Dear Minelab

[Narthoniel]

I have been having some trouble with my new Excal2, so I sent this message in to them today. Just wanted to post it here as well, to see if anyone else has had similar issues, and to track their progress with this customer support querry with you all, in case you have need of their services in the future.

Hello,

I purchased an Excal2 Detector from you a couple of months ago. I have used it at a beach near me with good success, but, I have been having some difficulty with the machine.

About the second or third time I went into the water with it, It began to go bananas. It made very strange noises, the threshold flew sky high, and I could not get it to restabalize. After a half an hour or so, it was back to normality, and I continued to use it out of the water, only getting the coil and lower shaft wet.

Since then, everytime the unit gets wet, it goes haywire. It falses on every sensitivity level like I were waving it over a piggy bank full of coins. I continued to use the maching for a few weeks in this manner, and had very few complaints about it aside from not being able to get it fully submerged.
More recently, the problems have begun to occur all the time, reguardless of wether or not the unit was wet. I am a bit hesitant to send it in despite the issues, because the end of the beach hunting season is near. I do not have a backup water machine yet, and dont have the funds avaliable for one, and do not want to suffer the down time while I send in my Excal.

In short, I would like to hear your recommendations on how to resolve this issue. I hope that I will be able to send this to you, have it looked at, and have it returned quickly. The falsing is so bad, it is causing my detecting trips to be frustrating to the point I am no longer having fun. I have had a good deal of success with this machine so far, and hope to have many more finds in the future with it.

Thank you for taking the time to help me resolve these issues. I am pleased with this machine, just concerned by the possibility of the seals leaking on a new machine. I have yet to send in the product warranty card, although I did fill it out. I was too excited to jump in the water upon reciept of my new toy, and kept putting it off.
Anthony

 

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[mastereagle22]

I contacted Minelab for an issue I had two days ago and within an hour they had replied and they are sending me a part I need to fix an issue with my coil!

Minelab rules!

 

[jeff of pa]

the threshold going sky high could be a battery connection
Or Battery Problem.

if it does it on a Full charge Check your connections.

 

[Narthoniel]

I thought the same Jeff, so I let it charge for about 14-16 hours yesterday. Still went bonkers. Fortunatly tho, I have an email reply from Minelab already! Seems they are on the ball, and the good customer support is going to keep them very reputable in my eyes. Here is the reply I recieved:

Hi Anthony:

Well, there are two ways to go here.

First, you could go back to your dealer you got the Excal from and see if they will just exchange it for you. They would probably want to call me first before they did that, but that’s okay, tell them to call me.

The other option is to send it in to us here in Las Vegas whenever you can do without it for a couple of weeks and let me have the techs check it out and find out what’s going on.

Either way, we can get you going – just let me know what you decide to do, okay ?

Best regards,

Dick

 

[Iron Patch]

I thought the same Jeff, so I let it charge for about 14-16 hours yesterday. Still went bonkers. Fortunatly tho, I have an email reply from Minelab already! Seems they are on the ball, and the good customer support is going to keep them very reputable in my eyes. Here is the reply I recieved:

Hi Anthony:

Well, there are two ways to go here.

First, you could go back to your dealer you got the Excal from and see if they will just exchange it for you. They would probably want to call me first before they did that, but that’s okay, tell them to call me.

The other option is to send it in to us here in Las Vegas whenever you can do without it for a couple of weeks and let me have the techs check it out and find out what’s going on.

Either way, we can get you going – just let me know what you decide to do, okay ?

Best regards,

Dick

Sounds like a bad unit right outta the box. You deserve an exchange for a new one that works.

 

[Narthoniel]

It worked fine for a week or two, until I had a good scoop come in the mail. Until then, I stayed out of the water. The first time I hunted wet was awesome, loved being waist to chest deep and hunting. But, soon after, getting it wet made funny and not good noises.

I wrote an email to Detectordepot, and they wrote back soon after. Said they needed to talk to Dick at Minelab about it, and that they would call him tuesday. So, ill limp on by with it acting goofy until then. Have done so the last couple nights, and, its hard to catch the true signals among the falsing, but, I did manage to find some coinage.

Anthony

 

[mach2]

Minelab and Dick Schultz are certainly on top of things! The control box on my new x-terra 70 (6 weeks) went out and I called and talked with Dick he said he'll take care of it, set me a new control box with a UPS return tag for the broken one on a 3 day express shipment! No question asked. Truly outstanding customer service!

 

[N.J.THer]

I purchased a used Excal 1000 and the first time out one of the knows broke into pieces. I spoke to another Excal owner and they stated that the buttons are pretty fragile. I sent a note to Minelab which Dick responded to and he is sending out a few extra buttons. Now that is good service and I'm just a second hand owner. I've been thinking about purchasing a SE and this type of service just makes that decission a little bit easier.

Most likely I will design my own knobs but I did not want to work on that until the winter months. I'm having too much fun detecting right now.

NJ

 

[vondrewvious]

I hate to hear this because a friend of mine has the new excal 2 with the exact same issue. He sent it back and they replaced the coil. It made it a little better but certainly not fixed. He is sending it in again soon. Strange you mention about it getting a little better with time. I have used his excal and it did seem like the machine almost "warmed up" after a little while. I hope it is corrected completely this time.

Good luck with yours
V

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I purchased a used Excal 1000 and the first time out one of the knows broke into pieces. I spoke to another Excal owner and they stated that the buttons are pretty fragile. I sent a note to Minelab which Dick responded to and he is sending out a few extra buttons. Now that is good service and I'm just a second hand owner. I've been thinking about purchasing a SE and this type of service just makes that decission a little bit easier.

Most likely I will design my own knobs but I did not want to work on that until the winter months. I'm having too much fun detecting right now.

NJ

If you go to Radio Shack you can get replacement knobs cheap that are a little larger and work great.

 

[Zebago]

I had the same problem. This it the letter I sent to Minelab. I have since got it back with a new coil. It still does it. I am waiting until the end of the season to send it back in.

"I am having a problem with my new Excalibur. On land the detector works just as it should at all settings. As soon as the coil hits the water the threshold goes haywire. The control housing does not need to be wet for this to happen and the coil does not have to be moving. I also have tried it without the coil cover and it still does it. This has happened from the first time I used it in the water. I have tried all settings and nothing seems to stops it. I ended up turning down the threshold so I couldn’t hear it. It will still detect but I don’t think this is normal.

I scuba dove in fresh water with the detector 3 times to varying depths no deeper than 25 feet. I have also used it in waist high water many times and on dry land. There is very low mineralization and no electrical lines or large metal objects where I was using the detector. The battery was fully charged. I have put a few hours on the machine."

 

[N.J.THer]

I purchased a used Excal 1000 and the first time out one of the knows broke into pieces. I spoke to another Excal owner and they stated that the buttons are pretty fragile. I sent a note to Minelab which Dick responded to and he is sending out a few extra buttons. Now that is good service and I'm just a second hand owner. I've been thinking about purchasing a SE and this type of service just makes that decission a little bit easier.

Most likely I will design my own knobs but I did not want to work on that until the winter months. I'm having too much fun detecting right now.

NJ

If you go to Radio Shack you can get replacement knobs cheap that are a little larger and work great.

Thanks for the suggestion....I will try that.

 

[Narthoniel]

The issues I was happening reappeared as soon as I told them it was fine. Murphy's law for you. Going to have to send it in for service. Fortunatly, a local hunter offered me the loan of an Excal until mine comes home. I am very thankful to him for the generous offer.