Field Test Report

Garrett Ace 150

by Bob Smith

uccess in finding a fair amount of loose change on the beaches during this summer meant that I had enough funds to upgrade my detector. The new Garrett Ace 150 had appealed to me ever since I had first seen it advertised within the pages of Treasure Hunting magazine and, being moderately priced, I felt it could just be the machine that I was looking for. Naturally, before making the purchase I did a fair amount of checking out on the Internet to see what I could find out from user response about this detector. In total I found four reports, two American and two British. However, all of these seemed to be somewhat vague and did not provide the information I would look for in a field test. For example, they included very little detail on how the Ace 150’s Graphic Target ID performed, or how the audio multi-tone discrimination reacted to various targets. Despite the lack of the information I was looking for the Garrett Ace 150 seemed to provide good value within my price range, and I eventually made the decision to purchase one. For those in a similar position, I hope that this field test will provide the facts and details that you are looking for.

First Impressions

When the detector was delivered the first thing I noticed was the small size of the packing case. On opening the box I was again surprised by the compact nature of the detector itself showing a colourful bright yellow control box and armrest/stand. The Elliptical PROformance search coil that comes with the detector - although 6.5in x 9in - also deceives the eye as it looks much smaller than it is. It wasn’t until I took a measuring tape out to check the size that I could see the real cleverness behind its configuration. I also found that the operator’s instruction manual is of a very handy pocket size and very well laid out.

The control box with its LCD screen and control panel is laid out with the minimum of fuss and is very simple to operate and understand. Access to the battery compartment is achieved by sliding a cover off the top of the control box. There is a recessed indentation to do this and taking the cover off will give access to change the batteries when they are exhausted. The Ace 150 uses 4 AA cells. Alkaline batteries are recommended and according to the manual (depending on the type of batteries) you can expect 20-40 hours from a fresh set. A standard quarter inch headphone socket is located on the right rear underside of the control box, and directly opposite from the search coil cable plug. The speaker is positioned on the underside of the control box, which keeps it free from the immediate effects of bad weather, dirt, and sand. The Ace 150’s control panel is laid out in a very user-friendly way with an easy to understand LCD screen and easy to understand LCD screen and three simple yellow rubberised push buttons.

Controls

Power - This control is the On/Off switch for the Ace 150. Gently push it to turn the detector on and gently push again to turn it off.

Sensitivity - To operate this control push the sensitivity button; this works in conjunction with a four segment bar immediately above the button. It gives you four levels of sensitivity shown to you constantly while the detector is switched on. Setting sensitivity to one of the first two segments is ideal when search conditions are not favourable with too much junky ground or if you pick up interference from, say, an electrical source. The higher settings are ideal if you are working in an area free of rubbish and mineralised ground; they will also give better depth and performance on smaller targets.

Mode - This button is used to select one of three search modes. The search mode you choose to use will be highlighted directly under the word "mode" until you either change it or the detector is switched off. When the detector is switched back on it will be set on the search mode you had been working in previously.

1. All-Metal Mode This will detect all metals on audio and through the Graphic Target ID.                                

2. Jewellery Mode Designed to find jewellery such as rings, bracelets, watches and necklaces, plus coins, while ignoring rubbish such as bottle caps and nails. It will give audio responses to selected items but no audio response to iron. The Graphic Target ID will still react showing some of the junk without audio.                            

3. Coin Mode This mode is designed to specifically pick up coins while ignoring junk such as pull tabs, bottle caps and iron.

LCD Screen - At the very top on the LCD screen is the Target ID Legend where you have IRON, GOLD and SILVER laid out as well as NICKEL, PULL-TAB, RINGS, and COINS. This works as an indicator for the type of metals you may find. When the detector is switched on and you receive a signal a block cursor with a tiny pointer will move to the likely metal you have detected as part of the Graphic Target ID. Immediately below the Target ID Legend you have what is known as the "Upper Scale". This is the area where the block cursor appears with its pointer, and moves when a target is picked up against the Target ID Legend. It should be noted that the cursor will only react when the detector is in motion and that the cursor indicating the metal will disappear after a few seconds if the motion or movement of the search coil ceases. Below the Upper Scale is the "Lower Scale". This shows the Notch Discrimination Scale as a series of five blocks indicating the immediate discrimination pattern where the Ace will or will not produce an audible signal. This depends on the search mode you are in at the time as the scale changes for each search mode. Basically, if you are in a mode where, for instance, the block for iron is switched off you will no longer receive an audible tone for it although you may still see the cursor pointing to iron.

Tone ID - As well as the Graphic Target ID using the LCD screen, Garrett has also incorporated their clever Tone ID feature, which produces distinct tones for types of metals. This can be very useful as a discrimination aid as well. High conductivity metals will produce a distinct bell tone signal, so this is very handy for items made of silver. Medium conductivity metals such as pre-decimal coinage and gold rings, will produce a standard-pitched tone (in other words a normal tone). Low conductivity metals such as iron and nails will produce a very dull low tone, which is very distinctive from the others.

Low Battery Indicator According to the operator’s manual there is a Low Battery Indicator that will come on screen when the batteries are weak or near exhaustion. However, this may not be the case as in one of the brief Internet reports I have read it stated there was no battery indicator. Hopefully, by the time I have put together the next part of my own report I can confirm whether there is a battery indicator or not!

Pre-Decimal Coins: ID Legend-Tone Type: Farthing Coins Bell Tone; Halfpenny & Rings Medium Tone; Penny Coins, Bell Tone; Three-penny Coins, Bell Tone; Silver Three-Penny Coins, Bell Tone; Sixpence Coins, Bell Tone; Shilling Coins,  Bell Tone. Some Earlier Examples: George II Sixpence Coins, Bell Tone; Edward I Penny, Nickel and Pull-Tab Medium Tone; Henry III Cut Penny & Nickel Medium Tone; Roman Silver Rings, Medium Tone; Small Roman Bronze and Pull-Tab Medium Tone. Modern Examples: Two Pound Coin Coins Bell Tone; One Pound Coin Coins Bell Tone; All "Silver" other than 5p and Pull-Tab Medium Tone; Five Pence and Nickel Medium Tone; Pennies and Twos; Iron Low Tone Junk Old Ring-Pull & Pull-Tab Broken Medium Tone; Square Pull-Tab and Pull-Tab, Medium Tone; Crown Cap & Iron, Low Tone; Iron Ring & Iron, Flat Bell Tone; Iron Nail & Iron, Low Tone; Horse Shoe & Iron Low Tone; Piece of Coke & Iron, Medium Tone

Pre-Decimal Coins ID: Legend Tone; Same As All-Metal Ditto Some Earlier Examples: Same As All-Metal Ditto. Modern Examples: Two Pound Coin Coins Bell Tone; One Pound Coin Coins Bell Tone; All "Silver" other than 5p and Pull Tab Medium Tone; Five Pence Nickel Medium Tone; Pennies and Twos Iron No Audible Tones; Junk Old Ring-Pull Pull-Tab Medium Tone; Square Pull-Tab & Pull-Tab, Medium Tone; Crown Cap and Iron, Medium to Bell Tone; Iron Ring & Rings Bell Tone; Iron Nail and Iron, No Audible Tone; Horse Shoe and Iron No Audible Tone; Piece of Coke and Iron No Audible Tone; I believe that my findings have shown that when in the field you may have to watch what setting you are on for specific targets you are looking for. But it should also be remembered that you discriminate in two ways: by watching the LCD screen and by listening to the audible tones; it is therefore quite mode. For example, if you stick to working in the All-Metal search mode for field searching you can still see and hear clearly good and bad targets and still not have to dig up too much junk. Where this may falter is on an area where there is a lot of present day junk such as tin cans, tin foil, and the odd ring-pull. All the coins and objects used in the bench test showed up clearly on the depth scale, as well at the pre-set depths. It also showed that small coins such as Roman bronzes and cut hammered pennies will be found at better than average depths if ground conditions allow.

Pre-Decimal Coins ID: Legend Tone; Same As All-Metal Ditto. Some Earlier Examples: William III Sixpence Coins, Bell Tone; Edward I Penny & Nickel Medium Tone; Henry III Cut Penny and Nickel, Medium Tone; Roman Silver Coin & Rings, Medium Tone; Small Roman Bronze and Pull Tab, No Audible Tone. Modern Examples:  Two Pound Coin & Coins Bell Tone; One Pound Coin & Coins, Bell Tone; All Silver other than 5 pence and Pull Tab, No Audible Tone; Five Pence Nickel Medium Tone; Pennies, Two’s & Iron No Audible Tone; Junk, Ring-Pull & Pull Tab No Audible Tone; Square Pull-Tab and Pull Tab, No Audible Tone; Crown Cap and Iron No Audible Tone; Iron Ring and Iron, Bell Tone; Iron and Nail Iron, No Audible Tone; Horse Shoe and Iron, No Audible Tone; Piece of Coke, No ID, No Audible Tone.

Naturally, as soon as I received the detector I was only too keen to get out and about with it. The first place I headed to was some woodland. I was accompanied by a friend as he wanted to see how the machine performed before purchasing an Ace 250 (the next model up). We wandered along some old footpaths and an even older road running through the centre of the woods. I set the sensitivity up to the third segment out of the four just to get an idea of the sounds coming from the detector. I searched initially in All-Metal, which proved to be a mistake as the detector - although a silent search model - became very noisy with signals coming in from all sides of the path and then the road. The majority of these signals were coming from surface to shallow trash and I found that a good sharp Bell-Tone would even sound off on soft drinks tins that I dug up from being half submerged in the soft ground. I therefore decided to switch to the Jewellery mode instead. Although the amount of surface trash registered became less, the detector nevertheless picked up various ring pulls and pull tabs, which gave medium tone sounds but showed clearly on the screen as "Nickel" or "Pull Tab". One medium to Bell Tone sounding object that showed up as "Iron" turned out to be a crown cap from a ‘Bacardi Breezer’ bottle. The only thing I found frustrating is that coins could come through as medium tones as well and show up as either Nickel or "Pull Tab" on the screen. So if you are searching an area that is likely to be contaminated with modern trash you are going to have to put up with digging some of it up. This first search didn’t produce any startling finds, but it did give me an insight as to how the detector works. As well as signalling some of the pull tabs and ring pulls that littered the whole area, the Ace 150 did pick up one shotgun cartridge (which gave a medium tone and showed up as Nickel) and a 2p piece. One interesting target came in the form of an old sauce jar lid. The detector gave off a good Bell-Tone in all three search modes and registered as "Coins" on screen. The reason was that the lid was copper lined. The first search also produced one older coin made of bronze, which registered as "Pull Tab" and gave a medium tone. It was found at a depth of around 5 inches and is nearly completely worn smooth. But when tilted at an angle in the sunlight what looks like an emperor’s head can be seen. I am therefore not going to rule out my find being Roman bronze coin.

The second outing with the Ace 150 was made on the following day and I headed straight for my local sandy beach. At first I started searching in the All-Metal mode but soon switched to the Jewellery setting. The detector handled itself pretty well, and was silent until a target was found. Having the Graphic Target ID is quite amazing as it takes a lot of hassle out of the mundane run-of-the-mill searching and I found that it was quite accurate. You have to become acquainted with how coins and other sought-after objects will come in on the LCD screen, but familiarisation shouldn’t take too long. In the Jewellery mode the majority of 1p and 2p iron-cored decimal coins were rejected but this wasn’t a great loss for the £1 coins and £2 coins come in sharp as a razor with a Bell-Tone. During my search on the beach the Garrett found two £2 coins and five £1 coins with an easiness I have not seen before. I also found a good handful of silver change though including 10p’s, 20p’s, and a couple of 50p’s so all and all the Garrett did well for coins over the dry sand. I didn’t have a chance to try near the water mark as the tide was coming in and covering the area I had wanted to try. I have been told that the detector does not like the wet sand, but in time I will see for myself how it fares there. Sensitivity proved to be very good and the detector was very stable throughout. There were no rings found on this occasion but I did feel confident enough to know that if there had been rings lying around the Garrett would have picked them out clearly. Searching proved to be enjoyable with the Garrett as the Graphic Target ID was an invaluable tool. It also proved to be very accurate, again showing me iron on the screen and with its very low dull audio tone. With the Ace 150 showing its true potential with the very good target identification, it meant I could get around the field easily and cover more ground without the hiccups of too much unnecessary digging. The length of the stubble didn’t deter the detector from getting to the finds, some of which were at very good depths. I had found six coins by the end of the search, a musket ball, and two lead seals. Working near the power lines did cause the detector to give some false signals on its full sensitivity setting, but when I turned this down a segment it became stable again and I still managed to find the targets. One strange find that came up just after I had dug up a farthing of George III was what at first looked like a misshapen piece of lead. But when I removed some of the mud from it, I found a face staring back at me in the form of a head of a bearded man wearing a hat (perhaps part of a figurine?)

The following week I was back out again, this time going over well-trodden ground on a site that I have been detecting over for many years. It was one that I had thought was well and truly played out. Three days before going to the actual site I had noticed its surrounding fields were all in short stubble, and thought them to be an excellent choice to put the Garrett over. However, in the space of the three days the farmer had taken advantage of the good weather and didn’t waste any time in ploughing them. Luckily, he was on hand when I got to the site and gave me permission to detect on the main field as it had been ploughed the day before but had not yet been planted with anything. The farmer warned me, though, that I should take care going towards the middle of the field as he had found it to be quite sticky and waterlogged. Not reckoning on searching a ploughed field, I hadn’t brought along my ‘wellies’ and was only wearing an old pair of training shoes. However, I found the field was easier to negotiate than the first impressions given by the landowner. The history of the field showed that at one time an old castle had stood there, but all trace of it had been wiped out back in the late 18th century. Over the years many others and I have searched this field in the hope of finding something big, as we all have those dreams of that elusive hoard of buried treasure. Time has moved on, however, and although I have been back and forward over this field for the past 20 years, I have not found so much as a single hammered penny. There have been bits and pieces in the form of medieval artefacts, but nothing grand and certainly nothing of gold or silver. When going over the ground searched many times before with other detectors, I found the Garrett adapted very well to the ploughed terrain and was silent and stable until it found targets. The audio and target identification showed that the field still had lots of metal in it - the majority of which was iron, instantly recognisable by the dull low tones. But the Garrett did locate some non-ferrous targets as well. Among the finds by the end of this were: a diamond-shaped military button showing a crown and the number 93 on it, a small worn hammered copper coin, a bronze foot from a bronze medieval pot, a piece of decorated lead (possibly medieval), two musket balls, and an object that looks like a wheel of some kind. Other recoveries included pre-decimal coins that had been badly corroded from the burning of stubble over the years, a watch key, and a bronze weight. Added to the above was a fair amount of non-ferrous scrap, and it just goes to prove that a field can never really be cleaned out regardless of how many times you search it. The small hammered copper coin came up from a depth of 4inches. Although it was found at a very awkward angle down a tractor wheel rut, it nevertheless gave good audio sound.

Conclusions

In the past I have seen many imported detectors come and go. Some have never made the grade because of the soil differences in Britain and the type of sites being searched. Even Garrett have released some models here that did not achieve a following as they had been built and aimed for their own country of origin, the USA. But now I can honestly say they have come up with a good detector that does adapt well to my own local terrain. Also, with the Ace 150, Garrett has introduced a good common sense detector that is within the budget of most of us due to its very sensible no nonsense price. In the field tests I read about the Garrett Ace 150 on the Internet it has been described as a "general purpose machine". However, it has the good build quality and performance that I feel can easily compete against its more expensive rivals. The Ace 150 looks to me like a good piece of kit for coin-shooting, dry sand hunting, and artefact hunting. I think I am going to achieve some good results with my one.

Specifications

Model: Garrett Ace 150.                                                                                                                                                     

Type: Computerised touch pad controlled, silent search operation, Graphic Target ID screen technology and multiple audio tone discrimination.                                                                                                                        

Weight: 2.7lb (1.2kg).                                                                                                                                                           

Frequency: 6.5 kHz.                                                                                                                                                   

Batteries: 4 AA (HP7), alkaline recommended. Battery life, 20-40 hours, depending on battery type.             

Search Coil: PROformance 6.5in x 9in open elliptical coil fitted as standard.                                                    

Price: £129.00 (inc VAT).                                                                                                                                        

Guarantee: 2 Years

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