Minelab Explorer II
Street Price $1200 - Coin, relic
Number of Reviews: 58
on 9 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
58 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
65 Yes
69 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
26 Yes
1 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
0 No