ML ProFind 35 review

[AngerManagement]

****I think the ProFind 35 will find some good use in the gold fields...

Can not believe that it can pick up Niblits That is sub gram gold bits. Only have 3 and about 0.18g to 0.31g and the ProFind 35 gets them at a good 5 to 8 mm at full sensitivity.

Not going to separate led shot from nuggets or niblets but interesting when the niblet is placed with a bit of wire. It will come back to the USER and how well they know the PF35 and the Fe Tone / Non Fe Tone; but opens up some opportunities with crevicing in creeks etc.

PS. None of the other pin-pointers I have, come even close to detecting a Niblet and some will not even register when placed directly on the probe...


NOTE: I own about 10 plus PinPointers and have stripped and repaired a few different brands and had to do major surgery on a large number of the old black Garret units.
I also use a couple as my GO TO and the ML ProFind 25 gets a good work out (I know how it performs in lots of different conditions) and the Deteknix for beach and water work. As such, I have developed a few habits and there are some functionalities that I have a STRONG BIAS for

Major dislikes on first interaction:
* Uses standard 9V batteries = Should be LiPo and Rechargeable
* Sealed internals = Disposable (Same as the 25) and a few other brands
* No rate led = I have become very attached to the Red Rate led on the Deteknix. With Audio Off, you only get one sensory feedback. Of a night with audio off (headphones on ) a rate led gives you 2 sensory feedback signals; and that helps when the target is on the edge of the range..
* No pad in the cap = May or may not be an issue; but not all batteries are made the same. OR this may have been an over site in this first shipment ?
* Serial # barcode in a place that will see the readability destroyed in a short time.

Then again, these are my Personal Gripes and many other Pin-pointers have the same CONS, from MY perspective.
--------------------------------------
Like the Volume on first power up... But will need to work out the field shape in AIR; B4 I look at testing it on a few items. Then some real world tests on the beach / along side a couple of other pin-pointers.

A simple check of the field strength and it appears to be a full sphere with a wide sense along the shaft. As to how this may impact on the method I use when targeting an item; only field testing over time will tell. And it may just mean, I have to change my method.
I am surprised at how well it picks up SUB gram niblets of Gold.. Can not call sub gram gold; nuggets But as I am not a Gold hunter and the soils can be hard here in Australia; others will have to comment as to its effectiveness / functionality in the gold fields.


So some real world testing over the next week and most of it will be on the beach as that is where I do most of my random hunts... Will be some months b4 I can test at my permission as the grounds are off limits for a while... But too hot any way LOL.

As a preview, some simple field testing to understand the shape of the sense area - I know the Deteknix well and hence I can target the center of any target within 1 or 2mm. There are tricks to this and it works with all, but you need to know your pin-pointer sense area and how strong it is; in the ground you are detecting on. So simple but I see so many that demonstrate a lack of knowledge / skill in this area... Off the soap box LOL.


A basic AIR test to start to understand... Some common targets - couple of Au coins (5c to $1) for size difference, a 925 Pandora ring and a earring that is stamped 375 on the clasp; but the main body is plated I think. And 3 little Niblets for good luck.
The PF35 hit the niblets every time. See the red dot in the field sense, while the other failed to sound OR only did when the bigger nibilet was touching the probe. The 375 earring was interesting, again the PF35 smashed it AND as experience has shown me previously, the Deteknix was the worse for this type of item. See the asterisk and interesting to note that both ML PF units did well.

Looks like the PF35 has some extra depth but that is not every thing, it likes gold and that is a good thing... The sense area is too broad for me and that may mean I have some refining to do in my pinpointing process. And when in a hole, it may well make it a bit harder to work out which side or where the target is... But that is yet to be experienced by my self, but am sure I will find out next week.
Note: If you are a PLUGGER then the fine details as to field sense area etc will be irrelevant...

The range mark at the top of each one is a ROUGH guide as to say where the $1 or $2 was picked up Vs the other items (excluding the Earring / Niblets ). I also did the tests on all but the Deteknix with the same Rechargeable (full charge) and a NEW Alkaline battery, to also take any possible supply issues into consideration. The Deteknix is rechargeable with a built in battery and that was fully charged; prior to any testing.

I also did have another experience that some may hate and others may find useful as a FUNCTIONALITY bug/feature.
The Speaker is not on top, like many others or the PF 25. It is rather large and underneath. The volume of the PF35 is quite loud ( I will take Db readings later) but you can reduce the volume with your index finger. However this may be a bit hit and miss, until you get to know the shape and feel in your hand AND gloves may further complicate this.
So be aware that if the volume seems to drop suddenly = User has finger over the speaker

Will see how things go in the field/beach and salt water in the next few days...

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[mtwolf2270]

Great review thanks for posting look forward to your in field thoughts.

 

[UtahRich]

Thank you for this excellent write up.


Rich (Utah)

 

[AngerManagement]

At Full sensitivity in my yard it was almost unusable due to interference and scrap. And when walking past my shed and the Tvan it would go off..

It also picks up the small surgical pins in the bone graft in my wrist and no other pointer or Detector has done that yet...

Drop the sensitivity and it was usable in the yard, but it will take a little practice as the field sens area is a bit broad, thus trying to accurately pinpoint the centre of a small coin was a little extra effort.

Also have to add a sound buffer; as after 15min in the yard, my wife was ready to start tossing cast iron pans at me. She was not impressed and found it rather annoying. Ok if you have headphones on and in the bush, but if you in a populated area and trying to be quite... Not going to happen LOL.

 

[GroundHunter]

Is it possible to have audio indication without vibrate? And what is the maximum distance from an iron target that still triggers the ferrous tone?

 

[AngerManagement]

Is it possible to have audio indication without vibrate? And what is the maximum distance from an iron target that still triggers the ferrous tone?

As per the instructions and Manual from ML... Audio is Off or ON and Vibe is always ON

And what is the maximum distance from an iron target that still triggers the ferrous tone... depends on the size and other variables. In the ground / wet sand or what grade of Fe... Some lumps of Fe are not just Fe... and the Manual states about 10mm to 15mm

Some items it worked well and other bits no so well, but when I looked hard... some of the items were not just lumps of PURE Iron...

People should understand that 2 + 2 = 5 Yep 5 ( so many variables and conditions and thus NOTHING is ever as straight as 1 + 1 = 2 )

 

[GroundHunter]

That sucks about the vibrate always being on. Wonder why they went that route.

 

[D&P-OR]

Why not?

That sucks about the vibrate always being on. Wonder why they went that route.

 

[GroundHunter]

Because having vibrate always on increases battery usage.

 

[Rick(ND)]

I am glad it has vibrate myself as the audio on the 35 is too high pitched and can not hear it even without headphones because of my hearing as many of us older hunters have lost our high pitched sounds. My wife days it is loud, but I can hear a thing.
I wonder how much battery life you would actual lose with the vibrate over just audio, do you know??


Rick

 

[AngerManagement]

I would take lots of testing and diferent batteries behave differently as well as the way you might use it.

If you can not hear it... Turn it off and that way you will get better battery life.

Too many variations to usage and battries to do any testing that would be real. The manual states 30hrs. And if you turn on and off a few times an hr. Then 30hrs i could be a good few weeks or even 6 months

 

[AngerManagement]

Audio Check>

Profind 35 sound at 30cm approx 65db at 50cm 55db and at 5cm 78db

Profind 25 sound at 30cm approx 58db at 50cm 46db and at 5cm 66db

So some good improvements at 50cm being arms length with a 10db improvement... But it is not just the volume but a slight tone change.. Then again, every one has different hearing.

 

[jas415]

After hunting with it today for about 4 hours, I am not all that impressed with it. The audio was NOT loud, in fact it as difficult to actually hear it unless there was no side noises.
As for the ferrous and not-ferrous, In dozens of different holes it went off exactly the same for EVERYTHING! It does that in air test until the end of the pointer is less than a half inch from the item then it will differentiate by having a 'broken' audible and broken vibration. In testing the sensitivity, I held it vertical, turned it on and ran a half dollar vertically from the handle area to the end of the pointer about 2 inches from the pointer. The center of the shaft (halfway from the end and the place where the larger grip area starts) was sensitive then dropped to nothing and when near the actual ends, it got sensitive again and would pick up the target.

Right at them moment the big lure for me was the ability to tell ferrous from non-ferrous. That does happen, most of the time, but the pointer end has to be exactly on the target and very near it, less than a half inch, for it to differentiate, and then only if it is a larger mass of iron. Not what I was thinking was going to happen. I thought it would actually either beep or have som sort of different beep when it was near iron, but Not so! From the longest distance from a targe, say 5", it reacts exactly the same on ferrous and non ferrous. It ONLY has a different tone and vibration when it is within a half inch of the target and then only if the target is really small.

 

[Des D]

I've had a ProFind 35 since mid October and am used to it now and quite like it.

While I wouldn't rate it as high as my Garrett AT Pointer, it does come in a close second.

It's not infallible - you must remember that - it won't be "right" all the time.

It's TRUE the Tip has to be very close to a target to properly drive the FERROUS TONE aspect of the device and is ESPECIALLY true on nails.
But on larger than nail targets it can give the ferrous tone further away.

It is VERY loud and I wouldn't agree with you that it isn't.
However, at the beach it's not as 'perceptively' loud as it is in the middle of a field: wave noise and wind can whisk away the volume!

Where I am having an issue is the battery end cap is very hard to open.
The 35 has been in my car boot for weeks and I wanted to put in a new battery for the season ahead. But I couldn't open it manually and had to use a pliers that put 'scratch' marks into the cap! It tore the skin off my hand and was quite sore!

 

[AngerManagement]

Yes... i put some lube on the oring and only just nip it up.

But even then after a few days it can be hard to undo. I think the material expands and shrinks back causing a static lock.

Great if you are working in water and do not want a leak. But you will need gloves or a strong grip to undo the end cap. I have a stuffed wrist and a bone graft and on.the first few times had to use less than ideal methods to remove the endcap. Better now but only if i do not do it up hard.

IRON disc..... ummmm still out on that one. So many bottle tops have a mix of materials that only the real old ones give the iron tone.

And modern nails / screws are the the same.

Found it works well on old iron but most modern stuff seems to not work as well. So have to assume they are not pure iron.

So for old stuff in england etc iron age. May be great. But in the trash i have to work with.... not sure that ot will be as helpfull as i first expected.

So there is a GREY area. Does it discriminate pure IRON. = yes. At what level of Iron mix and with what other materials... Who knows.

Even a good detector has issues with that.

 

[Mswenson289]

I picked up my 35 this week and took it out yesterday. I too am a old fart with degraded hearing and found it difficult at times to hear it. I can only hope that with more Minelab products being released with wireless (blue tooth) that we will see a pinpointed from minelab. This would allow me to hear the pinpointed thru headphones without removing them and isolating some background noises. One issue I did have was that anytime the tip changed direction i.e.down in the hole to horizontal to check a handful of dirt it falsed. I also noted it going from horizontal to tip pointing up. I found by turning down sensitivity way down to the first or second setting this would stop but made it where you pretty well needed to be touching the target to detect it. I hope I described the issue I experienced well, it almost seemed like something was loose in the unit and made it false when moved.

 

[Getoffmyland]

I have the 35 and it's saved me lots of digging UK Iron. It's not that deep so I use a cheap Chinese pointer to get me on the target and use the 35 to see if it's iron.

One thing though it regularly goes nuts and needs powering off and on.

On YouTube ot says that you should turn it on pointed at the ground to ground balance it. This is not in the instructions but definitely helped.

I hope the 40 has addressed the other issues when I am ready to upgrade.

 

[Mark kus]

Ill stick with my XP never had a problem and you cha recharge it!
Mark