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The risks of buying a USED D/P machine

DaviDs

Forum Supporter
Joined
Jan 3, 2011
Messages
4,807
Location
East Coast, FL
If you are intrigued by water hunting, you are probably looking at used waterproof machine and understandably are on a budget. But what are the risks?

“DetectorPro PULSE metal detector…..super clean, hardly used, no cracks or damage, air tests incredibly deep, selling as-is and for only $…”

When I read the above ad, I thought, I’ve always wanted one of those detectors in my collection. The price seems great. The seller says it works and heck, the pictures look good too. Why not, what could go wrong?

A short time later, the detector arrived at my home. It looked just as described and when I air tested it….WOW. I did a few more yard tests and felt confident the detector worked as it should. I put the detector in my man cave and walked away thinking how stoked I was to take this on an upcoming beach vacation!

The following month I began to pack for vacation. As I placed the detector in the suitcase, something caught my eye. I looked closer and my stomach dropped. Cracks! What the heck? There where cracks all over my coil wire! ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! My vacation beach hunting plans were ruined!

Even worse, when I called the manufacturer, I learned a bad cable wasn’t the worst of my problems. The founder of DetectorPro, Gary Storm, sold his business to Ron at Gold Diggers. Ron made some calls and a short time later called me back to explain that the guy that made the PULSE coils for DP had passed away and there were no parts available or knowledgeable person to service the PULSE machines. Bottom line, there was nothing DP could do and inferred its time to look for another machine. ARGH x 2

Now over the years, I’ve learned Friendly Metal Detecting Forum has some amazingly knowledgeable members, one of them being OBN. When I told him my predicament, he provided me with references to some people that “might” be able to help.

One of those references agreed to look at the unit and “see what he could see” about fixing it. His assessment led him to believe the coil wire had hairline cracks that let water get inside and make its way down to the coil connection. Perhaps the shipping and/or winding of the coil wire in shipping were enough to motivate those hairline cracks to become fully visible.

Nonetheless, he solved the mystery of where to source a proper replacement coil wire and, with an agreed upon modification to the coil, he was able to save the coil too! YAY!!

Two biggest take-a-ways from this are…
  1. When buying used from a private seller, always consider there may be an unknown repair. I agreed to buy the detector as-is with no warranty so I assumed the risk. But, I negotiated a price that was fair, even when including the cost of repairs.
  2. The forum is a rich environment for knowledge and networking. In my case, the networking made the difference between throwing the detector away vs. writing this post about my success.
 

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I have several of the DP HHPIs and I'm aware of everything you mentioned.

I think it was a worthwhile gamble. I baby mine. Fresh water rinse it after every use and store it in air conditioning.

Used electronics is a risk. I don't know if any known coil manufacturers can replicate the pulse coil. I bought several connectors from Gary before he sold the business in case I find somebody.
 
One very nice job on the repair!! And glad "M" could help you out. One of the best!
 
Repair looks good! On my Excal the wire sheathing was completely rotted. My buddy removed it and ran the cables through marine grade heat shrink tubing. I guess you could've done the same thing but your repair looks good as well.
 
Yep, used means, buyer beware! My Excal 1000 that I got used lasted a month before the coil cable cracked and leaked..new coil and O-rings @$350+ from what I remember, still money well spent.
DL
 
Yeah, this is what I was desperately afraid of when I was looking to buy a used water machine!
Luckily my sandshark arrived in exactly the described condition and has been going strong ever since.
But I think Tesoro is a more time-tested brand and I read lots of people on here and other MD reviews saying that their sandsharks lasted a really long time when well maintained, so I decided to take the risk.
Still, it could have been a very different story, ne.
 
The same has happened with many Fisher Edge, Coinstrike, 1280x search coil wires. they cracked and or the outer jacket just peeled away.
 
Yep it happened to me

I bought a used PI here on FMDF a little while back. Was told it was in great condition, worked perfectly. Upon arrival I opened it up, put in the batteries, closed it all up turned it on and nothing. No sound, no threshold, nada. Opened it back up, re-checked the batteries to see that they were all in the right way(because it had to be my fault it didn't work) and every battery was in the right way, put it all back together and it still didn't work. Upon opening it again the wire connecting the battery box moved and I heard the sound of threshold. Long story short, PM'd my seller and he says ya, he thought there might have been something wrong with the battery cable blah blah but boy it always worked great for him.

So if it always worked great for him then why did he suspect something with the battery wire was amiss. Would have been nice to know BEFORE I gave him $400 for the machine. I could never use it and last month I finally sent it off to be fixed and $122 later I have a fixed machine. I'm not happy about it but it was my fault for trusting a person I've never met with no references. I've bought and sold other items here and on ebay and I have a 100% positive rating and just assumed this was an honest deal. Honest deals don't require immediate repairs. Live and learn.
 
Id also suggest any machine you are considering that you arent formilure with check on warranties and repairs. Things change.
 
Repair looks good! On my Excal the wire sheathing was completely rotted. My buddy removed it and ran the cables through marine grade heat shrink tubing. I guess you could've done the same thing but your repair looks good as well.

Great idea too!
 
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