When Charles Garrett & his wife founded Garrett Electronics in the early 1960′s they probably never envisioned their company would become what it has today an industry leader within hobby and security metal detection equipment. Despite the impressive growth and success Garrett Electronics has had since its inception, the company hasn’t lost track of their original goal which was to develop the perfect equipment for all of their customers.
In late-2004, Garrett Electronics introduced two new models which shook the entire industry by providing features and performance at a cost tag $100′s less than the competition. I had the opportunity to test the Ace 150 a few months back and this field test report covers the Ace 250 which is the bigger brother of the Ace 150 offering a lot more features with just a slightly higher price tag.
FEATURES
The Ace 250 is just one of Garrett’s two new entry-level (based on price NOT performance) detectors. The Ace 150 & 250 replaced the prior Treasure Ace series of detectors; however, all similarities using their predecessors end with the ACE name.
The first thing that stands out when unpacking the Garrett Ace 250 is its totally redesigned control housing. The housing was created for ergonomics; i.e., it enables extended use without fatigue, as well as the color has been changed from the characteristic Garrett Green to a different bright yellow which is a real eye-catcher.
The Ace 250 is controlled though the use of three touch pads (Power, Pinpoint & Elimination) and three rocker switches (Mode, Sensitivity & Discrimination) located on the face of the control housing. The Ace 250 features an LCD screen which supplies users with a wealth of information on both the various settings as well as detected targets including:
Target ID: One of 12 segments identifies what has been detected Target Depth: Displays the approximate target depth; i.e., 2, 4, 6 or 8+ Battery Condition: A symbol appears alerting you when the batteries have to be replaced Sensitivity: Indicates the level using bars which range from (1 min) to 8 (max) Search Mode: Indicates which from the 5 possible search modes is selected
The Ace 250 has five independent discriminate search modes: All Metal, Jewelry, Relics, Coins and Custom. The discrimination points; i.e., what items are accepted or rejected, have been preset at the factory determined by extensive field tests and input from treasure hunters all over the world for all but the Custom mode which can be customized to accept / reject the specific type of targets you might be looking for. The discrimination points can be easily changed in any of the 5 search modes; however, only the changes made in the Custom mode will be retained when the power is turned off. A significant feature on the Ace 250 would be that the discrimination levels are set as individual notches; i.e., you are able to accept or reject any of the 12 specific notches shown on the LCD screen. Unlike detectors where you increase a discrimination control to get rid of targets that register higher on the target ID scale which ends up in a loss of detection depth at higher settings, the Ace 250′s usage of notch discrimination allows you to reject any targets you care to without any loss in detection depth.
The Ace 250 is powered by four (4) AA batteries that will provide between 40 and 50 hours of usage as a matter of fact, I have more than 30 hours on my test unit and the battery strength indication still shows 2 out of 4 bars! As I said in the Ace 150 report, rechargeable batteries can be utilized without any loss in performance; however, with the life obtained from 4 inexpensive AA batteries, you might not want to bother with them.
SUMMARY
The new Ace 250 is really a detector that has stunned many treasure hunters around the globe with the performance and features it provides at a bargain-basement price even those with years of experience using detectors costing considerably more than what the Ace 250 sells for . As described in this field test, I recovered several coins that were at depths I would equate to those obtained from a $700+ detector on a consistent basis. The best way to sum up the Ace 250 is a fun, simple detector that delivers surprising detection depth without having complicated adjustments! Most people I’ve spoken to said they initially bought the Ace 250 as a backup detector or gift for a youngster only to realize that they wound up using it more and more themselves. The performance it provides for under $250 will make you do a double take!
The only comment with regards to the Ace 250 that is not overwhelmingly positive is that the non-motion pinpoint mode doesn’t provide as strong a signal as the normal discriminate search modes do meaning that one very deep targets, it may me a bit tougher to obtain a signal in the non-motion mode. However, if the detector shows that there is a target present, wiggle the coil slightly to zero in on the signals and continue digging . . . you will not be disappointed!
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