Minelab is the WORST< many many issues with their machines!!!!!

[makahaman]

Hi everyone, something to thing about!! I own 2 Minelab machines, the 800 Equinox and the Minelab excalibur. They have only mild use and the Equinox flooded on my first water use, it just passed my warranty by 1-2 years!! I just bought my underwater headphones to try in the water, not even 30 minutes and flooded!!! Crazy! I don't even think it's worth fixing!! Bought all kinds of coils for it now I gotta sell it all!! Then my Excalibur was working weird, figured out the head phones went south and doesn't work!! So, really consider buying THEIR MACHINES!! I had better customer service from Whites and my Aqua Pulse machines are tanks and they've worked for over 10 plus years!! It's crazy that Minelabs just don't last and their customer service SUCKS!! Really do your research when buying a machine.......

 

[Tesorodeoro]

They are made in Malaysia now I believe. Are you positive what you purchased was not counterfeit? I believe Minelab is highly counterfeited.

 

[TORRERO]

They are made in Malaysia now I believe. Are you positive what you purchased was not counterfeit? I believe Minelab is highly counterfeited.

I’ve never heard of that before

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

It is a fact China produces counterfeit Minelab products.

 

[releventchair]

Hi everyone, something to thing about!! I own 2 Minelab machines, the 800 Equinox and the Minelab excalibur. They have only mild use and the Equinox flooded on my first water use, it just passed my warranty by 1-2 years!! I just bought my underwater headphones to try in the water, not even 30 minutes and flooded!!! Crazy! I don't even think it's worth fixing!! Bought all kinds of coils for it now I gotta sell it all!! Then my Excalibur was working weird, figured out the head phones went south and doesn't work!! So, really consider buying THEIR MACHINES!! I had better customer service from Whites and my Aqua Pulse machines are tanks and they've worked for over 10 plus years!! It's crazy that Minelabs just don't last and their customer service SUCKS!! Really do your research when buying a machine.......

O.K..
Where were your complaints manufactured and by whom?
Can you confirm actual Minelab authorized sites and products?

And passed your warranty by 1-2 years. Which is it? One or two years?
Which ever it was , what is a warranty and what does life beyond warranty mean?

When you contact Minelab maybe don't use exclamation points so much.
Too many users enjoy Minelab products for you to convince Minelab they your complaint outweighs that fact. How would you respond to complaint in such a position?
In other words ,be polite and you'll get farther in confirming where your individual products originated. At least from what Minelab can inform you of them. You may expect to have to dig further. Having receipts and dates and serial and model numbers, and where you purchased each item at hand will help.

Minelab Service and Support /

www.minelab.com

 

[pepperj]

My observation regarding Minelab equipment is the brain is brilliant, but....

 

[fuzzy535]

mmm Im on the fence here... Also just learning about the counterfeit units, but not surprised. Have seen some fake Milwaukee M18 batteries before.

So the equinox has a std 3 year warranty, and yet your saying yours is 1-2 years out.. so potentially its been in use for 5 years, id say thats pretty good. Unknown variables being how well did you take care of it? You did mention water intrusion so we can assume you use it underwater. Here's where i have the issue.. Just because it can be doesn't mean you should, then you compare it to Whites Aqua Pulse which i believe is purpose built for underwater.. the equinox is not. so that's an apples to oranges comparison. Given the number of units Minelab puts out, there will be defects from time to time, no different than any other manufacture. I love my Equinox and am already looking towards my next upgrade. Not trying to bash you or anything, i'm just saying there are more variables to this situation IMO.

 

[no2pencil]

My Equinox 800 works great. 🤷‍♂️ I go into the ocean, submerging it. It's about 2-ish years old at this point.

 

[UnderMiner]

My Equinox 800 works great. 🤷‍♂️ I go into the ocean, submerging it. It's about 2-ish years old at this point.

Same, Nox 800 never gave me any problems. The Excalibur II gave me way more problems, but it's over 10 years old so...

 

[cudamark]

You live in Hawaii and this is the first time you've had it in the water in almost 5 years of use? What did MInelab have to say when you contacted them?

 

[Sand Swinger]

Leaking issues are well known for the NOX 600 & 800's, so Minelab fixed the issue and replaced with the 700 & 900. That can happen with all manufacturers. IIRC, back in 2009 I bought a waterproof Garrett AT Pro just after it came out. Cool looking detector and the first time I used it, found a man's white gold wedding ring in the dry. So far so good. But after that, I was on a beach, the water was smooth & still, so I decided to wade in. As soon as I submerged the control box, the screen flickered, went black, and detector was dead.

Garrett was great, they paid for me to ship them the detector, fixed it and even gave me a few upgrades, and returned to me in about 1 week. But even though it was fixed, I lost confidence and never tried submerging again. Shortly afterwards I sold the AT Pro and switched over to Minelab Sovereigns for beach hunting. Recently picked up a waterproof White's Dual Field PI, waterproof to 100 feet and earlier this year, picked up a Minelab X-Terra Elite, waterproof to 16 feet.

 

[Tesorodeoro]

Generally when something is only waterproof to 3-10 feet, I assume it’s very waterproof to rain. I don’t assume it’s bomb proof at 4-5 feet submerged (IN SALTWATER).

Now we could talk about the effectiveness of marketing.

Screws work loose over time, o-rings shrink up, detectors are left in vehicles baking and freezing.

Perhaps a 5 year seal replacement from the factory might be prudent service instead of expecting a detector to last a decade being submerged on the weekends? Just an observation based on experience with actually expensive electronics that are exposed to year round surface weather and routinely serviced to maintain bad ass performance for several decades of service.

 

[surfnturf]

Cry me a river 😭 I love my minelabs!! live, and die by the sword $ I shall!🏴‍☠️
I don’t know it just kind of sucks to see you bash ML on Tnet!! Buy from a reputable dealer and you won’t have to worry about getting a knock off from China!! or take care of your equipment or use it before your three year warranty runs out so sick of the negativity!

 

[dz302]

I have two Minelab's... 800 and Manticore. I love these machines and use at least one of them 3-4 hrs daily. The different soils and density adjustments I encounter are far harder to learn than the machines. There are far easier candidates to roast than Minelab. I do however have the 8", 9",11" and 15" coils and the ears are broken on two of them except the manticore 8 and 9. If you are a company trying to maintain an owner body that is loyal... you simply cannot continue delivering a product with a known issue.

dz

 

[makahaman]

I talked to a repair guy, not going to mention his name but he told me that ALOT of people are complaining about Minelabs customer service! My machines have had mild use!! This company is going to lose customers since their customer service sucks! If I owned a business, having a happy customer will bring more business!! Whites had the BEST customer service, its just sucks because I bought brand new headphones and have alot of coils for the 800. So, now Im not too sure if I wanna pay $800-$1,000 for another Minelab!! Everyone thinks Im an amateur, Ive found alot of gold through the years!! This was a pound of gold, if I sold it on todays market it would be worth $40,000.. So please don't act like Im an amateur and don't know what I'm doing!!!!!!

 

[philber]

I’ve never heard of that before

Take a look on ebay and see the crazy stupid prices for a new Manticore, like $300! Then realize that somebody was stupid enough to purchase that machine from a seller in China! Unless the buyer is a dirt bag looking to intentionally dupe someone and sell the fake as a legit machine. And ebay does nothing........

 

[surfnturf]

I talked to a repair guy, not going to mention his name but he told me that ALOT of people are complaining about Minelabs customer service! My machines have had mild use!! This company is going to lose customers since their customer service sucks! If I owned a business, having a happy customer will bring more business!! Whites had the BEST customer service, its just sucks because I bought brand new headphones and have alot of coils for the 800. So, now Im not too sure if I wanna pay $800-$1,000 for another Minelab!! Everyone thinks Im an amateur, Ive found alot of gold through the years!! This was a pound of gold, if I sold it on todays market it would be worth $40,000.. So please don't act like Im an amateur and don't know what I'm doing!!!!!!

WHAT are you broken? seriously with all those gold rings you could buy whatever metal detector you wanted x 10 seriously April fools?
Sorry, I don’t mean to be harsh, but you should be super grateful for all that you have recovered, which was amazing!!! so elaborate how in which machine found you those hundreds of gold rings🏴‍☠️

 

[OBN]

I’ve never heard of that before

The Excalibur's, First they came out of Gary Storms shop in New York 93-96, then they went to in house Minelab Australia 96-98, then to Ireland till 2010, then they went to Malaysia following the buy out of Minelab by Codan..

 

[surfnturf]

WHAT are you broken? seriously with all those gold rings you could buy whatever metal detector you wanted x 10 seriously April fools?
Sorry, I don’t mean to be harsh, but you should be super grateful for all that you have recovered, which was amazing!!! so elaborate how in which machine found you those hundreds

WHAT are you broken? seriously with all those gold rings you could buy whatever metal detector you wanted x 10 seriously April fools?
Sorry, I don’t mean to be harsh, but you should be super grateful for all that you have recovered, which was amazing!!! so elaborate how in which machine found you those hundreds of gold rings🏴‍☠️

please let me know the last time you posted when you found a gold ring. Are you for real or are you AI?😎🤞🏻🍀🏴‍☠️

 

[Tesorodeoro]

I have two Minelab's... 800 and Manticore. I love these machines and use at least one of them 3-4 hrs daily. The different soils and density adjustments I encounter are far harder to learn than the machines. There are far easier candidates to roast than Minelab. I do however have the 8", 9",11" and 15" coils and the ears are broken on two of them except the manticore 8 and 9. If you are a company trying to maintain an owner body that is loyal... you simply cannot continue delivering a product with a known issue.

dz

Agreed