Algoforce E1500 Plus In Black Salty Sand Compared To The GPX 6000, Axiom And Manticore

[phrunt]

A friend without Youtube filmed this video so I'm putting it up for him, he was playing around with his Algoforce and comparing it to the GPX 6000 and Manticore in some black salty sand and he did a good demonstration of how well the Algoforce can handle these difficult conditions that the GPX 6000 cannot handle at all.   He's using a MK2 Sadie in the video, you can make it work even better and deeper with a less sensitive coil.  I've had good results in my testing with the 11" Commander Mono in this sort of situation.

I've never understood when someone says the GPX 6000 handles tough conditions well, just because the packaging says all gold, all soils, all the time doesn't mean it's true 🙂 The older GPX models were much better in very tough ground like this black sand.

I've seen the same results as in this video around here, the 6000 fails badly in tough black sand conditions where the earlier GPX 4500/5000 worked much better and as you can see in this video the Algoforce also does very well and can even accurately Target ID accurately in the black sand.  The GPX 6000 also fails in hot rocks around here that the Algoforce handles well.
 

We have some of the worst black sand in the world in NZ at some of our West Coast beaches, I'm yet to take my Algo to the worst pure black sand beaches but the mixed sand and black sand beaches I've tried so far, it's worked remarkably well.  I hope to get a chance to go to some of the really bad beaches soon as I'll have a good advantage over the previous attempts by people to detect them, I think, the Tarsacci that was touted as handling our beaches was a massive failure and didn't work well at all, I expect the Algo is going to do much better from what I've seen so far.  I'll get some video when I make it to a good black sand beach showing how I go.

[GR Guy]

I tested the Coiltek Elite Max coils on the Algo and was very disappointed in the depth comparison to the 45. That was in mineralized soils, noting it’s not the black sands shown in the video.

[phrunt]

Yes, no doubt the GPX 4500 is deeper overall as a detector but it will miss a lot of small gold the Algoforce can get.   

The two detectors make great companion detectors especially seeing they share coils as areas where one may be weak the other is strong.  I'd love a detector that is a combination of the Algoforce and GPX 5000, that would be awesome.

[Lost Scout]

The AlgoForce continues to impress me. The target ID with targets that close is great.

The vet wrap on the manticore is something I used on my old goldbug ll for scratch prevention😀

[Norvic]

17 hours ago, phrunt said:

I'd love a detector that is a combination of the Algoforce and GPX 5000, that would be awesome.

Hmmmm Minelabs GPZ7000 is bloody close to those specs, Minelabs coming?? GPZ?000 with the 6Ks Geo Sense will probably better those specs. 😉

[Jonathan Porter]

On 3/17/2025 at 7:09 AM, Norvic said:

Hmmmm Minelabs GPZ7000 is bloody close to those specs, Minelabs coming?? GPZ?000 with the 6Ks Geo Sense will probably better those specs. 😉

We already have the love child of the Algoforce E1500 and GPX 5000, it’s called the Garrett Axiom.

As for the video, no one is going to find small gold regularly in those sorts of environments, I’ve rarely encountered that kind of ground in gold bearing areas, I think Steve has mentioned chasing coins and rings at Lake Tahoe, but a coin or a ring is a massive target for something as sensitive as a GPX6000, Axiom etc, ultimately you can’t ground balance to it.  (Hint….. 99)

On 3/16/2025 at 1:30 PM, phrunt said:

Yes, no doubt the GPX 4500 is deeper overall as a detector but it will miss a lot of small gold the Algoforce can get.

And this is the bit that really made me LOL, lifting the coil above a target and guesstimating the depth as the coil is lifted from ground effect proves what exactly? The Algo runs quieter for a reason, its dead zone is crazy bad, ergo ground effect drops off really quickly which is why the 4500 has MORE depth overall.  I can just about guarantee all the Minelab PIs will howl on that stuff including the SD2000. The Algo relies on sensitivity CLOSE to the coil very much like a VLF, it does this by reducing what the operator actually hears, raise the sensitivity to the point where some depth comes into play and it becomes so ratty that’s it’s unusable, everything below 20 is a massive move away from actual depth, so we only have near to coil and big targets that break through the dead zone. 

On 3/16/2025 at 1:04 PM, phrunt said:

I've never understood when someone says the GPX 6000 handles tough conditions well, just because the packaging says all gold, all soils, all the time doesn't mean it's true 🙂 The older GPX models were much better in very tough ground like this black sand.

0k so the Algo runs quieter in black sand, show me the money? Show me all the gold that’s being found with the Algo that’s been missed by everything else. Or is this only about finding a negative against ML no matter how minuscule and unrealistic it is in the actual scheme of ACTUALLY finding gold?

Let me put this another way, showing off the Algo working (if you can call it that) in ground like that is actually a negative not a positive unless we are only targeting ground like that, it just demonstrates how bad the Algo actually is other than the price. I bet any money the Axiom would also struggle on that stuff which SAYS it’s a MUCH better metal detector than the Algo, same goes for the reduction in magnetic basaltic rocks. 😂

Now of course if you have beaches with horrible black sands that are loaded with coins then this could be a handy tool, if a sensitive PI can kind of work there and nothing else can, I await the results when the time can be found to get away from the keyboard and actually go and test this out. Imagine trying to cover a beach with a Sadie? 🤣 🤣 😂 Showing a video and then broadly brush stoking and interweaving that across a whole spectrum is highly suggestive and misleading. 

[GotAU?]

On my first day with the Axion, I was at a site with many magnetic basalt rocks and I had a heck of a time working the area because of them. But I’m sure this was because of operator error as I was still green about properly setting the Axiom for the conditions (I left it on default mostly) and my being impatient and clumsy due to being really cold as it even started snowing while I was there.

But now that I am more familiar with properly setting the Axiom, I recently tried to work ground in a wash bottom and along its banks where the soil was hot and also contained many highly magnetic and very heavy black-colored hot rocks and pebbles that easily overloaded my 24k and 6000 when I preciously worked there. But my Axiom easily ground balanced to all of it and worked very well, even with small (<0.1 gram) test nuggets.

 Next time I’ll document the results from both sites but for what I experienced the other day, I’d say it works with hot soil and hot rocks- now I just have to bring home the money to show how well it worked when I finally find some! 😉

[phrunt]

I've found my GPX 4500 handled the local mixed black sand beaches well and I was using the 11' Mono Commander at the time, the spiral coils didn't do too good, I didn't get a chance to take it to the near pure ones as they're a 8+ hour drive away however it's now owned by a guy that lives at the black sand beaches on the North Island and uses it for that purpose, he's using the 11" DD coil on it.

I wouldn't mind taking my 5000 to one of the nearby ones and see how it goes against the Algoforce on some coins and so on at the beach, the earlier GPX series handles this stuff really well.  My 5000's out of commission at the moment though, the handle cracked on it when I took it out yesterday and now won't hold to the shaft so it's unusable.  The price of a replacement handle is insanity, a bit of plastic, some foam and a 2-dollar switch so I'm going aftermarket for the replacement which only cost me about $25 USD but won't have it for a couple of weeks.

I think it would be sensible to say someone hunting these sorts of black sand environments are not chasing small gold which the black sand is likely to swamp out, they're using the detector for alternative purposes like coins and rings and more commonly in New Zealand at least a beach environment.  If they were hunting for gold in it they would prefer a detector that goes someway to working rather than not working at all.  As the video demonstrates the Algoforce and 5000 will find a 0.3 of a gram bit of gold in this black sand, the 6000 will not.

The guy that made the previous video has also done one including the GPX 5000, it does quite well I think, it would do better with the DD coil though.  When he puts the targets on the surface, he's putting a bag of black sand over them.

 

[Guys gold]

Let your eyes be your guide.The 6000 performed badly,like it does in a lot of hot ground!Call it the way you see it.The Algo hit the target on that particular soil!End of story.If someone what’s to find a soil condition that the Algo won’t handle put it on screen.The 99 only means that the GB fell outside the 100 digital window.As in the upgrade firm ware that put lead shot at 00.The conductivity of metals can be analyzed in the cpu and be bracketed outside the 1-99 .Just because a signal goes outside the 99 digital window does not mean it doesn’t balance.