Detech EDS Plus II Reviews, Price and Specifications

All-Purpose Land Metal Detector

Retail Price: €816.00 ($889.00)

Available Reviews: 1

Avg. Rating (1.0 Stars)

Specifications:

• Technology: Very Low Frequency (VLF)
• 1-Tone Audio
• 2 Operating Modes: All Metal and Discrimination
• 2 Operating Frequencies – 13.74 and 13.89 kHz
• Ground Balance: Automatic and Manual
• Search Coil: 9" x 9" SEF (symmetrical electromagnetic field)
• Optional coils: 6" DD, 12" x 12" SEF
• Audio frequency: 570 Hz
• LED Battery Indicator
• Headphone Jack: 6.3 mm (1/8")
• 3-piece Shaft
• Batteries: 4 NiMH AA Batteries and Charger
• Battery Life: 20-30 hours
• Weight: approx. 1.5 kg (3.3 lbs)

Reviews:

USELESS at TRASHY Hunt Sites!

by Daumantas in Vilnus, Lithuania -

Since the Detech claims that the EDS Plus II has the greatest detection depth, I thought that the EDS would be a nice back-up to my XP Deus at the medieval hunt sites. Being an avid coin shooter with 15 years of detecting experience, I know that most hunt sites of medieval settlements that existed until modern times are "packed" with ferrous trash, and the detector's operating depth is reduced to the shallow depth of the "trash blanket" that overlays deep good targets; thus, making them undetectable. But I hoped that, for its high price, the EDS had a potent Discriminator and filtering to reach the deepest targets at least at the spots with moderate levels of ferrous junk. Boy, was I wrong! And the Detech's instruction manual written in poor English and badly structured only mislead me more! I do not think a beginner would be able to comprehend its contents!
Since the EDS was not supplied with headphones, I decided to use either my old Garrett or Koss URL-30 headphones. Neither of them worked with the EDS! Thank God, I had a pair of cheap $1 headphones with a 3.5mm (1/8") jack and a 3.5mm-to-6.3mm (1/8"-to-1/4") adapter, which worked with the EDS. But this was my first disappointment. The headphone socket functioned all right, otherwise the cheap headphones would not work either.
My second disappointment was the EDS' lack of audio volume control. The audio was so loud that I had to put my headphones on my ears half-way not to be deafened. I could not use the EDS without headphones as its loudness would wake up all villages nearby and annoy other detectorists around me.
For my testing the EDS, I chose a farm field that was a site of a village which existed from the late 1400s until the late 1800s. The field was littered with various ferrous and non-ferrous junk, slag, coke, different types of hot rocks and sporadic mineralization. For metal detectors in the $200 range, this hunt site was off limits, but more expensive and advanced machines such as an XP GoldMaxx Power, Minelab X-Terra 705, Garrett At Gold, and, of course XP Deus and Minelab CTX-3030 used by my fellow detectorists could cope with such harsh conditions. My Deus had previously found many nice coins and artefacts at this field. Now it was a moment of truth for the EDS!
(I am going to try not to use f-word) I used a 6" search coil for an extremely trashed area. As soon as I ground balanced the EDS and began detecting, I realized that I was... screwed big time. The EDS is operated on ONE tone, but using a 1-tone audio without any indication of ferrous targets at the trashed site is a SUICIDE! If it was not for my experience, I would not be able to hear difference between audio responses to iron targets, hot rocks and non-ferrous junk due to the EDS' primitive audio - my third disappointment.
Despite setting the Discrimination control between "Relic" and "Coins", the EDS's discriminator circuit could not properly "digest" some types of small, hand-wrought nails, ferrous slag and hot rocks, and responded to them with the coin-like signals!!! If I continued digging them all, I would end up in an Emergency room at the end of the day! I already feel sorry for any beginner using the EDS Plus II and digging up all trash while other detectorists with advanced machines around him would be filling their pouches with amazing finds! The EDS made me feel like completely "target-blind", and this was my fourth disappointment.
The worst came when I walked over the first spot of concentrated sporadic mineralization: the EDS began "screaming" left and right. I had to walk away from this spot, find a little patch on the ground, that was clean of any junk, and re-ground balance the detector. Because the EDS does not have any GB reset button (it does not memorize the GB setting), I had to re-ground balance numerous times during the hunt - this was insane! And it was a big waste of time that could be instead used for metal detecting! The EDS has an "auto" mode of operation, but if you use it, everybody knows, you could simply forget about finding deep coins standing on edge, or extremely deep coins. This was my fifth disappointment.
Then came another ridiculous problem. Because the headphone socket is positioned at the wrong spot - at the back of a control box, the 3.5mm jack of my headphones kept disconnecting and falling out of the 1/4" adapter. If the socket was placed on the front of the control box - a control panel, I would not have such a trouble of plugging the jack back in every five minutes - my sixth disappointment.
To give the EDS another chance and to have at least one positive comment, I found a small spot (5m x 5m) on the ground, that contained a low level of junk and no concentrations of sporadic mineralization. And I switched to a 9" search coil - the same size coil that I used with my Deus. First, with the Deus, I located three "questionable" signals with which I knew I could work further using the Deus' tonal capabilities. The Deus allowed me to get a 70% clear audio response to each target which now sounded non-ferrous and diggable. When I checked these target spots with the EDS, it gave me interrupted, not completely clear signals that, in the EDS' language, indicated ferrous targets of small size. No matter how I wiggled the search coil or made a few 90-deg-turns around each spot, I could not get better response to each target. In fact, these three targets sounded just like other ferrous junk targets around! Prior to that day, I'd read a statement of one EDS user posting on the metal detecting forum: "unless the signal is completely clear and not interrupted, you should not dig up the target!" If this is a main principle of detecting with the EDS Plus II, then all EDS users pass up a lot of good targets!!! When I dug up the three targets I had located, they turned out to be two hammered silver coins, ca. 15-16th century, and a piece of a silver pendant of a later period!
The EDS Plus II instruction manual states that, during Air-testing, the EDS' detection depth significantly (up to 60%) exceeds detection depths of some advanced metal detectors with coils of the same size, including the Deus. Oh well, first of all, the Air Test never shows the real Depth Penetration capability of any metal detector (this is well explained on this web site). And, second, in my situation under real conditions, it seemed that the EDS with the 9" search coil did not come even close to the Deus with the 9" coil in detection depth, otherwise I would hear "clear, uninterrupted" audio responses to those three targets! This was my seventh disappointment.
Hey, do not be too upset! The EDS is probably a great detector if only used at the hunt site containing uniform mineralization, no iron junk, slag and hot rocks, and all buried coins are horizontally positioned in the ground. Someone might say, "if such a hunt site exists, you can use a cheap $150 Garrett Ace 150 to successfully detect coins at it!" The answer is "No" unless you operate the Ace or any other simple detector in All-Metal mode! The Ace 150's Discriminator is not as DYSFUNCTIONAL as the EDS' Discriminator and, therefore, the Ace's detection depth would not be as great as the detection depth of the EDS! Remember, the less Discrimination, the greater the detection depth! (this website has a good article about that if you want to learn more)
Unfortunately I wasted my money. I would not even take the EDS for free if I was offered that! Because in my area 99% of the most productive hunt sites are heavily iron-junk-infested, I have no use for this outdated, analog detector made in Bulgaria. I am laughing inside reading in the manual about the EDS' ability to find a gold nugget! Maybe guys at Detech have never heard about "black sand" that heavily covers the gold bearing areas, and can neutralise some powerful discriminators and GB circuits?! The EDS would not have a chance! I only wish the Detech would truthfully state in the manual: "the EDS Plus II is designed only for detecting at certain hunt sites under IDEAL metal detecting conditions!" But, of course, one will never see such a statement in any instruction manual! So please be aware of many gimmicks on the market today, and seek the truth!

May 27, 2015