Minelab Excalibur 1000
Price: $1000
Avg. Score: 
3.86
Based on 64 reviews
3.86Based on 64 reviews
Avg. Durability:
1.00
Avg. Ease of use:
1.80
Excalibur 1000
January 13, 2004
I live approximately 5 miles from the ocean in
CT. My town dates back to the 1600s. I have been using the Excal. for
approx. 3-4 months constantly. It
is definitely a water going detector that can also be used on dry sand, or
even land. This machine has
yielded nice jewelry and very old coins in both terrains. On wet sand, I?ll
get depths anywhere from the
surface to about 7-9 inches down, this is the same with the dry sand. Having the BBS tech., when in all metal mode, will cancel out the threshold tone when passing over iron. Having the detector in all metal mode is automatically in pin pointer mode, and with the open faced coil you can know exactly where your target is located. A few problems that I have run across with this detector is with the knobs on the unit. After some use they either loosen, or the insides of them break. Customer service with Minelab was nice enough to give me new knobs free of charge. I have switched about 5 times, and have recently run out of back-up knobs. When detecting in shallow water or on the sand/dirt, a problem of weight occurs. The 10? coil is heavy, once in water the weight goes away. The height of the coil makes it difficult to detect in the breaks of the waves. When using the Excal. in the water, a deposit of sand will collect under the coil cover.
My only problem has been getting mixed signals. This can be avoided by removing the coil cover and rinsing it. The hip mount for this unit was not well thought out. It sits uncomfortably on your and the wire get tangled easily. But the good side is that you?re carrying a much lighter load.
Being a new metal detectorist, I thought it would take me a while to learn how to use this machine. That is not that case at all with this machine. I was out finding what I wanted to find in a few hours. Over the 3-4 months of detecting. I have found 1000?s of clad coins, and a fair amount of jewelry, the most exciting find being a 10k gold 6 diamond stone ring in the wet sand.
Overall Rating
Driveway from
Connecticut
160
Minelab Excalibur 1000
December 24, 2003
We purchased this machine one year
ago believing the marketing that it could perform well in highly
mineralized soil where we hunt for various
ancient coins. Unfortunently the model has frequent problems with depth in
our area due to
mineralization, interference from the wires, poor battery life, and like
some of the other reviews I have
read seems to be a futuristic type toy instead of a professional
machine.The cost was high and in our area it is impossible to buy detectors so we became stuck with an exspensive machine that has no use as I said in highly mineralized soil areas.
Overall Rating
Ashley Martin from
USA
85
Minelab Excalibur 1000
March 20, 2003
I have owned this detector for 4 years
now. It works perfectly. It is a bit on the heavy side but by far the best
underwater detector I've used. It
gives loud clear signals on even deep targets. The part I like best is the iron mask feature. I used a Fisher CZ 20 for along time and it just loved iron. I have read some bad reveiws on Minelabs but have yet to have any problems. Till Minelab makes something better I will keep using mine.
Overall Rating
Beach Bum from
USA
82
Excalibur 1000
April 15, 2002
I have one that I use as a back up unit. I had
used the BBS technology (a sovereign) and liked the discrimination by the
sound. Unfortunately, with the
poor standard blue headphones they give, you loose 100% of the interest of
the technology. This unit has
a design problem. What a pity, the depth is so good. I think that it was
designed in a pure "marketing "
way, not considering the ease of use. They wanted to make a unit with a
futuristic look able to justify the
high price they sell it. It looks like a big child toy, and it is one. So
be prepared to change everything
because every item will break, link. The coil cover for instance: it collects sand and will completely destroy your coil. The wires for the headphones are so thin. This unit is so heavy, it's incredible. Impossible to hunt in heavy surf with it you can not swing it. Poor battery life. NEVER hipmount it, the wires don't like it. Everything in it can and will break. That way there is a "parallel" market that has been developed: you can buy other headphones, other coils, change the wires, change the stem for a better balance of the weight.
If you want a good beach machine with the same depth and discrimation, buy a fischer CZ 20, they have a very good warranty.
Overall Rating
Francois C (Toto) from
France
2911