For the poor schleps who couldn't afford to purchase the new ETrac

[digitrich]

A post I just posted on the ETrac forum:

Biggest waste of $1500 bucks I have ever done

Many recall I sent my first ETrac back because it couldn't get the depth of my SE's and falsed to 1-29 to1-35 constantly. Well, the new one is the same, only worse in the falsing department. The farmers out here finally cut the corn and beans In just one field I have pulled about 400 hundred Indians, about 200 seated and barbers and about 75 shield and V nickels with my SE's. Some areas are full of flat nails and I thought the ETrac would produce more there.........................................nope. My F-75 seems the only unit fast enough to do it. In the less trashy areas, I ran the ETrac wide open, in all metal, fast on, deep off, low trash, neutral soil, auto +3 and manual....just stable. It falsed in all metal, over and over and over to the 1-29 to 1-35 range constantly. I tried ferrous tones and conduct tones with the same results. I am thoroughly disappointed and unimpressed. This machine not only cannot duplicate the depth of my SE's, it's audio flat out sucks. Try this, swing the ETrac for three straight days and then pick up another Explorer and you tell me if you didn't miss the sweet sounding music. My guess is, and this is for Jim out in New York specifically.......If a guy is already extremely proficient with his SE, the ETrac is a waste of his time....period. Want faster recovery, buy an F-75 or wait till MineLab fixes this blunder of a machine. I will buy the next ETrac only because by then, I would expect Mine Lab to have corrected their obvious mistakes, like the lack of an all metal mode, the destruction of what used to be beautiful tones, the E12 trac issue, the general lack of depth in comparison to their previous models and yes I have had both machines (ETrac and SE) over the same target with the ETrac ID'ing it wrong or not even registering the hit what soever and the SE having NO problem. Yes, the faster processor is nice, but at the cost of stability, depth and ID.........OH, HECK NO!!! Save the "It's not an Explorer" for the suckers....I know it's not an Explorer, it's more like a Bounty Hunter, excellent separation with crappy tones to a depth of 4-6 inches....oh gee, now I can hunt clad in a playground....joy.....joy. Yes, "it's not an Explorer".........it could never be an Explorer without a great deal of improvement. This thing would have to study to be stupid!!!! Shame on you MineLab "It maybe my soil"... but the funny thing is....My SE's and my F-75 don't have a problem with it. I am going to see if I can't trade it off to some one for the new Whites PI, maybe a deeper machine is the ticket in these fields for what's left now. For the guys who want to pick up an Explorer and shorten the learning curve to nearly zero, the Etrac is a God send......but what are they going to do when they have gridded out their local spots and the finds are getting thin???? I honestly feel a competent Explorer 1/2/SE user and/or F-75 user would still find things the ETrac can't and won't. I have this nasty habit of disliking going backwards. Sorry to sugar coat it......I didn't want to offend anyone.

 

[NealNoIN]

n/t

 

[king-ghidorah]

If you could trade your E-TRAC for the White's TDI you'd be getting a bang up deal. That TDI is a high-powered PI machine, most of the rest are low powered so the White's will go really deep. It uses 14.4 Volt Lithium-Ion Rechargeable Batteries and it has a monster 12" coil. I think it would be a wise move to get a PI machine and bang out a place that has been pretty much stripped clean. I'm sure you'll get a trade with it because that TDI takes some time to learn and it's a PI machine with some discrimimation and there is bound to be people frustrated it with it thinking it was a press-n-go machine.. If you can not trade it then I know you could sell it in a heartbeat as everyone wants one.

I hate to say it but people in general believe the hype of a something brand new but at least you are honest with yourself and you know it's not the MD for you and so you're taking swift measures to change it. I wish you well my friend.

 

[digitrich]

That's exactly what I thought, so frustrated White's PI user would love to use an easier ETrac and in most of my "old" sites I need to go deeper, be able to pick through the trash better or buy a tractor and a plow.

 

[digitrich]

Neal, I don't know if that's an actual problem or just the way it is, but yes, it does hang some. My real problem is the falsing ESPECIALLY in all metal. Made it useless for me in my farm fields.

 

[king-ghidorah]

"..buy a tractor and a plow"

If I was you I would post the potential deal in PI forum, Whites, Garretts & Infinium forum. An Infinium would be sweet too. I am seriously contemplating getting one for wet sand mostly but they work good on land too as they too have disc.

 

[Relic$Hunter]

OMG
I am glad I read this before selling my Explorer 2 to get one!
I will be watching for more post on the E-Trac.
Anyone have thoughts or have tried the new coil on a Explorer 2 I would sure like to here about that if it works better.
And also the Safari is it the same except for the USB????

Thanks Very much

 

[DukeOBass]

... that I am waiting for the Etrac II before dumping big bucks. It sounded to me like there were issues but, a lot of the folks denied it.

 

[Andy Sabisch]

. . . . . can hardly wait until you start hunting the same sites with an all-metal TDI that gives you two tones and one larger iron, it will be same tone as a coin . . . . . why not get a GPX 4500 and find those 2'+ targets?

 

[Erik in NJ]

n/t

 

[Shambler]

I wish more folks would write reviews when they have a bad experience. I know first hand why they don't because you're quickly labeled as stubborn or stupid -- see digitrichs identical post in etrac forum. I think the question should always be "did you get as much machine as you paid for". In digitrich's opinion he didn't get $1500 worth of metal detector. I found it a helpful post from a trustworthy poster (albeit a very abrasive one ).

 

[king-ghidorah]

I like it too when someone posts something revealing as long as it is not a smear campaign that is done intentionally. Obviously digitrich felt for his personal style of hunting that the E-TRAC was not to his liking and he is entitled to his opinion like the rest of us on certain subjects. We already know how I feel about the E-TRAC so I am not going to go all over it again.

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

I'm waiting for some long-time forum posters who I consider explorer proficient to say they are finding coins with the ETrac that they missed with earlier explorer versions. Doesn't seem to be happening. Still sounds like Minelab took the feature that set them apart from the crowd and dumbed it down.

There has been a lot of posts over the years from people using other brands noticing how many more finds are posted on the explorer forum. More than perhaps all the rest of the forums combined. And I dare say the great bulk of those finds have been made by people who use no or minimal discrimination, I expect that sold alot of Minelabs.

When Minelab or anyone else can make a machine that gives the same TID for a target every swing in trashy nasty ground then using tight discrimination will work. Not sure if that is possible.

I'm hoping that Minelab will release another machine with the other features and speed of the Etrac but with unmapped TID readings. Then I might open my wallet.

Chris

 

[Andrus(ut)]

n/t

 

[Mick in Dubbo]

Digitrich.
If it's not performing as advertised, have you thought about returning it for a refund? It's not fun, when they play up on you. I've had that happen in the past with another detector.
Mick Evans.
P.S. Thanks for an honest opinion of your experience. Without both sides of a discussion, then the forum loses it's credibility. Hopefully you'll be able to obtain a more positive outcome than that has occurred so far, even though it may not feel like it at the moment.

 

[Tinfoil]

Don't have a E Track but read the manual a couple of times. Send the detector back to M/L and tell them second one you got that don't work. Or did they fix the old one????? Got to send my SE back, pinpoint has not worked right since I got it back from the last repair they did on it. Just been doing without it. You did get a different S/N for the new one or was it the same detector. HH Jerry aka Tinfoil

 

[Jim upstate NY]

Is I had typed out a big message just the other day, probably took me a half hour to type in some of my thoughts, but as I was getting ready to post I decided against it as to not have everyone think I was just complaining again..

I have now used the Etrac for about the entire time since it came out, and since I landed a spot close to the house I have been hunting quite a bit, after work and on weekends.. Been to my hunted out spots and a few parks quite a few times as well.. All I can say is While it is certainly capable of finding things. I also believe this machine is a blunder if they consider it the new top of the line machine. They took away valuable info, and as you say worse of all is they took away the sweet round sound the explorer had.. No ferrous audio worth a darn, and way way too much falsing in iron.. I went back across the street after pounding it with the etrac and took my SE and 8 inch coil.. I got several things in the 10 inch deep range that either the etrac did not see or sounded so bad I passed it up, also two two piece eagle buttons that wer not even that deep, in an area I just hammered with the etrac, I had to have heard them but passed as junk or was getting so many iron falses that I could not make out the good target near by.. The etrac makes iron sound like those deep iffy targets that are good on the SE, so you dont know what to dig and what to leave behind. I have without a doubt dug more iron in 6 weeks than I have in 5 years, and many many empty holes..

it does hit well on silver, clad and high conductors, but forget trying to make sense of the low conductors.. I can not tell a deeper target from a surface target by audio on the etrac without lifting the coil, hard to tell a small from a lrarge target even in pinpoint.. I found so little with it at my parks and pounded spots that I can say for almost sure the explorer would have gotten it as well, if used properly.. I suppose a few targets I got with it the explorer may have missed, but it was mainly junk. No coins from any of them. So do I regret getting it? well not really, at least I am not wondering if I should be using an etrac if I never tried it.. I am still debating on whether I am going to keep it, just trying to come up with a reason to do so. I like many of the features they added, but they are all better suited to an explorer, not with what they did with the etrac.. Why even bother with all the pattern stuff when they put all targets pretty much on the same plane? Or why expand the screen and then have all the targets read on teh same ferrous plane? If you open up the screen you just go nuts from iron. I can use one line of iron mask on the explorer and not dig a single nail, I have to check every single target by its digital number, use quick mask to make sure its not iron etc etc.. so even if it is faster it slows me down..

Doesnt make any sense to me still, Perhaps they started out with a great idea to improve upon the explorer and couldnt make it work, so this is the result I don't know.. after that much work I suppose they had to hype it and charge more.. I fell for the videos, but guess what that iron tests only works in air, and if you accept enough iron to hear a good target the iron will simply drive you insane in areas with iron in the ground, so you end up back in coin mode or a pattern close to it, so it will still mask out those targets.. You will without a doubt ignore low conductors in areas with lots of trash.. the iron will hit so well in conductive you will swear your digging a good target.. even in coin mode that iron falses up there.. in the entire time I used it I never dug a target deeper than 7 inches.. I take the explorer out an hour and dug several in an hour!

I do believe that for those that never used an explorer or only used patterns and never mastered it, that the etrac will seem all that.. Remember when you switched from other machines to the explorer how much stuff we foundat ouir parks and other spots we hit very hard? well thats what will happen to them to, except they wont be getting all the great audio and depth.. so for them they will be well pleased.. So far I haven't heard of one person that was in my opinion a pro with an explorer think the Etrac is an overall better machine.. some were smarter than me and gave up earlier

Anyway at least I am now certain the explorer is deeper, has better audio and way more target info and a damn FE multi mode that works, I suspected it from the beginning, but after at least 100 hours on it, at least no one can say I didn't give it enough time, and I dont believe ther is anything wrong with mine, it runs the way it seems it should judging from others.it hasnt turned itself off or acted up any...

My opinion is it is faster to react, but nothing the explorer with the right sweep wont see, it seems more sensitive to small targets like 22 shells, buck shot etc, but who the heck wants that crap anyway? If I wanted that stuff I would have kept my Tesoro's.
I think it does better at outside interference, but maybe thats whats messing it up, they tried to stable it out too much?

Aluminum reads all over the place, tin foil sounds good, crown caps are erratic and read anywhere on the screen, you get iron bleed thru, that is it seems if it hits at the bottom of the screen that it actually pops up to the top to read in the 1 FE range, thus confusing you even more unless you notch out 1 FE, where you might get some good targets.. etc etc


I am not going to post any more negative stuff on the etrac forum, let them be happy with their decissions, and for those that never used an explorer I am sure they will be very happy, And maybe Minelab will take some of the features they added and add them to the explorer without affecting the way it reports targets, although with the explorer all you reall need is two or three patterns, other than that simple iron mask will do quite fine.. I also think alot of the improvement they say it has, has more to do with the pro coil.. and we can use that on our explorers.. I knew I shouldnt have sold my EX II, that was my favorite model.

 

[Jim upstate NY]

And I used high trash setting and difficult ground, and tried the other modes and I saw no difference when switching to other modes.. maybe it does something, then again maybe that's why I got no depth.. perhaps difficult ground and high trash setting takes away depth.. dont know, but I agree with Rich, dont spend 1500 bucks if your doing well with the explorer.. buy a new explorer if you have to have a new machine and still save 300 bucks

 

[Jim upstate NY]

and hope it forgives me neglecting it and leaving it home so much, I thinks its dying to get out and find me something good and deep although it may take a few days for it to forgive me

 

[Tinfoil]

I have been hunting a long time with the M/L explorers. I know I don't post much but, that is just me. I have a lot of time on the Explorers like Charles, Chris, James, Rick, Bryce and you and a few otheres.

I will tell you after reading all the Posts on the E Track if I had one like yours I think it would have been off to M/L to get checked out. You just might have gotten a bad one. That happends from time to time. The New Safari I just got don't work right so it is going back the end of the week to M/L. I just got to give them the specifics on what it is doing and not doing. It is surprizing how people react when you start posting the negitive and problems you are having with a detector. It is like you just stuck their best Buddy in the back. I am mostly a information Poster good or bad. I know I won't be going back to the Quattro Forum and I am not going to post anymore infomation on the Safari. If I do it will be over here.

Anyway Send that Machine in and if they don't do anything to it and if they say everything is OK then you know it won't hunt the iron trash like you want and the machine is OK so you can get rid of it. Some machines just won't hunt your area or your type of hunting and that is the way it is.

I do have to say it is really funny to me reading the defenders of the different machines protecting there babies and what they have to say about them.

I do think you have done enough and I think you should send it in to be checked and get a good bill of health. When you get it back hunt with it if it works the same and it just won't hunt like you want it to or it won't hunt your area. Then get rid of it. OK I said what I wanted to say so I am back to Lurking,hunting and reading you guys Posts. I think you did great on your Posts. Good or bad it makes no differenct to some of us. We just want good accurate information for us to make a decision if we want to try it or not. You will never know though till you get it and apply it to your area and your type of hunting. : : HH Jim and later Jerry aka Tinfoil