Three-frequency Nel Tornado coil for Minelab X-Terra metal detectors (kit review, weight and other facts+)
Salute, Comrades!
Previously, my main metal detector was the Garrett AT PRO, I wrote a lot about it at the very beginning, when I first created the blog. If interested, posts about Garik here.
Then I sold it and bought myself a Minelab X-Terra 705 with two coils — staff 10.5 at 7 kHz and the new Minelab-Coiltek 15″ at 3 kHz. I already wrote a little about them here. Naturally, the Grater made a great impression on me, because its functionality turned out to be a level higher than that of the AT PRO. Unfortunately or fortunately, I don’t know. AT PRO is good, but did not meet my expectations for its price. Water resistance turned out to be not the best either, on the sea beach there is phonitis and other disadvantages, which I wrote about in my comparison article Garrett AT PRO and Minelab X-Terra 705.
Naturally, I wanted to see what other improvement options there could be for this device. Fortunately, the season was over, some especially expensive finds were sold and it was possible to purchase new equipment and improve search equipment. How can you improve the device and improve the quality of search? Naturally, by purchasing a new coil from a third-party manufacturer! I watched the market — We don’t sell Mars MD, but we do sell Nel. Nela has a lot of reels in its line for different purposes, but I was looking for something for everyday searching, so that I could replace the standard one and increase performance. There was little choice — you need to take a three-frequency one, fortunately with the Terka 705 there is such an opportunity, and for everyday searching Nel’s Tornado model, which has a size of 12×13 inches, is suitable. For everyday searching, this is the most optimal size. So, let’s take a closer look at this reel and compare it with what I currently have in stock.
The reel comes in a box, which is important — There is less risk of getting it broken and with a bent wire at the connector, etc. Nel provides a 2-year warranty on the product, but now (as of November 2016) is offering a promotion if you register the reel on their website, you can get an additional +1 year warranty for the coil. Details here.
The kit included a bolt for attaching the coil to the rod and a clamp for the wire, a useful thing, it helps remove phantoms, sometimes it happens that the coil reacts to the copper cable, especially when it is not twisted and dangles. In addition to the bolt and clamp, there are rubber seals; they protect the reel ears from excessive friction and, subsequently, their breakage.
The coil connector for the detector unit is also protected by a rubber cap — ; a trifle, but it will help preserve contacts from possible dampness and corrosion.
What I especially liked — Even for the coil there is a small manual and tips on how to use the coil and how to adjust the metal detector to quickly get used to the coil. Getting used to it is necessary because sometimes the familiar signals and values of the VDI may change a little and it will take some time to reach «zen» — that state when you will collect the maximum of finds with your device and a new reel. I also scanned the tips for use:
Now let’s move on to the most important thing. Since the device itself weighs almost a kilogram (together with the case and dirt on it during digging), the weight of the coil is very important and every 100 grams will contribute to fatigue while digging and, in turn, will affect the search performance and its duration. This is especially true if you are digging in the forest and often have to walk several kilometers in order to find a position or place where there was a battle or skirmish, for example. Surprisingly, the Tornado turned out to be a little larger in size than the standard one by 10.5 inches, but also heavier by about 100 grams. Not much, especially considering that the weight of the staff is 596 grams (weight with protection), and the weight of the Tornado is only 670 grams (weight with protection).
As you can see, the difference in weight is only – only 70 grams. Not a big difference considering the difference in coil sizes.
Naturally, my curiosity went further and I wanted to check the weight of 15″ inch steering wheel from Minelab at 3 kHz. I remember that when I was digging in the same field with him, after two hours my hands began to hurt a little, it is clear that this is a matter of habit, swinging is good for health, but still a good reel from Minelab turned out to weigh almost 1 kg.
909 gram. 300 grams heavier than the Tornado model and the standard 10.5″ inch coil.
I will now use Tornado for my permanent cop, let’s see what bonuses the coil update will bring in the new season! Especially considering that I will now be looking for suitable third-party headphones for the search, because I have a clever way to dig with Deus using regular headphones, and the search performance will also increase from using headphones on the mine. More news to come!
Good signals under the coil and, if you have anything to add or ask — write comments, share the post with friends on social networks, for me this will be an indicator that you like my posts and it will give me more motivation to write new stories about the cop!
I collect everything about Turka 705 here, look, there’s a lot of useful and interesting stuff there!
