Garrett Ace 250
Street Price $250 - Beginner, coin
Number of Reviews: 145
on 15 pages.
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Also in this price range:
Whites Prizm II
Garrett Ace 250
Newbie On The Beach
L Johnson in Katy, Tx -I have used this model a total of 8 to 10 hours and am new to the hobby. So, from a newbie standpoint, I like it. I watched the instructional DVD prior to going out with it. I have only detected on a saltwater beach, so my experience is very limited. Having said that, I am getting good hits up to surf line. Pinpointing is limited, I think, by the saltwater. I like this unit and purchased it based on other reviews in this forum. I wanted something "entry level" to get acquainted with this hobby, and the Ace 250 does the trick.
Sep 18, 2009
18 Yes
1 No
Garrett Ace 250
RJM in Wales UK -
I have been detecting over 20 years and used all the big makes out there. My son (23) wanted to get into the hobby so on what I'd read I advised him to get an Ace250. Before he picked it up I used it against my Minelab and was amazed by it's performance.
As a result, for the price, I bought the Ace250 that came as a kit with two coils, cover, bag, headphones and pinpointer (which is superb in itself). I have now used the Ace250 for a few sessions and love it even more.
The manual advises using for 100 hours to get to know the machine, but I'd say half this time.
The Ace is quick to adjust any function.
Sometimes the indicator does jump about over the icon but as you sweep the coil listen for a tone as you sweep each way. If a double tone is sounded, just dig! I notice the bell tone seems to have a different pitch depending on the item detected.
The Ace is very sensitive and I had some minute signals that I chased around with the pinpointer probe.
The depth is excellent depsite the fact I had the small coil fitted.
The only two small negatives are that the stem has a little movement occasionally, and there is no volume adjustment which is overcome by having headphones with such a control. The overall build quality is top notch.
For the money this is a phenomenal machine and I would say whatever your experience you should get one, even if only as a back-up for another brand. The battery life on 4 AA's is fantastic too.
I can't comment on how this machine would perform on an ancient site littered with iron, and maybe it wouldn't be my first choice. Having said that I have the feeling this machine wouldn't shame itself against the big boys. It's light and well balanced so you could detect for hours without fatigue.
As for the grumbles about the pinpointing, it has a pinpoint button and pinpoint graph. If you can't pinpoint using this it's because you haven't spent the time and learned properly!
To sum up, this is an AMAZING machine for the price. I know some using £1000+ machines who have the Ace as well so this should tell you something.
I have no connection with any dealer or manufacturer. I just can't understand the small minority who criticise this machine.
Aug 30, 2009
124 Yes
1 No
Ace 250 ,Give it time
Dr.Bellows in Florida -I was super frustrated using it my first time. Really don't blame the ACE 250, It was all me the operator! After about 40 hours detecting I absolutely love this thing. My buddy with the tesoro silver Umax, is now is a bit jealous of the Ace 250 because of all extra features I have. It is a great detector for the money!! NO Regrets
Aug 29, 2009
32 Yes
1 No
Garrett 250
KenF in Fort Lauderdale, Florida -
I am new to the sport of detecting so I decided to rent one while on vacation in Cocoa Beach, Florida. The only model available at Nations Rentals was the Garrett 250. I never used one before, but it didn't take long to figure out how to use it. I even downloaded and read the manual!. Here are my initial observations: 1. Unit decerns well with tones between silver-copper clad coins and iron, but it can't decern between coins and aluminium flip tops. 2. It worked fine in the dry beach sand but it went crazy when the sand was wet from the salt water. I found that it had trouble to focus on targets. Suspects were too wide to be of any value, unless one wants to excavate the entire shoreline.
On an interesting note, I meet a gentleman who recently purchased a White detector and complained that he hasn't been able to find anything because it was too complicated to use. Cocao Beach is pretty much a party beach and there is a lot of beer bottle caps. In my three days of using the the Garrett 250, I found about $4.00 in change, a cheap earing, an allen wrench and hundreds of bottle caps. He had yet to find a penny. If I were to purchase one, I think that I would like buy something that is simple to operate like the Garrett 250 and has the ablitity to operate in the wet beach sand. Any suggestions?
Jul 27, 2009
37 Yes
5 No
Snipper Coil is Key.
Bruce Michael in New York -If you are hunting on a Rocky Beach with sand and stones the sizes of your foot lets say, 100% use the Snipper coil. I "outsearched" my buddy during our last hunt. He was using an excalibur.
Hint Hint.....look under the rocks as well. Most hunters go "around" the rocks. shhhhh it works
Jul 07, 2009
19 Yes
0 No
Garrett ACE 250 build for Smart people.Cheap & Good.
Satisfied Owner in Australia -How can somebody who is completely analphabetic in techno/detectors area be allowed write review on detector especially as Garrett Ace250.?
This is the best detector in the world if used in normal soil conditions, even on the beach. Can compete with much more expensive detectors on the market. All is perfect, discrimination, sensitivity, pinpointing, even automatic ground balancing in no extreme soils.
Scale is 100% on conductivity targets. If you find ring under pull tab sign on the scale, this means is the RING no PULL TAB, but with the same conductivity values. Garrett detector/s ACE250 is actually giving you chance to learn about CONDUCTIVITY of metals.
If : Silver Dollar nickel iron is a ring on this machine! (as stated), that means that. This two under circumstances have the same CONDUCTIVITY. Can YOU even imagine or believe, that old iron nail long time underground will shows to you as PURE GOLD on the scale ?
Even on $5000.00 detectors. If you do not want spend 1000's on detector and want hunt for coins, relics etc, this is detector for you.
Just switch On and go. On 4x AA Batteries good ones, you can hunt 2 working days.(15 hours)
I know I have one.
Jul 02, 2009
50 Yes
4 No
Best Detector For The Price
David in Portland, OR -I have owned my Ace 250 for about 2mo now. Although I'm new to metal detecting and this is my first machine, I'm very pleased with it's performance. In my first week I found a very nice diamond ring, it was more luck than the machine, but without a metal detector I would never have found it. I have found about $20 in clad coin, some tokens, 2 1945 war nickels. I am now hooked with the hobby and will be up-grading to a better machine, one that has better discrimination and depth. This is a great machine for anyone just getting into the hobby. As far as pin pointing, I just don't get all of the negitive reviews about it. Hold the pin point button in, scan side to side till the signal drops off or cuts off, scan forward till the signal cuts off and scan back till the signal cuts off (note how large the signal is) and the target is directly under the front of the coil. If done correctly, the target is under the front tip of the coil (stock 6x9 coil) 95% of the time. It works great.
Jun 18, 2009
39 Yes
1 No
Nice attempt, But poor pinpointing capabilities
Chris in La Verne, CA USA -I guess I just must be spoiled by my MXT, but I just can't seem to make this machine work very well. I keep trying, but it seems to find a lot of targets and half the time I dig and they are ghost targets or not even close to what the target indicator say's it's supposed to be. The pinpointing is really all over the map, I have tried and tried and the target seems to move around(at least according to the pinpoint mode).
I bought this machine as a back up for my White's machine, but I guess I should have saved up a little longer and bought another MXT or similar machine.
Jun 18, 2009
10 Yes
22 No
Ace 250 is a great little machine
C. Spencer in Findlay, Ohio -All detectors have good points and also things we would like to change about them, including all the high end detectors out there. I have been in the hobby for many years and owned a few detectors in that time including bounty hunter, tesoro, and whites models. Of course none of them had a graphic target display but none of them even came close to the ace 250 I am using now , as far as being easy to use and easy to find things with. It has increased my finds quite a lot, even where my last detector said there was nothing worth digging. To those who have so much negative to say about it ,...you either didnt read the manual, have a defective unit that your warranty will fix, or you didnt give it enough time to get used to the machine ( which you need to do with any detector ). There are some minor negative things I would change about the ace 250. I would like to see the shaft assembly redesigned to eliminate minor movement between the sections that happens now and then while swinging, and add some sort of manual ground balance to avoid having to turn down the sensitivity in some areas. In a nutshell , the ace 250 gives you a huge amount of performance and quality for the $200 pricetag. I highly recommend it for beginners as well as seasoned pros.
Jun 11, 2009
55 Yes
1 No
OK MACHINE
HunterDave in South Carolina -I'm on my fourth set of batteries with my Ace 250 and it's certainly a coin finder (it loves aluminum cans too). I've been detecting for about 15 years and have three other machines. The Ace does not out perform the more expensive machines but it a great machine for the price. The only real downfall I've found is the pinpointing function, maybe it's just me, but I do just as well with sweeping the machine and listening to the normal tones as I do with the pinpointing function.
As with any machine you're going to dig up trash, it's just an evil of the hobby. Personally I don't mind digging up questionable targets. You just never know until you dig them up.
All in all the Ace 250 is a good machine with some good features, battery life is good, price is good and dependability is good. It lost a star because of the pointpointing feature and lost the second star over the depth. But I would still recommend it.
May 27, 2009
24 Yes
4 No