Ace250 users chime in.....great machine or more for back-up????

[njnydigger]

Hi all,


Normally on the Whites forum as I own the MXT300. Had it for about a year now. Wouldn't say it's a great machine. Very, very good, yes. But, my question concerns the Ace250. I've heard it can rival machines costing 4 times as much with no problem. I've also heard that it can go to a max depth of 8 to 10 inches if cranked to the max on a good day. Also heard it is a coin and jewelry MONSTER.

So, should I jump in and make the purchase? Or is all the hype just that, hype. A LOT of folks swear by them. Others say they are a good back-up machine.

Curious as to what you actual users have to say. 100% unbiased feedback. The good, the bad and yes, even the ugly. $200 for me, as for most people is a lot of money. Your feedback will be the ultimate decision. Thanks.

 

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[savant365]

$200 is a lot of money for me too and I haven't regretted spending it on an ace250 at all. I have never used any other major brands so I can't really give you a comparison but I have found a LOT of very cool coins, jewelery and other things with it. For me it is a very good investment, it has paid for itself 2 or 3 times over and I have definately gotten over $200 worth of entertainment out of it. I don't see myself spending more money on a higher end machine for a long time.

HH Charlie

 

[sqwaby]

My 1st reply is lost in cyberspace some where. Anyway heres the good; light wt, easy to use, will hit coins at 4-6" no problem, I liked the notch disc, good price. The bad; very poor target separation in trashy areas(slow retune). TID is accurate about 60-70%. pinpoint is ok but could be better. Good loaner or backup.

 

[saltfisher]

I have one and my dad has a prizm 4, and sometimes I will go over a spot right behind him and my ACE250 picked up what his didnt.

I like my 250 and seems to work better then the $400 prizm 4.

 

[gware]

I had an Ace 250 and then went and bought the MXT300. The Ace is good for the money but there is not comparison between the two for me. My finds tripled with my MXT. As you know the MXT has ground tracking, threshold, and has a very fast recovery of with the Ace does not anything like that. Places I went over with my Mxt that I hunted with the ace gave me handfuls of coins. People do have great finds with the Ace but this is just my experience and I own both. To me is like comparing a horse and buggy to a car.

 

[Goes4ever]

check your PM's I sent ya something......

 

[Tank69]

I normally run a Tesoro Eldorado as my main machine but just got a Ace 250 as a gift ,was a lil odd going from a machine with manual gb an no ID to a machine with it but hey that's was just me,I've had the 250 out once so far been to hot to hunt since I got it but the 1 an only time I have had it out I hit the tot lots an used it in the river an it definitely is a clad finder ,I think it will be a great lil machine from what I've seen so far an from what everyone has said about em,I doubt it will become my main machine but I do think it will have its place .


bad ...to me it seems a little slow to reset it self as far as auto ground balance,I noticed alot of signals that when you dig theres nothing there ,that could just been me .


good...it is a very light machine an being able to set up a custom program is very cool .


hope this long winded reply helps ,

 

[SC_hunter]

You will hear all kind of replies about the Ace, as you will any other machine (good starter, good backup, and sometimes just plain good). I have had mine about 3 years and it is the only machine that I won't part with. I use the Whites XLT but I still find myself walking back to the vehicle to get the Ace. I am used to it and have found a lot of things with it. If it was a poor machine, I'm sure Garrett would not have sold as many as they have...and at a great price. It's not a perfect detector, but I like mine.

 

[rmptr]

The little yeller feller is a fun little machine with a graphic and an effective notch for clad.

I traded mine off while it was still very new and shiny, for a Tesoro Silver Sabre. More better.

Best
Rich

 

[Sandman]

The Ace 250 is and entry level detector that has a preset ground balance. It can reach near 8 inches with the right kind of ground and lots less in bad ground. The Ace has a very slow response and can miss targets in junky areas. It really is a poor performer at a saltwater beach in the wet sand if you have sens adjusted to about half. Works well enough in the dry sand though if the black sand isn't to concentrated. The display is poor and washes out in strong sunlight. Natch with all displays it can only report what the target might be based on the conductivity. A pull tab can still be a gold ring just like on the $$$ machines. It is light weight but so are the more advanced Tesoro's. But for the amount of money it is a good buy. However I use a DFX as a back up to my Sov GT for land hunting.

 

[West Jersey Detecting]

The Ace 250 is and entry level detector that has a preset ground balance. It can reach near 8 inches with the right kind of ground and lots less in bad ground. The Ace has a very slow response and can miss targets in junky areas. It really is a poor performer at a saltwater beach in the wet sand if you have sens adjusted to about half. Works well enough in the dry sand though if the black sand isn't to concentrated. The display is poor and washes out in strong sunlight. Natch with all displays it can only report what the target might be based on the conductivity. A pull tab can still be a gold ring just like on the $$$ machines. It is light weight but so are the more advanced Tesoro's. But for the amount of money it is a good buy. However I use a DFX as a back up to my Sov GT for land hunting.

I owned an Ace 250. Originally I bought it to replace an aging Garrett CXIII. The Ace definitely out performed the CXIII. I even found a copper at more than 10 inches with it! I found it to be a fairly fast responding machine and it performed a bit better than average in trashy areas. Like sandman said it performed well in good ground. It is the best in it's range, but when you spend more, you get plenty of features that the Ace lacks. I bought it used for $165, then when I got my DFX I used it for back up. I sold it two years later for $170, so it was definitely a good investment!

 

[The-Bone]

I have an Ace 250 and just bought an M6 about 6 months ago so that is a pretty close comparison to what you have with the MXT...The M6 has a real nose for gold and provides a ton of information when it displays it's VDI numbers. It is much faster than the ace also....I have never adjusted to the ACE's belltone response either(if you have never used one check it out, it may drive u nuts!) The M6/MXT is a superior machine save for one feature. The ACE has notch discrimination and the Whites machine has an incremental system....The ace allows u to eliminate specific 'spectrums' of targets with ease...this may not seem important but on a few hunts that i was pressed for time on i was quickly able to home in on only those targets of interest.....The ACE is a good machine and very capable but your MXT is superior in most regards. Personally, if i were you, i would invest the $200 into an accessory coil for your MXT

 

[Monty]

Like someone else said, I wouldn't ever get rid of my ACE 250. When all else fails I pull it out and more than once it has saved the day. It is an excellent tot lot machine and with the little sniper coil it does fairly good seperating the good from the trash targets. I hunt several seeded club hunts each year and have nearly always come home with some kind of prize. So, it is a good club hunting tool as well. I did find a silver dime at 9" one time when the conditions were perfect, but it is most consistently a 4 to 6" depth. I've tested it in my coin garden and the really deep coins are hard to find. I think the cost and qualitiy and reliability of the ACE 250 has saved Garrett. They have the GTI 2500 at the top and it hasn't changed a bit for many years and Garrett is somewhat outdone by some of the other manufacturers with multifrequency capability, etc. I would prefer to call the ACE 250 a mid-level machine rather than a beginner, mainly because a really good experienced detectorist can keep up with many of the higher costing machines with it. But it is easy to learn for a novice also. Just a good all around detector. Monty

 

[ohiochris]

The previous detectors Ive owned : whites coinmaster 5900 , whites classic sl's both II and III , tesoro bandido II and silver sabre umax's, bounty hunter 101. Currently using an ace250 and wouldnt trade it for anything Ive had in the past. My finds have increased and the speed at which I can locate , identify, and recover a target has been cut in half in most cases. Its not a deep detecting machine but handles up to around 8 inches decently. There is room for improvement but its still probably the best $200 machine out there.