Dumping the VX3 in favor of the AT Pro?

[wingmaster]

I've had them replace one of my coils that was out of warranty which was a replacement for another that went bad in warranty, this coil I've had for four years now so I'm happy. I believe you can send a coil in for repair also and if they can't fix it they won't charge full price for a replacement coil. HH

 

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[burlbark]

Unfortunately the V3 Finds forum (or rather Bill Crabtree) will not allow negative posts about the V3/V3i, so many have accepted the "its not the machine (which is 100% reliable !!)" arguement of "Burlbank" and have wasted hundreds of hours of detecting time. Result is many say that it will be their last Whites detector.

A major worry is that its possible to upgrade from V3 to V3i as I did on the promise that the coil problem has been dealt with and then find out they are still a worry. I've yet to see how you are treated when a replacement also fails and the original warranty has expired.

You dont make much sense in your above post.... And its "Burlbark". Why dont you ask "me" your questions pertaining the detector?

Do you even own a v3i? I will have to look at your posts over there. Hmmm......

There are many threads where people did not know how to use their detector and a couple where there was a failure of the first couple batches of D2 coils. How can you say that failures are not allowed to be reported?

I can tell that you are bitter, why?

 

[U.K. Brian]

Rob (IL) ...." Mr.Bill is the administrator. He is the one who deletes the posts and he told me to tell you...Product bashing is not allowed". The question had been from someone with wireless headphone problems "loud pop like static discharge" , "left headphone fade out", "plastic breaking on headphones". My reply was that I had had popping and a crack on my original V3 phones but hadn't heard of any fade out problems. This is really knocking Whites products though perhaps they could do with it, though you won't agree as you say the V3's are "100 % reliable".

A strange claim as you admit to headphones problems and your detector repeatedly shutting off. "I disassembled mine and reset all the ribbon cables and ground wires". Plus you must be one of the few who has avoided coil failure whilst others are on their second or third replacement. Perhaps you only detect a couple of hours a month which would account for your lack of finds ?

 

[cadman20]

Rob (IL) ...." Mr.Bill is the administrator. He is the one who deletes the posts and he told me to tell you...Product bashing is not allowed". The question had been from someone with wireless headphone problems "loud pop like static discharge" , "left headphone fade out", "plastic breaking on headphones". My reply was that I had had popping and a crack on my original V3 phones but hadn't heard of any fade out problems. This is really knocking Whites products though perhaps they could do with it, though you won't agree as you say the V3's are "100 % reliable".

A strange claim as you admit to headphones problems and your detector repeatedly shutting off. "I disassembled mine and reset all the ribbon cables and ground wires". Plus you must be one of the few who has avoided coil failure whilst others are on their second or third replacement. Perhaps you only detect a couple of hours a month which would account for your lack of finds ?View attachment 975859

They do not allow product bashing in the sponsored forums. If you have something negative to say about a detector, go to the Metal Detecting Forum on Finds and you can post there.

 

[Lakemonster]

Have both. Yes...... crazy.

 

[U.K. Brian]

Well Cadman, tell me where the product bashing is (apart from Burlbark's) and I haven't been blocked from the V3 forum or the rest of them, just the Nautilus one for some odd reason best known to themselves.

Burlbark, my V3i is between the TDI and XLT on the left just in case you can't recognise one.

 

[U.K. Brian]

Gosh Finds forum is at it again. A post re the V3 touch pads failing, someone else comes on line with the problem and their posts are deleted. Really helpful, but I suppose it will help with the 100% reliability claim.

 

[Adam1]

Been using v3i for couple years it's a vision with all up grades to the v3i. Had to replace the first coil long ago no problems since. Have learned a lot about this machine and had made great finds and have dug relics that the at pro walked right over. You really have to learn your machine and read the forums and use it. I have walked into civil war camps that have been hunted for years and dug buttons at 12inches in the middle of fields when my other ATP buddy's are ready to go home. They have accused me of bringing stuff from home. Be patient swing slow and believe the next swing will be a good relic

 

[DigitNY]

Is this crazy? I've had the VX3 for a bit over 2 years now and have used it extensively. I've read the book forwards and backwards many times as well as altered my programs in favor of what the experts on the Spectra machines are using. I've also read the message boards looking for tricks with this machine as well as watching videos on youtube. So yeah, I think I've become one with the machine. Yet still I can't help but be disappointed with it (I'm minding what I say as I know the White's fans will pick this post apart). I find plenty of iron from farming, scrap metal and other assorted junk, but rarely anything good. My best finds to date are a colonial era flat button, gilded button, an advertising plate from the late 1800's, minie ball and a 1914 wheat penny. Oh I've found tons of clad and I've found bullets as deep as 13 inches, but no silver or really old coins. She goes deep, but discerning between a coin and a can seems to challenge the machine. So my next issue is the quality, or lack there of in the build. This was a very expensive detector and I expected it to last. With that said, I'm now using my third D2 coil and I'm hoping it doesn't get whacky like the other 2 did before (and if) I decide to sell the VX3. Sure, White's customer service is wonderful, but they don't pay shipping and these trips back are putting a dent into my love affair with the VX3. At $35 a pop, these coil exchanges are starting to add up! The money notwithstanding, I'm out a detector for a week as well. Sure I could use the 950, but I find far more stuff with the D2. Pinpointing and discrimination are much easier and more accurate with the D2 as well. I honestly don't know why they make the 950 or at least why they saddle a high performance/high dollar machine with it. So that's it in a nutshell. I'm looking at the AT Pro and besides being able to tinker around with the programs, it looks like an equivalent machine. Much cheaper to boot. Thoughts and recommendations? ETA: when I mentioned build quality of the VX3 I'm talking about the D2 coils failing and nothing else. The unit itself is very well built overall and I believe it will last through many years of hard use. Other than a lack of waterproofing and weight, I have no other complaints about the VX3 in general.

I just gor rid of an atpro, and you will regret your decision. The atpro goes off on anything you can imagine, I just got the brand new one with the 5x8 coil also. I had the machine for 2 mos and about 30 hrs detecting on it and my minelab 305 blew it away. Maybe it depends on where you live. Soil differences I don't know, but I could never understand what everyone was raving about. I just traded for a mxt and I love it, to me it s exactly what a detector should be. Talk about liking iron, almost every hit sounded awesome and it would be foil or iron, I never actually found anything with it to mention. My minelab 305 has found large cents mercy, indian heads flat buttons you name it, ( just mentioning it becouse I've only hunted with the mxt once. The atpro had me frustrated from day one, just my opinion.

 

[DigitNY]

Well i never had a vx3 but I did have the v3i, as well as the atpro. My opinion is that I didn't like ether. V3i was too complicated for my needs and I never knew if I was detecting in the correct setting or not. The atpro, just couldn't handle the fast changing soil condition in this country and since it has no ground tracking I was forced to balance the detector every 10 ft. To avoid falsing. My solution was to go back to my trusty mxt... In my opinion the best metal detector that I ever laid my hands on. Now I have a dfx on the way to see how it goes, it should be quite more simple than the v3i, and even if older not necessarily worse.

would love to hear your opinion on the DFX When you get it. I feel the same about the MXT

 

[norbyx]

Well I got some testing done on the dfx, to be fair I had the mxt and dfx on me at the same time and was able to do a AB Comparison. The dfx is just as good as the mxt (or the other way around), but it took me more time analyzing the signals on it. What I mean is that since you get more info on the screen, it sometimes took more passes over something to determine if it was worth digging or not, with the mxt if I don't get a repeatable signal I just pass it, and 98% of the time the detector is right. The dfx vdi jumps around more than the mxt and you have to rely more on the bar graph, that also most of the time is correct, but i felt it took some more passes over the mxt. Overall I am quite happy with the dfx, I still have to test it on the salt beach to see how it performs but for now I am happy.

 

[kshollywood]

I've used the AT PRO, it's cheaply built, feels cheap and in my opinion sucks. But all machines find metal and for the price you can't get a better water machine NEW better than the AT PRO. THE VX3 is far superior than the cheaply built at pro.