The design of modern metal detectors aims to eliminate many of the hassles and disappointments associated with the hobby. These include the noisiness of a machine going off when it scans over top of any piece of metal, no matter how worthless, and an overly sensitive product. Old machines used to get excited about beer bottle tops, but the new ones can determine what type of metal they are looking at.
Not too Sensitive
The Garrett Ace 250 is a relatively quiet machine in the field. It alerts the user when metal is found but without too much feedback, if any, so you can set it to high sensitivity. Its default setting is fairly high already. The major caveat is that you set your metal detecting device correctly before going out.
When you find something, your machine will let out a sound according to the item. Low tones indicate low-value metal (iron, nickel), but higher tones are indicative of higher-value metal (silver, gold). If you remember the electronic game “Simon Says,” the tones given off by this machine will put you in mind of that old battery operated game.
This means you can read your machine or just listen to it. If you get a crick in your neck after a few hours of metal detecting just listen and stop watching.
Setting your Machine
What this means is pressing buttons (bright yellow on a decent-sized console here) to indicate which metals to be alerted to and which to omit. Use the “discriminate” button to determine if you want the detector to overlook iron, nickels, pennies, etc., or pick up all metals. Set it to a silver-only setting or customize the setting to find exactly what you want. It is advisable to play around with the buttons a little to get the feel for how much you can do with the Ace and how easy it is to press the wrong button.
Screen Size and Setup
The LCD screen is a good size, if a little dark. Be aware that light will affect your ability to read it and you might want to shade the screen which has space to clearly show what metals you are looking for, the sensitivity setting, battery power, and other features. It shows depth from 2″ to 8″+ in 2″ increments.
The Package
A Garrett Ace 250 comes with an instructional DVD, 6.5×9″ coil, batteries, and headphones plus a pouch for storing treasures. Those are nice extras, though you can probably get a lot out of a Youtube video where instructions are concerned. Once you watch the DVD and use the machine just once, this could be easy and fun to use, but there are a lot of buttons to get accustomed to.
Pricing
As a hobby machine, you had better hope to land on a metal-rich bit of beach because this is not cheap but just bear in mind, the Garret Ace 250 works best on dry sand. By shopping around online you can find the best available price, so do not settle for your usual online shopping site. You could be surprised where the best deals are to be found on new metal detecting machines.
Biography
Crawfords MD has been supplying metal detectors to the community for over 15 years. The business was started by Craig Allison who prides himself on respecting customer needs and providing a high quality of service. If you’re in the market for a range of metal detecting equipment, please visit our site: http://www.crawfordsmd.com/
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