why do you like the surfmaster PI??

[colorado14ers]

just got one on ebay and was wondering, do any of you that have it like it and why?? features i mean

 

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[Frankn]

It's a little late to be asking that question, after you bought it, But you lucked out.
I had one for many years and lost it in a fire. So what did I do? I bought a new one. That was 10 years ago and it's still as good as new. What I really like about it is it goes down deep. It can find coins in black sand at the beach. It is easy to use. Jest set it on presets and go. Mine has the ground coil because that's where I use it. Enjoy it.

 

[Sandman]

I have one and used to use it a lot till I got an Excal. I was digging too many holes with the PI and some quite deep for a hair pin. They say you can disc out the small iron, but on doing that you lose a lot of depth. Since I was always in the water I found the coil floated to much and it got tiring holding it down all the time. Ended up attaching a sand filled sock to the coil and I could take the extra weight off when searching the dry sand. As Frankn said, the presets are easy to set and I found to leave it that way.

Enjoy,
Sandman

 

[Michigan Badger]

I never used the surfmaster but did own a couple of other PI units. I found both to be very disappointing for the average jewelry/coin hunting. I went back to VLF and overall like them much better.

I tried the Tesoro PI not long ago in my "test" garden and found it no deeper than my old Tesoro Silver Sabre.

 

[Frankn]

Badger ,you got the wrong PI . The Surfmaster PI will outdive your VLF any day. I have recovered a diamond ring from 10" of sand.

Sandman, they have a weighted coil for under water use.

 

[furchaser]

i love my surfmaster PI easy to use and i found a small earring at 11" WOW yes 11"

 

[LuckyLarry]

I had one and sold it ONLY because I already owned dozens of metal detectors.

I found nearly the same thing that Sandman did, that it would go deep ( 2" deeper than a Silver uMax - on a clad nickel in the ground, but 2" less in air), because it reads eddy (Foucault) currents primarily coming out past the magnetic field on the positive (bottom) side of the coil, the side that we search with, inducted into and around the target, instead of reading only it's spherical, changing/interrupted magnetic field.

Note: Eddy currents can be used to create motion, heat, reverse motion, levitation, detecting cracks in materials, and braking too.

I traded the anti-bouyant coil - for a standard coil. It could disc out very tiny iron and some foil too, but in doing so it lost depth and lots of small jewelry. It was however the most trouble-free detector I've ever owned. In really nasty soil where absolutely zero VLF's, BBS, magnetic-pulse-imagining, and BB detectors quit, the thing kept right on like nothing went wrong at all. It wasn't quite my cup of tea though, I too favor the VLF's, especially the single freqs. I should have kept it though, if only because it worked so well.

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[Sandman]

Badger ,you got the wrong PI . The Surfmaster PI will outdive your VLF any day. I have recovered a diamond ring from 10" of sand.

Sandman, they have a weighted coil for under water use.

If you use the weighted White's coil for the water it is then to heavy for dry sand work. How come the other manufacturers don't have coils that want to float and aren't heavy for above water searching? It is because White's uses foam inside the coils which deteriorate over time unlike the resin used by the other guys. Also you have to send the White's detector back in to the factory to have the weighted coil installed on your dime. You can't buy it from a dealer that way.

 

[LuckyLarry]

Yeah Sandman, I got lucky. I live just one mile from Whites main business and I traded straight across for mine - because the weighted ones are in big demand. I wonder how long it would have taken to trade by FedEx?

Larry

 

[Frankn]

sandman, when I bought mine 10 years ago The cat. listed both types, you could order either way. Maybe it's different now. I thought the coils were interchangeable. I thought they just screwed on with the connectors that have the "O" ring seal. I must admitt I never gave the connectors a second look.

 

[Cool Hand Fluke]

I would prefer any good VLF water machine over any pulse unit. But you must have a P.I. unit in your arsenal when detecting highly mineralized conditions. Lake Tahoe has some of the worst black sand / minerized sand in the country. You can actually see the iron pyrite glistening in the water. I enjoy the Whites P.I. and like to use it in the super high mineralization areas, but I prefer VLF water machine in normal water hunting. So I have both type machines so I can cover all the bases.

 

[Jason in Enid]

Badger ,you got the wrong PI . The Surfmaster PI will outdive your VLF any day. I have recovered a diamond ring from 10" of sand.

Sandman, they have a weighted coil for under water use.

If you use the weighted White's coil for the water it is then to heavy for dry sand work. How come the other manufacturers don't have coils that want to float and aren't heavy for above water searching? It is because White's uses foam inside the coils which deteriorate over time unlike the resin used by the other guys. Also you have to send the White's detector back in to the factory to have the weighted coil installed on your dime. You can't buy it from a dealer that way.

Sandman, I'm confused. I bought my SM PI many years ago. It came, out of the box with the weighted "diver" coil. I never felt it was too heavy for dry sand use though. Used it all day long without any problem.