Big Boys Hobbies

Excal vs ct x

Lots of good info already posted by my 2 cents is as follows.

The CTX has a edge on depth but misses larger silver UNLESS you know the proper setting. The CTX is delicate. It is hard to pinpoint at times in deeper water. People complained about the Excal but it is a tank compared. After 2 years with the CTX I gave up on it. Twice water in the battery. Once the display went blank. Twice the shaft lock started slipping. I sold it and the new buyer flooded the battery within a month. SO, CTX wet sand OK. Not submerged even with the new battery design.

I now use the Excal only. I have both 8" and 10" but prefer the 10 for in the water. The 8 is deep but I use it for rare dry sand hunts since I can swing it a long time.

So to conclude, the CTX is $2,500. I bought both of my excals used. Paid $1,700 for BOTH. I never have to take the battery off, clean the o-ring charge the battery, replace the o-ring carefully right side out be sure the battery is seated perfectly and then hunt wondering all the time if there is a drip in my battery compartment. Just takes one drop of water. The battery contacts are right where the drop of water settles. Take the battery off and that one drip turns everything green. Time to send it to repair. Again. :laughing:
 
I have both the excal and CTX. I have used both on ocean beaches. Both are great at dealing with conductive salts and still finding gold.

The decision should be based on your larger goals. Are you wanting a single machine for multiple environments? Are you wanting to hunt land, lakes as well as beaches? If you want single machine, pick the CTX but remember that it needs detailed cleaning and care before every water outing.

If you want a strict beach hunter, go with the excal. It's truly water proof and only needs a quick hose-off after use.

I never really liked the tone setup on the excal but it works. You dont need the screen on the CTX for beach hunting anyway. if its not iron you should be digging it anyway.
 
imalookin2 said:
Just takes one drop of water. The battery contacts are right where the drop of water settles. Take the battery off and that one drip turns everything green. Time to send it to repair. Again. :laughing:
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yeah, if they would have designed it so the contacts were at the top, it could have prevented a lot of damage and warranty repairs. Most problems can be avoided with good cleaning, BUT it can still leak if you do everything perfectly.
 
Jason in Enid said:
yeah, if they would have designed it so the contacts were at the top, it could have prevented a lot of damage and warranty repairs. Most problems can be avoided with good cleaning, BUT it can still leak if you do everything perfectly.
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Yes it can still leak. You were right on the money. I tried to be perfect after charging and still got burnt twice. Minelab made a huge mistake on that design.
 
imalookin2 said:
Yes it can still leak. You were right on the money. I tried to be perfect after charging and still got burnt twice. Minelab made a huge mistake on that design.
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I'm sure thats why they moved to a sealed, rechargeable battery on the new Equinox detector. The CTX should have had a thicker, standard o-ring, a wider edge to the battery pod and a stainless latch to put some solid compression on it. When the latches close weakly, and battery body sits against the bulkhead without adequate o-ring compression, its a design waiting for a failure.

I have used mine repeated in lakes and oceans for the last 5 years and just had my 1st leak a couple weeks ago. As a scuba diver, I have a lot of lights and video camera that has to stay 100% sealed over 100 feet deep. There is so little difference between that camera body system and the CTX system that it doesn't make sense that they would just go with something well known and functioning. Instead they tried to re-invent the horse cart and put square wheels on it.
 
I agree that it isn't as rugged of a design as some of my waterproof PI machines; however, I have to say that I've never seen so many hunters using CTXs in the water as I have this past year. In Ft. Lauderdale, I was at a beach with four other guys with CTXs in the water. A couple of the guys had 1st gen models they modded with extra bungies and straps, and of the folks that I spoke with, they had heard the rumors but not had any issues themselves.

Location is key to detector selection too. Ima knows my beaches -- beaches that are massively wide with rough water. The majority of hunting is done on wet sand or in the rain. To cover ground effectively, you need a huge coil and a processor that can disc and process data quickly. The areas get frequently sanded-in and then the only way to find good stuff (other than recent drops) is to again have a big coil with incredible depth or have a PI.....but with all the trash, the PI slows you down.

If the equinox had a big coil option, I'd be very interested. Another thing that bothers me is the built-in battery. I don't get to hunt very often. When I do, its an all-day affair. I'd just like to have a backup plan if the battery dies.
 
DaviDs said:
If the equinox had a big coil option, I'd be very interested. Another thing that bothers me is the built-in battery. I don't get to hunt very often. When I do, its an all-day affair. I'd just like to have a backup plan if the battery dies.
Click to expand...

Have you not looked at anything Minelab has put out? There will be a 15" coil available, the battery pack lasts 10 - 12 hours on a charge and you can connect an external USB power supply to continue hunts if the battery does get low before you're done for the day.
 
Jason in Enid said:
Have you not looked at anything Minelab has put out? There will be a 15" coil available, the battery pack lasts 10 - 12 hours on a charge and you can connect an external USB power supply to continue hunts if the battery does get low before you're done for the day.
Click to expand...
Didn't see that. Interesting.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
 
DaviDs said:
Didn't see that. Interesting.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Yep, we still dont know for sure if the battery pack will be user replaceable or if it has to be sent it if the battery pack fails.

I know some guys are nervous about not being able to swap a battery pack and continue the hunt, but I dont think battery life is going to be an issue with this. IT sure seems like a great way to solve the water leak issues of the CTX.
 
Jason...... i agree. Sealed takes US out of the equation. I really like rotating batteries........ but even my blue Xcals batteries were still kicking when i changed them out. So i expect these lith will be a big improvement..... if they dont get a bad batch.... wouldnt that just be a kicker?

I was told yesterday.... waterproof phones and the other coils my not be available at the time of release. I assume the chips are easily programed.

I think a lot has to do with the price they are now getting them at too.... both new and used. In the water..... its a toss up with some advantage on both sides. but at the end of the day...... not a lot of difference in what they find. BUT...... once you start moving to the wet sand and dry sand the CTX has the advantage.
 
dewcon said:
..... once you start moving to the wet sand and dry sand the CTX has the advantage.
Click to expand...

Talked to my dealer (i beleive they tested one) and they had strongly agreed. Doesn't make business sense to have a$650 machine perform like a $2500

BTW, the equinox still out performs a single frequency machines by leaps and bounds. I'll probably end up ditching the excal and eventually get one for vacations.
 
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DaviDs said:
I have a handful of CZ stud earings that the CTX has banged on. Not sure what the weight is but its in the <0.5g range. Honestly it is more sensitive and (with the 17") deeper than by DetectorPro PI. It was as sensitive and deep (if not slightly deeper) than my Sea hunter PI with the big coil......
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Good point DaviDs : In the early days of the first PI machines (early to mid 1980s) there was no doubt that pulse machines reached deeper on the beach, than standard coin machines of the time.

But as the years progressed, that gap was closed. Nowadays there are MANY discriminating beach machines that can reach just as deep as beach pulse machines (with a few exceptions, like if you chose to take a ML nugget machine to the beach).

For example: A Sovereign / Wot combo can easily get a penny or quarter to 14 to 16" inches. That's comparable to the depth of most of today's beach pulse machines. So you have to ask yourself: "Why bother?". Why not avail yourself of the ability to pass nails?

Since depth has almost become a non-issue of difference, the only remaining benefits of the pulse is: 1) Ability in nasty black sand minerals. This would be a site-specific issue. There are many places along the coasts where this problem just doesn't present itself very often. But I suppose other coastlines where you might bump into it more often. 2) Ability for teensy thin earing studs and tinsel thin chains. Strictly speaking, playing the Las Vegas odds, this isn't compelling to me. There's very little gold in such items, and if that comes at the cost of not having ability to knock out iron, that would be a deal-killer on many beaches I hunt.
 
The Equinox seems to be focused on speed and target ID, that is how they are advertizing it. I don’t think it will come close to Excal or CTX depth. Just look at the little battery in the handle, they definitely aren’t putting much power to the coil if that little battery lasts 12 hours.

As for PI vs CTX/Excal depth. I took the CTX to a beach the other day, dug probably 100 holes and found 2 gold. Felt I cleaned out the area pretty well. Took the TDI to the same stretch of beach the next day and there was targets everywhere. Found 3 more gold and was digging noticably deeper targets/holes. PI’s definitely still have a good depth advantage over even the best VLFs.
 
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Crumble said:
The Equinox seems to be focused on speed and target ID, that is how they are advertizing it. I don’t think it will come close to Excal or CTX depth. Just look at the little battery in the handle, they definitely aren’t putting much power to the coil if that little battery lasts 12 hours.

As for PI vs CTX/Excal depth. I took the CTX to a beach the other day, dug probably 100 holes and found 2 gold. Felt I cleaned out the area pretty well. Took the TDI to the same stretch of beach the next day and there was targets everywhere. Found 3 more gold and was digging noticably deeper targets/holes. PI’s definitely still have a good depth advantage over even the best VLFs.
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Interesting about the tdi. This is another reason I will have a hard time putting my pi down. With my tdi im hitting every single target within range.
 
I would welcome someone to come to my beaches with a tdi, they would not get out of a ten foot square area in an hour while i with my excal would avoid all the pieces of wire and bottlecaps. I understand there are clean beaches in the world, just not where i am...
 
zeemang said:
I would welcome someone to come to my beaches with a tdi, they would not get out of a ten foot square area in an hour while i with my excal would avoid all the pieces of wire and bottlecaps. I understand there are clean beaches in the world, just not where i am...
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Different beaches in different places. I hit key spots. Still have massive amounts of sh●t but I also Suspect some goodies are in that spot too
 
Crumble said:
....Took the TDI to the same stretch of beach the next day and there was targets everywhere. Found 3 more gold and was digging noticably deeper targets/holes. PI’s definitely still have a good depth advantage over even the best VLFs.
Click to expand...

Yes, but with a price-to-pay (depending on the beach).

There was a fellow with a TDI working a beach in our area, about 2 yrs. ago, that was admittedly "missing nothing". But it was an industrial beach (lots of iron from past burned down wharves, municipal junk-dumping into the dunes at turn of century, etc...). So the poor fellow paid a HEAVY price of junkage.

Oh ... sure ... he could implement some tricks to reject iron. But by the time you off-set the ground balance to do that, you can kiss the fabled depth goodbye. Or try to "go by ear" to think you can pass nails. But nagging doubts will always have you digging a bunch 'just to be sure'.

The next year, when we saw the fellow next, guess what he was sporting ? A standard machine (an explorer or Etrac or something).

I suppose what you are saying would fit for some super clean touristy beach (Hawaii, etc...). When you are not besieged with potential paper clips, nails, etc.....
 
I have both and usually hunt with the CTX. My hunting buddy who usually is always hunting with me uses the Excal with straight shaft. We usually hit the same amount of coins and rings. He seems to be a bit better finding rings with the Excal over my CTX. One thing is he doesn't need to swing as often with the longer shaft. My Excal needs to be used more often to give an educated review. It is a bit harder for me to use than I first expected with the sand conditions around me.
 
I found some rings this weekend at our local big beach here in Sarasota that I know Excals missed because of Iron. The big key that I like about my CTX is that I'll get chirps of good targets just before it nulls on Iron. When that happens I'll turn it to all metal mode and I'll get both the tone for a good target with the tone for iron. If you like sounds then you could run the CTX in all metal mode and listen for tone variations based on what you've set your tone bins at. I literally dug up two sterling rings this weekend that were on top of iron. You won't do that with an excal, I promise.
 
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