Equinox Service/Repair Info from Minelab service department.

[Professor of Engineering]

Thank you for sharing!

 

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[Honest Samuel]

2 words come to mind.....Lifetime warranty....

That would not be Minelab.

 

[Rick K]

I contacted Russ Balbirona, Marketing Manager for Fisher today. He in turn checked with Felix in Customer Service.

CZ 20 panels are not available - a CZ20 to be repaired gets a CZ21 frontpanel.

CZ21’s in for repair do not have their front panels replaced unless the panel itself is damaged.

 

[Normsel]

Well my Equinox 800 is in for repair right now and they said they can hopefully repair and get it back to me in a few days. I told them what was wrong they sent me UPS shipping label and it was that simple. I had the shipping label in my email within 10 minutes of talking to them Naperville.

People get to upset about warranty issues when they don't have an issue. Why worry about what can or cannot be replaced until the warranty is expired. People don't get this concerned about a $40,000 automobile when it is out of warranty. Most people spend another $40,000 and buy a new car

I can say this Minelab, Garrett and Whites all have excellent service and repair because I have used all of them. Even if a product is out of warranty they keep the cost down for you.

 

[smokeythecat]

Normsel, I'm surprised you had a problem. Maybe it's just me but I generally don't have problems with stuff breaking out of the box. Minelab will do ok.

Now 5 years from now folks, do you really think you'll want the detector you have now? Whichever one it is? Technology is changing so fast.....

I have had two items out of warranty repaired, ever. A Tesoro and a Garrett pinpointer. Yes, I had to pay for it, but it was inexpensive and quick.

 

[fuceye]

Normsel, I'm surprised you had a problem. Maybe it's just me but I generally don't have problems with stuff breaking out of the box. Minelab will do ok.

Now 5 years from now folks, do you really think you'll want the detector you have now? Whichever one it is? Technology is changing so fast.....

I have had two items out of warranty repaired, ever. A Tesoro and a Garrett pinpointer. Yes, I had to pay for it, but it was inexpensive and quick.

I judge...with extreme prejudice...if its not worth fixing or replacing....I just throw it away.​

 

[Rick K]

OK, a year has gone by since we all had fun discussing whether Equinox control boxes were repairable or only replaceable.

Does anyone know of a case where an Equinox congtrol box was opened by the service center, repaired and returned? I have only seen posts about replacement.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

I guess I should post my personal experience on this thread, and Minelab repairs. Several years ago I had a defunct Excal II. Minelab repaired that machine toot sweet, and it didn't break the bank, as it was out of warranty. Turn around was faster than expected, and service was beyond complaint.

 

[Rick K]

Thanks for sharing your experience from “back when”. Nowadays, Minelab does none of their repairs in-house.

Back to my original question however - does anyone know of even one instance in which and Excalibur control box was repaired by a service center as opposed to being replaced?

 

[Hawks88]

Thanks for all the info guys.

 

[Acquisitor]

Thanks for sharing your experience from “back when”. Nowadays, Minelab does none of their repairs in-house.

Back to my original question however - does anyone know of even one instance in which and Excalibur control box was repaired by a service center as opposed to being replaced?

2 years ago Minelab repaired the control box of my excalibur. The service was very quick and the price wasnt high at all. Something about €140 all in.

And yes it was done by Minelab Ireland as I live in Europe

 

[smokeythecat]

I don't know. But I agree when the warranty is up most of our modern detectors are essentially "throw aways". Some of the pricier ones (over $1k) have totally modular parts and could have replacement pieces sent to us, other than that, it's disposable detectors it seems.

 

[Rick K]

Crap!! I wrote Excalibur when I meant Equinox. Everybody knows the Excalibur is repairable.

Does anybody have knowledge of an Equinox control box repair.?

By the way, Minelab no longer repairs detectors in Ireland.

 

[smokeythecat]

Rick, it should still be under warranty. From what I've heard they just replace the whole part (control box). They had some quality control issues for the first few months, I assume they got them straightened out. It happens a lot with anything new. My daughter tells me not to buy a new computer until it's been on the market for at least 6 months. If yours is out of warranty, they would replace the box at a cost. No idea how much however.

 

[Rick K]

Smokey - warranty/shmarranty - I’m just trying to nail down what it took 4 pages on this thread to not decide. Is the Nox control box repairable, or is it a “replace-only” item. If the latter, then non warranty replacement cost will be an interesting data point. This issue will come up prior to warranty expiring when a guy runs over his Nox or drops something on it.

A new Deus control box is about $500 for example.

 

[smokeythecat]

Yes, running a truck over one won't do it any good. Every one I've heard of that has had a problem has been replaced. That's about 3 cases. So it's replace only.

 

[Rick K]

I’m not saying it’s a bad thing - just a new thing for us in “detector-world” and something to be aware of.

 

[vferrari]

Thanks for sharing your experience from “back when”. Nowadays, Minelab does none of their repairs in-house.

Back to my original question however - does anyone know of even one instance in which and Excalibur control box was repaired by a service center as opposed to being replaced?

You mean Equinox, right? Other than the user replaceable battery, the surface mount technology on the controller board and plastiweld sealed controller housing for watertightness appears to generally preclude repairs even including normally replaceable display components or the membrane switches .

Now that the ML Pennsylvania repair facility has taken over handling the Equinox repairs, vice just swapping out whole units or the occasional shaft, coil, or control head at the Illinois distribution center, as was the case early on, I have still heard of only shaft, battery, coil, or control head swap outs by the repair center. Unless it involves traditional soldering and circuit card or electronic module replacement, not sure micro electronic surgery can be accomplished even at a repair center these days

 

[bklein]

Diagnosing an issue on the board probably takes too much time. A smart guy could get pretty good at it but they probably aren’t set up like that.

 

[Toecutter]

The manufacturing process used to make these boards now en days makes it very difficult to replace any component on the board..