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Looking for a PI that's quiet under salt water

I

Infiniumexplorer Excalibur

New member
I currently own an Infinium, whilst it's a good detector, in deep salt water it does loose depth because of noise from wave action. I have read that other detectors react to salt water as well, I refer you to these two posts:

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?34,1348341

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?34,1230365,1230515#msg-1230515

I have read that the Sea Hunter II in discrete mode is quiet in that situation, but not in standard. But in discrete you might loose too much depth...? What are others' thoughts on this?

Is there a detector that others can recommend for salt water use in water deeper than 2.5 feet? I'm not concerned about discrimination, I would like to retain depth.

Thank you.
 
I own and use the Infinium and Dual Field.

The DF is quieter as it has auto ground balancing which helps quiet things down as opposed to the manual system in the Infinium.

The DF is still sensitive to precious metals, red bricks,hot rocks and passing aircraft, boats, and trains, although these passing vehicles don't cause severe responses and I am able to continue hunting. Deep signals are probably passed over though as the interference must mask them.

Of course the LS can be tuned to deal with most interference.

Salt concentration varies along the Eastern seaboard, so I can't speak about how the DF may perform elsewhere, but here in Connecticut it's as good as you can get.

I must say in defense of the Infinium, that I found lots of deep gold rings and other small gold with it.

I did get tired of its chatty performance after a while and now use the DF almost exclusively.There may be other machines I'm not familier with that will perform better, but I am content with the DF.

I would not get rid of the LS though and keep it as a back-up machine.

GL&HH Fellow Hunter,

CJ
 
Thanks for the info CJ and interesting...

I've been getting to the bottom of this, I have researched a lot of posts, here's one example that's making me lean towards the White's DF:
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?34,173011,173926#msg-173926

Which sucks because the Sea Hunter mkII is much cheaper and you can change coils, and I like the waterproof design. The Infinium is very good in the wet sand and not a problem below knee level salt water, but it reads the waves too much after that, and turning up the discrim doesn't help. Plus, I tested the settings and how wave action affects its depth/performance and frankly... I got a bit worried.

Wasn't there an issue with White's waterproof detectors, something with the O rings, even the new ones? I hope there isn't one now, still researching.
 
Each water machine has to be carefully sealed when the case is opened. Replacing the DF batteries requires removing the case cover which means it must be done in perfectly clean and dry conditions.

The case and cover have to be spotless where the O-ring seals.

The O-ring must be wiped very clean and carefully lubricated by placing a tiny dab of silicone grease on a finger and carefully, evenly, "working" it into the O-ring.

Excess grease is then carefully removed with a lintless cloth and perfectly aligned between the cover and case.

Snap on the cover and very carefully inspect the seal for placement.

I prefer to submerge the sealed case in a 5 gallon pail of fresh water to test the seal before using the detector in salt water.

When no leaks are detected I breath a sigh of relief and use the machine, but I still check it each time I submerge it from time to time during the hunt.

You cannot be careful enough with these seals.

After a while they will fail from age and being compressed so long and being careful will hopefully allow you to catch a leak before it becomes a real problem.

'nough said,

CJ
 
Mr. Bill I must have misunderstood the Dual Field's ability to be seemingly less sensitive to "ground effects" as its having automatic ground balancing.

It also seems to be more sensitive to precious metals than other PI detectors I have used.

These "insights" have come from my using several of the machines rather than from my understanding the technology of the machines.

I hope I haven't "led anyone astray" in my enthusiasm for the DF and I would be delighted if you could perhaps offer me information that will help me know more about how this machine performs so well.

Regards,

CJ
 
The Dual Field is the old Surfmaster PI, a bit modernized. First they did the same modification I do to make the pulse delay faster. Then they took Eric Fosters coil design he did for them on the TDI, re-adjusted it & used it on the dual field. That's a bit in the nutshell. There were some sensitivity gains produced from these changes. Perhaps that's what your noticing ??

Bill
 
Thanks Bill, (My younger brother's name too!)

After over a year of playing with the manual ground balance of my Infinium to be able to successfully hunt the local wading salt water beaches I switched to the Dual field and haven't worried about "ground-balancing" since. That is why I thought the machine must have Automatic Ground Balancing as a feature even though I didn't see it listed as such.

Thanks for setting me straight as I don't like to pass on false info.,

CJ
 
The key factor with the Infinium and salt water is that fact that you have to tune it using the ground balancing, threshold and delay ( marked Discrimination) on the unit.

That thing is really sensitive to salt water conductivity since its really a gold hunting machine and running a full optimal, some beaches will drive it crazy. With my HH PI and small coil, I can run it at delay 15uS on any beach I hunt and it runs stable no matter what the salinity of the water is. With the Infinium, I can be hunting on beach and it's stable at discrimination 0 with high threshold, go to another beach and can't run it that way. The other thing with that Infinium is you have to go through the frequency checking to make sure there isn't any EMI messing with it.

I know you know most of this about the Infinium, and yup, she is a tempermental beast. I think that is why most salt water hunters don't use one as there are a lot of other PI's that are much more stable without all the setting up. And waves going over the coil effect it much more than the other PI's I use.

I still like mine a lot, but I have found that a few beaches I hunt do drive it nutty and in order to run it stable, I have to get the delay into the 17-20uS range ( or run it chatty and end up really having to listen to the hi/lo and lo/hi signals) and I rather not...so I take out the HH PI and run at 15uS just fine.

I would seem to think you are doing the same with the Dual Field. I liked the one my friend had and used it a few times. Even mounted using the stock configuration, it was really light and easy to swing.
 
Right on TR,

I wouldn't part with the Infinium and one day will purchase a larger Mono coil for it to improve depth over the 8"Mono coil.

I have done very well with it and it remains my "back-up" machine.

I prefer the Dual field for ease of operation and avoiding the constant chatter of the LS.

I got tired of listening to it after over a year even though the detector produced well for me.

I haven't noticed a huge difference in the productivity betwen the machines and am quite pleased with the DF especially the way batteries last and last.

Thanks for your reply,

CJ
 
Thanks for confirming what I thought. There's been a few posts re sensitivity improvements but is it because most have not used a P.I. with such a small coil (5.5") and are testing on that not the outer rim ?
 
I've been back and forth on this whole thing, one day I think I should get the Sea Hunter, on another it's the Dual Field.

The Sea Hunter is said to go deeper but, any noise or interference will mess with performance, and underwater, the quietest detector would/should be best, at optimum setting for those conditions. In wet sand conditions, heavily mineralised or not, the Infinium rocks. I can tell you, I certainly do not get the same performances past waist deep.

If you're only covering ground with the middle coil of the Dual Field, that concerns me. Maybe that's just for the small stuff and the bigger coil will still get the medium/large targets?
 
You may want to try out that 10x14 mono. I have both mono coils, and the 10x14 runs smoother ! Not sure why, but I can run it with high threshold and discrim at 0 and there is a lot less chatter/instability.

I have to fine tune the unit with the 8 inch mono on it...not so with the bigger one. I have no idea why. The 8 inch works great and gets plenty deep but I am sticking with the bigger one.

Gonna sell the back up with the stock and 8 inch mono. I have all I need with the 10x14.

JC
 
You might consider the HeadHunter PI. I bought one but haven't had the chance to use mine yet. From what I have read on the different forums they are excellent machines and reasonably priced. Good luck!
 
Yeah, I had a look at the HH PI, but I don't want the control box around my head (could be hazardous) and I also prefer balancing out the coil end.

So far, CJC has given good insight as to how PI's operate in salt water wave action. With the Sea Hunter, there have been those whom say that putting it in discrete mode will eliminate noise from the surf, but you loose performance, I wonder how much?

At the moment I'm leaning towards the DF, it also has an interesting coil. Also, a lot of the pros use White's PI`s.
 
Going back to the original question ...I use the Df at surf beaches and it is stable ,and it is definitely quiet in saltwater,and I see no difference in and out of the water actually.The detector is very sensitive and stable.
i was at the beach the other day and there were two detectorists there before .I thought they would have cleaned up the place but I was wrong .I went over the same area they worked and still pulled out small change and even a little earing,and I have a few little earing studs now that I have found with the DF.It will detect small targets like paper staples which I have found on a cuople of occasions.
I agree with cupajo its a great machine and very practical to use.
 
Cheers, any more testimony? What about the Sea Hunter guys?

I saw a vid of oldbeechnut doing a test between the DF and the Excal and it had me a little worried:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8v0lBff1lU

I had an Excal 2 and the Infinium does way better than that in and out the water, so I sold the Excal. That vid worries me in getting the DF because I don't want to go backwards. Although he was using a mod for that Excal.
 
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