problem around saltwater?

[Pepperlizard]

When I use my garret ace 350 around or even in freshwater I have no problem finding any and all metal targets that I get near, however it is a different story with saltwater. Whenever I go into saltwater or hunt over the wet sand, my detector goes crazy and never stops making noise. It keeps going back and forth between iron and metals that are close to nickel, and I don't know if that means that there is something wrong with my coil or if there is something in the water that is making it do that. another note is that sometimes (not always) i'll get some signals when i go over a patch of seaweed that has washed up, but most patches will not do that. any tips, advice, reccomendations?

 

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[Terry Soloman]

Single frequency VLF machines (Very Low Frequency) like your Garrett Ace, have limitations in the harsh saltwater environment. Take for example the Tesoro Lobo Super Traq. This VLF single frequency machine (17.9Khz) is one of the finest and deepest gold nugget finders on the market today. The Lobo Super Traq, is capable of finding BB-sized gold nuggets eight-inches deep in heavily mineralized ground, or a nickel in dry beach sand at 14-inches. Put that same nugget – or even the nickel, seven-inches deep in wet saltwater sand and the Lobo could walk right over it while chattering, or maybe without seeing it at all. Why?

The magnetic iron sands (“Black Sands”), salt, and high concentrations of other minerals in the water and sand conspire to bounce the radio waves away from the target. Conductivity and mineralization act like a shield around the target and create white noise that must be filtered electronically. Think of it as turning on your bright headlights in a heavy fog at night. All that powerful light is diffused and causes a complete white out – you can’t see anything three-feet past the hood of your car! However when you turn on your yellow fog lights, you can see a little further – not as far as you could in clear daylight, but further. That is why all radio wave machines must be “ground balanced” or tuned, to maximize their depth potential.

In the dry sand your machine is a killer, but you need a multi-frequency or pulse induction machine for wet saltwater sand and saltwater. It's just too conductive for your machine.

 

[search and recovery]

The ace 350 is a VLF (very low frequency ) machine. It is also a single frequency machine. It will work great on dry sand but can not handle the mineralization and the heavy salt conductivity of the ocean water. It will always drive your machine crazy. To hunt the wet salt sand and water you must either have a VLF multifrequency machine like the Minelab Excalibur, which does descriminate by different tones, or a PI ( pulse induction ) machine like a Fisher Cz 20 or Cz21, Whites Dual Field, or Tesoro Sand Shark, just to name a few of the better machines out there. The PI machines will read through the heavy mineralization better than anything out there in salt water but do not have any real descrimination, so you have to dig everything. That means all iron and assorted trash. They also pick up targets very very deep. That translates into lots of digging. The seaweed just absorbs a higher level of salt concentration into itself than the surrounding water. Hope this short explaination helps.

 

[search and recovery]

Terry got his post in ahead of me. Sorry about that. He does a better job writing than I do anyway.

 

[Painter65]

Basically, that machine wont cut it in the salt water or wet sand. You might be able to turn the sensitivity way down but youd be missing a lot doing so.

 

[onlinesniper]

i have the exact same problems with my garrett ace 250 and 150 , wet sand arrggghhh but dry sand is awesome

 

[Pepperlizard]

thanks to you guys who responded, i love this detector, don't get me wrong - and it is killer in dry sand and freshwater. What you guys said makes quite a bit of sense as well, thanks!