Ace 250 Thoughts

The-Bone

Sr. Member
Nov 13, 2007
326
24
North East,Pa
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
Ace 250, Whites Silver Eagle, BHID,M6,CZ21
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Hi all,
i just boogered up my ankle at work and have been sitting around the house for 2 days with nothing to do. I set up a little test run with the 250 i received at Christmas and am still amazed at how well it performs for $200. i knew the thing was quick with response times but am more impressed than ever. I set up 3 coins about 2.5 to 3 inches away from each other and started swinging. I quickly ascertained that my normal swing was a bit too fast. By slowing down just a hair that little bugger hit all 3 targets. Furthermore, it ID'd them all correctly. i played around with different denominations and sure enough it lit up the correct tabs for each target. Next i placed some junk targets that were notched out into the coin mix..The Ace fell silent over the junk and picked up the good stuff. Lastly, i set up a measured air test(plastic ruler and all) I am pleased to say that i got almost 8 inches consistently on a quarter. By consistently i mean that it sounded off and ID'd it correctly. I got right around 7 inches on a dime. As far as field tests, the 3 or 4 times i've had it out so far i am also relatively impressed. I can usually run the gain almost all the way up. BTW, the indoor tests were done under the factory preset COINS mode. Depths reported were for that gain setting. One last item, somewhere on here someone mentioned swinging the coil closer to your feet. I have always felt that the 250 is coil heavy. Today i shortened up the rod which moved the coil closer to my feet than what i normally would have positioned it and it has made a HUGE difference. Thanks to that person!!
HH
The-Bone
 

I am highly impressed with the Ace 250. One of Garretts best for land hunting! Finding lots of good stuff with the little wonder.

Bavarianminister
 

Yep. Its an excellent machine. I think it would be hard to improve the Ace and still keep it at the price its presently being sold at. Some people have complained it has no volume control but it dosen't need it really, since you can buy head phones with adjustable volume control for either ear. I saw a nice little pair at Radio Shack for $19.00 on sale for $14.99. It had volume control built in.

Question: I have to wonder if manual ground balancing could be added to the existing Ace 250 even though it has Pre Set GB. ANyone know?
Robert R
 

i would have to say that yes manual GB could very easily be added...what i would like to see is some sort of numeric vdi display, with GB and that there would not be a reason for me to ever upgrade
 

The-Bone said:
i would have to say that yes manual GB could very easily be added...what i would like to see is some sort of numeric vdi display, with GB and that there would not be a reason for me to ever upgrade

These are two of the reasons I'm upgrading from the Ace to a DFX!
 

I tried to add a panel mount GB and threshold to the 250. I opened mine up and there was 2 trimmers in there. Well I has added GB and threshold to the Whites Classic line several times so I decided to tackle the 250. First I called Garrett and asked about the trimmers. They told me they were for the TID and the GB could not be adjusted. Well I still panel mounted the trimmers and sure enough they were for the TID. So the answer is no it can't be done. Sorry.
 

These are the kind of things we all need to say in an e-mail to Garrett, otherwise we'll never see ANYthing done to upgrade the machines. I think we should all write garrett an e-mail NOW and tell them we want to see these things on an new upcoming Ace models or at least "suggest". Also I would like to see a mid sized 6 to 7 inch concentric coil. 6inch would be great.

Robert R
 

robert roy said:
These are the kind of things we all need to say in an e-mail to Garrett, otherwise we'll never see ANYthing done to upgrade the machines. I think we should all write garrett an e-mail NOW and tell them we want to see these things on an new upcoming Ace models or at least "suggest". Also I would like to see a mid sized 6 to 7 inch concentric coil. 6inch would be great.

Robert R

just sent them an email on this subject at http://[email protected]
 

Got a thank ypu repley back already...i imagine in 2 or 3 weeks we'll be seeing that new model i suggested ;) ::)
 

Yes, a 6 inch concentric or DD coil would be great. I would like to leave the sniper coil on as my main coil but you just can't cover any ground. Having a 6 inch coil would be the best of both worlds.
 

Would the ace 250 do well at the beach ??? I n the dry and wet sand ....and is the coil waterproof ???
i might buy one for a backup
 

Guzz..I have used mine at the beach and it works pretty well in the dry sand. The wet sand, I have to turn the sens. down but at the water..it gives me a fit. Don't think you could go wrong with getting one. If you look at some of the posts from crackbadger, he seems to have great luck at the beach with his. The coil itself is waterproof..just don't let the control head get wet or it will be fried.
 

Thanks for your post I would like to get md my wife could use I know theres not much weight to them easy to swing ... guzz1
 

You can swing it all day without a problem and another good thing is ....they are not battery hogs.
 

If the ACE 250 had a manual GB..........wow, that would make it untouchable in its class as far as I am concerned. If the BH Discovery 3300 at the price range can accomodate a manual GB, why not incorporate one into the 250? I'm going to e-mail them and suggest it, and mention the fact that I would gladly send mine in for the upgrade, and pay them for it. What's reasonable? $30-40?
 

the problem with offering a ground balance 250 is not one of extreme expense or expertise of design, but, rather, one of the new unit desimating sales of 1500/2500 series detectors....the markup on a 'high end' detector is undoubtedly astronomical...the technology they all are using has been around for 20+ years and if anything is getting smaller and cheaper to deploy....If you could buy an ACE250 for $350 that sported a manual GB and VDI readout why would anyone spend $1000 for the 2500? Look at the size of the Whites DFX units...with a control housing that large you should be able to run a small space station ;D...sorry if i'm ranting, i just get really pissed off at the prices of some of these units when i know how the electronics industry works...look at TVs, 5 years ago a 40' plasma set cost twice what it does today...How come top end detectors never follow suit?
 

I went from a BH to a GTI 2500 as the ACE 250 wasn't out yet. After playing around with my 2500 for about six months, the 250 came out and I bought one for backup. Sorry to say I more often grab the ACE 250 when I head out than the 2500. The GTI 2500 weighs a ton compared to the ACE 250! I have a very bad back and it makes a huge difference to me. Luckily there isn't much highly mineralized ground around here and the ACE works just fine. I live near a lake with a very high saline content and it has black sand believe it or not. The ACE wigs out on the black sand and I have to go to the 2500 to tune out the noise.That's the only problem I have had with the ACE. Well, no it isn't come to think of it. Overhead power lines cause a problem too. But , for the money, I am convinced the ACE 250 is the finest little machine on the market. I have trailed along behind some of the high dollar machines in seeded club hunts and actually picked up targets they missed. I'm not saying the ACE is better, they just didn't have theirs tuned properly would be my guess. With the ACE there is no tuning, just turn it on and go! The ACE made me a Garrett fan, but Garrett had better pay attention to the newer multifrequency technology or they will be left in the dust as far as top end detectors go. I keep looking for some new technology from Garrett but so far it hasn't developed. The ACE is keeping them going while the rest of their lineup is pretty much old traditional. That's how I see it guys. Monty
 

Really love the Ace 250 I have (my son's actually), it never let me down.
 

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