If you are experiencing frequent falsing on the Ace 250 when sweeping the search coil side to side, you may believe that there is something wrong with your metal detector. While it is possible that you have a faulty coil or some other internal problem, often the answer to the falsing is quite simple. Here are 4 things to check before sending your Garrett Ace 250 metal detector in for a checkup.
1. Is the coil connector fully plugged in and with the collar tightened. If the coil cable connector is loose, then the electrical connection will be intermittent and this can lead to falsing and erratic behavior. Do not over tighten the connector but it should not be loose.
2. Is there a lot of slack in the search coil cable? If your coil cable is really loose, then it can swing side to side over the coil and sometimes create a false. Wrap the cable more securely and this problem goes away.
3. Lower your sensitivity. Sometimes the ground mineralization can be high enough that it interferes with the Ace 250’s stability. The Ace 250 does not have the ability to ground balance in order to counter the mineralization, so the only option is to lower the sensitivity until the metal detector becomes stable enough to operate. This will result in a loss of depth, but there are areas where this is unavoidable. The DD coil will help in these circumstances but it will not completely overcome bad mineralization.
4. Make sure there is not a lot of sand or dirt sliding back and forth on the coil cover. The design of the concentric proformance coil covers easily allows sand and soil to be scooped up onto the coil cover. If this sand has concentrations of mineralized iron then the metal detector may give a false signal as it slides back and forth.