Part of me is thankful [that Minelab didn't include a charger box] - I've got a million and one chargers laying around the house, so the last thing I needed was another one. But that said, it would have been nice if they included a decent fast charge box that I could dedicate to the machine without having to resort to scavenging around the house looking for one that would work.
I would love to hear Minelab's rationale for leaving out the charger box. The cynical side of me says it's a way for them to limit their liability in case batteries start going bad. Easy for them to blame your wonky, unapproved charger box and avoid replacing the battery. But there could be less cynical reasons as well:
- Cost cutting to allow reasonable profit while still maintaining that more attractive $899 and $649 price tag (same reasoning for nixing the manual)
- Allows the customer more flexibility to attach the USB style cord to any type of charger (wall charger, cigarette style car port, or just a USB port, etc)
- Avoids the added expense of providing different international versions. Remember, outlet plugs vary from country to country. Minelab would either have to supply multiple adapters, or create a nightmare logistical scenario for themselves by producing different boxed versions for different countries. And again, there would be that pesky problem of another electronic device that Minelab would have responsibility for.
So in the end, while I agree it's odd and inconvenient, it makes a certain amount of logistical sense.
