How To Select and Buy a Metal Detector
Tips and Guidelines for Buying a Metal Detector; Basic Types of Metal Detectors,
Here you can find some useful tips and information related to selecting and purchasing your metal detector. Please feel free to submit your own detector-buying tips and advices that could help others!
The most challenging part of the process, for both a beginner and sometimes an experienced brand-switcher, is to choose the right metal detector from dozens of new models appearing on the market continuously.
If you are considering to enter the hobby and buy your first metal detector, the process of making the right choice should be based on the following:
- Your goals, needs and abilities
- Amount of money you can invest into the hobby, including money to be spent for the necessary equipment or accessories in addition to your metal detector.
Buying the right metal detector depends on your understanding of different types of technologies used in metal detectors, their designs, features and specifications as well as the modern types of search coils and their applications. There are five basic technologies that has been incorporated into the electrical circuit designs of metal detectors.
BASIC TYPES OF METAL DETECTORS:
1) TR (Transmitter/Receiver) is the earliest technology based on Induction Balance (IB) principle of metal detection. TR detectors are able to tell the difference between a ferrous and nonferrous object, but do not have enough depth in highly mineralized ground. TR detectors are obsolete now.
2) BFO (Beat Frequency Oscillation) is another old technology based on Induction Balance (IB) principle. BFO metal detectors are the cheapest (under $100) and designed mainly as toy detectors for kids. Because the BFO technology is the easiest and cheapest to make, it has its limitations when compared to other types. For example, poor ability in distinguishing between different types of metals is one of them. BFO technology is also still used in cheap hand-held devices.
3) VLF (Very Low Frequency) metal detectors are the most common detectors and great for their ability in distinguishing between different types of metals. VLF detectors in the 4khz range are the best in working the ground with high mineral content, and very sensitive to silver and copper targets, however they are not sensitive to gold. Metal detectors that are specially designed for electronic gold prospecting have frequencies ranging from 18kHz to 71kHz.
4) VLF/TR technology represents a combination of Very Low Frequency and Transmitter/Receiver technologies thus enabling the VLF/TR detectors to control trash and ground mineralization simultaneously.
5) PI (Pulse Induction) metal detectors can not discriminate between different types of metals - this makes their use on inland sites with high concentration of trash extremely difficult. PI detectors are the best to use in salt water or highly mineralized soils where other types have trouble working. Targets can be detected much deeper with PI technology than with other types.
There are other categories of metal detecting technologies that can include other categories or be combined with them: RF (Radio-Frequency or Two-box detectors), BBS (Broad Band Spectrum), FBS (Full Band Spectrum), FBS 2 (it combines Minelab's FBS technology with wireless coil-to-detector communications), and Off-Resonance. BBS and FBS technologies are used by Minelab metal detectors and have a great advantage over Single- and Dual-Frequency types of metal detectors.
One thing you should remember in order to purchase the right kind of metal detector: if one metal detector is quite popular these days and everybody is buying it, it does not mean you have to have it as well. The right way to arm yourself with the right metal detector is to know exactly your goals, abilities, and opportunities that are available in the area in which you reside.
The hobby of metal detecting include the following types of treasure hunting activities: coin shooting, relic hunting, cache hunting, dry sand and wet sand beach hunting (beach combing), shallow water and underwater metal detecting, gold nugget hunting/gold prospecting, and meteorite hunting.
The manufacturers of metal detecting equipment produce various detectors that are specifically designed for all types of treasure hunting. Every year, the modern technology is rapidly producing new and improved instruments and tools for the hobby, thus allowing us to recover more finds from the sites previously thought as "hunted out".
When the metal detector entered the computer age, treasure hunting became simpler with a computerized "One-Touch", or "Turn-On-and-Go", type of metal detectors. I strongly recommend such an advanced detector, especially practical for a beginner, to all. The market offers a few computerized one-touch detectors at low cost.
Here is a little secret. Everybody is concerned about the detection depth of metal detectors. Believe it or not, all detectors in each class have the same depth potential, and it does not vary much between classes! A few metal detectors have an undoubted advantage over the rest of machines because these top-notch metal detectors are designed to provide 1) excellent separation of good targets from junk, 2) excellent recognition of targets, 3) correct Audio ID and display readings (Visual ID), and, of course, 4) a powerful microprocessor. And these four key features are effective only under the detector's excellent management of mineralized soils.
These factors should be your main concern because it would be much easier for you to learn your detector and have outstanding results if your metal detector "tells" you nothing but the truth. But you have to pay extra bucks for the most truthful machine and know how to fine-tune it.
WHAT TO DO BEFORE YOU BUY A METAL DETECTOR:
1) Once you have decided what type of metal detecting activity you are going to carry out, you need to determine what metal detector may be the most suitable for your metal detecting tasks.
2) After you narrow your choices to a group of metal detectors, talk to detector owners and dealers about these machines and try to average what they say.
3) Ignore unsubstantiated advertising claims that are simply "sell statements" and do not increase your knowledge of detectors.
4) First check out metal detectors built by leading manufacturers that have a continuing program of detector improvement.
MY ADVISE: If you do not find the manufacturer's name on that page, it means that I could not find any reliable information on that manufacturer and its products, or the manufacturer is known for producing either gimmicks based on outdated technology or feeble semblances of well-reputated metal detectors, or its metal detectors are poorly built from cheap materials in Southeast Asia or Eastern Europe. Or the manufacturer simply ceased production. If you are still in doubt, try to do your own research, but you better stick with the well known, tested, proven and trusted name brands!
5) Educate yourself in latest technologies and advanced features incorporated into the latest models of metal detectors, which nowadays make a big difference. Some of my articles and sections contain a wealth of invaluable information. One, for example - "Quieter Operation of A Metal Detector vs. Detecting More Deep Coins" gives details on myths about Sensitivity, Discrimination and Detection Depth. This article is included in the "Search Programs for Minelab FBS Metal Detectors" section where ALL SETTINGS and MODES of E-Trac and CTX 3030 metal detectors are explained in details.
6) Try to find and read as many reviews for detectors in focus, but exercise some caution against fake reviews and field tests. Such reviews can be characterized by a simple peculiarity: most of their space being taken by itemization of the detector's controls and features while lacking descriptions of actual performance, or being inconlusive about it. If you come across a statement like "I found a gold ring within first 15 minutes of metal detecting!", this review is rather suspicious than an unbiased review from a real user, especially a novice. Usually, it takes a beginner a few weeks to learn the search coil discipline alone.
7) After you narrowed your search to a couple of models, visit a local dealer and try them out to determine which is the most comfortable for you.
8) If possible, rent a detector and try it in real metal detecting conditions.
9) Be aware of the price changes during the year. The best time for purchasing a metal detector is from Christmas to the end of January.
WHAT TO DO WHEN BUYING A METAL DETECTOR:
1) Shop around by obtaining prices from different dealers, checking out listings in Classifieds, local Metal Detecting Clubs and on the Internet.
2) Check for special deals on packages that include essential accessories (headphones, extra battery packs, detector bags, digging tools, etc.)
3) Check with major distributors and dealers for availability of demo detectors, usually they are sold for lower price.
4) Be careful when buying a detector on eBay. In case of a used metal detector, you will never know how badly it may have been abused (dropped onto the hard ground surface, exposed to heat and moisture, or even drowned). The detector's search coil will never tell you how it was bumped hard against rocks and roots. But you likely will hear something like "Oh, I used this detector only once or twice a week in my backyard!"
If you are getting a new metal detector, be aware of cheap deals, and better skip them! Otherwise, you will end up getting junk, and waste your money. Same goes for buying discounted items from large sellers/distributors of metal detectors and equipment. For example, they may sell cheap Chinese-made detectors for prices that are three or four times higher than the prices they got them for: $50 a piece when bought in bulk. And eBay is full of those cheapos!
REASONING AGAINST BUYING A CHEAP METAL DETECTOR:
I would not advise to anyone to buy a cheap detector. Not only a good metal detector is a vehicle back through time, it is an investment. As a novice to the hobby begins metal detecting, he/she goes from curious to intrigued. From intrigued a beginner goes to serious, and from serious to addicted, and there is no backing out.
Now a detectorist has got a growing appetite for more profitable sites, more time to be in the field, and for better finds. A cheap detector would hardly provide the latter, and a treasure hunter would have to spend more money upgrading to a better machine. As an old saying goes, "A stingy person pays twice."
Today the technology is developing so fast that a number of new models appear on the market every year. And they all have some new features which give them an advantage over previous models of the same class. Metal detectors of a new generation are capable to detect those targets that have not been detected by machines of preceding generations. And if you get a detector from the latter group, chances are that you will be two generations behind next year. It means that, at any given "searched-out" site, you will be getting bored while others with advanced machines will be pocketing "goodies" and would not think of this site as "searched out" at all.
If you are not sure whether or not to invest over $1,000 into an advanced metal detector in focus, rent such a metal detector from your local dealer, or borrow it from your friend (best if he/she comes along), and try it out at any metal detecting site for a few days. After you get some feel of the process, it would be easier for you to decide whether you seriously want to pursue the hobby or not.
I hope that in the near future, the engineers will design a metal detector that could be easily updated every time the technology leaps forward. It would be nice if the detector's design would incorporate some easy removable electronic boards or microprocessor chips into the control box, so anyone could modify one's metal detector at home. And then a detectorist would be able to continue using the machine to which he/she has already been accustomed; thus, achieving greater results.
Or by switching one microchip, a detector user could change his/her metal detector's type, let's say, from a coin shooting machine to a gold-prospecting detector! Oh well, before such a detector comes into existence, inevitability of upgrading to a more capable detector will remain a big factor. That is why it should be seriously considered when you are in the process of buying a metal detector.
And finally, never forget that what makes one detector more productive than another is not only the detector's ability to correctly "recognize" many "difficult" targets, but also is a person who operates it. Choose the most advanced detector you can afford, learn its "language" well, do hard work, and then you will enjoy the fruitful results.
by Sergei Upstateny,
