Is Garrett Done in the Commercial Market?

[pepperj]

Watched a pair of detectorists with non-Garrett detectors wag their detectors through a playground a while back and then followed them through the playground and found a 14K gold ring.

So, I think the real questions are:
What proof do you have that Garrett detectors will miss specific types of targets that all other detectors on the market will find? Why are you "picking" on Garrett and assuming that all other detectors on the market best them?

I smile reading this reply especially the first paragraph.
Liking the wag analogy describing the pair detecting through the playground.

Unless you covered exactly the same coil sweeps as the 2 waggers then your recovery is just a good recovery.
From doing this for 5.5 decades I have realized that even from doing half coil lap overs I still can miss targets that are masked by iron. Going the opposite direction, or approaching the same spot from a different angle can produce a recovery.

Now for the second part of the reply.
From reading the forums for 20 yrs I will use the analogy of folks that buy a certain make of automobile. It doesn't matter what make they own, it seems to be the best.
This goes for detectors as well, and the main driver of any make is brand loyalty.

I can't bash a Garrett detector because I never have owned one. Never hunted beside anyone that has owned one. Have read many on the forums that owned one though.
It was a choice in 1970 between White's or a Garrett. So the line up was white's till the 2000's then Minelabs took centre stage. For the last decade Deus has been the go to machine.

The only way a true test can be made is going out detecting targets, and seeing head to head comparisons.
Testers on videos will show planted targets that give a good representation of setting on a certain make, then on another make with similar settings.

 

[mtdoramike]

In the past I would send in a detector to Garrett for repair. Even older units were repaired and returned in working condition. Recently I sent in an older AT4 that was not working. Was in very good condition. Now being an electrical engineer and master technician I could easily recognize a unit that had been flooded. This one showed no such damage. However, Garrett returned it to me and said not repairable, Has been flooded. They told me they would give me a generous discount on anything new they have. I can understand a unit is not repairable if it uses application specific integrated circuits ASIC's. but this unit used no such items and was full of standard IC's widely available. I have it working, Since they do not supply schematics or any info on any of their equipment it was not easy but I just followed the signal from input to output to find the area where the problem was. I did this knowing the IC's input/output pins and used an oscilloscope to follow the signal. It (for me) was not difficult...for them it would have been very easy. This gives you an idea. of their commitment. They have a good business in the commercial side of detecting for security. They do not need us anymore. On the other hand, I sent in an XP Deuce and had it back in 10 days, all working and fixed at a moderate repair cost.... There you have it...

Well there you go, everyone has their own experiences with Garrett and it seems you had good experiences with them until you had one bad interaction. They most likely looked at your detector and realized the age of it and felt their were better models on the market and yours was obsolete, which is why they offered you a deal on a new detector, you should have taken it.

I had a Fisher Coinstrike a while back, the coil went bad, I called First Texas and told him the issue and could I send it in to have the coil replaced. First off, he ask What? like he didn't know what I was talking about. Then he put someone else on the phone, who actually laughed and said WOW I hadn't heard of one of those in years, but he said he would check to see if they even had a coil left for the Coinstrike, which he informed me had been out of production for years and he would call me back. Didn't hear a word back from the guy. So if you at least got an offer of a discount on a new unit. count yourself lucky. I got no such offer and laughed at to boot. But I still love Fisher detectors.

 

[18caret]

I just looked at the new line of Fisher detectors at First Texas Products and they have a good lineup of very capable detectors. Since Carl Mooreland went there along with several other good designers I would not be surprised to see some multi frequency detectors coming out of there if they have not already are out there.

 

[18caret]

You could be right about this detector but they do not know what my use for it would be, I wanted it to give to new hunters coming with me because the Minelab I use is kind of overwhelming to newcomers. I give them the XP and or the Minelab and they get pretty frosted because they hear a lot of whistles and beeps and do not know what they mean. Maybe I'm wrong but I was willing to pay them for the repair. It is not like I was asking for them to fix it for nothing. I have some old Garrett PI units that still find treasure pretty well. Very simple to operate, And rebater them with NimH and lithium batteries they go very very deep.

 

[AstralDruid]

Perhaps they should set up an Historical crimes investigation team, to look into how this company has managed to get away with selling these products to a customer base that was obviously not fit to make such decisions on their own,, the elderly, the absent minded folk and certain 'padded cell' types were unfairly targeted by this ruthless crowd...

 

[AstralDruid]

Garrett unveils new 2026 Ace 26 to eager customers who waited patiently for decades...