoenix, and Las Vegas metros have almost the entire population of Australia, all crammed into a triangle 2/3rd the size of Victoria. More people in smaller area = higher EMI density. And that ignores all the medium, small, and rural towns entirely, of which there are many.

Now realize that some of us detect more or less in the center of that mess, and you'll understand why our reports on EMI don't always match the Aussie reports. Even within the USA, EMI varies considerably depending where you are at. 

[Reg Wilson]

Well jasong, I guess I am lucky. Lucky to live where I do.