Ace 400 Review and Testing (video)

[TheHunterGT]

Well the Ace 400 review is finally up. Had a great and fun week with it - a HUGE thank you again to TNET member bowwinkles for sending it to me to review and hunt with it. His kindness is remarkable.

The more I hunted with it the more I liked it. Will be sad to see her go onto the UPS truck later today LOL.

Like all detectors it has it's pros and cons.

Cons....
I felt it was nose heavy with the stock coil. Smaller coil fixes that right away.
Felt the arm cuff should be extended another 3 inches for taller men with longer forearms.
It did have pretty bad crosstalk with the Pro-Pointer AT - no matter what channel I was on.
No manual ground balance - always fixed.
No volume adjust on the machine itself, just the headphones.
LCD is a little small - it is NOT easy to read from arms length. 20-20 vision here...no glasses.
CANNOT handle high mineralization - failed on 4 inch coins in my Colorado test bed.

Beyond that I would have to be really nit-picky.

Pros....
Recovery speed is very fast....VERY fast.
Unmasking was very decent with the larger coil. Passed Montes nail board test on tones in most directions. Not ID of course.
Built very well. I love the way the buttons feels and the way it feels in my hand. Feels strong and sturdy.
Battery life is great. Did not lose a single bar until 6 hour mark....on rechargeables.
The accessories are actually quite nice. Headphones - coil cover - dust cover. All detectors should include these things! Take notice other manufacturers!
I actually like the black and yellow look...crazy I know.
The bell tone and mid tone and low tone are actually very easy to differentiate from the 3. I know some hate the bell tone - but I do not. It works.
It air tests very well. I will assume it mild and medium soils it will go nice and deep.
Iron audio is a good feature. It CAN tell the difference between bottle caps and coins. I think it will work great in mild/medium soils. In my bad soil it was not a feature I would ever utilize.

Anyways...here is the video. Hope you enjoy. Had tons of fun with it.

If embed does not work click here ----> https://youtu.be/J7gMKMCrhLE

 

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[Phantasman]

You did a great job showing the pros and cons. The Ace is a very successful series and the 400 follows Garretts superior "bang for the buck" analogy. I like that the Ace now has super fast recovery. Very easy to learn and set up.

My heart really goes out to you, John, for the difficult soil you have to work with. Watching the air test, then not detecting a quarter at 4" really shows the "soil from hell" you have to deal with. Fixed balance as well as the LRP ground grab is still going to go nuts with all the fluctuation of iron content in your area. Maybe a Whites (Treasure Pro) with tracking should be your next review to see if can do any better.

I like your style and your video's.

 

[bowwinkles]

I would also like to do a public thank you for all the good work.

 

[N5XTR]

Great job on the review and thank you to bowwinkles for the loan of the Ace 400. Much Respect.

 

[TheHunterGT]

You did a great job showing the pros and cons. The Ace is a very successful series and the 400 follows Garretts superior "bang for the buck" analogy. I like that the Ace now has super fast recovery. Very easy to learn and set up.

My heart really goes out to you, John, for the difficult soil you have to work with. Watching the air test, then not detecting a quarter at 4" really shows the "soil from hell" you have to deal with. Fixed balance as well as the LRP ground grab is still going to go nuts with all the fluctuation of iron content in your area. Maybe a Whites (Treasure Pro) with tracking should be your next review to see if can do any better.

I like your style and your video's.

Thanks my friend. I must be honest...I loved every minute with it. Especially once the 8x5 coil was on it. I had my fingers crossed for that backyard test. Please go 6 inches...please go 6 inches. I almost cried when not even the quarter rang up. My brother in law lives in Oregon and might be picking a TreasurePro up soon. If he does...I will demand he is as kind as bowwinkles and send it to me for a review!

I would also like to do a public thank you for all the good work.

'

If anybody deserves the thank you it is this man named bowwinkles! I can never thank you enough.

Great job on the review and thank you to bowwinkles for the loan of the Ace 400. Much Respect.

Here here! Much respect to bowwinkles. And thank you for the kind words on the review.

 

[HunterZed]

Thank you for this reviews was planning to get the Ace 400 this month, just waiting for the approval on my Budget Officer (wife)

 

[bowwinkles]

I have had the 400 back a while and have put it thru a lot of field use. My thought is that it is a youth detector with a adult coil. The reason I say it in that manner is that it comes with a very heavy coil, yet the arm cuff is designed for a youth. The result of this setup is that it is like Hunter said, it is very much nose heavy. It is also a interference magnet. It chatters with the slightest interference. I shut down and grabbed a couple other of my machines and ran the same area without any problems at all. A lot of the time I have had to run it with the sensitivity setting very low due to the EMF issues. The display is small and hard to see due to the angle and when you use the rain cover it has a reflection (shine) that makes reading the display even harder. When not disturbed by interference (no matter the freq setting) it does work but not as well as I had hoped. The small coil is a must for this detector if you have long arms, the short cuff becomes tiring very quickly with the large heavier coil. Tones (bell tone) is not my favorite but loud enough for my tired old ears.

 

[bowwinkles]

As mentioned in the review stating the notch width as being to wide. During this adventure I was plagued by a hit in the 39 area that presented its self as foil when dug. I solved that problem by eliminating only that area and the hunt went on very quiet. I returned home and got to thinking about my last hunt and decided to bench test the 400 to see if I had hurt myself by eliminating that one notch where the foil had hit. I brought out my collection of gold rings and began to test where they hit. Most of the medium to small (including women's wedding) was eliminated and the detector did not make a sound. This tells me that because of the notch width a person should take care selecting any notch positions unless you first test to test to insure that you want to eliminate everything in that big wide area that only one notch takes out. The good thing is it did show that it does have a working wide notch feature and the bad news is that it sucks. I returned to the same area I had previously detected the day b4 and found two gold rings that I missed. Because of this poor feature I only take out the bottom iron area and dig the rest.
I also did extend the arm rest with a home brew wood shop fix made out of a couple of paint mixing sticks from home depot and a small felt pad. The result was very positive. Even though the 400 is advertised with many features, so far my findings is I just have to use it as basic detector without selecting any of them. I will keep on trying to gain more confidence but as of now that will be hard.

 

[TheHunterGT]

Those notches being 8.25 wide is a big killer for me. If they had made it to where the disc and notches were 1 by 1 on the 0-99 scale it would have been easier to overlook the other shortcomings.

I can deal with fixed GB....I can deal with the small LCD....I can deal with having no volume adjustment....I can even deal with it being nose heavy and short arm cuffed.

What I cannot deal with is notch and disc "squares" that are 8.25 wide thus adding some very undesired hits that I simply do not want in my headphones. Whoever thought that was a awesome idea at Garrett needs a spanking.

 

[Andy Nunez]

Thanks for the candid reviews. I think a lot of issues with the 400 have to do with bad soil. Over my way, the soil is pretty neutral, so I can turn the sensitivity up to the next to the last notch. If I use the last notch, the falsing goes up without a significant increase in depth. I agree with the EMF issues. My biggest bugaboo here is the invisible dog fence. Even with the frequency shifter, I can't get within 50 feet of one without turning the sensitivity way, way down. However, on most days, I have no issues and it works pretty well for me, better than the 350. I agree with the block width causing issues with small gold rings. Not being a beach hunter or ring hunter, I usually dig 40 and above. I have a rare spot full of hot rocks and they usually read 39. I am doing 6-7 inches on most coins and got a shiny metal screw cap the size of a half dollar off some old metal tin like turpentine used to come in at 8 inches easily. A lot of my friends in my financial range got 350s and a couple more got 400s and we're competitive with the AT-Pro over here. NEL coils beat us every time. I have a friend with a 250 with a NEL storm and he's doing 9 inches on wheaties, but I have yet to see a Pro with a stock coil out-deep me. Taking time to maximize the potential of your machine, to me, is as important as the bells and whistles. I saw a kid Saturday with a two knob Bounty Hunter with a 8 inch coil getting a V nickel and a 43 Wheatie. The review gives me a lot to ponder and instead of buying another detector, maybe I'll get a NEL.

 

[soopacee]

Thanks for the candid reviews. I think a lot of issues with the 400 have to do with bad soil. Over my way, the soil is pretty neutral, so I can turn the sensitivity up to the next to the last notch. If I use the last notch, the falsing goes up without a significant increase in depth. I agree with the EMF issues. My biggest bugaboo here is the invisible dog fence. Even with the frequency shifter, I can't get within 50 feet of one without turning the sensitivity way, way down. However, on most days, I have no issues and it works pretty well for me, better than the 350. I agree with the block width causing issues with small gold rings. Not being a beach hunter or ring hunter, I usually dig 40 and above. I have a rare spot full of hot rocks and they usually read 39. I am doing 6-7 inches on most coins and got a shiny metal screw cap the size of a half dollar off some old metal tin like turpentine used to come in at 8 inches easily. A lot of my friends in my financial range got 350s and a couple more got 400s and we're competitive with the AT-Pro over here. NEL coils beat us every time. I have a friend with a 250 with a NEL storm and he's doing 9 inches on wheaties, but I have yet to see a Pro with a stock coil out-deep me. Taking time to maximize the potential of your machine, to me, is as important as the bells and whistles. I saw a kid Saturday with a two knob Bounty Hunter with a 8 inch coil getting a V nickel and a 43 Wheatie. The review gives me a lot to ponder and instead of buying another detector, maybe I'll get a NEL.

Do they make NELs for the 400, everytime i look they only show going up to the 350?

 

[Andy Nunez]

I looked one day last week and they are now advertising for 400. Not sure about CORS or Mars coils. I am going to wait a few months to see if there are any reviews from anybody with a 400 that orders one. My friend with the 250 just loves his.

 

[soopacee]

Yeah, im big on reviews to see if they are worth it, they arent cheap lol.....hopefully they pour in soon...ty brotha

 

[Andy Nunez]

You got that right, bro!

I'll be sure to post!

 

[bowwinkles]

Yeah, im big on reviews to see if they are worth it, they arent cheap lol.....hopefully they pour in soon...ty brotha

I see you have one so start writing we want to hear from you an your thoughts.

 

[Andy Nunez]

That's a good idea, looking forward to reading it! Meanwhile. if you want to see my best coin so far with the 400, watch Hoover Boys episode 72 on YouTube. I'm the old coot with the black shirt and the 400.

 

[TheHunterGT]

I would love to see how a NEL works on a ACE 400. I know some AT Pro users have said HUGE difference....then other have said no difference. Feel free to bump this thread or start a new one. I'm all ears when it comes to NEL coils. Getting one for my wifes Gold Bug in another month or 2. Cannot wait.

 

[Andy Nunez]

Well, I can only witness what I have seen with my own eyes. I watched the Hoover Boys with Nel coils on two AT-Pros and a Minelab (3030?) and they were consistently getting 9-10 and more on colonial era through civil war era coins, either silver or large cents. I used my 400 and got around 6 inches on my Hibernia half-penny (1776). Watch episode 72, Dream Hunt. I have only done the 400 for about 20-30 hours, mostly in fields. I got a lot of buttons, small lead shot, a couple of buckles. I got stung by a huge number of hot rocks that read 39 and I set my discrimination at 40. According to AT-Pro VDI I am only missing the tiniest of gold rings and maybe cuff buttons. The Hibernia was my biggest and oldest coin since I got the 400, and I have gotten no silver yet, just the half-penny, a 2 cent piece, a couple of IHPs and wheaties. I've also gotten a lot of flat buttons and some older costume jewelry. Relics include some buckles, drawer pulls and piano key parts. My soil is sandy and generally not mineralized, so issues other people are having with no depth, really aren't applying to me. Would I prefer a ground balance? Sure! Can I afford one? No! I want to hunt some more with the stock coil and then upgrade to a NEL,probably the Storm. So, GT and Bowinkles, I am not sure my experiences can really compare to yours due to the vast difference in soil quality, but I'll keep posting if you like. Taking this weekend off for a family reunion, but will be back in the saddle on the 18th and 25th. I usually take July and August off due to the heat and bugs.

 

[TheHunterGT]

Yeah please keep posting man...I'd love to hear more about it even in less nasty soil conditions. I'm already sold on NEL coils...so I expect any new info to just drive it home further. Just about every user that puts one on X detector comes out impressed. Only the AT Pro guys seems to say it is hit or miss compared to the stock ProFormance coil....which IMO is a great coil albeit a little heavy. The smaller 8X5.5 is a dream coil....loved it!

 

[Andy Nunez]

I probably need the sniper coil for trashy areas, but it usually not that bad where I hunt and I don't do parks around here because they aren't that old. We have one site that we call the Bed of Nails because its iron everywhere. I haven't had much luck there, just shotgun shells, random brass bits and one little D buckle. Watch that Youtube episode and let me know what you think there. My friend with the 250 and the NEL got a half reale cob the day I got my one reale cob, but we were at another old house site and he plucked out a wheat penny at 9 inches. I think I could top that. I know you guys like that LRP, but not many people in my club have Teknetics and even less have Bounty Hunters. It's mostly Garrett with some Minelab, Deus and Fisher sprinkled in. Anyway, the Hoover Boys are the ones I see consistently get good depth with Pros and NELs. Check it out.