A review of the ACE 150 and a newbie.

[Wixard]

So I've always been fascinated by seeing MDing and thought it would be something that my dad and myself could do together. Figured it would be good exercise and who knows, maybe we would get lucky!

My father is a senior citizen so I needed a detector that would be simple, light weight, and easy to use.

I was concerned for both of us that should we get one with to many functions, options and what not that we might be over whelmed and discouraged.

After reading what seemed like ten trillion billion zillion reviews all over the web i narrowed it down to the Bounter Hunter tracker IV, the Garrett ACE 150 and the Tersoro compadre.
The $150ish price range was important to me, since we were buying two. Reading the reviews the Tesoro seemed to be very popular, and the ACE was also.

On the advice of a Kelly Co sales person we got the ACE 150. Reading more reviews i was worried we maybe should have gotten the Tesoro.

So today both of them arrived in a regular box with some accessories.The first thing i noticed was how small the coil was. It seemed bigger in pictures. We immediately assembled one and tested it out. Without reading any manuals or documentation (we're guys, WE DONT NEED NO DIRECTIONS!) we found a dime. "Clad" but certainly good results! It was at about 1 inch under.
You would have thought my dad won the lottery. "DID YOU PUT THAT THERE! HOLY COW! YOU PUT THAT THERE DIDN'T YOU!" It was nice to see.


So we watched the instructional DVD. It was kinda bad in how B movie it was, but it did serve its purpose. We learned a number of things from it.

So i assembled mine and went out to my dads back yard. Within minutes I found a toy truck (a well used toy truck).
My dad fared much better, getting about 30 cents in "Clad". (in about 20 min)



So in just a short time with the "ACE 150" I learned to pinpoint fairly easily. The holes i dug getting smaller and smaller each time. I ended up with a battery and some nails and screws.

I can see why one might reccomend the ACE 150 over the Compadre to a new MDer. The readout, while not terribly reliable does work well enough to help someone out. On coins it was very, very accurate for my father.
Quite happy with the performance of the ACE 150. Kellyco did ship it fast and they offered a free bag of "goodies" ( a digging tool, a pouch, and headphones). My dad was as impressed with the tool as he was with the Medal Detector!

We plan on going to my aunts tomorrow to try them out again, weather permitting. Once we get our "plug digging" skills good enough we'll go ahead and get permission to try the local park.


Overall, i would not hesitate to reccomend the ace to any newbie. The LCD was easy for my father to read and accurate for coins. While it doesnt have pin pointing, in a very short time i had little issue locating metal.

We tested out the different modes, and all did as advertised. Although underground water pipes did give it fits now and then.



Overall the ACE 150 felt rugged and the different modes with the LCD worked as well as can be expected. For a total newbie I feel the ACE 150 is better because of the extra feedback from the display allowing you to learn a little quicker.

That's it! And hello to you guys!

[Terry Soloman]

Wixard - Great review and post!!! You rock!

[Wixard]

Thanks hehe

[turtlefoot]

Welcome to the forum and that was a great, honest review. I enjoyed reading it.

Doug