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Fisher F2

Price: $200
Avg. Score: 4 stars 4.11
Based on 47 reviews

Avg. Durability: 4 stars4.25
Avg. Ease of use: 4 stars4.50
Maximum detection depth
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Perfect for Coin Hunters

July 12, 2011
For two weeks now I own a Fisher F2 with the standard 8" coil.
Before I had a cheap MD and an ACE 250.

I only search playgrounds and beaches for coins and jewlerry.

PRO:
- the F2 is a lightweight, you can search for hours without getting a tired arm
- the two digit ID is much more accurate than the sections on the Garrett, at least for European searchgrounds
- the overall material quality is good for the price
- the pinpointing is perfect
- I did find lots of stuff even on playgrounds that I had searched with the ACE only a few weeks ago. I assume most of the coins have been there before but were not detected by the ACE or have been detected with wrong signals

CONS:
- the cap of the battery box does not look to live very long
- the batteries for the F2 (2x 9V blocks) are about 30% more expensive than the 4x AA in the ACE, the search time is about the same.

In direct comparison I clearly would chose the F2 over the ACE250! It is a perfect, very easy to use beginners detector and gets me all the 1 and 2 EURO coins I am looking for!

In Germany I had to pay 249,- EUR = 345 USD, so you guys in the states can be happy to get it much cheaper!

Overall Rating 5 stars!

754

F2 with NEL 12x13 coil vs. sovereign and nexus

June 07, 2011
Definitely buy a 12x13 NEL coil for the f2. I hunted a site that Had millions of pieces of iron in it that my sovereign or nexus could not perform well in. I ordered the f2 and bought an aftermarket NEL coil for it and was instantly hooked.
This detector blew all the competition out of the water. The site was a well known and hunted spot and I hunted it in AM pulled out a 1849 liberty seated quarter 17 inches down on a 60 degree angle almost vertical surrounded by iron nails and a farm chain.

This detector in all metal mode has great depth. I like the multi tones in All metal mode compared to my nexus and sovereign. Always dig anything above iron and if it reads iron and jumps higher too 40 or 60 in AM mode DIG IT.
I have dug dimes with the 4 incher at up too 7 inches deep and pennies with the NEL coil in sand at 2 bar sensitivity at up too 14 inches deep. BEST BANG FOR THE BUCK!! This is also a very well made competition and event metal detector because of lightning fast recovery speed. (((In AM mode with standard coil you can detect a washing machine at factory sensitivity 3 feet away!!) The Nel coil is double at about 6 feet!!. Whats the size of a treasure chest??

Thanks for looking

Overall Rating 5 stars!

4510

Awesome F2

May 28, 2011
I find if it beeps, theres something there! A lot of the times I will be be digging, saying to myself, where is it, I can't find it, but low and behold, there it is.
Sometimes its a coin or junk but even rusted pieces that are barely visible set it off. It's a great machine, I have found things 8-10 inches down with this thing, bigger stuff even goes deeper. I'm very impressed with it.

Overall Rating 5 stars!

390

My mistake

April 24, 2011
I said the fisher f2 was no good at the tot lots with the 4 inch coil. I was wrong it works just as well as the ace 250, I would use the 4 inch coil to get close to the metal poles, but not to close, than switch to the 8 inch coil to check the rest of the area around the slide and swings and so on.
I have to say the 4 inch coil works great for trashy areas. The f2 does not give false signals like the ace 250 does. I just think.

Overall Rating 5 stars!

287

Fisher f2 not good for playground hunting

April 12, 2011
The one thing I did not like about the fisher f2 is you can't get close to the playground equipment, even when you turn the sensitivity down. Where on the ace 250 I could turn down the sensitivity and I could get close.
Even when I put the 4 inch coil on the fisher f2 I could not get close to the metal poles and so forth, so the ace 250 is better for that use. So if you buy the fisher f2 you are not going to find treasure in the play ground because its reading the metal poles and so on.

Overall Rating 3 stars

1036

Harder to use than the ace 250

March 14, 2011
I sold my ace 250 and bought the f2, I find the ace 250 is easy to use compared to the f2, as on the ace you can notch out all 12 segments where on the f2 you can't notch out the 10 cent and 25 cent segments when discriminating.
Also it is hard to notch out individual segments more complicated than the ace 250, the f2 pinpoints a hundred times better than the ace 250, and of course you don't have that stupid bell tone sound that blows your ears out and you don't have to clean your ears out with qtips as the ace blows the wax out of your ears.

Living in Canada I find the f2 does better on finding Canadian coins than the ace. Plus at 215.00 dollars you get a pinpointer and 4 inch coil where at 212.00 dollars you only get the ace.
Sure the pinpointer only works when it pretty much touches the coin but is better than nothing. And I have found lots of coins fast with this cheap pinpointer.

I would say the f2 is better than the ace, I just don't like it when you try to notch out individual segments to discriminate them out, its frustrating. I would say now looking back at both of them if you have the money it would be better to get the fisher f4 for 399.00 dollars. I like the large number read out on the f2 I find I dig up a lot less trash than the ace. And less pop cans.

Also when I had the ace even after I discriminate out a lot of items the ace would still chatter where the f2 does not chatter in other words the ace is still reading the other metal by chattering so it was hard to figure out what to dig or not.

I visited my brother in law down in the states and took the f2 to a park their in no time found a quarter and a few dimes, as everyone who uses a md knows that copper will ring your machine crazy and since the us coins are part copper you will never miss a dime or quarter.

I'm sure the ace would sound out great as well, but I'm happy I bought the f2 and I don't miss the ace at all, I give the f2 just 3 stars because I don't like the difficulty in setting the discriminating on individual items.

Overall Rating 3 stars

2810

Inpressed so far

January 08, 2011
I have to start out this review by saying I am a true Garrett ACE 250 fan. It has been too good to me to say anything bad about it. I have had a BH quick draw, BH ex, GTAx 400 (Garrett), Garrett 2500 and I sold them all and kept my ACE. However, the packet from Fisher for 215.00 was too good to pass up so I thought I would try the F2.

I live in the frozen tundra of Indiana so I have taken it out twice. There is not really much to learn on the machine. Just get up and go. I went to a park by my house that I have been to a million times and that is old but really hunted out (although my ace found an 1887 seated dime last summer.)

I was pretty impressed with the F2 on it's first time out (about 45 minutes.)I found 12 cents in clad and a small (aluminum?) religious pendant. For that park in that time span is pretty good. The target ID was accurate except for the aluminum piece (target ID was sporadic) which I am not surprised. I think the pinpoint is very good.

The second time out (about 1 hr) I found 62 cents in clad. The dime signal was right on. I got a quarter single in frozen ground and dug it. It was right on. I got another dime signal but it was a surface quarter. I wonder if the difference was that the first quarter was older (1965) and the second was a new quarter. Pennies were right on.

In summary just from less than 2 hours with this machine I would highly recommend it. I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 as I think the construction is not very solid. Thin plastic and light kind of cheap stems.

Overall Rating 4 stars

352

Here is the real deal about the fisher f2

November 18, 2010
I have a f2, ace 250, a garrett gti 2500 and a
bounty hunter land star.

OK I will start by saying the gti 2500 is the best one I have it goes the deepest also,
my second best I have to say is the bh land star
it can id a target better then all my detectors for some reason .

My third favourite detector is the fisher f2
it id's targets pretty good and has a great tone
system of 4 different tone, feels real nice and is very light.

Now for the garrett ace 250, it stays at home now that I got the f2 .

The ace is just a pile of garbage, noisy, it
will have you digging trash for the whole day,
real bad target id, feels like junk to me and that nasty yellow color really starts to look so
stupid after a month of or so, if your looking to buy the f2 it is great for $200.00 and it finds way more stuff then the ace 250

The ace 250 will drive you insane with all it
false targets and that noise, it is safe to say the ace 250 was the worst detector I have ever owned.

Overall Rating 5 stars!

6214

Best bang for the money

September 10, 2010
I used to search with Bounty Hunter and C-Scope detectors in the past. But this F2 is a whole new ball game.
It is fast, it is active and reacts very good. Been using it for 1.5 yrs now. Found numerous coins, silver, WWII items. Depth is OK for the price. On larger objects expect too dig deep. Found a WWII shovel today at more than 50cm. Excelent.
And another important thing is the quality. Once
I had heavy rain and it got wet. After drying it wouldn't function without headphones. Worked perfectly, but probably moist in the jack plug. After a few weeks all was back to normal.

Now two weeks ago we had our basement flooded. The F2 was lining on the ground, completely submerged. The water came out the display, and 2 9v batteries were installed.
I let it dry for a week, took it out and the damn thing worked. Again the headphone issue, but after a couple of more days even that was normal again.

So, the electronics are very well designed and tough.
I love it. And I am saving up to buy an new model like the ID Excel, F70 or something.
My cousin always walks with me and uses the ACE 250. We both find just as much, and these two detectors are both very comparable in action. Though mine is lighter to handle.



Good job Fisher.

Overall Rating 5 stars!

532

Great for the price!

April 24, 2010
Mine properly IDs quarters and dimes down to 6".

Nickles are a really elusive low tone and easily overlooked.

You have to go slower running any Discrimination because the tones are shorter (chopped sounding) if there notched out items nearby.

Silver coins and rings sound really distinct (highest tone).

Copper pennies sound the same.

In short.....Equipment works as advertised.

And a tip....if you're getting wobble in your F2, tighten your connections periodically.

I'm very happy with mine. I'm starting to learn what she's telling me.

With this machine you can go from "car-to-yard" in 5 seconds. It is VERY "turn ON and go!"

Thanks for looking.

Overall Rating 4 stars

650

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