Factory Coils VS Aftermarket Coils

Frodov

Bronze Member
May 24, 2007
1,021
34
Lexington, KY
Detector(s) used
Whites Prism IV / Bullseye II pinpointer
Hi everyone. Forgive my ignorance, but I'm trying to remedy that very thing by asking this question(s). I've got a White's Prizm IV and am very happy with it so far. I've only been in this hobby for a few months now but I'm hooked for life I think. While, as I said, I'm happy with my machine, I keep seeing advertisements for "sniper" coils and for larger coils . I think I understand the concept of Larger means deeper but less precise.. and the smaller or sniper coils mean more precision or descrimination. My question, and confusion is IF I wanted to get say a bigger coil, Does the Prizm IV support a bigger coil? like the one advertised here now.. the Super 12. Said it works on all White's E series machines. Is a Prizm IV an "E series" machine?
Would appreciate any info that I can get. Thanks.

Frodov
 

Tom_in_CA

Gold Member
Mar 23, 2007
13,837
10,360
Salinas, CA
🥇 Banner finds
2
Detector(s) used
Explorer II, Compass 77b, Tesoro shadow X2
I would stick with the factory coils, for each given brand. In your case, Whites makes larger coils for their own machines. I seriously doubt that other competitor's after-market coils would be anything better, size per size. I mean, if there WAS a better mousetrap (superior coil windings, or whatever), you would think that the manufacturer of that machine would be "all over themselves" to get that technology for themselves, so they could sell it stock, on their machine.

Years ago, and maybe still to this day, there was an aftermarket coil that was heavily advertised in the magazines, called "Hot Head". They touted extra depth and such. But if you looked closely at their ads, (where they purported to get XX% more depth than the stock coils on a Fisher, or Whites etc...) you would see that they would be comparing their 10" coil, to a Fisher 8" coil. Or a 12" coil to Whites 950 (9.5") coil, etc.... Well of COURSE you would get more depth by switching to a larger coil. So too will Whites and Fishers own larger coils go deeper than their own smaller coils. (With the inherent drawbacks of larger coils, like masking, poor pinpointing, etc..) It was clearly a case of mis-leading advertising. JMHO :-*
 

grizzly bare

Hero Member
Aug 30, 2005
589
26
Warrenton, VA
Detector(s) used
Garrett CX II/Sovereign SX-2a Pro/Quattro
Frodov,
One of my detectors is an IDX PRO (a White's pretty good machine) and I have half a dozen coils for it...and end up using the 950 most of the time. I like the increased depth with a 1500 ( a large 15 inch coil) but with coin shooting the larger coil is not that much better, and is a tough pinpointer.
My suggestion? PRACTICE.PRACTICE.PRACTICE. Learn your machine . Then if you want, borrow a couple of coils and try them. I like my 350 (goes into those hard to get to areas) and I have a BigFoot for covering lots of ground quickly.

grizzly bare
 

Dimeman

Bronze Member
Jan 16, 2007
1,634
12
Houston,TX
Detector(s) used
Garrett AT Pro Fisher F5
Frodov said:
Hi everyone. Forgive my ignorance, but I'm trying to remedy that very thing by asking this question(s). I've got a White's Prizm IV and am very happy with it so far. I've only been in this hobby for a few months now but I'm hooked for life I think. While, as I said, I'm happy with my machine, I keep seeing advertisements for "sniper" coils and for larger coils . I think I understand the concept of Larger means deeper but less precise.. and the smaller or sniper coils mean more precision or descrimination. My question, and confusion is IF I wanted to get say a bigger coil, Does the Prizm IV support a bigger coil? like the one advertised here now.. the Super 12. Said it works on all White's E series machines. Is a Prizm IV an "E series" machine?
Would appreciate any info that I can get. Thanks.

Frodov

The Prism line only will take 3 different coils. The Prism 8 inch, the Prism 9.5 inch and the Prism Bigfoot( on Jimmy Sierra website).
 

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