Anyone else tried their Equinox in the water yet?

flgliderpilot

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I did a long water hunt yesterday and the machine worked ok. Pinpoint was a little flaky in the water.. sometimes it would work, sometimes it wouldn't. It was definitely useful for discovering that your target is a crab trap and not a deep ring, but sometimes it would sound off on everything except the hole. Most of the time it could be coaxed into working.

I had a bunch of targets disappear on me, even after re-scooping the hole several times, but they seemed to be light items, pennies and pull tabs. It's possible they drifted. It's very sensitive to foil so I found myself digging the smallest little bits of foil or can slaw. In the water is where it's not fun digging these sorts of targets.

In the end I came home with some quarters and a tungsten band. The usual. Nearly all my targets came up in the first scoop, but I think that's because the bottom was fairly hard.

The machine does chat a little in the water. I noticed if you rotate the machine between 11 and 1 o'clock, it will false loud every time at 1-2. If you are aware of this it's not a problem though.

Not enough time yet to determine how it compares to my CZ-21, but it was certainly easier to carry on the walk back.

Oh and got hit by a sting ray for the first time. Luckily it was not a big one but it still hurt pretty bad. Hot water worked great.
 

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toddbbq

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I have a few times and learned a few things the most important one for me was the detector sinks to the bottom pretty fast and ground balancing in the water is pretty important also.
 

lookindown

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The whole detector sinks if you let it go?
 

Treasure_Hunter

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The whole detector sinks if you let it go?
At least you don't have to keep pushing the coil down like we did on the Beach Hunter ID with it's buoyant coil..
 

toddbbq

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Yepp... I am going to put some expanding foam in the end of the Anderson shaft I have it mounted on and should solve the sinking issue.
 

GreenMeanie

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What beach mode did you use in the water?
I have seen a few people confused on which mode to use lol.
 

DeepseekerADS

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I'll be watching this thread. I love my Excal and it won't be likely I'll move away from that. But - it pays to know as much as possible about everything!
 

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flgliderpilot

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What beach mode did you use in the water?
I have seen a few people confused on which mode to use lol.

Beach mode 2

Regarding the sinking mine just hangs by my side on the headphone cord.

Some people are taping a water bottle under the cuff.
 

Rodbuster209

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Assuming your in salt water, I wonder how it is in fresh water with a lot of black sand. I ordered mine on 3-21-18 and if I get it before 6-4-18 I will be finding out the very next morning. Good luck!
 

Terry Soloman

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I've had it in shallow salt surf, and shallow river. No problems as yet, very stable, not as easy to pinpoint with as my Sand Shark was, but I'm getting there. Silver in the saltwater, no gold so far. :skullflag:
 

rc2125

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Assuming your in salt water, I wonder how it is in fresh water with a lot of black sand. I ordered mine on 3-21-18 and if I get it before 6-4-18 I will be finding out the very next morning. Good luck!

Been out a few times, Eq 800, fresh water (Lake Michigan), on a couple beaches that are very loaded with black sand, it was amazingly quiet, even at 24 sens and transitioning in and out of the wavy water.
 

GroundBalanced

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No issues with the 600. Sometimes the pinpointer likes to sound just floating but if you click out and back in, it's back to normal. Targets sound good, etc, only issue is i have to keep relatively shallow since i'm using wireless headphones that aren't waterproof since the wired waterproof ones are still not available (but soon i hear). Beach 2 in the water. Beach 1 in the dry sand.
 

Treasure_Hunter

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No issues with the 600. Sometimes the pinpointer likes to sound just floating but if you click out and back in, it's back to normal. Targets sound good, etc, only issue is i have to keep relatively shallow since i'm using wireless headphones that aren't waterproof since the wired waterproof ones are still not available (but soon i hear). Beach 2 in the water. Beach 1 in the dry sand.

They are suppose to be available in the next few weeks.
 

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flgliderpilot

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I've read that the weird pinpointing issue I had was actually because if the pinpoint gets overloaded, it mutes the output. This explains why it would be strong outside the hole, and off inside the hole. I needed to detune it again manually to get it locked in.
 

Rick K

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At a FL Gulf beach yesterday, on buried 14k gold rings, earrings and thin bracelets, my CZ6 in Salt mode with the 10.5 coil hit the big stuff noticeably deeper than the Nox600 in either beach mode. Thin and small stuff, the Nox was better.

Nox signals were more “iffy” - the CZ hits like a drum.

Nox pinpoint went crazy in the water.

I much preferred the chest mounted CZ6 (unmodified) in the water.

on the dry sand, for small gold, the Nox is no doubt much better - but at the cost of finding nearly microscopic bits of foil.

They both lied about rusty beer caps. The Nox “hotshoe trick” helped on the unrusty ones.
 

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flgliderpilot

Bronze Member
Apr 28, 2015
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Saint Augustine, FL
Detector(s) used
CZ-21, Minelab Equinox, Garrett AT Pro
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
At a FL Gulf beach yesterday, on buried 14k gold rings, earrings and thin bracelets, my CZ6 in Salt mode with the 10.5 coil hit the big stuff noticeably deeper than the Nox600 in either beach mode. Thin and small stuff, the Nox was better.

Nox signals were more “iffy” - the CZ hits like a drum.

Nox pinpoint went crazy in the water.

I much preferred the chest mounted CZ6 (unmodified) in the water.

on the dry sand, for small gold, the Nox is no doubt much better - but at the cost of finding nearly microscopic bits of foil.

They both lied about rusty beer caps. The Nox “hotshoe trick” helped on the unrusty ones.

Thanks this seems to be the case with my CZ-21 also, but I haven't taken both into the water for a solid comparison yet.
 

dewcon4414

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Over 200 hours...... and it dont leak lol. You cant beat the coil movement...... coil control is much easier even in swift water. Ive never let go of my detector...... but it is tethered by the phone cable.... pretty light in the water. So light im not seeing nearly the wear on the skid plate as the CTX or Xcal. Ive about got mine tweaked ...... but still like to change and test ...... its just a fun machine to play with.
 

lookindown

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Over 200 hours...... and it dont leak lol. You cant beat the coil movement...... coil control is much easier even in swift water. Ive never let go of my detector...... but it is tethered by the phone cable.... pretty light in the water. So light im not seeing nearly the wear on the skid plate as the CTX or Xcal. Ive about got mine tweaked ...... but still like to change and test ...... its just a fun machine to play with.
Are small foil, aluminum and flakes of iron giving you a problem?
 

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