How to choose a metal detector -10 tips to keep in mind when choosing a metal detector
10 tips that you should keep in mind when choosing your first metal detector or for slightly more advanced users who have already had a detector, it will surely be useful.
It is well known that there are many brands, many models, many prices and it is not always easy to choose the most suitable detector for our needs.
USE THAT IS GOING TO GIVE IT
Although it is not the most important thing, many users when they start what they do not request the most are detectors that go very deep, the first thing we must take into account is the use that we are going to give the detector.
There are detectors that work better in the field, others on the beach, there are detectors that are for scuba diving, others for looking for coins, others for looking for war objects, so we have to know very well what we are going to do or what type of search we are going to do. do, there are even some that are all-terrain detectors and can serve several purposes.
On the other hand, we also recommend not choosing a detector that is very heavy, especially if we are going to walk through the countryside or the beach for several hours.
LOW FREQUENCY OR PULSE DETECTORS
The detectors due to their technology can be of two types: vlf or low frequency or pulse and impulse, usually what we find are low frequency detectors that are what we normally see, the main differences that we see between one and the other are that, the low frequency detectors, after removing the low frequency defects, discriminate between the different metals, while those of the pulse detectors do not discriminate, except for some that differentiate iron from the rest of the metals, on the other hand, the detectors low frequency are affected by the mineralization of the ground or the type of ground in which they are located and pulse detectors are not affected or affected less, if we are on beaches a pulse detector is always better, especially if we are going to closer to what it would be in the sea or if we want to dive, another difference would be that if what we are looking for are large objects at great depth it will always be m Better a pulse detector, this does not mean that low frequency detectors cannot search for depth, simply that if we do not care about the type of metal, use the discrimination that is made of the type of metal, and if we want to search for a large object, the depth it will be better that we choose a pulse detector if we want to discriminate and we want to differentiate between metals, then we will choose a vlf detector, therefore, in terrains with a lot of iron garbage, we will choose a vlf detector to discriminate it, that is, a low frequency detector to differentiate us between some metals and others.
If we want to dive and what we want are large objects at a great depth, we will choose some resources, as normally these last two cases are not what we usually use, since what we will do is a vlf detector, which is the majority of detectors.
BUDGET
Not always an expensive detector is better than a cheap detector or it is the most suitable for what we need, there are high quality detectors for 300 dollars and very expensive detectors that have a lot of functions that you will never use or even have. less depth than lower priced detectors, except if what we are looking for is a detector that is powerful to find objects at a great depth or to find small gold objects at a considerable depth and spending more than a thousand dollars is not recommended.
FAST PROCESSOR
There are detectors that, when faced with various objects, only give us a tone without informing us of what is underground.
Some detectors with fast processing that we can find for example technetics, Fisher, xp… in this example if we pass this detector in front of four coins it makes a beep or two at most, however, detectors from other brands such as technetics give us a beep much faster and clearer for each of the coins, a fast processor will be something that must be taken into account when buying a detector if we want to have the most information possible.
PINPOINT
The pinpoint is a very useful tool for everyone who buys a detector, both for beginners and advanced users. It is recommended, because this locator is a high target since it will avoid making very large holes. and it will also indicate exactly where we have to dig, if we put a coin and read how I can remove it at the top of the plate or at the bottom, without a pinpoint it would mean having to make a very large hole, when we are making a hole in the ground and if we do not find the object we are looking for, the pinpoint will tell us in which direction we have to continue digging.
NUMERICAL IDENTIFICATION
Being able to identify objects underground with 100 numbers is quite useful and each range of numbers is equivalent to a type of metal, for example, iron would be between 0 and 40, silver between 89 and 90, gold from 53 to 62, although these values may vary slightly depending on the detector model and brand.
LCD DISPLAY OR BUTTONS
We find large detectors both with lcd screen and without it and the difference we find is that those with lcd screen to raise the values have one button more and others less and we see the result on the screen.
In the detectors with buttons, what we do is that we have a potentiometer that we turn from left to right, we raise and lower the values, the inconvenience we find is that in these detectors with buttons if we find ourselves, for example, in a full field of lead bullets and we want to detect gold or if we want to discriminate or cancel what would be lead, we will have to pay all the metals that have a lower conductivity than lead, including gold that has a medium conductivity, therefore, having a LCD screen will always be an advantage because on the one hand it will indicate the number corresponding to the conductivity of gold and on the other hand the number corresponding to the conductivity of lead.
DISH SIZE
Generally, a large plate is equivalent to a greater search depth, what happens is that if it is too large we can lose small objects, these large plates are also more uncomfortable to use, so we recommend an intermediate plate of more or less 11 inches or 27 centimeters would be a good diameter for this case, because they will give us depth and we will not lose small objects.
If what we want to look for are gold nuggets, very small objects, then what we would need would be a very small plate. The plates can be found normally, either concentric or double. formed by two three opposed.
The doubles cover a larger area and are somewhat more stable among the mineralized ones.
FEATURES
In part of what we can find in any detector, either from initialization to the most advanced, such as discrimination, sensitivity, depth control or pinpoint, for example. There are detectors that have other characteristics, that each one has to see if they will really be interested in certain characteristics, some of these characteristics; for example, search modes. There are some detectors that cancel certain metals depending on the objectives we want to address, for example, there are some modes that are a mode, relics, coins, a jewelry mode. So in this case iron would be eliminated in the example and determined by its objects such as metallic objects aluminum objects of rings or plates, then an LCD screen is recommended to cancel all the objectives that are in the range from 0 to 40 for example all iron objects and with the visual and sound identification decide if we want to dig.
Another example, another characteristic that detectors can have is the notch, it allows us to cancel a certain metal and detect objects that have a conductivity below or above this metal. The interesting thing about it is that we can use the notch system together with discrimination In the example above, we are looking in a gold field and yet it is full of lead objects such as bullets, so what we would do is put the discrimination below the gold and we would still make the lead with the notch
Being able to control the volume of our detector is always interesting. If, for example, we are on the beach, we don’t want to be heard, we can lower the volume and work on a lighter sound.
On the other hand, there are detectors that control the volume of iron on the one hand and the volume of the rest of the metals on the other.
Another characteristic to take into account would be the background tone or Threshold, for what are cheap or simple detectors it is not usually available because it is always more comfortable in this type of detectors not to have it, the Threshold emits a constant sound that can sometimes be annoying , the utility that it has, unlike simple detectors or most detectors, what they do is that they search in silence and emit a sound when they detect an object. On the other hand, when detecting the object in detectors that have the threshold tone, what happens is that it gives us more information about the mineralization of the ground in order to be able to control the ground balance and sensitivity and thus achieve greater depth and power. better discriminate metals
AUDIO TONES
Just like we can see on the screen the number corresponding to the object to the conductivity of the object that we have below or we can see a legend that has an image or the name of the object it represents and we have to take into account that it is always advisable to have a detector that has at least three audio tones would be a tone for iron objects that is called more or less from 0 to 40 others that have another tone that is for objects of medium conductivity such as gold and another for objects of high conductivity how would the money be