Rating The Tesoro Umax Models

[Bill (S. CA)]

Can someone comment on what exactly were the circumstances of Tesoro going out of business?  I seem to recall it was a bit murky but I could be wrong; I though it had something with it being discovered that their building had been sold.  Just wondering what happened to their remaining inventory and if they sold their name/designs to another company.

[Rick N. MI]

I know a lot of people liked the Tesoro's but they just couldn't keep up with the new detectors coming out. I don't think they were selling good enough because of that and they didn't want to use a screen in there detectors. I wish they were still in business though. They are such a nice detector to use. Also had a lifetime warranty at the time. 

I think they did sell everything to someone if I remember right. I don't think it will be coming back.

[Steve Herschbach]

On 7/15/2023 at 12:43 PM, Bill (S. CA) said:

Can someone comment on what exactly were the circumstances of Tesoro going out of business?  I seem to recall it was a bit murky but I could be wrong; I thought it had something with it being discovered that their building had been sold.  Just wondering what happened to their remaining inventory and if they sold their name/designs to another company.

Other way around. The business failed, then the building and contents were put up for sale.

Tesoro and White’s failed for basically the same reasons. The founding owners died and the kids took over. Nepotism is not a good formula for business successions, and businesses left to the kids fail more often than not. Rather than innovate to keep up with changing customer tastes, both doubled down on old designs, figuring they knew better than the customer what was needed. With Tesoro they resisted target id and more than basic tones. With White’s it was the big box design. The cell phone generation wanted cell phones on a stick, and the companies that delivered prospered. White’s was at least trying near the end, but Tesoro never did even that. As far as I know they did not even sell the name. The company just died and was left for bone pickers.

[phrunt]

I'm surprised the Chinese Cloners never made them, they've duplicated many Whites models before and especially after their demise and the Tesoro's would be such an easy clone for them even with schematics floating around for models to make it even easier yet they never bothered.  I guess they just figured they're too outdated to make it worthwhile.    I expected when they went bust the cloners would go nuts making them but it never took place.  I guess they'll only clone what they think will sell well enough to make it viable and if they can't sell lots of them with their very cheap prices Tesoro had little hope in todays market. 

Part of that problem being the lifetime warranty, why buy new when a decade old second hand one is still under warranty forever so just as good as new.  Great for the customer, terrible for the business unless they're a very innovative business and new models obsolete old models so people want to upgrade, in their case little changed with models so they killed their own business.

[PhaseTech]

Physical pots and switches are more expensive than segmented displays..... also, lifetime warranty probably wasn't the greatest idea. And zero social media presence was the final nail for Tesoro. 

[Tony]

3 hours ago, PhaseTech said:

final nail for Tesoro

Hmmmmm…..that can’t be it.
Tesoro’s were good at knocking out nails.😜

[Steve Herschbach]

Lifetime warranties do not mean “we fix everything free forever”. Warranties cover manufacturer defects, and those typically are revealed in the first year of use.

Our lifetime warranty covers defects in material and workmanship for as long as it is owned by the original purchaser. The warranty excludes batteries, damage caused by leaky batteries, cable breakage due to flexing, wear of the searchcoil housing, and leakage caused by the condition of water seals on underwater detectors. Also excluded are instruments which have been abused, altered, or repaired by an unauthorized party."

Emphasis added. If something simply wears out, or is broken because you sat on it, that’s not warranty. You have to show that there was some error made in manufacturing. Companies may opt to do more than that, but they are not obligated to.

[phrunt]

Except a lot of electronic components have "powered on hours" that they're expected to last. 

Here's a story on it regarding computer power supplies and capacitors

https://www.xppower.com/resources/blog/electrolytic-capacitor-lifetime-in-power-supplies

The placement of components matters too, as operating temperature can significantly shorten their life, and detectors in very hot desert climates with the sun beating on them are likely to last a shorter time than one in a cooler climate for this very reason.

So, Frank who goes out and uses his detector in the desert most days in it's black sealed housing to be waterproof with the sun beating on it is likely going to have a significantly shorter life of his detector than Robert who detects weekends randomly and does so in a the not so sunny Scotland looking for relics largely in a cloudy environment with blustery cool Scottish winds.

Some components can last as little as a few thousand hours in some conditions.

And this would be a warranty under a lifetime warranty.

[Steve Herschbach]

True Simon but fact is most detectors spend their hours in dark closets. 🙂

Seriously though Tesoro went under for only one reason. They basically stopped making new models. The Mojave took forever to appear, and really, it was just more of the same.

[Sven1]

And the Tesoro "Cazador" after a number of years, that everyone was waiting for, never materialized.

It never made it into production, they had no engineers to bring performance up to snuff. So it was quietly canned.