Does my Excal need service?

[Silver Surfer]

I noticed on the last couple of trips that my Excal when first turned on will not give me a threshold, even if cranked... I paid closer attention this last time out, and it seems to take a few minutes swinging in the water before it will, then it is usually turned up too loud and I have to turn it down.. It seemed to not make any threshold tone if starting out in dry stuff, only comes on after going into the water, but if I get out of the water after it begins to tone, then it will continue humming over the dry..
Since I am new to the Excal's, maybe they all do this, but I would hate to have it die on me suddenly.. It has a couple years of an extended warranty left on it, but am hoping not to have to send it in for "tune up" until the gold season is over...
Thoughts?

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A Handbook of Civil War Bullets and Cartridges - Grab it through Amazon!

[Woodland Detectors]

You may know this but, if you are discriminating, your "threshold hum" will be interrupted if swung over the discriminated target. Only to resume hum there after.

Could this be your issue?

 

[Silver Surfer]

No, thats not it... Yesterday, it wouldnt give a threshold hum even with the sens turned up to 8 and threshold cranked all the way... After hunting silent for about 2 hrs, I turned the machine off, moved to another lake, and when I fired it up it acted like it should, and I actually had to back way off of the threshold to about 1/2 to quiet it down.. Really strange...

 

[Sandman]

You may know this but, if you are discriminating, your "threshold hum" will be interrupted if swung over the discriminated target. Only to resume hum there after.

Could this be your issue?

At first this is what I thought too. But now I know you need to send it in as you have a small problem. You can put up with it for awhile but I expect it will lose depth.

 

[Silver Surfer]

And it seems to... A lake beach just opened up near my home that people use a lot when it is open... I found very little there, and it was all shallow... The dry sand historically has a lot of trash in it, and I found nothing...
I just cant do without it right now... But I sure hope it doesnt poop out on me just yet...
But, if I drive to the ocean and it does it, I will have no choice but to send it in.. I wonder what kind of turnaround they have now, I hear some problems with people contacting them..

Just curious Sandman, when you rinse yours after salt water use, do you turn all the knobs while rinsing, or just rinse off real well?
I have just been rinsing off at several angles, but havent been turning the knobs...

 

[Silver Surfer]

Forgot to mention also, I had not re-charged my battery after about 10 hrs hunting with it... Could drained batteries make it act that way?
I did hit another lake after the aforementioned one, and it did give a threshold tone, but seemed erratic.. Sigh..
New water scoop, and probably will have to lose the water detector for a while..

 

[Woodland Detectors]

Forgot to mention also, I had not re-charged my battery after about 10 hrs hunting with it... Could drained batteries make it act that way?
I did hit another lake after the aforementioned one, and it did give a threshold tone, but seemed erratic.. Sigh..
New water scoop, and probably will have to lose the water detector for a while..

No, I'm sorry. Low batteries shouldn't affect your T.H. Tone.
You might have to send it in friend.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

It should not take more then a couple seconds to get the threshold, certainly not minutes, much less hours...

Do as suggested and give battery a full charge, (low charge usually means unstable, no total loss of threshold) be sure the coil cover is clean. If the problem is still there then it has an issue......

I think you said you bought the Excal used, if that is correct, the extended waranties are not transferable on Minelab products, Minelab no longer gives more then a year warranty on the Excals. The only way you can get it worked on under the warranty is if the guy you bought it from has the work done under his name. You can try, but don't be surprised if they say it is not under warranty.

Repair time is still close to 30 days although I did hear today that it will get better very soon, I talked to a Minelab VP today via email....He asked that I not post any names on the web boards and I will respect his wishes. The new repair facility will be up and working in the Chicago area by early July and they are closing down the Vegas facility then. They also have hired two additional repair technicians and a new Customer Service Manager...

 

[Woodland Detectors]

It should not take more then a couple seconds to get the threshold, certainly not minutes, much less hours...

Do as suggested and give battery a full charge, (low charge usually means unstable, no total loss of threshold) be sure the coil cover is clean. If the problem is still there then it has an issue......

I think you said you bought the Excal used, if that is correct, the extended waranties are not transferable on Minelab products, Minelab no longer gives more then a year warranty on the Excals. The only way you can get it worked on under the warranty is if the guy you bought it from has the work done under his name. You can try, but don't be surprised if they say it is not under warranty.

Repair time is still close to 30 days although I did hear today that it will get better very soon, I talked to a Minelab VP today via email....He asked that I not post any names on the web boards and I will respect his wishes. The new repair facility will be up and working in the Chicago area by early July and they are closing down the Vegas facility then. They also have hired two additional repair technicians and a new Customer Service Manager...

[/ And they are working out great!

 

[Silver Surfer]

I really paid more attention the last two days hunting, and it seems to be more of a "warm-up" thing... It will not threshold at first, so I just turn it up almost all the way.. After about 10-15 min time, I then re-adjust and it seems to work fine.... Still an issue, but I was finding very corroded coins as deep as 16-20 inches...
I do "shower" it every use, then rinse again with hose when I get home... The guy I bought it from also told me about the "no transfer" rule, but said if I had problems, he would gladly send it in for me...