Customer Reviews

National Geographic Metal Detector

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is without a doubt the best [...] we have spent on a toy for our 7-year-old son, but it isn't a toy. It's a highly functional, albeit inexpensive, metal detector. We've had it now for 3 years and take it camping, etc.
It will easily find something as small as a rusty staple, and will detect a railroad spike as far as 4 1/4 inches down, very good if you consider how small the detection coil is. When camping the kids love to find and dig up ancient tent stakes, rusty nails, and the occasional coin.
Adjusting the sensitivity is trivial, just hold it away from any metal, and turn the sensitivity knob until the red detector LED just goes out. Other reviewer has noted that the three-piece shaft breaks easily, which happened on ours, but a little duct tape goes a long way and this shouldn't stop you from buying one.
If you get one, make sure to bury some coins and other treasures in the garden for the kids to find.
PS It also really works great for locating studs and plumbing pipes in walls.

My wife dropped her engagement ring in the grass along a sidewalk path near our house yesterday. We spent hours on our hands and knees looking for the darned thing. After reading the reviews here, I went to the local Target and bought one of these "toys". It still took me over an hour, but I did finally find the ring! Now my daughters are using it to search for buried "treasures" in the backyard. I'm amazed at how many rusty nails and pennies they're turning up. This thing is great. Well worth the $15.

As noted by other customers this really is not a toy, it saved me over $500 in surveyor fees. I was trying to find my property points and after calling the local tax comission they suggested I contacted a surveyor or that I used a metal detector. The surveyor wanted $450 plus wathever charger and taxes they incurred in notifying the tax assessors. I went out and bought the National Geographic Metal Detector and found all my points within 30 minutes of searching. One of them was at least 5 inches deep!! That's impressive if you think about the diameter of a piece of rebar(about1/2 inch) Now I can use the money I saved to build my privacy fence and the kids can set out and find treasures with a highly accurate "toy".

Like the other reviewers mentioned, I lost a valuable earring in my garden, and had given up hope of finding it when someone loaned me this "toy" metal detector. It still took hours, but I found my earring using this thing and I think that is amazing. There was no way I would have ever found it without this metal detector. It's a great toy, but it's also a useful tool, and recommend it to everyone I know.

purchased x-mas 2006. Still going strong. Kids use it for 'treasure hunting' and i'll occasionally sprinkle the yard with coins for a easter egg type hunt. I've even used it to find lost metal objects in the grass(screws/nuts/bolts), and to find property markers. Handle seems a bit flimsy,but it hasn't broken yet. Though I expect it will someday. The unit can be converted for handheld use, maybe for play/real security checkpoints(similar to a clothes iron). Overall good buy. More powerful/sensitive than expected. Suprisingly pinpoint accuracy. I've sold many models of metal detectors for nearly a decade. And a 'hobby' unit that performed this well would cost 3-4 times the price.

Its great. I found everything in my backyard. Its not the most accurate but it tons of fun. It doesnt go to deep but its great to practice with befor u get a better one. But this was the best metal dector and cheepest metal detector i ever had it was a great christmas present.

A few days after Christmas my daughter's grandpa called me. He knew my daughter had gotten this toy metal detector for Christmas and wanted to know if I could bring down to his doctor's office. It was after hours and a patient thought she might have a needle in her foot. She was walking on her carpet when she felt a stabbing pain, but looked at her foot and didn't see anything sticking out of it. She did find a half a needle in her carpet. Grandpa didn't want to cut into the foot if there wasn't really a needle in it. I brought him the metal detector, and sure enough, it beeped when we ran it over the spot on her toe where she thought it might be. Who would've guessed this little toy would've found a needle in a toe!

I bought this for myself because I've always wanted a metal detector. I went to the local beach and it worked great. Haven't found a valuable treasure yet, but plan to do so the day after the 4th of July. My boyfriend was so enthused it was ridiculous and I had to struggle to get my "toy" from him and use it myself. I am 62 and he is 55 years old. We don't ever want to grow up as long as there are cool things like this National Geographic metal detector around. I am impressed with how well it performs. Seriously!

That's a question my little guys asked often. So I bought this for the youngest's 8th birthday. They have had plenty of fun searching the backyard since then. Net yield so far: about 16 cents. It keeps them active and outside with the dog, and that's worth a lot more than the 16 cents. As a bonus, I've used it to find all the pins that fell on the sewing room floor while working on a recent project.

I have to say, I am a bit disappointed... maybe we rec'd a bad one, but after reading all the reviews I was really excited about giving this to my daughter so we could go hunt on the beach. This machine barely detects something right on the surface. We change the sensitivity, but the range at which this detector can detect is very limited and very small.