I never thought that in 2016 I would be writing about devices that were created many years ago. But after several familiar diggers asked the following question: «what is better to take, please advise, Garrett ACE 250 or Fisher F2?», I decided to refresh this old topic. I am also a simple digger, but thanks to my hobby and blog I have to deal with many models of metal detectors and study quite a lot of hardware, so I will try to answer this question in as much detail as possible, based on my experience.
Price for Fisher F2 and Garrett ACE 250
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In terms of prices, both devices cost approximately the same, but Fisher F2 is cheaper, albeit not much, but cheaper. Which gives him a certain bonus.
Characteristics
Since both devices are entry-level, their characteristics are approximately the same. Both devices have a discrimination setting that allows you to cut out unwanted signals, such as ferrous metals or pull tabs from cans. The Garrett ACE 250 has five search masks, four of which are factory and one custom, the Fisher F2 only has two. It’s up to you to decide what is better or worse, but you need to understand that not all masks from the Garrett ACE 250 are suitable for your conditions and your territory, so in any case, sooner or later you will switch to custom mode and set the settings yourself. Both devices are not waterproof, so the use of protective covers on the unit is mandatory. Now about one of the most important factors for a beginner — This is the VDI scale. The Garrett ACE 250 does not have it, the Fisher F2 has it. The VDI scale is a digital identifier that shows the type of metal under the coil, i.e. it will be more or less clear what lies under the coil — brass, copper, silver or iron. This is definitely a huge plus.
The photo above clearly shows VDI, number 05, which means ferrous metal. Quite simple!
Assembling instruments
I would highlight the assembly of instruments as a separate item. I’ve had a problem with the Garretts for a long time — If you assemble Garrett devices in the cold or in any bad weather, you can quickly break the rod clamps by simply twisting them until they crunch. Unfortunately, Garrett has not corrected this problem for many years and you can see broken clamps on the Garrett ACE 250 and even on the semi-pro Garrett AT PRO/AT GOLD. I don’t know what Garrett’s obstinacy is based on. Fisher F2 is also quite easy to assemble, but the rod clamps do not break as easily as those on the Garrett ACE 250, which is also a plus in Fisher’s favor.
Power
ACE 250 is powered by four AA batteries, which are quite popular and can be found in any store, or you can just ask the Comrades. Fisher F2 is powered by a large battery type «Krona», which may not be as common as AA, but still if you use a pinpointer, then your pin is also powered by «Krona& #187;, therefore there may not be any problems with a spare battery here either — for the pin, the comrades find «Krona», which means that finding it will not be a problem for the detector.
Upgrade
If you are still a beginner, this does not mean that in the future you will not want to improve your detector, and there is a little secret on how to turn a Fisher F2 into a Fisher F4, and this is a device of a slightly different class, improved. If you have a comrade with straight arms and a soldering iron, then if you have the components, he can easily make an F4 block from the F2 block, they have the same boards, the differences are only in the firmware and several components. The form factor of the detector block is also the same (the point is to make two different molds?), google the topic about alteration on the Internet, it is there.
The famous Asya can be made waterproof by putting a waterproof case on her. I have not yet heard about any modifications of Asya into a cooler device.
Coils
Now comes the interesting part — no device can live without a coil, so the coil is at least 50% of any metal detector! Both ACE 250 and F2 have regular standard mono coils, Asya has 6.5*9 ellipse, Fischer F2 has 8-inch round coils. They claim that the standard Asi coil sees a little deeper in tests, but I would say that the result in the ground is smoothed out to the same. In any case, it would be nice to add a little in price and take a third-party coil from Mars MD or NEL for such a device; this will take the device to a new level and give a certain advantage over the stock coil.
Total
And the result, fellow comrades, is very simple — any detector will bring its own findings and a lot of fun, so take what suits you best, don’t listen to other fellow cops, it’s better to hold both devices in your hand, listen to them, try to walk with them for at least an hour and see which one fits your hand best, take that one. The class of devices is the same, the difference is only in the details.
I will write and post more reviews and advice on which device to buy this season 2016 soon here. Happy digging!