The Minelab Equinox 800 is a Piece of Junk

[traveller777]

The guy that started this thread does not appear to be around any more. I wanted to tell him I know how he feels. My 12 year old grandson got in his dad's manual transmission jeep and ran it into the wall of their garage. What a stupid worthless jeep. It is no good! They should get rid of the jeep. Of course the fact my grandson had no idea how to drive it makes no difference.

 

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[Treasure_Hunter]

The guy that started this thread does not appear to be around any more. I wanted to tell him I know how he feels. My 12 year old grandson got in his dad's manual transmission jeep and ran it into the wall of their garage. What a stupid worthless jeep. It is no good! They should get rid of the jeep. Of course the fact my grandson had no idea how to drive it makes no difference.

Correct, he hasn't logged in since June 11, 2021.

 

[uhfradarwill]

I had some good luck w my equinox this low tide series. Lots of lead and iron and other junk at this spot. It’s my best spot on a big minus tide.

I was getting a one beep high tone. Not repeatable.

I trenched down and got a wheatie. And then I did it 4 more times. Just a 32 signal. Not repeatable.

I had my two friends with deus 2s. I eventually called one of them over to try to see if they got anything. Nope, nothing. No signal near my ghost like high tone. I trenched in w my hori hori, and 6 inches down, the big tone was… a wheatie! It beeped it usual 22/24 once up on the sand and gravel.

That’s my equinox story for the day.

I have had my machine since it came out, and use the heck out of it.

I just began using a Nox this year and have learned not all signals that give a high tone in one direction only are junk targets. I'm going to re-hit my favorite site as I now know I have passed on targets that may be deep silver.

 

[traveller777]

I just began using a Nox this year and have learned not all signals that give a high tone in one direction only are junk targets. I'm going to re-hit my favorite site as I now know I have passed on targets that may be deep silver.

Good luck. Hope you find tons.

 

[Keppy]

I only salt water hunt. The first day out with mine [2.5 years ago] I thought the Equinox was a piece of junk. EVEN TODAY I was cussing it in certain places. There is things this detector does really well and other things........well lets say it is not perfect everywhere.

Win some lose some.

 

[sprailroad]

You are right. The 800 is a piece of junk, so are all other detectors, every one of them. Then there is the human factor, added in, seems as though some of them can take these junky things and find things with them. Go figure.

 

[Singlestack Wonder]

Has Minelab ever upgraded the coil mounting feet on the 600 and 800 to make them less susceptible to breakage?

 

[cudamark]

Not that I'm aware of......

 

[McKinney_5900]

Has Minelab ever upgraded the coil mounting feet on the 600 and 800 to make them less susceptible to breakage?

My 600 and 800 has never had a broken coil ear, and I bought both in the beginning, and they went out for warranty long ago. Y'all mistreated your Noxes.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

My 600 and 800 has never had a broken coil ear, and I bought both in the beginning, and they went out for warranty long ago. Y'all mistreated your Noxes.

The ears on NOX coils are thin and do break without abuse.

 

[McKinney_5900]

The ears on NOX coils are thin and do break without abuse.

I see the thin aspect. I personally never tighten the coils hard, and in fact, all of my coils have their own lowers, so maybe I am doing it perfect. I also don't hunt in water and stay out of corn fields, etc. All I know is that I have finished the warranties on my 600 and 800 units and never even cracked a single coil.

I still say, "It depends a lot on the way you treat these coils." It would be interesting to hear from people who have broken more that one of their coils ears, how that tighten them, if they bounce off of stubble etc. a lot, or hunt deep water a lot. All I know is I have not had a single crack.

 

[eddie13]

A bit frustrating yeah.. (newb)

I dug a bunch of nails this morning that were giving like 15-19 faint signals on park2 with everything 0 and under notched out..

Pushed the horseshoe and then I can tell that it’s iron down there but still kindof faints higher numbers for some reason?
I don’t know why..

Found a few deep gobs of melted aluminum, a 70’s quarter, a small brass buckle type thing, piece of solder I think, and a bunch of nails..

It find lead good and deep..
It even finds tiny fragments of copper jackets from bullets.. Like tiny to where it was hard to pinpoint out of the soil..
My property has bullets everywhere..

Comparing it side by side with my AT Gold, the AT is a lot easier to pinpoint with and see 2 different targets like 6” apart, probably because of the smaller coil, but the EQ can detect something there either the coil higher off the ground than the AT..

Putting in good effort to learn it..
Reading a lot, watching a lot of videos, using it a lot..

Planning to hunt a pretty ritzy beach very soon..

 

[cudamark]

I see the thin aspect. I personally never tighten the coils hard, and in fact, all of my coils have their own lowers, so maybe I am doing it perfect. I also don't hunt in water and stay out of corn fields, etc. All I know is that I have finished the warranties on my 600 and 800 units and never even cracked a single coil.

I still say, "It depends a lot on the way you treat these coils." It would be interesting to hear from people who have broken more that one of their coils ears, how that tighten them, if they bounce off of stubble etc. a lot, or hunt deep water a lot. All I know is I have not had a single crack.

I'm on my third 12 X 15 MInelab coil due to broken ears. It's the only coil I've ever broken ears. After over 52 years detecting and dozens of different detector/coil combos, I have to conclude that the coil ear design is substandard. I don't crank the bolt down tight. I tighten it up enough to keep the coil from flopping, but, that's about it. I do hunt in the ocean surf, but, not usually areas where it would get any hard bumps. I also have the 15" Coiltek coil for the Equinox and it is holding up fine. I also have 15" coils on my E-trac and 2 Excaliburs. No problem even after years and years of use on those either.

 

[sprailroad]

6 different detectors with 22 different coils over the years, the coil ear on the stock coil on the EQ was the ONLY one that ever broke. Before that, I wondered how these guys were breaking these things, like what the heck were they doing?. For me, was just changing coils and it broke. Did not buy another coil, crazy glue and a pair of ear support things I bought, all is good now. Strangely enough the arm cuff also broke, (dropped the machine 3' onto grass) and the control pod failed. Great detector though, just not to rugged of a detector. Bought a new arm cuff, and after screwing around with the control pod, it somehow began started working again after a couple of weeks. Go figure. (The control pod has no repairable parts, would need to buy a new one for $425 as told by Minelab) I have since bought a Nokta "Legend". Good machine, built strong, but I still often grab the EQ 800. Unless I need to hike in some distance or go out of town, don't know if I can rely on the control pod after you get way out there, but so far so good. Would I buy ANOTHER EQ 800? You know, I think I would.

 

[Singlestack Wonder]

It’s interesting that with all the great features on the Nox that Minelab couldn’t get the mechanical durability right.

 

[eddie13]

I noticed the bottom arm cuff thing, I think you call the stand, is cracked a bit..

Not sure how or when..

I better be very careful about having it in my car..

 

[cudamark]

When mine was still under warranty, Minelab stood behind the broken coils, the one broken arm rest, and one pair of headphones. Yeah, it would be much better if they were built stronger, but, at least they would send you a new one when the old one failed. Now that it's out of warranty, it's either buy a new one, or repair the old one, unless someone has other experience with any extended warranty that Minelab is offering? Does the warranty clock reset when a replacement part breaks, or, is it from the original purchase date?

 

[eddie13]

When mine was still under warranty, Minelab stood behind the broken coils, the one broken arm rest, and one pair of headphones. Yeah, it would be much better if they were built stronger, but, at least they would send you a new one when the old one failed. Now that it's out of warranty, it's either buy a new one, or repair the old one, unless someone has other experience with any extended warranty that Minelab is offering? Does the warranty clock reset when a replacement part breaks, or, is it from the original purchase date?

Got a drip of water under my screen and started the warranty process..
Seems like zero fuss so far..
Very pleased..
Will be nice to have a brand new control unit too..

The more I read and think about their water leaking problems the more it makes me believe that it’s probably caused by rushed assembly..

Thing works great though.. Found a bunch of coins and stuff yesterday..
A lot of the time I’m surprised by how tiny the things are that it finds..
Found a tiny little Nikon badge like the size of my pinkie..

 

[pulltabfelix]

Got a drip of water under my screen and started the warranty process..
Seems like zero fuss so far..
Very pleased..
Will be nice to have a brand new control unit too..

The more I read and think about their water leaking problems the more it makes me believe that it’s probably caused by rushed assembly..

Thing works great though.. Found a bunch of coins and stuff yesterday..
A lot of the time I’m surprised by how tiny the things are that it finds..
Found a tiny little Nikon badge like the size of my pinkie..

 

[pulltabfelix]

Trust me the 800 can find some things so small you won't believe. I mean a piece of thin copper wire not even 1/4" long. Honestly sometimes that can be quite tiresome in terms of digging copper that makes you think you have a coin. But for small gold chains on a beach, it cannot be beat by many other detectors.