Garrett Brand Overview: Built in Texas Since 1964
Garrett has manufactured metal detectors in Garland, Texas since 1964, and the company remains one of the few major brands still designing and assembling product in the United States. Detectorists choose Garrett metal detectors because the machines hold up in real conditions: iron-littered Civil War sites, hot caliche soil across the Arizona basin, and salt-soaked sand along the Atlantic. Control housings tolerate dust and rain, rod assemblies survive years of digs without flex, and audio behavior stays consistent across temperature swings.
The engineering philosophy favors clear menus and stable defaults over deep feature stacks. That keeps the learning curve gentle for newer hunters and gives experienced detectorists predictable behavior they can dial in by feel. Garrett backs every machine with a two-year limited warranty and a US service center, and the company's pinpointers and coils integrate cleanly across the rest of its catalog. For options outside the brand, see our full all metal detectors page.
Garrett Metal Detector Models: Which One Is Right for You?
Garrett's catalog breaks into four working families: the ACE single-frequency VLF series for beginners and budget hunters, the AT all-terrain submersible line for water and mineralized ground, the Apex and Vortex multi-frequency platforms for advanced target separation, and the Goldmaster 24K and Axiom prospecting machines for nugget shooting. The right pick depends on where you hunt, what you hunt, and how much manual control you want over ground balance and discrimination.
Garrett ACE 300: Entry-Level Coin and Jewelry Hunting
The ACE 300 steps up to 8 kHz with four-channel manual frequency adjustment to dodge EMI, expanded discrimination, and a 7" x 10" DD coil. This detector runs on four AA batteries, weigh under three pounds, and ship hunt-ready out of the box.
Garrett ACE 400: Best-Selling Mid-Tier Workhorse
The ACE 400 runs at 10 kHz with iron audio, a 0 to 99 Digital Target ID scale, five search modes, and the 8.5" x 11" DD PROformance coil. The higher frequency reads small gold jewelry and low-conductivity relics that the ACE 200 and 300 tend to miss. Iron audio routes discriminated trash back into the headphones at a low tone, which gives you a clearer picture of mixed-trash sites without losing keepers under the discrimination notch.
Garrett ACE Apex: Multi-Flex Multi-Frequency on a Budget
The ACE Apex brought simultaneous multi-frequency to Garrett's mid-range lineup. It runs four single frequencies (5, 10, 15, and 20 kHz) plus Multi-Frequency and Multi-Frequency Salt modes, switchable from the control panel. The Multi-Flex DD search coil is fully waterproof, and the control box is weatherproof rather than submersible, so the Apex handles rain and wet grass but is not built for full water hunting.
Garrett AT Pro: All-Terrain VLF Submersible
The AT Pro operates at 15 kHz and is submersible to 10 feet, making it the standard pick for creek wading, shallow surf, and damp relic sites. Pro Mode audio gives proportional response based on target strength and conductivity, which lets experienced hunters separate iron and bottle caps from deeper coins by ear. The AT Pro uses wired headphones and does not include Garrett's Z-Lynk wireless audio.
Garrett AT Max: Submersible with Built-In Z-Lynk Wireless
The AT Max runs at 13.6 kHz and is submersible to 10 feet. It adds built-in Z-Lynk wireless audio, a true all-metal mode with threshold, 175-point manual ground balance resolution, and a backlit display for low-light hunts. The faster recovery speed and tighter ground balance window pull keepers out of iron-heavy Revolutionary and Civil War sites that smother slower VLFs. The Max sits one step above the AT Pro for hunters who need wireless audio and finer ground control.
Garrett AT Gold: Built for Mineralized Ground and Small Nuggets
The AT Gold operates at 18 kHz with Fast Track ground balance, manual ground balance with Garrett's Ground Balance Window feature, and four-channel manual frequency shift to step away from EMI. The higher frequency reads sub-gram gold that 13 to 15 kHz general-purpose machines walk past, and the 5" x 8" DD coil tucks into tight crevices. It is submersible to 10 feet for dry-stream and wet-creek prospecting in western goldfields. The AT Pro outperforms it on saltwater beaches, but for high-mineralization dry land the AT Gold is the smarter pick. See our gold prospecting equipment collection for compatible coils and digging tools.
Garrett Vortex VX5 and VX7: Multi-Dimensional Multi-Frequency
The Vortex platform introduced Garrett's MD-MF (Multi-Dimensional Multi-Frequency) technology and is fully waterproof to 16 feet. The VX5 runs a single 13 kHz frequency or simultaneous Multi-Frequency, with a single-tier Target ID and three audio tones. The VX7 expands the menu with a 5 kHz single option, Multi-Frequency Salt for surf and wet beach, two-tiered ferrous and non-ferrous Target ID, additional audio tones, and adjustable Recovery Speed. Both models share a built-in lithium-ion battery rated for roughly 15 hours per charge and are software upgradeable, so a VX5 can be flashed up to VX7 or VX9 firmware without replacing the hardware.
Garrett Goldmaster 24K: 48 kHz VLF for Small Gold
The Goldmaster 24K runs at 48 kHz, the highest VLF frequency in the Garrett catalog, and is built specifically for sub-gram gold in mineralized soil. It ships with the XGB automatic ground balance system, a 6" x 10" DD waterproof coil, 0 to 99 Target ID across ferrous, gold, and high-conductor zones, ten levels of adjustable sensitivity with a boost option, and two audio modes (Beep tone ID and VCO Zip). The 24K is built around classic high-frequency nugget shooting and is the right call for hunters working hot rocks and ironstone in dry-land goldfields.
Garrett Axiom: Pulse Induction for Serious Gold Hunters
The Axiom is Garrett's pulse induction prospecting machine, running Ultra Pulse PI technology that ignores the iron mineralization and conductive salts that overwhelm VLF detectors. It carries four search modes (Fine, Normal, Large, and Salt), dual-channel ground balance for black sand and alkaline soils, a built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery rated for roughly 16 hours per charge, and wireless audio through the included MS-3 module. The 11" DD and 11" mono coils swap with a thumbscrew, and the collapsible shaft packs down to 25 inches for backpacking into desert washes and volcanic terrain. The Axiom is the brand's deepest-going machine and the right tool when VLF performance has flattened out in highly mineralized ground.
Authorized Garrett Dealer: Why It Matters
Serious Detecting is an authorized US dealer, so every Garrett metal detector we ship carries the full two-year factory warranty and is covered by Garrett's US service center. That matters because Garrett enforces minimum advertised pricing and channel authorization, and machines pulled from gray-market channels (auction listings, parallel imports, unauthorized resellers) often arrive with voided warranty serials or missing registration cards. Buyers who run into a control board failure two years in have no recourse unless the original purchase came from an authorized source.
Authorized inventory also reflects current production runs. Garrett occasionally revises coil cabling, software, or internal components mid-cycle, and only authorized stock carries those updates. Customers searching for "garrett metal detectors near me" can pick up orders in person at our retail location in Ypsilanti, Michigan, or have any unit drop-shipped factory-fresh from our warehouse.
Garrett Accessories Worth Adding to Your Kit
The Garrett Pro-Pointer AT pinpointer is the most-paired accessory in the catalog: 360-degree detection, proportional audio and vibration, fully waterproof to 10 feet, and the same Z-Lynk wireless module used on the AT Max for direct sync. For broader options see our all pinpointers page. Aftermarket search coils for Garrett open up real range tuning, with smaller 5" rounds for trashy permission sites and larger 12" elliptical coils for clean fields and deep relic searches. Carry bags, hard cases, MS-3 wireless headphones, and digging tools round out a complete Garrett build.
