AT MAX comprehensive review

[Russ88]

The purpose of my review is to give some feedback of my use of the AT MAX for the past week or so. I will give a value of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best score. I also own a minelab Etrac

Z-Lynk wireless headphones.....10....Very pleased with them...Cannot overemphasize how well they work and the sound quality is excellent!
Pinpointer...................................10....Pleasantly surprised how well it performs....Also gives good indication of the size of the object underneath sometimes
Weight of detector......................10....Very light in my opinion
Night Light..................................10....Excellent
Ground Balance.........................9.5...Very easy to use....mine came in between 83 and 91...90 was my most common number
Ease of operation.......................9.5...Everything at my fingertips
Frequency adjustment...............9.5....Very helpful....helped me once in a high EMI environment....moved from F3 to F1 cut back 2/3 of EMI noise!
Batteries compartment..............9.0....Use of 4 AAs easy to install....mine last 8 hours or so...additionally head phones charged up in 5 hours as advertised
Modes (4 total)..........................9.0....Fairly pleased....All metal is great to use at a pinch. Also used Custom mode to construct a program that worked quite well
Volume adjustment...................8.5....Is easily adjustable....but can be too loud sometimes so you will need to bring volume down as needed
Iron Audio.................................8.5....Very pleased with .....I used this a lot and it gave me some important iron scenarios most of the time
Hand grip/Overall balance........8.5....Had to be a major improvement over the old grip.....Detector overall was balanced decently
Sensitivity/Threshold................8.0.... You will need to play with to your liking....I typically use a -3 threshold...I can detect at highest sensitivity most of the time
VDI target ID/accuracy ............8.0....Fairly good....some numbers were pretty good even at depth of 7 inches (wheat penny)...also had penny at 8,5 inches that was fairly accurate still in the 70's a bit
Discrimination...........................8.0....was somewhat basic....but accurate....Very very easy to use.....I liked it.
Depth of the detector................8.0....I will probably have more opinions the longer I use....definitely a passing grade and deep....detected a 9.5 inch small nail...impressive...wanted a mercury dime though
Stability of detector...................7.5...Yes it has some snap crackle sounds and on a few occasions sounded off a bit but it is manageable.....very powerful detector....just needs some adjustment as needed
Coil...........................................7.5....works good as is....no complaints...I do sense there can be some better choices....I am looking into the larger concentric and or a sharpshooter
swing speed.............................7,5....pretty good...wish it was a tad faster...but the ATMax cannot be sweeped too fast....You do need to slow down sometimes....definitely much faster than the ETrac however
Audio Tones.............................7,0....fairly pleasant/ok....just wished it had 4 or 5 tones....maybe the bell tone for the quarter/above areas...my opinion..wish it had full range of tones in All Metal
water use..................................N/A...no experience as of yet....to be determined....

Average score..........................8.68....I believe Garrett made the improvements people were asking...So far so good....need some more time to get used to as with any new detector. It is definitely a fun detector to use....but enough technology and choices to keep you challenged

Russ88

 

[dan b]

Only 8 hours on a set of batteries?

 

[Russ88]

My AA batteries probably could last a little longer, but when the battery indicator got to two bars out of four I chose to replace them when I got home. The directions in the manual said one bar but I was afraid I might start compromising the detector's performance.....Additionally I want to mention that I detected mostly in the Zero mode at 35 to 40 percent discrimination. I mention this because I was still getting good depth even though I was using discrimination vs all metal.

 

[Grunter]

I think I tuned mine in today. I was running in zero with no threshold,no iron audio and two bars down on discrimination. I found a 1.35 cents in clad plus 2 wheat pennies I found out something about ground balancing , you pump your coil rapidly until it is silent if it doesn't ground balance on that spot and you still get some noise move the coil off until you find a spot that goes silent.

 

[John-Edmonton]

Thanks for posting that.

 

[Russ88]

Grunter Thanks for the tip...that is interesting...I will keep that in mind

 

[Russ88]

Thanks John for your comment.....We all know how hard you work to provide guidance and direction for those that need help...Thank you

 

[Grunter]

I meant to say two bars down on sensitivity rather than discrimination. I'm going to keep posting because I feel like the Max is a winner if everyone is patient and willing to share information about it. I will also add I did a 6 hr. water hunt and the Max did not leak so get them wet. I mahaged 5 small earrings,and $2,35 in clad. This is a swimming area that I have pounded with the ATP I would have found more buy my GG Amphibs crapped out on me.

 

[dan b]

Aren't detectors voltage regulated so that performance isn't sacrificed by low batteries? Is there a performance difference between 4 bars and 1?

 

[Russ88]

That is a good question. Perhaps John E might have some insight. Probably a good question for Garrett. I might call them and find out. Thanks for pointing that out

 

[Buddy_TX]

[size=medium]Garrett says they are good down to one bar.
With my max They don't last very long with Copper-tops (factory Batteries) 6-10 hours , Have found Dollar Tree Red Alkaline Batteries last up to 15 hours, Energizer Non rechargeable Lithium have lasted up to 30 hours so far in my Max[/size]

 

[Grunter]

Now that's some great info that we can use. Thanks I ran my batteries down to one bar yesterday and continued to hunt for about an hour on that setting. I figured I was pushing my luck on them and aborted my hunt. I now have a set of Rayovac rechargeables in my Max. I'll report on their time when they run down.

 

[WaterWalker]

Take a look at: http://www.findmall.com/read.php?79,2399191,2399191#msg-2399191 posting for a bit on water hunting with the ATMAX,

Too long to re-post here.

 

[JimmyCT]

I get about 6-7 hours on my el cheapo rechargeable batteries.

 

[Buddy_TX]

[size=medium]Jim I also have a set of EBL 2800 mAh rechargeables that seem to last close to 30 hours per charge.[/size]

 

[Russ88]

30 hours of use on rechargeables? That sounds remarkable to me. How are you guys overall progressing now? Any news you can share?