Garrett Ace Apex VS Minelab Vanquish 540

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Metal detecting is a wonderful hobby. It gets you out in the fresh air, provides you with a little exercise and there is always the chance of finding something interesting.

There is however one big problem for those new to the hobby. Which detector do you buy?

It is not an easy question to answer because you need to get past the marketing and sales pitch. Not just from the companies themselves but from the hoards of sponsored “influencers” these companies use to promote their products.

This is why it is always useful to get opinions from those who are not sponsored in any way, be that paid YouTubers or people who are given free machines in order to back up the marketing claims made about the machines.

One such completely independent detectorist is Calabash Digger. He is not paid by anyone, has never received a free machine from any company and if it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny he will always tell it like it is.

In this video, he puts the much-hyped Garrett Ace Apex up against the lower-priced Minelab Vanquish 540. The results clearly speak for themselves.

Garrett Ace Apex vs Minelab Vanquish 540

The Garrett Ace Apex is not a particularly bad machine. If you always use Garrett then no doubt you will be very happy with it. However, on the evidence seen so far, it does not quite live up to the claims that the company are making for it.

If you are serious about metal detecting and want a machine that hits those deep targets, doesn’t mask iron and is easy to use, the Garrett Ace Apex may not be the machine for you.

Conclusion

There is a lot of smoke and mirrors in the metal detecting world. Companies spend fortunes on glossy advertising and paying “influencers” to constantly post their finds on social media and generally hype the abilities of the machines..even though a lot of the claims simply are not true.

Surely it is about time these companies took those large marketing budgets and spent it where it really matters. Put the money into research and development. Give us machines that really do perform in the way it is claimed.

Hopefully, Garrett can substantially improve the performance of the Ace Apex, perhaps via a software update.