Review of Garrett 1138070 Ace 150 Metal Detector (reviews, deal, purchase, places)
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I purchased this metal detector for my grandmother. I wanted to get her something that would be easy to hold on to, use, and wouldn't easily break if she were to drop it.
For those things, this device is great. It is very comfortable to hold on to for long periods of time. It's also sturdily built, as the rugged and outdoorsy yellow plastic would lead one to believe. She has dropped it. It has not broken or shifted and is simply constructed so that there are very few places to get sand stuck in. As my grandmother is primarily a beachcomber, this is an important point.
There are, however, things that are not good about this metal detector. First, the coin depth indicator doesn't work very well. It works to within about eight inches, and is fairly accurate within that range, for as much as eight inches matters. However, beyond that the depth indicator is fairly inaccurate, which is both annoying in and of itself and bad because it makes you believe you missed whatever it is you were digging to find. This leads to a great deal of frustration that could be avoided with a better device.
Also, of particular interest to my grandmother and to other people with less-than-perfect vision, the display has many small details that are difficult to see when held, literally, at arm's length. Most of these are small indicators, and are not necessary to see all the time. But when they are, it's not good if you can't see them. After a month or so of using this metal detector, my grandmother essentially memorized where everything was and it wasn't such an issue, but it shouldn't have had to happen.
And finally, this device isn't great at distinguishing valuable metals from things like iron and aluminum. This, again, causes frustration. Garrett makes a similar model, the Ace 250, which I recommend.
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