Garrett Ace 250 ..Really...

[scotty544]

As I have seen many new members asking about a good starter detector, and many members on here commenting about there Ace 250, I have finally seen one up close and personal, I have to add my two cents. So I am detecting a guys yard when his neighbor comes over and introduces himself and watches me detect for awhile. He then says that he has a detector and invited me to come to his yard that he has hunted to death, he claimed. I went to his yard and started looking around with my V3i, he returns with the trusty 250 in hand. First impression was that it looked cheap, I mean toyish cheap. Then as I am looking he states that all he ever found was beer tabs. I found 10 coins in about 20 minutes, while he found nothing. He got so discouraged that he told me to keep on looking, but he knew he wasn't even in my class. He stayed and watched for a little longer then went back in the house. He even got me permission to hunt his mothers yard next door.

As far as what I could see, he couldn't make heads or tells out of the random bell tones that he was hearing. If I found a signal that I thought was a coin, I would call him over and let him scan it before I dug it. Only about 4 out of ten did he even get a response. Vice versa all of the signals he found, mine showed them as trash or were completely discrimed out as iron. That detector was annoying as hell to listen to. I wouldn't give $50 bucks for one of those much less $250. If you are over the age of 12 you will be doing yourself a disservice buying a 250. Mind you I am not bashing them just to be, I really respect Garrett as a brand, but don't fall for this trap. And if that's all that you can afford get a cheap Tesoro or Whites. Or better yet save your money another year and get a $500 plus machine. If I had started with one of these I can promise you that I would not be detecting today. You get what you pay for.

Ps- I love my Garrett Pro Pointer! Not brand bashing.\
Pss- I found 3 quarters, 3 dimes, 5 wheat, and 9 copper/zincs. Have not got to the backyard yet.

 

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[mustangpalmer1911]

I was driving down the highway the other day and watched an older man driving a ZR1 Corvette Convertable. He could only 45 MPH, got passed by a 1989 rusted out Honda Civic, 2013 car and the turn signals did not work, and the gas door was screwed up becasue it had flown open going down the road .... I would not give 50 cents for one of those Chevy Corvettes...............................................................

 

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[dustytrails123]

I was driving down the highway the other day and seen and older man driving a ZR1 Corvette Convertable. He could only 45 MOH, got passed by a 1989 rusted out Honda Civic, 2013 car and the turn signals did not work, and the gas door was screwed up becasue it had flown open going down the road .... I would not give 50 cents for one of those Chevy Corvettes...............................................................

I havent a clue what this has to do with a garrett ace 250 or even a 350...but i assure you there isnt a corvette in the world that cant do over 45 its more likely keeping it under 45 that would be the problem it was the first car i ever took a loan out on when i was 21 and lets just say tickets followed lol

 

[RotZorn]

I was driving down the highway the other day and watched an older man driving a ZR1 Corvette Convertable. He could only 45 MPH, got passed by a 1989 rusted out Honda Civic, 2013 car and the turn signals did not work, and the gas door was screwed up becasue it had flown open going down the road .... I would not give 50 cents for one of those Chevy Corvettes...............................................................

Uh huh..... The Convertible option is not available on the ZR1.

 

[mustangpalmer1911]

I havent a clue what this has to do with a garrett ace 250 or even a 350...but i assure you there isnt a corvette in the world that cant do over 45 its more likely keeping it under 45 that would be the problem it was the first car i ever took a loan out on when i was 21 and lets just say tickets followed lol

The comparision is the same as why not to buy a 250.

 

[fella]

Albuquerque!

See, I can do it too!

Snorkel!

 

[scotty544]

So your saying that all the people that think the 250 is a good starter detector just don't know any better? You say you get what you pay for, yet your V3i came with a bad coil from the factory...I still say the 250 is a great starter detector, even if I don't know what Im talking about.

With a bad coil and one hand tied behind my back would still take the V3i any day. If I was going to throw $250 bucks at any kind of detector, the 250 would be last in line. I would recommend getting a slightly used higher end detector first. Whites got me a 950 concentric coil and a new 10" d2. Liked the 950 so much that I will not be using the d2 anymore. Don't buy a new Honda for the price of a used vette! And yes if you are promoting the 250, you have a lot to learn about metal detecting.

 

[dholland02]

With a bad coil and one hand tied behind my back would still take the V3i any day. If I was going to throw $250 bucks at any kind of detector, the 250 would be last in line. I would recommend getting a slightly used higher end detector first. Whites got me a 950 concentric coil and a new 10" d2. Liked the 950 so much that I will not be using the d2 anymore. Don't buy a new Honda for the price of a used vette! And yes if you are promoting the 250, you have a lot to learn about metal detecting.

Couldn't have said it better

 

[lookindown]

With a bad coil and one hand tied behind my back would still take the V3i any day. If I was going to throw $250 bucks at any kind of detector, the 250 would be last in line. I would recommend getting a slightly used higher end detector first. Whites got me a 950 concentric coil and a new 10" d2. Liked the 950 so much that I will not be using the d2 anymore. Don't buy a new Honda for the price of a used vette! And yes if you are promoting the 250, you have a lot to learn about metal detecting.

Everyone is not going to like the same things and I know you were just giving your opinion. You bashed the 250 pretty bad for a detector that gets a lot of support as a good starter detector...that's all, not trying to fight with you...I do promote the 250 as a great starter detector and I do have a lot to learn about metal detecting...I just have to be careful of the teachers I listen to...some think they know it all when they don't have a clue.

 

[mustangpalmer1911]

Everyone is not going to like the same things and I know you were just giving your opinion. You bashed the 250 pretty bad for a detector that gets a lot of support as a good starter detector...that's all, not trying to fight with you...I do promote the 250 as a great starter detector and I do have a lot to learn about metal detecting...I just have to be careful of the teachers I listen to...some think they know it all when they don't have a clue.

I have not real complaints about the 250 what I started with and it learded me a lot. Have a AT PRO on its way and look forward to the upgrade. But the 250 will deff be staying in the stable as a backup/spare. I was by far the biggest handicap the 250 had for the first 3 months.

 

[mercury1]

I was driving down the highway the other day and watched an older man driving a ZR1 Corvette Convertable. He could only 45 MPH, got passed by a 1989 rusted out Honda Civic, 2013 car and the turn signals did not work, and the gas door was screwed up becasue it had flown open going down the road .... I would not give 50 cents for one of those Chevy Corvettes...............................................................

Said the ford guy. Lol

 

[Tom_in_CA]

As I have seen many new members asking about a good starter detector, and many members on here commenting about there Ace 250, I have finally seen one up close and personal, I have to add my two cents. So I am detecting a guys yard when his neighbor comes over and introduces himself and watches me detect for awhile. He then says that he has a detector and invited me to come to his yard that he has hunted to death, he claimed. I went to his yard and started looking around with my V3i, he returns with the trusty 250 in hand. First impression was that it looked cheap, I mean toyish cheap. Then as I am looking he states that all he ever found was beer tabs. I found 10 coins in about 20 minutes, while he found nothing. He got so discouraged that he told me to keep on looking, but he knew he wasn't even in my class. He stayed and watched for a little longer then went back in the house. He even got me permission to hunt his mothers yard next door.

As far as what I could see, he couldn't make heads or tells out of the random bell tones that he was hearing. If I found a signal that I thought was a coin, I would call him over and let him scan it before I dug it. Only about 4 out of ten did he even get a response. Vice versa all of the signals he found, mine showed them as trash or were completely discrimed out as iron. That detector was annoying as hell to listen to. I wouldn't give $50 bucks for one of those much less $250. If you are over the age of 12 you will be doing yourself a disservice buying a 250. Mind you I am not bashing them just to be, I really respect Garrett as a brand, but don't fall for this trap. And if that's all that you can afford get a cheap Tesoro or Whites. Or better yet save your money another year and get a $500 plus machine. If I had started with one of these I can promise you that I would not be detecting today. You get what you pay for.

Ps- I love my Garrett Pro Pointer! Not brand bashing.\
Pss- I found 3 quarters, 3 dimes, 5 wheat, and 9 copper/zincs. Have not got to the backyard yet.

I know I'm johnny-come-lately to this thread, but I'll add my .02c in: There was a fellow using a 250 here on the wet-salt beaches, and had actually found some stuff on the wet sand on his first few tries. Then he meets up with me, and I'm swinging an explorer. We started to compare some flagged signals, and it became readily apparent to him that he was only getting about 5 or 6" tops in the wet (and that's with great effort!), while the explorer was effortlessly getting 10" or more with ease. He went out and ditched that the very next day.

I know that some people might say "well, that's wet salt", but ...... it certainly didn't seem like it was going to be much more competitive in dry soils either (well, at least when compared to a power-house like the Explorer, but perhaps that's not a fair comparison).

 

[gleaner1]

It is almost impossible to resist the urge to beat down the lowest, bottom-of-the-line, most over-rated entry-level machine ever made. Just to add insult to injury, they made the frikin thing YELLOW. AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! I hear of guys that paid for their new minelabs with ace250 finds. Clearly this is a case of not understanding the machine. The lowly ace250 would have found a good majority of the coins you found that day. Its just a matter of metal detecting ingnorrance.

 

[lookindown]

I tried my 250 in the wet sand at the beach when I first got it. I had to turn the sens down so low to get it to stop falsing that is was useless. 250 doesn't like salt environment.

 

[gleaner1]

crackbadger kicks serious ass in the dry salt beaches with two fiddy.

 

[lookindown]

crackbadger kicks serious ass in the dry salt beaches with two fiddy.

Crackbadger is the reason I thought I could make mine work in the wet sand...Im no crackbadger that's for sure.

 

[mustangpalmer1911]

I know I'm johnny-come-lately to this thread, but I'll add my .02c in: There was a fellow using a 250 here on the wet-salt beaches, and had actually found some stuff on the wet sand on his first few tries. Then he meets up with me, and I'm swinging an explorer. We started to compare some flagged signals, and it became readily apparent to him that he was only getting about 5 or 6" tops in the wet (and that's with great effort!), while the explorer was effortlessly getting 10" or more with ease. He went out and ditched that the very next day.

I know that some people might say "well, that's wet salt", but ...... it certainly didn't seem like it was going to be much more competitive in dry soils either (well, at least when compared to a power-house like the Explorer, but perhaps that's not a fair comparison).

A 1k machine vs a 250 machine?

 

[gleaner1]

@op, just my opinion, but Whites V3eye is an overly complex wallet lightener, nobody really uses it, not the serious relic guys that's for sure. A cheap F70 will spank it. I tried an m6 and liked it, it could find coins good but I never met a serious tecter dude that uses whites and I think v3i is White's desperate misguided attempt to impress the unwitting with a HELL of a lot of bells and whistles. Hooray! . Nothing new but some colorful screens and dozens more adjustment options and wireless phones, none of which add to the ability to tect crap. You gotta be a compulsive/obsessive disorder computer freak just to read the manual. You can set a Whites to wake you up from your delusional metal detecting fantasy after one hour of depressing non-eventful detecting. But that's okay, just because I wouldn't waste money on a whites does not mean it couldn't conceivably find coins in yo' momma-in-law's back yard. I can afford any metal detector I want and I don't choose Whites VIIIeye. But I dont choose ace 2 fizzle either. So what up holme? Does that mean that the machines are crap? Yep.

 

[gleaner1]

I seen an old timer come up to me in a park I was using a two fizzle and he had a v3eye and I found more stuff than him. But I must admit, he was so confused by his machine he did not even know were to plug his wireless headphones in so I guess 2 fiddy wins. Yeah!

 

[scotty544]

I seen an old timer come up to me in a park I was using a two fizzle and he had a v3eye and I found more stuff than him. But I must admit, he was so confused by his machine he did not even know were to plug his wireless headphones in so I guess 2 fiddy wins. Yeah!

Plug in the wireless...pleeeezzzz When you save up enuf finds with the twoofittty to get a reelz detecta let me no fool. Don't make me regulate with the~ EYE~

 

[mustangpalmer1911]

Plug in the wireless...pleeeezzzz When you save up enuf finds with the twoofittty to get a reelz detecta let me no fool. Don't make me regulate with the~ EYE~

This makes no sense who would not upgrade from ANY detector they had if they have the $$$$