Common Excalibur Failures ... Sort of a Survey

[otlew]

1st and foremost, this not meant to be a "Bash Minelab Excalibur Survey".

Some failures will be common to all detectors regardless of the manufacturer, such as coil failure due to improper cable restraint and fatigue of the wires with a resulting break. I have read that this one failure mode probably represents 60% or more of all malfunctions, regardless of make. It will be interesting to see if this is confirmed by this survey. As we know if you could change the coil on the stock Excalibur you could diagnose this failure yourself, or at least get down to the coil having a problem.

I am curious to know the most common causes of failures for the Excalibur. If you have had yours repaired or if you have repaired your own, what turned out to be the cause?

If you have had trouble please tell us and maybe we can get this all in one place and perhaps learn from it.

So I will start the list with the one I know of.

1.Threshold / On-Off control (switch / potentiometer) broken, will rotate 360 degrees, Threshold is high and cannot be lowered. It is either on or off, if on it is high. My assessment of the failure, mechanical stop in the switch is inadequate to prevent over travel, which results in failure, said another way the switch is too easy to break.

2. ?

 

[erikk]

I have had one repaired in 5-6 years due to threshold/on-off over travel but it was like that when I bought the machine. Had it repaired, put large knobs on this one and my other 2 and this is the only knob I use-the rest are set and forget. I turn it on till I just hear the sound (my volume is on max) Hunt my excals 4-6 days a week 365 for 4-5 hours at a shot weather permitting, wash them down after each use with fresh water and treat them like a delicate instrument. All are mounted on a straight shaft

 

[JOHNMARKHAM]

battery connector needs to be sealed really good to keep water out..
clean coil cover out when water hunting the sand will cause the coil to false..
make an inspection of the seals on both ends of main pods for water leakage..
if you hip mount or chest mount make sure you protect the coil wire keep it from pulling on pod ..
these are just a few that i know of..
have a great time
john

 

[otlew]

So I will start the list with the one I know of.

* 1.Threshold / On-Off control (switch / potentiometer) broken, will rotate 360 degrees, Threshold is high and cannot be lowered. It is either on or off, if on it is high. My assessment of the failure, mechanical stop in the switch is inadequate to prevent over travel, which results in failure, said another way the switch is too easy to break.

* Occurrences reported so far, 2 times

2. Battery connector needs to be sealed really good to keep water out.

3. Clean coil cover out when water hunting the sand will cause the coil to false.

*4. Make an inspection of the seals on both ends of main pods for water leakage.

* Has anyone found water leakage on factory sealed unit?

Come on guys, anyone else had the problems listed above, or any other failure?

 

[kered]

Since this topic may get the attention of them above.
Not really a failure but a damn anoyance, the wind noise in the stock heaphones, they are crap, i just changed mine to peltors as i'm just out of warenty, best detector mod i ever did, thanks to OBN it went a breeze,thanks for the help. Other than that the machine(irish built) works fine, touch wood

Another gripe is the stock shaft, its a disgrace that you have to shell out more for a straight shaft before you can use it comfortably after paying over $1200 for a machine, they did it for the sovereign in US(still get the S job in Europe though) so why not the excalibur.

 

[erikk]

Since this topic may get the attention of them above.
Not really a failure but a damn anoyance, the wind noise in the stock heaphones, they are crap, i just changed mine to peltors as i'm just out of warenty, best detector mod i ever did, thanks to OBN it went a breeze,thanks for the help. Other than that the machine(irish built) works fine, touch wood

Another gripe is the stock shaft, its a disgrace that you have to shell out more for a straight shaft before you can use it comfortably after paying over $1200 for a machine, they did it for the sovereign in US(still get the S job in Europe though) so why not the excalibur.

Because not all people just use the excal for wading-a lot of people SCUBA Try that with a straight shaft

 

[erikk]

So I will start the list with the one I know of.

* 1.Threshold / On-Off control (switch / potentiometer) broken, will rotate 360 degrees, Threshold is high and cannot be lowered. It is either on or off, if on it is high. My assessment of the failure, mechanical stop in the switch is inadequate to prevent over travel, which results in failure, said another way the switch is too easy to break.

* Occurrences reported so far, 2 times

2. Battery connector needs to be sealed really good to keep water out.

3. Clean coil cover out when water hunting the sand will cause the coil to false.

*4. Make an inspection of the seals on both ends of main pods for water leakage.

* Has anyone found water leakage on factory sealed unit?

Come on guys, anyone else had the problems listed above, or any other failure?

Never had a leak problem on a factory seal main tube.
Never had a problem on battery connection although I always disconnect and flush with fresh water after every use and any corrosion observed is removed immediately
Don't use a coil cover so sand is not a problem-coat bottom of coil with bed liner spray. On some after market coils (WOT) I use marine epoxy first and then the bed liner spray
All in all I am pretty happy with my excals and they serve me well. Once my knobs are set the only one that gets any use is the off/on/threshold and then just turned up to get faint tone.I don't have to keep messing with the PP/Disc knob trying to get the mythical extra inch because I hunt a 15 inch WOT which gives me all the depth that I ever want or need not to mention coverage

 

[Mel Parker]

n/t

 

[otlew]

* 1.Threshold / On-Off control (switch / potentiometer) broken, will rotate 360 degrees, Threshold is high and cannot be lowered. It is either on or off, if on it is high. My assessment of the failure, mechanical stop in the switch is inadequate to prevent over travel, which results in failure, said another way the switch is too easy to break.

* Occurrences reported so far, 2 times

2. Battery connector needs to be sealed really good to keep water out.

3. Clean coil cover out when water hunting the sand will cause the coil to false.

*4. Make an inspection of the seals on both ends of main pods for water leakage.

* Has anyone found water leakage on factory sealed unit?

* 5. Coil cable outer jacket cracks..Inspect

* 1 case reported in a recent thread here.


Any other failures?

 

[tomcatpl]

battery wire cracked by the connection to the baterry

 

[Critterhunter]

A friend's Exal's 8" BBS coil cover kept falling off so he didn't use one for a long time. As a result he wore some of the seams open in the coil. Luckily I caught that and used about 8 coats of spray on liner to seal/protect the coil. It's due again this spring for another 7 or 8 coats. He's a big time scrubber in the water and hunts a lot.

 

[otlew]

* 1.Threshold / On-Off control (switch / potentiometer) broken, will rotate 360 degrees, Threshold is high and cannot be lowered. It is either on or off, if on it is high. My assessment of the failure, mechanical stop in the switch is inadequate to prevent over travel, which results in failure, said another way the switch is too easy to break.

* Occurrences reported so far, 2 times

2. Battery connector needs to be sealed really good to keep water out.

3. Clean coil cover out when water hunting the sand will cause the coil to false.

*4. Make an inspection of the seals on both ends of main pods for water leakage.

* Has anyone found water leakage on factory sealed unit?

* 5. Coil cable outer jacket cracks..Inspect!

* 1 case reported in a recent thread here.

6. battery wire cracked by the connection to the battery

7. Worn search coil - bottom near failure - no coil cover or coating used prior to occurrence - inspect!


Keep the reports coming. Please if you have had one of the 7 items above occur, and especially if it has recurred we want to know that. Example: I've had # 1 happen twice.

 

[Critterhunter]

This is a pretty good idea you have of compiling high failure/inspection points for preventing problems before they happen. I'll probably print out this list to remind me when I give my friend's Excal some spring maintenance for him to get ready for the water hunting season. I have no doubt that if I wouldn't have done that for him last spring the machine might very well have broke. There were a few loose cable nut connectors on the pod for like the headphones or something (can't remember) that might have let water in, there was sand trapped between that rubber gasket where the battery plugs in, and like I said the coil seams were coming apart due to wear.

I cleaned that rubber gasket/area and also greased both sized of that gasket with diaelectric grease (spark plug boot grease that can be bought for .99 cents at any auto store...it's designed to not break down rubber or silicon). I hand tightened the cable nut connectors as far as I could by hand and then just gave them about 1/3rd to a half turn more with a wrench (DON'T over tighten those things or they might crack). And as said I re-sealed his coil by giving it about 8 heavy coats of spray on liner. Normaly land hunting only requires maybe 3 or 4 coats at the most but for the water I'd go heavy. You must give each coat about 3 hours to dry/harden on a warm summer day outside before putting the next on, otherwise they never get real hard. Once dry keep it from touching anything for several days because it will stick even if it feels dry. A hot day in the sun is best when painting/curing coils with this stuff. He also had all his coil cable wrapped around the shaft near the coil. Can't imagine how bad the falsing/performance was from that, so I removed the coil from the mount so I could wrap all that stuff up way up by the grip. Secure the cable in numerous places all the way up so nothing can wave around in the water and wear it out.

 

[biglry]

Of the three Excals ll I own now, two have been sent back to Minelab for repairs and one needs to go in soon.

1. Ireland made one (bought used); After about a year of 6 hr days in the surf it refused to discriminate, no mater what you did or adjusted, Minelab replaced circuit board and seals,(40 days return time from LV, Nevada)NO CHARGE!


2. Malaysian made #1 (bought new); This one had the on/off threshold pot fail and would turn ''off'' then back ''on'' if rotated to far counter clock wise, pot would stop rotating, but just past the "off" d

 

[otlew]

1.Threshold / On-Off control (switch / potentiometer) broken, will rotate 360 degrees, Threshold is high and cannot be lowered. It is either on or off, if on it is high. My assessment of the failure, mechanical stop in the switch is inadequate to prevent over travel, which results in failure, said another way the switch is too easy to break.

* Occurrences reported so far, 3 times

2. Battery connector needs to be sealed really good to keep water out.

3. Clean coil cover out when water hunting the sand will cause the coil to false.

*4. Make an inspection of the seals on both ends of main pods for water leakage.

* Has anyone found water leakage on factory sealed unit?

* 5. Coil cable outer jacket cracks..Inspect!

* 1 case reported in a recent thread here.

6. battery wire cracked by the connection to the battery

7. Worn search coil - bottom near failure - no coil cover or coating used prior to occurrence - inspect!

* 8. Discriminate pot goes past "Pin Point" and back into "Discriminate" (rotates 360deg)

* 1 case reported of pinpoint/discriminate switch failure. Note: Most likely the Internal stop a right angle pin from switch shaft, has either bent or sheared off or stop post has came off of top circuit board. I base this on the inspection of my Excalibur, which has this pin bent.

Keep the reports coming. Please if you have had one of the 7 items above occur, and especially if it has recurred we want to know that.

Example: I've had # 1 happen twice.

 

[kered]

Since this topic may get the attention of them above.
Not really a failure but a damn anoyance, the wind noise in the stock heaphones, they are crap, i just changed mine to peltors as i'm just out of warenty, best detector mod i ever did, thanks to OBN it went a breeze,thanks for the help. Other than that the machine(irish built) works fine, touch wood

Another gripe is the stock shaft, its a disgrace that you have to shell out more for a straight shaft before you can use it comfortably after paying over $1200 for a machine, they did it for the sovereign in US(still get the S job in Europe though) so why not the excalibur.

Because not all people just use the excal for wading-a lot of people SCUBA Try that with a straight shaft

I would say more people don't scuba than do so let them buy the S shaft if needed, also on the S shaft the electronics and battery are over/under that creates much more resistence than the side by side especially moreso for the divers than if you are walking/wading thats probably why ALL the aftermarket dive shaft i've seen are Straight not S

 

[otlew]

* 1.Threshold / On-Off control (switch / potentiometer) broken, will rotate 360 degrees, Threshold is high and cannot be lowered. It is either on or off, if on it is high. My assessment of the failure, mechanical stop in the switch is inadequate to prevent over travel, which results in failure, said another way the switch is too easy to break.

* Occurrences reported so far, 2 times

2. Battery connector needs to be sealed really good to keep water out.

3. Clean coil cover out when water hunting the sand will cause the coil to false.

*4. Make an inspection of the seals on both ends of main pods for water leakage.

* Has anyone found water leakage on factory sealed unit?

* 5. Coil cable outer jacket cracks..Inspect!

* 1 case reported in a recent thread here.

6. battery wire cracked by the connection to the battery

7. Worn search coil - bottom near failure - no coil cover or coating used prior to occurrence - inspect!

* 8. Battery connector plug and cable, due to the threaded gland being cracked from a bump - inspect!

* 1 case

Keep the reports coming. Please if you have had one of the 7 items above occur, and especially if it has recurred we want to know that. Example: I've had # 1 happen twice.

 

[Charles in Va]

I bought one in Jan, 2010. When I got received it I could not use it. It made all kind of noise once you put it in the water. I sent it back to minelab and they replaced the board and said they turned the sensitivity down to specs. It took all summer and I never got to use it any this year, It does seem to work ok now but I haven,t been able to use it that much, so I really don,t know. However I feel ok about it and think it wiil work right.

 

[otlew]

Charles,

I really don't how to list this. Since yours was dead on arrival, it wasn't a premature failure in the field and what is there to say, but you took a hit. One question, did Minelab restart your year of warranty to begin after the return your faulty brand new detector? If not, if it were me, I would insist that they do that.

I bought one in Jan, 2010. When I got received it I could not use it. It made all kind of noise once you put it in the water. I sent it back to minelab and they replaced the board and said they turned the sensitivity down to specs. It took all summer and I never got to use it any this year, It does seem to work ok now but I haven,t been able to use it that much, so I really don,t know. However I feel ok about it and think it wiil work right.

 

[bootybay]

Dont know if this helps but, I am on my 3rd new xcal 2 from Malaysia.. I thought my 3rd one was fine, it seemed aok as far as the threshhold goes, not one falsing at all. but, after a month using it, I started to notice I was only finding surface finds like 1-2 inches deep only. so I brought a fat gold wedding band with me.. dug a hole in dry sand 8 inches deep, No signal sounds whats so ever, I tried every number on the sens. knob still not one sound.. even tried it in PP mode, still not a sound.. so mine went back to ML before xmas, I dont know what they are gonna do but it just seems like its got no depth to it at all.

I hope this helps as I have been going nuts with this.