I think I?ll wait until they announce durability upgrades for the Equinox series.
Does the CTX 3030 exhibit quality issues or has it been more durable?
Lol. You'll likely be waiting awhile.
ML is so confident in the Equinox sales figures (its the best selling mid-range detector in the world) they raised the price of the Equinox this year by $50 without doing a thing to enhance the Equinox's well known build quality issues.
The fact remains that despite these issues, ML does honor the 3-year warranty with basically no questions asked.
So, in other words, they have decided to choose the we'll fix it if it breaks path rather than investing in design changes across the board, which just opens them up to recall claims by folks who already own an Equinox even if they are not experiencing issues.
Based on the popularity of Equinox you are naturally going to hear about these problems more frequently than other less popular detectors. What we really don't know is what PERCENTAGE of Equinoxes experience these issues.
Also, there is a reason the Equinox is just about everywhere you look when you go where other detectorists are gathered. It performs very well, is fast (separates targets better in trashy sites), and is highly versatile as a water, beach, park, relic, and gold prospecting detector in a single package. While some people decide to wait on the sidelines for perfection, the fact is thousands of Equinox owners are snagging targets every day, now. Some address the light duty shaft and arm cuff issues by opting for third-party Carbon Fiber shafts and metallic vice plastic cuffs.
If the Equinox was a total build quality disaster, I think the word would get out and suppress sales growth, but that doesn't seem to be the case (hence, the price hike). I do know a number of people who have had to send their Equinoxes in for service (mostly water hunters). Some multiple times. I know many, many others who have had no issues whatsoever.
CTX had its share of flooding issues initially due to poor o-ring/gasket and battery compartment latch. It has a flawed design that requires you to physically remove the battery for charging which means you are constantly breaking open the watertight boundary creating wear and tear on these critical watertight boundary compartment. They've improved these components somewhat. A more extensive design overhaul woukd be required to address some of the flaws and vulnerabilities in the Equinox design. I suspect ML will address these issues when they develop the Multi IQ (Equinox/Vanquish multifrequency scheme) variant update to the CTX 3030 which has overall higher end build quality despite the battery compartment issues I mentioned.
