Trokair
Full Member
I received my Equinox 800 a few weeks ago and was lucky enough to get out to the beach last Saturday for my first hunt with it and figured I would post my impressions of the machine here for information. I spent 9 hours hunting and really enjoyed the detector. It has easily become my favorite out of my White's V3i and my Minelab Excalibur and I have those for years. I left them in my vehicle the entire time and I doubt I will even bring them in the future.
Terrain: I was on the boardwalk area of the beach in Ocean City, Maryland between 1st and 20th street. The rain kept everyone off of the beach so I was able to hit the towel line without interruption. Beach build up from the summer meant no sand bars or troughs to hunt during low tide so I stuck to the dry sand.
I was immediately impressed with how stable the 800 was out of the box. The only change I made was to run the channel scan per the directions in the quick start guide. At 20 on Beach 1 it was silent on the beach unless there was something in the ground. I did experience one area that had bad interference and made the machine chirp even turned down to 10. There is probably a cable buried or something along those lines and I had hoped the 800 could get around that. I can hunt in that area just not well. Once past it though I was back to 20 and quiet.
I dug a lot of pocket change, the most I have ever dug before. I was pulling nickles loud and clear at over 8 inches and quarters at over a foot. The target ID was incredibly reliable as well. It got to the point where if I pulled a "strange" number like an 18 I knew I was digging something other than the standard trash or pocket change. Bottle caps lived in the 13-16 range and clad in the 20s. After the first 2 hours I was probably 85% correct on knowing what I was digging before it came up which is a real improvement over my V3i.
Having it waterproof was useful. I was in some heavy rain at times and they even closed the beach for a little bit. I wish the wireless headphones were waterproof or resistant. I had to put them away during the heavy rain and use the built in speaker, which worked well even with the wind noise.
The biggest problem I had with the machine was how you have to hold it. Each machine is balanced and shaped differently and I found that the 800 required more grip strength than I am used to. After several hours my hands started hurting from having to grip the handle. I also experienced some of the shaft wobble that some people have been reporting but that wasn't as much of a drawback for me.
All told I dug $9.55 in clad, 3 earrings, 2 pendants, 1 bracelet (all non-precious), and $30 randomly blowing across the beach
. I am still on the search for that first gold ring and I am looking forward to taking the 800 back out to try again.
Terrain: I was on the boardwalk area of the beach in Ocean City, Maryland between 1st and 20th street. The rain kept everyone off of the beach so I was able to hit the towel line without interruption. Beach build up from the summer meant no sand bars or troughs to hunt during low tide so I stuck to the dry sand.
I was immediately impressed with how stable the 800 was out of the box. The only change I made was to run the channel scan per the directions in the quick start guide. At 20 on Beach 1 it was silent on the beach unless there was something in the ground. I did experience one area that had bad interference and made the machine chirp even turned down to 10. There is probably a cable buried or something along those lines and I had hoped the 800 could get around that. I can hunt in that area just not well. Once past it though I was back to 20 and quiet.
I dug a lot of pocket change, the most I have ever dug before. I was pulling nickles loud and clear at over 8 inches and quarters at over a foot. The target ID was incredibly reliable as well. It got to the point where if I pulled a "strange" number like an 18 I knew I was digging something other than the standard trash or pocket change. Bottle caps lived in the 13-16 range and clad in the 20s. After the first 2 hours I was probably 85% correct on knowing what I was digging before it came up which is a real improvement over my V3i.
Having it waterproof was useful. I was in some heavy rain at times and they even closed the beach for a little bit. I wish the wireless headphones were waterproof or resistant. I had to put them away during the heavy rain and use the built in speaker, which worked well even with the wind noise.
The biggest problem I had with the machine was how you have to hold it. Each machine is balanced and shaped differently and I found that the 800 required more grip strength than I am used to. After several hours my hands started hurting from having to grip the handle. I also experienced some of the shaft wobble that some people have been reporting but that wasn't as much of a drawback for me.
All told I dug $9.55 in clad, 3 earrings, 2 pendants, 1 bracelet (all non-precious), and $30 randomly blowing across the beach
. I am still on the search for that first gold ring and I am looking forward to taking the 800 back out to try again.
