Preferred method for waterproofing NOX 800

[smokeythecat]

Tommy, if you can see water inside you need to call Minelab and have it sent back for repair (they will swap out the head), no such thing as a real repair thesedays on detectors. Back in the old days we could take them apart and switch out something. Not anymore. It's kind of like seeing a big spider hanging above your head while in bed. Sooner or later it's going to get you.

 

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[Mudflap]

In the 70s I used the ole White's 5db and did a water proof splice to extend the loop cable, put the detector in a plastic bag and bunj tied it to a small inner tube and just let the detector float around. Used in fresh water.... The thing all most never flipped over and when it did the bag saved the day.

 

[Attakpilot]

That’s it! Your name gave me inspiration... A mud flap, I need a Mudflap! All joking aside, it kinda sucks not knowing when I will have to send it back to be repaired. Just the hassle and lost time! I do have an Excal to use, also have a pulse dive with the 8 inch coil, but sometimes I just want to use the nox. You know because I paid for it and all, and the literature said I can do it up to 10 feet. Call me crazy for actually wanting it to do what I paid for it to do. I’m just getting in tune to it too and it is a very capable machine!

 

[Xraywolf]

I think its almost certain a class action lawsuit will be filed against ML for false advertising, then maybe we'll get a peep at how many water damaged units were sent in

 

[Jason in Enid]

That’s it! Your name gave me inspiration... A mud flap, I need a Mudflap! All joking aside, it kinda sucks not knowing when I will have to send it back to be repaired. Just the hassle and lost time! I do have an Excal to use, also have a pulse dive with the 8 inch coil, but sometimes I just want to use the nox. You know because I paid for it and all, and the literature said I can do it up to 10 feet. Call me crazy for actually wanting it to do what I paid for it to do. I’m just getting in tune to it too and it is a very capable machine!

As long as its under warranty, take it in the water. You do have backups. My Nox has been in lakes, rivers and ocean many times and never any problems.

I think its almost certain a class action lawsuit will be filed against ML for false advertising, then maybe we'll get a peep at how many water damaged units were sent in

Thats is such a crap thing to say its not even worth an actual reply.

 

[Xraywolf]

Thats is such a crap thing to say its not even worth an actual reply.

People often don't like to hear the obvious truth, you appear to be one of them.
Don't need a reply, certainly not from you - If I am right or wrong, time will tell. You having an actual waterproof unit [for now] is no consolation to the many that don't.

 

[Blak bart]

No one should be asking how to make a waterproof machine waterproof. If it was advertised as WATER-RESISTANT.....would anybody buy it ?? When they said waterproof headphones not included....I said no problem.....I won't get my head wet....ill keep it to chest deep and not get the phones wet !! But guess what you can't get the port wet !! So it ships with non waterproof phones.....hmmmm. so let's say I'm wading with the stock phones plugged in.....wow everything is great.....now I get to waist deep and the control unit gets dunked. All of a sudden the machine is malfunctioning as soon as the port touches water. Now I haven't got anywhere near the phones with water, and the machine has no water ingress....but.....its useless in the water !! So now I have to get out and get it all dry again, and I can't even hunt in waist deep water now ? Thats water resistant...not waterproof. Here is the snake oil deal !! For an additional 150$ you can get the waterproof headphones. Now you can submerge the control unit and its waterproof to 10 feet.....hopefully. the only other way to use this detector in the water straight out of the box is with the headphones port closed, and the volume all the way up on the external speaker. I would say the majority of people won't be able to hunt effectively underwater with the external speaker and no phones. Personally I can hear it very well under water and have not used phones at all with the nox...I only use them hunting land when there are people around. I have used the machine alot snorkeling.....many hours in 1-5 foot....no problem so far. When I pushed the limit and took this machine to 8 ft on compressed air for 30 minutes it failed. They are great detectors aside from the water issues and once I've got a few golds its all paid up. so I'll send them back for the warranty until they won't honor it anymore. At that point I've got my money out of it and I can toss it in the trash and get another and feel good about it. If its a three year warranty and I haven't found enough in 3 years to cover the 650$.....well then ill think about gardening as a hobby or something. There almost a disposable product if you can pay it off in just a few hunts because its that good at the finding part of this game.

So I love the 600 and its ability to find the goods, but I hate the water ingress. But what is not right is to call something waterproof when its really just water resistant when you take ownership.....and they claim 10 feet. There the ones that made the claim im not to blame for believing it !! There marketing is vague if not actually deceptive. I like the machine not there marketing strategy.

 

[hound]

I posted this in another thread but it's applicable here.

Marketing is marketing and it's marketing 101 to stretch the truth. Can something sealed survive submersion to 10ft? Yes. Can it survive extended submersion over time? maybe. The o-rings and seals used are not the most robust compared to something that is designed for underwater use.

I haven't heard much in the way of complaints about using multiple brands of 10ft rated detectors in the rain. It's when they're submerged that issues begin to pop up.

You can design something to be rated for 10ft, but when you begin moving it underwater you're putting additional water pressure on the seals with that movement. Those ratings in specs are for a static pressure chamber with no movement. It doesn't mean it might not survive more, but that's how the vast majority of pressure test are made and rated on paper.

I did a lot of diving in the Navy. You learn pretty quickly that just because something is rated to a depth on paper it doesn't mean it's not going to leak or flood out if you take it to that rating and move it around. 10ft is tiny in waterproofing measurements. I wouldn't try swimming on the surface with watch rated only for 10ft because your arm is moving when you're swimming and pressures on that seal can go much higher than you expect. I'd only consider that rain and light splash proof. If you're on a ship at sea and a big wave hits you that's a lot of force and pressure. If you want to detect underwater the best thing is to buy something rated for diving use and then religiously take care of those seals checking them each and every time you change a battery and keeping those o-rings clean and coated in the manufacture recommended grease, which is typically silicone based.

The problem is these 10ft rated detectors are sealed units. You have no way to inspect the seals or maintain the gasket/o-rings. I doubt they have a robust QA process for checking the integrity of those seals as they're not made for diving and there's no easy way to open them up. Those seals are not made to be inspected either and even if you do so the way they're built in means you're risking the seal by checking it.

If I had to guess I'd say the weak point is the speaker membrane. It's a big hole there and movement will cause pressure changes that flexes the membrane more than sound would. It might help to put some duck tape over the speaker holes.

 

[Jason in Enid]

....... But guess what you can't get the port wet !! So it ships with non waterproof phones.....hmmmm. so let's say I'm wading with the stock phones plugged in.....wow everything is great.....now I get to waist deep and the control unit gets dunked. All of a sudden the machine is malfunctioning as soon as the port touches water.

This is incorrect. The port itself is waterproof. You can leave it completely open and it wont harm anything beyond possibly getting debris inside the port.

 

[Tommybuckets]

No complaints yet the Equinox with fish tank screen seems to work just fine for now. If it stops beeping at metal I'll send it in but its the best shot I've got to get some gold or old out of the water. It vastly outlived my AT pro which had a very short illustrious life finding 2 gold rings in one outing (1 14g 10k the other 10g 14k!) and two more in only 4 hunts before it sh*t the bed. Both the excal and AT went out for repairs and neither was successfully repaired so I'm not big on sending things for repair unless its warranteed. I'll have to call them to see when I registered it. I'll check after I give it this weekends submerged beating. I see a gently used excal in my future after I find that big valuable diamond ring.

 

[Blak bart]

This is incorrect. The port itself is waterproof. You can leave it completely open and it wont harm anything beyond possibly getting debris inside the port.

Yes I understand that the machine does not ingest water with the port open.....but the stock phones will not function properly with a wet port. So the machine is just as useless as a flooded one, until its properly dried. Once it is dry then you can return to hunting....until it gets wet again, and you have to go and dry it again. A screw type waterproof jack for the stock headphones would allow a person to use the stock head phones all the way out to chest deep with a scoop. So if the screen doesn't function and all you here is static then the machine is useless to me and won't function even though its not flooded. For me it came down to 2 options....spend an extra 150....or use the external speaker. I love minelab, i hope it all works out. So far since my repair on one everything has worked well. Not a single hiccup out of either machine, and that's pretty hard use too. I only use the external speaker now. Even underwater. So I CAN'T submerge the unit out of the box until I pay 150 or close the port and use the speaker. But if the speaker is submerged in waist deep water you can't here it wading....so at that point I'm forced to snorkel so I can put my head in the water to here the speaker....I know...I know...stop being a cheap arse and by waterproof phones.....NO....I won't let them beat me out of that money....I'm stubborn. So the control unit CAN'T be submerged at the 650$ purchase price and function properly unless the port is closed, and using the speaker wading you can't hear it underwater....unless you snorkel. But for 800$ you can both wade and snorkel with a fully functional waterproof nox 600 machine. Now I can hunt in the water and hope I don't get a flooded panel !! The great thing is there cheap and good. So its easy to pay them off quickly at the right beaches !!

 

[smokeythecat]

Blak Bart nailed it in post #47. And frankly, if you have one there's nothing you can do now. When it breaks after the warranty has expired you can either pay to have it fixed or buy something else IF you need another machine at that time. And three year old technology may well be obsolete next year (when warranties start to expire). I don't know but its possible time will have left them in the dust, especially with the other manufacturers stepping up to the plate. Like, if I want a new 2020 car, I won't be shopping for a 2017 model...the way technolgoy moves, who knows...

If its still under warranty work it till it or you drop!

 

[Xraywolf]

To be fair, the trend of needing special expensive headphones if you want to make use of a detectors claimed ability in the water started at least with the AT Pro, and I had quite a sour feeling when I found out I'd need to pony up another $150 to take it in the water, but I did [and found a diamond ring the first time out to pay them off, and since have found dozens of PM rings with that setup].

I actually bought waterproof headphones for my Nox but silly me, haven't even used them yet after almost a year.

 

[Hddeuce03]

It must be hit or miss. I've had my Nox 800 fully submerged many times since February of this year without issue.

Wow...I jinxed myself. I started out Tuesday for a quick evening hunt. Turned it on and it gave me an error code (Cd) then powered off. I then noticed the water under the screen...dang it! The good news is Minelab customer service was excellent, gave me an RMA number and I shipped it off today. I asked the guy I spoke with if they are doing anything about this...extra QA, etc. He stated that believe it or not, it's still less than 1% that have had water ingress, but admitted they've seen an increase in this lately. So what they are doing is when they get the replacement pods back from the factory, they are again pressure testing them locally (for those in the U.S., it's in PA) prior to shipping them back to the customer. So at least there is an additional check. Hopefully I'll get it back before too long. Now if only I had an Excalibur II just for water....

 

[Jason in Enid]

Wow...I jinxed myself. I started out Tuesday for a quick evening hunt. Turned it on and it gave me an error code (Cd) then powered off. I then noticed the water under the screen...dang it! The good news is Minelab customer service was excellent, gave me an RMA number and I shipped it off today. I asked the guy I spoke with if they are doing anything about this...extra QA, etc. He stated that believe it or not, it's still less than 1% that have had water ingress, but admitted they've seen an increase in this lately. So what they are doing is when they get the replacement pods back from the factory, they are again pressure testing them locally (for those in the U.S., it's in PA) prior to shipping them back to the customer. So at least there is an additional check. Hopefully I'll get it back before too long. Now if only I had an Excalibur II just for water....

Sucks, but the good news is the repair facility will ship your new control head the same day your old arrives. The only delay is from the actual shipping times. Plan on about a week total until you have your new head.

 

[smokeythecat]

Wow...I jinxed myself. I started out Tuesday for a quick evening hunt. Turned it on and it gave me an error code (Cd) then powered off. I then noticed the water under the screen...dang it! The good news is Minelab customer service was excellent, gave me an RMA number and I shipped it off today. I asked the guy I spoke with if they are doing anything about this...extra QA, etc. He stated that believe it or not, it's still less than 1% that have had water ingress, but admitted they've seen an increase in this lately. So what they are doing is when they get the replacement pods back from the factory, they are again pressure testing them locally (for those in the U.S., it's in PA) prior to shipping them back to the customer. So at least there is an additional check. Hopefully I'll get it back before too long. Now if only I had an Excalibur II just for water....

Yes, Minelab has good customer service. That's a big plus. So work your replacement machine until it drops and find some good stuff. As for me, I have hardly made it off the couch since its been so hot!

 

[Hddeuce03]

Sucks, but the good news is the repair facility will ship your new control head the same day your old arrives. The only delay is from the actual shipping times. Plan on about a week total until you have your new head.

I wish this were true. But unfortunately, In the email from them with the RMA number, they stated "We are backordered on these units due to the delay in shipment from overseas but as soon as stock is received, the new unit will be sent out."

 

[Jason in Enid]

I wish this were true. But unfortunately, I in the email from them with the RMA number, they stated "We are backordered on these units due to the delay in shipment from overseas but as soon as stock is received, the new unit will be sent out."

Now Covid is affecting our detecting!

 

[Xraywolf]

Is the nox made in china ?

 

[smokeythecat]

I think Malaysia. Overseas mail is dreadfully slow. It took 6 weeks for something to get to me from Germany. And that was their priority service. If they are out of replacement parts or units, oh oh. The rest of the summer will be time for the backup machines to come out of the closet. Danged covid.