Garrett ACE 400 Metal Detector with All-Purpose Carry Bag

The Garrett ACE 400 bundle combines the ACE 400 detector, its 8.5 x 11 inch PROformance DD searchcoil and Garrett TreasureSound headphones with a Garrett All-Purpose Carry Bag. We recommend the ACE 400 to beginners and intermediate coin and relic hunters searching parks, older properties and fields. The searchcoil is submersible, but the control housing is not.

What is in the box with this Garrett ACE 400 bundle

Garrett's standard contents for the ACE 400 (Garrett part 1141260)

• Garrett ACE 400 control housing with S-shaped stem, upper and lower stem with camlocks
• Adjustable arm cuff and arm strap
• 8.5 x 11 inch PROformance DD searchcoil (submersible)
• Coil cover
• Searchcoil hardware: bolt, nut and mounting washers
• Garrett TreasureSound headphones with in-line volume control (Garrett part 1612500)
• 4 AA batteries (installed)
• Owner's manual

This Garrett ACE 400 bundle also includes

• Garrett All-Purpose Carry Bag (Garrett part 1634800)

What the add-ons in this Garrett ACE 400 bundle do

Garrett All-Purpose Carry Bag: durable, reinforced polyester protects the ACE 400 against wear and tear, and the 50-inch length takes any current Garrett detector without removing the searchcoil. Two zippered pockets organize accessories, and shoulder straps and carry handles give you a choice of how to carry it to the site. See our Garrett carry bags and pouches.

About the Garrett ACE 400

The Garrett ACE 400 keeps the straightforward ACE layout and adds Iron Audio, a 10 kHz operating frequency and a larger 8.5 x 11 inch PROformance DD searchcoil than the 7 x 10 inch concentric coil on the Garrett ACE 300. Garrett calls it the top of the ACE family. What we like is that Iron Audio and the larger DD coil make it more interesting for someone who wants to learn how to evaluate complicated targets. We would choose the ACE 400 when you want a straightforward detector with better tools for investigating ground full of iron.

Garrett ACE 400 search modes and key settings

• Five search modes plus Pinpoint: Zero-Disc, Jewelry, Custom, Relics and Coins, with Coins as the factory default. Garrett designed Coins mode to find coins and eliminate common trash such as iron, foil and pull tabs, and the manual warns that medium-sized jewelry may be missed with that discrimination pattern. Jewelry mode is designed to find rings, bracelets, watches and necklaces while ignoring most iron trash, and Relics mode eliminates small iron pieces while detecting good targets in the lower conductivity range.
• Iron Audio: lets you hear discriminated iron that is normally silenced, so a flat iron target such as a bottle cap or washer can give itself away before you dig.
• Discrimination and Iron Check: four iron discrimination segments within a 12-pixel discrimination bar, set with DISCRIM (+/-) and the ELIM button for notching. Graphic Target Analyzing shows a target's conductivity together with the discrimination pattern.
• Digital Target ID from 0 to 99: with three audio tone ID levels and a coin depth indicator. On the display, the Target ID Legend runs from ferrous (iron) targets at the left to thick, high conductivity targets such as thick silver at the right, and the three tones split by Target ID: a low tone below 33, a medium tone from 33 to 75 and a belltone above 75. Target ID can vary widely with a target's size and thickness, and mineralized soils can cause Target ID errors, especially on small targets.
• Frequency and sensitivity: 10 kHz with four minor frequency adjustments (F1 to F4) to reduce interference from electrical sources or other detectors, and eight sensitivity levels. Garrett's manual recommends higher sensitivity for very small or very deep targets, and lower sensitivity when the detector behaves erratically because of heavy trash, highly mineralized soil, electrical interference or other detectors nearby.
• Ground handling: the ACE 400 adjusts automatically for ground minerals, without a manual ground balance control.

Water and beach use with the Garrett ACE 400

Garrett's manual says the searchcoil is submersible, but the control housing and connectors are not, and it advises protecting the control housing from heavy mist, rain and blowing surf. The coil can work in shallow water as long as the control housing stays dry. For someone wanting simultaneous multi-frequency operation or regular saltwater beach capability, we would recommend the Garrett ACE Apex or the Garrett Vortex VX7; see also our beach metal detectors.

Where the Garrett ACE 400 works well, and where it does not

Picture an old yard with rusty bottle caps and the occasional coin: we would use Iron Audio to investigate questionable signals rather than digging on the target ID alone, with target ID, discrimination and electronic pinpointing to help sort the rest. Iron can mask a good target lying next to it, so Garrett's manual recommends using just enough discrimination to barely reject the iron trash, letting the coin and the nail be detected together. In areas with a lot of iron, the manual recommends switching Iron Audio off, because it may produce far too many signals. See more relic and treasure metal detectors.

Garrett ACE 400 compared with the AT Pro

The Garrett AT Pro is fully submersible to 10 feet (3 m) and offers automatic and manual ground balance and Pro modes with proportional audio.

Garrett ACE 400 coil, battery and build

The 8.5 x 11 inch PROformance DD coil is larger than the ACE 300's 7 x 10 inch concentric coil. Garrett's manual says the narrow detection field of the DD searchcoil allows better separation of adjacent targets, and Garrett's searchcoil guidance says a Double-D significantly outperforms a concentric coil over mineralized ground, while on non-mineralized ground it is inherently less sensitive than a concentric coil of the same size. Garrett lists the ACE 400 at 2.9 lbs (1.32 kg) with a stem that adjusts from 42 to 51 inches (1.06 to 1.29 m) and camlocks for stem stability. Four AA batteries run 20 to 40 hours depending on battery type and quality, a battery condition indicator shows the charge, and the headphone jack takes a 1/4 inch plug.

One mistake to avoid with the Garrett ACE 400

Assuming Iron Audio identifies every bottle cap correctly is the mistake we would warn about. Rusty iron can still produce misleading responses, so treat Iron Audio as one more clue on a questionable signal.

Garrett ACE 400 specifications

Garrett covers the ACE 400 with a 3-year limited parts and labor warranty.

For our full Garrett ACE 400 guide, settings advice and comparisons, see the Garrett ACE 400 collection.