Minelab Explorer II
Street Price $1200 - Coin, relic
Number of Reviews: 76
on 8 pages.
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Minelab Explorer II
The more you use it the better it gets
Ed Erdman in Janesville, WI. USA -
After a year of using the Explorer II, I'd like to share what I've learned in that time (and give a truly fair review with a year's worth of use under my belt).
First of all, that's fine if the White's and Garrett's users want to rip this machine. That will mean that fewer of my competition has one and that's great by me, since I'm betting I can find the stuff they walk over with their hot machines.
In my area maximum depth isn't nearly as important as finding goodies in areas literally carpeted with rusty iron. Using my Explorer, I can get stuff that is right next to or touching iron. I use iron mask -16, ferrous sounds, and a 5" or 8" coil (depending on the amount of trash). Anything interesting gets investigated from several angles, and I go slowly and check the ground from different directions to pick out the goodies among the trash. After becoming familiar with this machine, it's OUTSTANDING finding goodies in the trash. Other machines that I've used could NOT get the goodies in the trash the way this one can once you learn it. Is there a learning curve? Yes, if you want simple that won't get the stuff in the trash, the competition makes good machines and will be happy to sell to you. But you may regret that choice if we meet in the field because I'll be pulling stuff out of trashy areas that you had no idea was even there.
Bottom line: Just keep with it, be patient and REALLY learn this one, practice with it in a test bed environment and play with the settings to see what happens so you know what it's telling you in the field. You won't be sorry when you start finding good stuff.
Jun 12, 2005
59 Yes
2 No
Explorer 2
Lee in W, Mids UK -I've been detecting for a respectabe length of time (10 years). I owned a Fisher and have now upgraded to a ML EXP 2. I am sick and tired of hearing people who do not do their research on a product before buying it complain. This detectors features are heavensent. Switch it on and away you go in the factory preset or sit down with a cuppa read the manual practice and then go for it in manual mode. Dont be put off by the folks who constantly complain about the weight of the detector and its complicity.
Jun 09, 2005
28 Yes
1 No
MineLab Ex II
Jim Jones in MN, USA -I've been MD'g for 40 years and have owned a number of top line detectors. I've had a ML Explorer for two seasons and find it very poorly designed and very unfriendly.
Where have I heard that before...?
The programming logic trees are very poorly designed and are the basis of criticism from most owners.
I find the display hard to see clearly. Pin Pointing is poor to terrible at best comparing it to lets say a Garrett 2500.
The machine could be better designed to give you far more info about what it believes to be seeing rather than tiny little darting squares and bagpipe chattering.
The back ground noise is bad, Noise Cancel doesn't really cancel the noise at all while you're digging it still continues generate the most annoying to motor boat noise.
It's poorly balanced and hard on older mans arm, which probably makes up a large part of the detecting world, since this is a popular old man sport.
I have found less than with previous machines and really can't help wonder if Minelab seeds the boards with bogus stories. I can't see to save my tired posterior
how this machine gets the reputation it has.I find it hard to operate, poorly designed, too heavy, way to expensive and the most overrated machine I've wasted my time on yet.
I know the EX crowd will be spitting fire after reading this review, but this a honest review to try and help many other users not make the same mistake and waste their money and time
on one of the worse machine I've owned. Some people seem to find it useful, I think most work for ML, others probably would be happy with anything from a Radio Shack
quality detector on they're so intoxicated with the sport.
I sincerely wish I could say something good about the XP II, but I can't find one worth while thing to mention, If they allowed no stars, I've of rated it zero..
May 31, 2005
68 Yes
70 No
Explorer 2
Ray in SC USA -I have been detecting for well over 20 years.
I have been a White user for all those years.
I switched to Minelab EXP2.
The learning curve was pretty steep, but once I learned it, it's "Love" all over again. I remember my first silver. At a cleaned up park. Got a clean sound, and 11" later, a 1916s Merc smiled at me.
I highly recomand the Explorer 2.
Be ready for a bit of frustrations, but once you learn it you'll never look back!
May 28, 2005
27 Yes
2 No
Agreeing with last comments
Bob Dawe in Yarmouth Mass -
I have both the minelab xlt and the ecal 800. The machine is alive with sound but so confusing that I spent more time digging and less time getting!!! I believe that you have to be a professional to opeate this equipment efficiantly and unfortunately, I'm no pro.
May 23, 2005
11 Yes
20 No
Still confused
John in Bishop, Ca. -I have owned my Ex for 3 years and I'm still confused.It is heavy and my confidence level is at a new low. White's DFX or MXT, here I come.
May 18, 2005
17 Yes
16 No
It is the best!
Aurelius in Seattle,WA, USA -Explorer II is an unbelievable convenient machine to be used from persons with a good experience in the metal detecting field with another brands metal detectors. I have been metal detecting already 12 years using a home made DDâ? coiled â??metal detector in the beginning and during the first 7 years and found a lot of ancient coins with it. The last 5 years I had my â??Garrettâ? GTI 2500 in use â?? one pretty nice and convenient machine and finally got the new Explorer II in January this year. This metal detector is a little complicated but read the manual- READ IT and FOLLOW IT! Use as little discrimination as you can in order to get great depths. My not ideal, but helpful settings are:
Iron mask: -15
Sensitivity: 30 (dependsâ?)
Audio 1
Passion and hope!
If the detector is too noisy â?? use the â??Noise cancelâ? feature â?? that helps a lot to silence up the machine, but donâ??t forget to keep the coil steady, on the ground and be sure there is no metal around!!! The machine works great with the "Coiltek" 15" coil-you will get better coverage and deeper finds-good luck!
Happy hunting!
p.s. I will let you know guys how this machine will perform in Europe this Summer...
Apr 06, 2005
20 Yes
1 No
THE BEST and DEEPEST
robert barham barhams@thumb.net in port sanilac ,mi usa -Alot of people are running the ex2 down saying whites are better ,well i live on lake Huron in the thumb of michigan have hunting with guys useing every type of machine ,none can even come close to being as good as my ex2 on the freash water beaches here,cant say anything about salt water have picked many a deep coin that a dfx and mxt could not even read,if your ever in the thumb of michigan and want to go email me
Mar 18, 2005
18 Yes
1 No
A fantastic machine
Ed Erdman in Janesville, WI. USA -It's a real shame that users with a bias towards other brands gave this machine an unrealistic rating. If they think so little of the brand, I'd like to know if I can follow behind them and get the coins they missed with my Minelab.
First of all this machine DOES have a learning curve. I've used the Advantage and the Sovereign, and the Explorer definately will take you a while to really learn and feel comfortable with to learn how it responds. The more you practice the sooner you'll "get it" so to speak.
The positives - can go very deep in mineralized soil, automatically compensates for ground minerals, backlit, extremely customizable yet basically simple and "turn on and go" if that is what you prefer, discrimination second to none, a great selection of aftermarket coils and accessories available, can do it "all" from parks and schools to the beach to relics.
The negatives - expensive, heavy (you might want a bungee type sling for this) and does have that learning curve I mentioned.
All in all - worth the learning curve and to me, the price. If you come in with no preconceived notions of what it should do, buy Andy Sabisch's book, and think outside the box, you should be able to do great. Many great tips have been posted in various forums too.
Feb 06, 2005
34 Yes
10 No
The Plastic Spastic
Detect-It in Alaska -Great machine (if you can get over having it back at the repair shop most of the time).
Like a Ferrari, looks great, but the maintenance costs would be horrific if it weren't for the fact that Minelab repair free of charge even out of warranty.
If you've had an XLT or DFX and don't reckon they're as good, you're setting them up wrong. Sure the Explorer is deep, but what use is that when you can't use it half the time?
It's WAY overpriced too, but then again most machines are ;-{
Dec 31, 2004
22 Yes
26 No