Last Post 11 May 2015 06:11 PM by  Gary Whited
Garrett Product Complaint
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Benjamin Crain
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09 May 2015 08:52 PM

    Recently I purchased two Garrett products I could care not to use again. First was a small aluminum sluice box with slits cut into the aluminum instead of real riffles and miners moss underneath. It would fill the small slots with fine gravels almost instantly and everything else would wash out of the sluice. The other complaint is about the Garrett Gold Guzzler snuffer bottle. Instead of coming to a cone like most it has a top sided inside lip which traps fine gold making it impossible for you to place it in a small container. It is OK if you are dumping onto a pan from the base, but the design of the lid traps fine gold and makes it hard to get out.

     

    I am beginning to think I won't buy anymore Garrett products after the two recent problem products that should have been a no brainer to anybody that has ever worked with gold. I hope there is a Garrett representative that can tell me what and why they are making the products they are on this forum?

     

    Please feel free to email me at crashcrain@gmail.com

    STEVE WLOCK
    Greenhorn
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    10 May 2015 09:29 AM
    I was never sure about those products but I love there detectors easy to use an they work great I have the ace 250 an 350 love them both
    Matt Johnson
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    10 May 2015 09:44 AM
    I never new Garret made sluice boxes. I looked them up online and I can't find a sluice box made by Garret. Where did you purchase it? You can make that snuffer bottle work by filling it up with water, turn it upside down in a pan with water so the bottle is straight up and down and making contact with the pan. Lift it up off the pan and bang it a few times on the pan without letting much water out. Shake it sideways with the bottle maintaining contact with the pan. Let some water out. Repeat a few times and you will get all the gold out.
    Benjamin Crain
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    10 May 2015 07:13 PM
    I bought the Sluice at Cabela's for around $35, and the snuffer bottle too for much less of course. I found the sluice filled the riffles with small sand very quickly, like the first spoon full, and everything else would just run out. When it came to the snuffer bottle it would work fine for normal wear and tear, but the inside lip on the lid would trap the fine gold making it much more difficult for beginners we were trying to teach to retrieve their fine gold flakes. As you know Colorado gold is salt crystal or smaller at times and to have that all trapped in the edge of a lid of a bottle it makes life much more difficult.

    As for metal detectors I just don't know, I own another brand that works very well and can detect a very small piece very far down. I owned a cheap Garret to find my wife's lost ear ring in the snow a long time ago, I ran the detector over the whole area for a long time and then spotted it with my own eyes, after having covered it with the detector with no detection.

    So I guess that truly makes it three bad strikes with me. Some people may have some luck but it would appear Garrett is not for me.
    Paul Straub
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    10 May 2015 07:45 PM
    Garrett does NOT make sluice boxes. I had checked out the local Cabela's around Christmas time, and looked at their sluice boxes (the all aluminum ones with the louver slits) they are made by a company called Brawn. I was pretty skeptical of how they would work, so I passed on them and got my cousin a Keene instead.
    Benjamin Crain
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    10 May 2015 09:14 PM
    That's probably the same one and they don't work at all, for some reason the box said Garret, but yes it was all aluminum and it clogged up with a few spoon fills of dirt, and I was glad to give it away. I am going to stick with Keene and switch out the matting with different types.
    ARTHUR WAUGH
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    11 May 2015 06:29 AM

    As to your snuffer bottle, sound like you have some "flash" on the edge of the top on the inside.  Take a sharp knife and trim it flush with the inside edge (without cutting through the top lip).  Or take a piece of fine sand paper and sand the inside edge flush.

    Matt Johnson
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    11 May 2015 06:32 AM
    A $35.00 dollar sluice? You got what you paid for.
    Benjamin Crain
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    11 May 2015 09:02 AM
    Arthur, you will have to see the bottle for yourself to see what I am talking about, it's just a poor design, it doesn't have a cone at all, and they sell them at Cabela's.

    Matt, you are 100% correct, I got what I paid for, garbage. I gave it to our club and they sold it to raise money for charity, so my loss went to a good cause, but from here on out I am sticking with Mr. Detector in Montrose and Keene products, with a few modifications of my own.

    Being new to Colorado has been a treat, there is a lot to learn and I must say I love this place. Some is trial and error and others is asking a lot of questions from the people that have been here their entire lives working the earth. This is the first time in my life I can get my wife to drink tap water and everyday we are surrounded by beauty. I was stationed out in Aurora years ago and hated it, that's why we now live on the Western Slope in Junction.

    I have even surrendered my back pack to my wife for her to use because I need a different one, different areas require different tools.
    Gary Whited
    Highbanker
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    11 May 2015 06:11 PM
    I normally go to the Garrett factory and buy direct from them. I have not had any problem with the quality of their products, even the imported items. Sometimes retailers will "bundle" other products with a brand name like Garrett to sell at what appears to be a discount. Maybe that is what happened.
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