Tesoro compadre which is a entry-level VLF metal detector. It weight is under 2 pound, it comes with 7.5” coil and the retail price is about $170 on the amazon.com website. You can find the price similar online for this particular detector.
It is obviously very basic function but there are things about this metal detector that i believe put this above those of the other entry level metal detectors. Primarily the Garret Ace 150, Ace 250 and the Fisher F2.
The closest best competitor to the Tesoro Compadre would be the Garret Ace 250. There is a couple of things about this detector which i feel put it in a category of its own, an entry-level metal detector for under $200.
The main thing is the price. At $170, it beats the Garret Ace 250 by $40. So, you save $40 which is basically the amount of money you need for a digging tool or maybe a cheap pinpointer. Its a some kind of detecting gear that you may need.
Compadre has a lifetime warranty, something that most of other entry-level metal detectors do not have, again a big point.
The biggest point that i feel for the compadre is it operate at a 12 kilohertz frequency, the Garret 250 operate at 6.5 kilohertz frequency. Whats that mean is the Tesoro compadre will go deeper and will find small objects like gold.
You actually could use this so called very basic entry-level type of metal detector for prospecting. It is interesting to me that you can get such a high value product like tesoro compadre and it still is inexpensive. And in a lot of ways it has same firepower of detectors that cost more than $400.
The downside
Some downside though, you cannot change the coil. You can modified it to accept another coil but it will void the warranty, so theres really no reason to do that.This machine is not suitable for wet sand and areas with high mineralization. You can expect that happen for all major entry-level detectors.
Another cons for some of people but a bonus to others is its a single discrimination mode detector. Meaning, you just have the single dial and that is all you have to work with. The knob started off, and you progressively go clockwise around. You will go to All metal, Iron, foils,5 cent, pull tab, zinc penny and max discrimination.
Tesoro Compadre is what you call a beep and dig device. Its quite ok at discriminating and you can definitely discriminate things out like iron, which you want to do at trashy areas. But its really good at just turning on and going.
That mean you will dig a lot of trash, that is true but considering how lite it is, easy to carry, very convenient to swing.
Recap
Tesoro compadre is a highly functional entry-level metal detector. Its weight, its high value when considering its operating frequency and the compactness of the device. As well as being both inexpensive to purchase and but also inexpensive to operate it.
Its function on one 9 volt battery and that is it. It will go for quite a long time with that because it has no a lot of feature to operate or to power.
There is not much thing to say about this machine. You will use this in the playground and have a great time. You can get nice and close to the stuff in the playground with it smaller coil. You also will be figure out exactly where you get in hit and when you are not without any big disturbance problems.
In my mind, this is a one of the best entry-level metal detectors in the market. You can disagree with that, especially if you like more features. But just bear in mind that many of the other entry-level metal detectors kind of hit all bullet points.
They do the pinpoint, they do depth, they do discrimination. But they dont do it that well. I would rather take something like Tesoro compadre that can find stuff deeper and at higher frequency, than getting bells and whistles that is only get you half of what compadre can get you for it depth and find you good stuff.