Garrett AT PRO

jbarry · Mar 20, 2017

I am looking into buying a Garrett AT PRO. I presently have a Minelab E-Trac and It's a great detector but I'm looking for one to use in shallow water. I'm told that they do pretty good in the wet salt water sand. My E-Trac does very well in the salt water but if I drop it in a few inches of salt water it becomes a very expensive paper weight. Would be a bad day indeed. Can I get some advise from AT Pro owners. Positive or negative..Thanx a bunch..Joe B. :laughing:

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DaviDs · Mar 21, 2017

jbarry said:
I am looking into buying a Garrett AT PRO. I presently have a Minelab E-Trac and It's a great detector but I'm looking for one to use in shallow water. I'm told that they do pretty good in the wet salt water sand. My E-Trac does very well in the salt water but if I drop it in a few inches of salt water it becomes a very expensive paper weight. Would be a bad day indeed. Can I get some advise from AT Pro owners. Positive or negative..Thanx a bunch..Joe B.,

Nope, nope, nope!!! AT-P is a single frequency machine that uses software to help compensate for the conductive salt. Think of it like putting traction control on a 2-wheel drive vehicle that is going through mud or snow. Meanwhile, your E-trac uses multiple frequencies simultaneously to compensate for the salt as well as software to further refine the process. So the E-trac is like 4-wheel drive.

If you run the AT-P in salt, you will have to constantly ground balance. You will need to reduce sensitivity that results in dimished capacity to find small and deep targets. In areas other than pure white sugar sand, you will typically hear excessive chatter. Since you are already spoiled with a very competant machine (Etrac) I think you'd find the ATP absolutely unbearable. All of these negatives are the same for single frequency detectors such as the MX Sport, DetectorPro, etc.

So for about the price of a AT-Pro, consider a Tesoro Sand Shark PI or Garrett Sea Hunter PI. The surf (or deeper) tends to wash away the light trash that you'd typically find in the towel areas. So yes, you can't discriminiate, but you won't be finding as much trash either.

For slightly more you can buy a White's BHID which is a dual frequency VLF that works great in Salt water and lets you discriminate. The difference between the BHID and the Excal or CZ is that the BHID has a manual ground balance where the others are auto GB. In dense black sand, it can be a challenge, but for most areas, it works like a charm.

RT6Detectors · Mar 21, 2017

I would definitely look into a machine that was mentioned in the previous post or one that handles salt. Most PI machines are good for salt beaches.

Ricki7 · Mar 21, 2017

Agree with all the above , l have never seen a post saying ATP good in salt water? My experience in FL . last year was , did well in the sand Got chatty near the wet sand , frequent gnd balanced . GL. ,,,,,HH

Darktower007 · Mar 21, 2017

I read somewhere it depends on the sand type. Blackish sand is highly mineralized Florida white sand is low mineralization.. could be wrong but[emoji848]

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DaviDs · Mar 21, 2017

Darktower007 said:
I read somewhere it depends on the sand type. Blackish sand is highly mineralized Florida white sand is low mineralization.. could be wrong but[emoji848]

Detectors have to adjust and compensate for many conditions.

1.) Salt
The salt in salt water is conductive. I think the best analogy I could provide is detecting in salt water is like placing pennies on top of a sheet of metal and then trying to detect the pennies. If no other conditions exist, this is difficult in and of itself

2.) Mineralization
Mineral deposits are like grinding up that sheet of metal into a fine dust and mixing it with the ground. Interestingly enough, for the war effort (WW1 and WW2), the USGS worked with the US gov't and mined the NE Florida beaches due to their heavy concentration of minerals. Meanwhile other parts of florida have less than 0.03% mineral concentration (www.usgs.gov)

3.) EMI
Electromagnetic interference often occurs near cities or areas where there are moderate or high-powered wireless transmitters. Some detectors have shielding and/or noise cancellation features to handle these conditions.

Pulse-induction (PI) machines and Multi-frequency detectors like the Minelab Explorer, E-trac and CTX are intentionally designed to effectly handle all three of these conditions without noticeable loss of sensitivity, depth, or other side effects.

Mikey48 · Mar 21, 2017

DaviDs said:
Nope, nope, nope!!! AT-P is a single frequency machine that uses software to help compensate for the conductive salt. Think of it like putting traction control on a 2-wheel drive vehicle that is going through mud or snow. Meanwhile, your E-trac uses multiple frequencies simultaneously to compensate for the salt as well as software to further refine the process. So the E-trac is like 4-wheel drive.

If you run the AT-P in salt, you will have to constantly ground balance. You will need to reduce sensitivity that results in dimished capacity to find small and deep targets. In areas other than pure white sugar sand, you will typically hear excessive chatter. Since you are already spoiled with a very competant machine (Etrac) I think you'd find the ATP absolutely unbearable. All of these negatives are the same for single frequency detectors such as the MX Sport, DetectorPro, etc.

So for about the price of a AT-Pro, consider a Tesoro Sand Shark PI or Garrett Sea Hunter PI. The surf (or deeper) tends to wash away the light trash that you'd typically find in the towel areas. So yes, you can't discriminiate, but you won't be finding as much trash either.

For slightly more you can buy a White's BHID which is a dual frequency VLF that works great in Salt water and lets you discriminate. The difference between the BHID and the Excal or CZ is that the BHID has a manual ground balance where the others are auto GB. In dense black sand, it can be a challenge, but for most areas, it works like a charm.

+1

good advice!

Garrett AT PRO

jbarry

New Member

DaviDs

RT6Detectors

Ricki7

Darktower007

DaviDs

Mikey48

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