Garrett Infinium

[Earl]

Anybody here have any experience with the Garrett Infinium? Have you used it for coins or relics? Does it work well in highly mineralized soils and alkali salts? I don't see any on ebay so this could be good or bad. Maybe no one is buying new ones? You would think you would see a few on ebay? Thanks buffalo earl

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Diving for Pleasure and Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[Visionquest]

They may just not want to get rid of them. I bought mine for underwater and nugget shooting and it performs both of those functions extremely well.

 

[U.K. Brian]

Not my favourite machine. Great build quality and finish but to heavy shaft mounted for me. The discrimination method did not work as I hoped as good targets gave both good and bad audio I.D. Really noisy on beaches where Deepstar/Beachscan/Goldquest SS worked O.K. This was when there was only the large and heavy elliptical coil. You now have a choice of coil and supposedly there are chip differences between the U.S. and Australia. Ones supposed to be deeper, the other to have better discrimination. Being in the U.K. heaven knows which would be best. Steve up in Canada seems to like it but here the price dropped by a third and now the Garrett importer does not list it on his adverts.
So its a try before you buy....could be great in your area or not

 

[Visionquest]

I didn't personally consider the machine for it's advertized discrim ability. I don't even use that on my Explorer. I like it for the rediculous number of freqs it covers and how well it handles mineralized soil. It has much to offer outside of the discrim function. It has rediculous depth capability and works well underwater. I guess as with any other machine, depends on what your primary use of it will be.

 

[U.K. Brian]

192 or is it 197 frequencies ? The same as Eric Fosters P.I.'s. Unfortunately Eric's machines were what we were testing against and the Infinium came a firm second for depth and was noisy. Have not had a chance to try the latest version and coils so things hopefully got sorted out.

 

[Earl]

Thanks guys on all the info on the Infinium. I think I am sold on it as it sounds like it will work great out here. Buffalo Earl

 

[Monty]

Earl, be sure to write up an evaluation as soon as you have some experience with it. I was torn between it and my Sea Hunter II but I couldn't afford the difference in price at the time. Other than the UK guy I have read very good reports and everyone that has them seems to like them. Monty

 

[U.K. Brian]

Hmmmm....I seem to be able to find many postings suggesting that for beach rings/coins it would be better to go with one of Eric Fosters P.I.'s and for small gold a Minelab. Re the upgrades theres also posts about the older pre upgrade machines being replaced (one Florida detectorist actually met up with the Vice President of Garrett who agreed the machine was to noisy). Unfortunately the replacement was little better.
I would still try before you buy. It might suit your area and the discrimination might suit you. For me to many targets I.D.'d wrong so it was a feature I would not use and the drag (either before or after the main signal depending on the type of metal detected) would often hit the next target so 'normal' p.i. audio discrimination became difficult. I would have liked a switch to turn off the discrim. feature but then if your not going to use that you might as well drop down the model range and save some money.

 

[Visionquest]

To get a better idea about the "noisy" conditions at the beach and why it isn't really a problem, read this page. It is exactly what I have found with mine.

http://www.akmining.com/mine/jour141.htm

 

[U.K. Brian]

I was talking about noise on the wet sand which could not be got rid of and was not troubling the other P.I.'s on test. And ignoring beach/water performance (as the original post was re performance on coins and relics which suggests land use), why should Earl limit himself to a comparative low power machine when theres a whole raft of high power land machines that will provide not extra inches but feet more depth ?

 

[Visionquest]

I have not had any trouble with this machine on wet sand. Not sure why you would be, but not been the case here. As far as the deeper machines, sure but at what difference in cost? The reverse discrimination functioin is also not something I concern myself with, but for the times I have tried it, it seemed to work fine. The dual tone also did not bother me or seem to delay response etc. All that just points to the same thing that it always does. Not all machines will be correct for all users and uses. Patience, comprehension and a lot of other variables will always come in to play. Research as much as possible, test drive what is available and decide from that. Buying a machine that you have not had a chance to run yourself is always risking money based on someones opinion, question is, how much can you afford to risk and for what gain?

 

[Willy]

Talking about high & low power in regards to metal detectors is kinda tricky. The FCC limits the output power to (I think) 100 milliwats. I remember a thread on either the Geotech forum or Carl's forum dealing with the subject of transmit power. I could therefor hook up a car battery to my Infinium & have a more "powerful" detector than anyone else! Get on the AMDS prospecting forum & you can read up on actual field tests comparing some PI detectors. ..Willy.

 

[Earl]

Thanks Willy, I think it is the infinium for me. I will get one next month. I will then save and start picking up some different size coils. Out where I live in Eastern Oregon, it is hard ground for a vlf detector and it is P.I. country for sure. I have alkali soil mixed with heavy concentrations of magnetic black sand. It is so bad you can stick a magnet in the ground and pull up 2 pounds of black sand. There used to be a Willy on here that bought an infinium and took it to Canada to gold mine. Are you that Willy? Talk to you later my friend

 

[Willy]

Yup, that's me. though the only gold mining done was by the auto parts companies. My truck bit the biscuit & cut short my endeavors. Regarding different PI's, we had a number of different detectors up where I was mining in AK a few years ago. This included 2 Minelab SD2200d's & an Infinium. I chose the Garrett over the "high powered" ML's 'cause I didn't see enough of a difference in detecting depth to justify the price of a ML. In fact, the ML's got LESS depth!! Howso Willy? Well, not having a waterproof coil meant that the guy swinging the ML PI had to swing it ABOVE the water.. which ranged from a few inches to a few feet deep. I didn't get the Infinium because of a love affair with Garrett detectors; I bought because I was truly impressed by the machine. Also, before some wiseacre points out that I haven't prospected with one, I spent a month up in the mountains with a guy who did. His largest nugget found with it weighed a bit over 7 oz & the smallest about a pennyweight. There would have been smaller stuff, but he only had the stock coil & didn't want to waste too much time on the small stuff. ..Willy.

 

[Visionquest]

Earl, what part of Oregon? The gentleman I bought mine from is a very trustworthy & fair Garrett dealer and lives in Or. He also owns one and if you were close, maybe you could go test drive it in person. PDX Lefty is his screen name here if you want to PM him, I am sure he would give you a decent quote.

-Mke

 

[U.K. Brian]

The goal posts are moving here. The original post was re relics and coins, no mention of gold. For relics the the Deepmax, Deepers, Lorenz, Pulsestar II, Deeptech SDP 2014 and Notsi Impulse Pro scan down to the ten foot mark and most have larger iron discrimination which can be switched off or ignored if searching for cannonballs or similar. The Eric Foster Deepstar and Goldquest only offer a fraction of the depth but have a far lower uS rating so increased sensitivity to small rings etc so are my machine of choice for wet sand searches. The J.W.Fisher machines have a higher uS so are less suitable for wet sand use but as a higher uS is required as depth in the water increases they have their use there.
For so called invisable gold that everyone is missing at the moment a sub 10uS machine is needed that was considered impossible not to long ago (something to do with the collapsing of the magnetic field). I think I saw a post from Reg Sniff that he has now managed to get it down to 7 on his modified Goldquest SS.
All a case of deciding what you want to do and picking the right equipment. Re putting extra power through a detector it just doesn't work unless the whole machine is designed to cope. The only two machines made that do in fact put extra current through the coil are the Nautilus which I think can put 44 volts through and the Treasure Baron with its deep hunter module that adds another set of batteries and uses a normally passive circuit in the coil.

 

[Visionquest]

UK Brian, I think you may have forgotten that the original question was if anyone had used an infinium. I know if I ask a question about a specific topic, I don't generally want everyones opinion on what would be better for me because that wouldn't have been what I asked. It is obvious that you have strong opinions about what you think the best PI's are, but, you are suggesting machines that are not only more expensive than an infinium, but less available to someone in Oregon to either try out or get a decent deal on. Not to mention its a matter of opinion as to if they are better to begin with.

 

[Cabochris]

I have an Infinium and find that it will go very deep! For deep gold rings, one must listen for very soft tones- but they are there! I have also an Excalibur with 15" WOT coil hardwired. My Infinium goes deeper! It also goes deeper than my DetectorPro HH Pulse and that goes deep on a nickel!

For land hunting I prefer the 14" Mono. For saltwater the 14DD, because it will not float like the mono will underwater. So one does not have to fight it to keep it down. But I did try the big mono coil in the Caribbean and was digging holes so deep, you might call them pits or trenches! All that for pull tabs! It almost goes too deep and the mono works fine in the saltwater where I was.

Yes the Infinium is a bit more noisy, than my Excaliburs. And perhaps the discrimination is not perfect. But there is little doubt in my mind that the Infinium is the All-Around metal detector do anything Champ- bar none! And that it will blow most other detectors away in many situations! If I had to choose just 1 detector for the rest of my life, it would be the Infinium. No ifs ands or buts! From sea to goldfields, nothing can touch it. And I own several detectors- more than 10.

With all that, the Infinium is not for all. It is for the Pro treasure hunter who wants one great detector for most of his or her needs and is willing to learn it. I for one sure hope that Garrett expands the Infinium line with more coils and developments. CC.

 

[U.K. Brian]

Your right Visionquest he did ask specific to the Infinium but the thread did stray rather towards in and under water detecting and unfortunately as with gold hunting (hunting thread gold or larger nuggets) one machine still can't give the best performance and the type of target and ground is vital to making the best choice....like all the posts re the gold coins on the beach the other day where all suggestions got turned on their head as individual coins were not being searched for as everyone thought.

 

[dkantor]

Hi Is the Infinium waterproof minus the head phones I don't dive but would use it in up to 5 feet of water. Right now I'm using a 1280x and have had good luck with it. Any comparisons to the1280x would also be appreciated. Thanx