Garrett Ace 250 False and Intermittent Signals

Welcome from the Garden State

welcome from nebraska. i hunt using the 250 myself and have run in to that problem. your in a high trash area ,i got tired of hearing the sounds and thought my detecter was bad so i started digging every tone,and yes cans, pop tops,nails bottle tops foil from ciggerett packs,even wrappers that contained foil,you can reset your 250 by holding power button until you here it go beep beep,good luck and remember dig everything until u know your strong signals from trash,good luck.

My ace 250 falsed a lot. Swinging the coil too fast caused it and bumping something with the coil caused it. Lowering the sensitivity helps some but for the most part once I was cautious with the coil and started slowing down some it took care of most of the falsing. I got used to the occasional false hit and could tell quickly if it was false or not because it wouldnt repeat. Overall it wound up being a fairly accurate and fun to use detector , it was just tempermental. Once I got the sniper coil and put it on , no more falsing and swing speed didnt seem to matter much. I liked the sniper coil so well I left it on and thats all I used for a couple years.

Thanks for all the messages. I appreciate it. Just didn't know if that was the nature of the beast, or something wrong with the detector.

a lot of times a target close to or on the surface can cause the erratic beeping. So can home or cell wifi, cell towers, power lines, underground dog fences ect. As far the pin pointing issue, you have to move off target before you press the pp button. Then move it back over the area. If you hold it more than about 10 seconds at a time it will act goofy. Take a large piece of cardboard and tape some coins on one side, at least a foot apart to begin with. go out side and place coin side down and try pin pointing.(lower sens for this) Once you think your close push a toothpick or something else to mark spot and when done with all targets turn it over and see how you did. Also when I first started I though I was getting a lot of false signals, but once I got a pinpointer I found it was picking up lead shot, small rusted pieces of metal, remains of bobby pins ect that I could not see. GL HH Tom

Try this..#1.make sure the coil plug is screwed in nice and tight!
#2 are you near any powerlines or burried power cables?
Oh, Get a pinpointer too. Once you dig that hole, it will save you bundles of time!
been there!

pinpointing with a Garrett can be interesting It seems like after you make a sound from a target then push pinpoint and if you hear the constant threshold then you can zero in. Sometimes it wont make any sound
Anyway once you hear the thresh then make an x pattern where you hear the loudest beep is where it is. near center of the coil. There are videos on how to do this.

Keep your sweeps about a 1/2 inch or lower to the soil. Make sure they stay level to the ground,not too fast and don't "pitch up" at the end of each pass.

Also secure the coil wire straight up the shaft for the first 8-10" or so then wind it up to the control box. I was showed that trick when I first bought my 250 If you haven't already done so. Pinpointing can be tricky ,mine was right above the notch ( I stayed with the stock 6.5x9) and a tic to the left.

It doesn't work well at all on wet salt beaches so if you hunt there you got to stay on the dry and turn it down to 2 notches or so. If it's going nuts with the chatter -- you are in high trash like the other poster says or you are in proximity of overhead power lines or underground utility lines.

It's just a matter of reading the manual and getting used to it. You bought a good quality detector there and it will deliver , you just need to learn it. Happy Hunting ----- Jeff.

OK. This off repeated advice:
(1) Run the coil wire straight down the shaft the first 6" before wrapping the coil the rest of the way up the shaft.
(2) Make sure the wire isn't wrapped so tight near the connector on the housing that it pulls on the connector with each sweep.
(3) Make sure the batteries seat well on the springs-I sometimes just take my fingers and roll across all 4 while pressing down slightly.
(4) The default setting of 6 bars makes the Ace really sensitive a especially with the large coil. With the sniper coil you can run it really high. With the stock coil, 4 bars for trashy areas.
I've never had any more problems, especially since checking the first two.

metaladdict said:

pinpointing with a Garrett can be interesting It seems like after you make a sound from a target then push pinpoint and if you hear the constant threshold then you can zero in. Sometimes it wont make any sound
Anyway once you hear the thresh then make an x pattern where you hear the loudest beep is where it is. near center of the coil. There are videos on how to do this.

Click to expand...

When using the pinpoint button on the ace , if you push it while over the target it will usually overload and go quiet , but if you move the coil over to the side about a foot , push the button and bring it back in over the target it will work as it is supposed to. Now , once you have the coil over the target and the pinpoint feature is working , quickly let up on the button and push it back down , this should narrow down the detection field a little more and be more specific over the target. I never had to even make an X pattern over a target with my 250 , in pinpoint mode once I had the coil centered over the target ( PP button pushed in ) I just slowly bring the coil back toward me and when the intensity meter on the faceplate dropped off the target was 99% of the time right in front of the outer edge of the coil at the tip. Getting used to pinpointing like this sped up the target recovery time like you wouldn't believe. If you can , get a 5x8 double D coil for it and use the wiggle back method without the pinpoint button to speed up the process even more.

scout23 said:

a lot of times a target close to or on the surface can cause the erratic beeping. So can home or cell wifi, cell towers, power lines, underground dog fences ect. As far the pin pointing issue, you have to move off target before you press the pp button. Then move it back over the area. If you hold it more than about 10 seconds at a time it will act goofy. Take a large piece of cardboard and tape some coins on one side, at least a foot apart to begin with. go out side and place coin side down and try pin pointing.(lower sens for this) Once you think your close push a toothpick or something else to mark spot and when done with all targets turn it over and see how you did. Also when I first started I though I was getting a lot of false signals, but once I got a pinpointer I found it was picking up lead shot, small rusted pieces of metal, remains of bobby pins ect that I could not see. GL HH Tom

Click to expand...

The thing with the cardboard, coins, and toothpicks is absolutely brilliant! An absolute genius of an idea to help hone pinpointing skills. I'm all over that exercise this weekend.....thanks for the tip!

When I first got my Ace, I had same problem. Everyone said to practice by putting a coin on ground and pp it. I found I was going by sight not my machine. This really helped me and hope it helps you. GL. Tom

I'm also relatively new to the sport and have an Ace 300 (Christmas present from my wife) which has been giving me a lot of false positives. This thread and the advice contained within has been quite helpful...thanks to all of you. I'm gonna follow the advice about how to wrap the cord, as well as practice the coin/cardboard "trick" when I get home today. Heck, this is one of the primary reasons why I joined this forum to begin with.

When I started out with the ACE250, it used to beep at the weirdest times, turns out that for what ever reason, stiff blades of wet grass would trigger the OEM coil.. But once I installed the Super Sniper 4" coil, this now became a totally different beast..

I had an ace 250 and it would false like crazy in wet grass. Other than that it was OK but I ended up selling it. Now I have an AT Pro and an Ace 400 as a backup. I've used the 400 in wet grass with no problem.

Without actually seeing your settings or type of soil you hunt in, my guess is that you are running your detector with too much sensitivity. Lower sensitivity does not meen less depth, but allowing the machine to lock on more targets.

Too much sensitivity will cause the machine to false, and also make the coil so sensitive, that the slightest jarr will cause falsing.

Below is a field test summary I wrote shortly after it's release:


Putting the new Garrett ACE 400i together was just like meeting an old friend. About 10 years ago, Garrett released the New ACE 150 & ACE 250 models. The new ACE Series at that time became an overnight success. It turned out to be one of the (if not the) best metal detectors sales of all time. It received cult status. It got nicknames the "Yeller Feller" and some converted it for water hunting, calling it the Aqua Ace." Most loved the new bright colored machine, as you could never ever really lose it. But some despised the color also. They went as far as to spray paint it a new color or cover it with camo tape

Well, fast forward it to 2016, and a new Garrett ACE Series has been released. The Top of the ACE line, the "Ace 400i" has even more improvements over it's earlier production models. The new ACE 400i now has cam-locks, a request many have made to Garrett and they listened. The front of the screen now has a large digital target ID, using numbers plus target probability numbers suggesting ferrous/non ferrous conductivity. Also new is the "iron Audio" feature, available only on higher, more expensive metal detectors. This helps eliminate junk targets by designating them with a distinguishable low tone in the iron range, which might be junk, depending on what type of targets you are searching for. To help eliminate EMI (electro-magnetic-interference) Garrett has given you the option of hunting with different frequencies. This will also allow you to hunt close to your buddy by elimination his metal detector interference. And....the coils off the older ACE's work fine on the new ACE Models. So hang on to your sniper coils!



Garrett still has maintained the notching system, which is also available in the higher end AT Pro/AT Gold Series. This allows you to selectively remove junk targets so you won't hear the audio, or set it up to just hear one particular target. This comes in handy when searching for a lost earring. You can remove all notches except the one(s) sounding off on the remaining earring, then search with ease for the other earring. And......you do NOT lose more depth removing notches for unwanted targets like on other metal detectors with knobs to add discrimination, where as you advance the knob to remove further targets, where you do in fact lose depth.

To those considering the New ACE 200, 300 or 400, it is simple to use. It's well balanced and only weighs 2.9 lbs. (1.32 kg.). The length of the rod can be adjusted, depending on a persons height. It comes pre-programmed for your choices of coin mode, relic mode, jewelry mode, a custom mode (you create it, it saves it) or a setting with no discrimination so you can hear all targets. It is so simple to operate or sequence through the different programs. It operates on 4 x "AA" Batteries and readily excepts rechargeable batteries. I managed about 27 hours on the set of batteries which came with the metal detector.
To maintain a high degree of reliability with consistent results, I used the unit for 10 hunts. Anyone can go to a site not previously hunted before with any detector and do well. I chose to put on about 50 hours on it, so as I can properly learn it, and learn it's strengths and weaknesses.



Here are the results of my 10 hunts. This machine is a Super coin magnet! I started hunting in relics mode, hunting a lot of schools and sports fields. As I learned where my (Canadian) coins were reading with the VDI, I began to remove some notches. I pretty well ended up using the coins mode, as it also maintains notches where most (but not all) gold rings will read. I used my old concentric 9" x 12" coil from my old ACE 250 mostly. Bottles caps often read as good copper/silver coins, so using the iron audio can help to eliminated them. I discovered that deeper bottle caps read higher compared to more shallow ones. So......bottle caps and aluminum pull tabs remain the "Curse" for metal detector users. The square pull tabs often tend to give a strong double beep, whereas nickels have a softer single beep sound. It got so I could guess a nickel would pop up with a good probability. Hey....these things happen when the hours accumulate on a detector. One thing for sure....the ace BANGS hard on coins. Because the weak signals on the ACE are amplified so you can easily hear them, (unlike the modulated volume on the AT Series) hunting without headphones becomes easy in a quiet environment. Wireless headsets not required!



I did manage to dig up 4 rings during my hunts. You can't miss them. They hit hard! The older ACE models were very good for hitting rings, including gold ones. I didn't find any gold rings, however, I did get a solid gold football charm in a sports field! That was a first!



Here are some pieces of jewelry I dug up. If the jewelry is there, the ACE will find it no doubt.



My last 3 hours metal detecting were done in a freshwater lake. Because only the coil is water proof, I hunted just the beginnings of the freshwater lake. I notched out nearly everything except where gold rings might show up. That left only 4, sometimes 5 notches left on the screen. I had built up my confidence with this machine that any old silver coins/rings or older copper coins would easily be hit on. I got pennies in the 40's on up, but no rings today.



My thoughts.......A great detector for coin/jewelry hunting. It also performs well hunting relics. It has too much power! I could not hunt with full sensitivity....a first for me. All my other detectors could operate with full sensitivity in the woods, but not the new ACE! It bangs hard on targets....even very tiny ones. This machine would do well on the beaches dry sand or shallow fresh water searching for micro jewelry. When hunting in shallow water, PLEASE remember to tether the machine so it can not accidentally fall in the water if you drop it.

The depth indicator id fairly accurate with coin sized targets. I did pull out an old tag at bout 8 inches. It performs well for depth in my soil. I wish I could try it on a wet salted beach in/out of the water, but the nearest beach is 14 hours away. I hunted an afternoon without using any headsets, and I could easily hear the audio and distinguish the soft signals from the loud double beeps. I didn't like detecting with the iron audio left on, rather, I used it to help identify a target. Running the iron audio on all the time and getting a good audio on a target added confusion as to dig or not. A little trick I learned was that trying to pinpoint a large target is very difficult. Pop cans were easy to ID because of this. This allowed me to just move on to a better target saving time.

It is an excellent entry level detector, with lots of bells & whistles seen on many higher priced detector. It's simple to use, easy to learn, and depending on your goals for metal detecting, may be the only machine you might ever need, yet, you can easily move up to a more elaborate expensive model in the Garrett line. For a metal detectorist with over 20 years of experience, the ACE 400 is an excellent machine for coin and jewelry hunting! And......it will not sit in the closet collecting dust. Every metal detector I own has it's strengths in certain niches.

Some Actual Field Hunt Videos To Compiment The Garrett ACE 400i

ACE 400i Water Hunt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8npfSWLvnlI
How To Increase Your Finds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoLvboex7sM
ACE 400i Relic Hunt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNAA8PcJssA