How to Store your Detector for a long period of time.

Intro: 

Hey Everybody. Welcome! To Episode 76 of the metal detecting show podcast. My Name is Ciaran and I have been Metal Detecting for nearly 30 Years. This week I want to talk about an unusual topic that I came across on the forums and that was on whether you are better off storing your detector or selling it if you had to come away from the hobby  for a long period of time. 

 Music 

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Content:

Hey Everyone welcome to the podcast, I hope you had more luck than I did this week I for sure was not in the favour of the gods of high conductivity but most definitely a pawn to the demons of Big Iron. BIG IRON….

I hit my relic beach this weekend, that’s the beach that if found the gilded livery button previously. which now adorns my wall like a playboy centrefold where the pages have been stuck together so much that you can barely make out any detail but its there and I look at it regularily.

So anyways the CTX and I hunted my relic beach with very little coming up I dug only good signals which meant I didn’t dig as many holes as I used to and this allowed me cover more ground however all that came up was large iron and a few bits of brass and copper with a few toasted out coins. 

Not too bad but when the standard has been set so high previously it was hard to get excited as each hole chipped away at my enthusiasm 1 piece at a time this coupled with that fact that I totally forgot how hard it was to dig ground full of rocks in various sizes making each hole dug feeling like an exploration to the center of the planet. 

The hunt became an exercise in mental strength but I kept plugging away and caught a few fish which was grand. If anybody has any digging tips for rocky ground let me know cause I wont be returning there this season unless I have contingency to help with the holes.

So this  week I want to talk about an unusualy topic but something that peaked my interest while crusing the forums so  firstly I want to give the Friendly metal detector forums full credit for this week’s topic and that was the question on the following scenario if you were taking a break from the hobby for a long period of time should you store your detector or should you sell it on and buy a replacement when you get back to the hobby and if you decide to store it what’s the best way to do this. So first of all I didn’t contribute to the discussion at all because I would have just said your smoking crack if you think you can give up this awesome hobby “I just cant quit you” but I did get to thinking what are the options here and how should they play out and that’s this weeks topic. 

Lets address the first question should you store or Sell, that depends on how long your gonna be gone if it’s a a few months then I would just stick it in the shed out of the way to come back to it when you can and think nothing of it. 

however if your looking at this question and the timeline is longer than say a year, two years or even longer then there is a few things to consider on whether you should sell it.  

The first being are you losing money on storing it, think about it you might have a year old nox that will go for 4-500 buck depending on condition on the second hand market if you sold it today, how much does a 5 year old nox go for unfortunately their not like cars and have a odometer on them to tell you the milage so if I’m buying a second hand detector its priced at its age so I would be expecting to pay 2-3 hundred for a 5 year old nox. 

So is it better to pocket 400 bucks today to save RIGHT!! For when you want to buy a similar aged nox for 200 in 3 years time. 

I smell profit!!! But I think you know what im saying are you better off realising the value of the detector today rather than have its value drop while in storage. 

Now this is a silly game, store it or sell it you still have a 5 year old nox at the end of the day but I would prefer to have the money sitting in the bank waiting for me to blow it all on new gear when I want to come back to the hobby. Whos to say technology wont advance in the mean time and your nox is cutting edge going into storage but a has been coming out and you’ll end up selling it anyways for a pittance to upgrade to the newest tech if that’s the way your inclined.

Sentimentality throws this all out the window, if there is some emotional attachment to the detector then no common sence will make you sell it, believe me it does happen and you will store it up.

But what should you consider when you put it away in storage. There are a few factors, Where to store it, what temperature is appropriate, how humid the area is, is where its being stored subject to people traffic or is it dirty lots to consider before we even get to the Most important part of how to store the batteries.

Starting with what temperature is appropriate most detectors are rated to operate between -40c and 40c this is a guidance for general operation at a temperature in that range. 

it doesn’t account for large swings in temperature that can have a detrimental effect on the electronics and connections inside your detector for example I’m in Ireland and our seasonal temp barely moves between -1 and 20c all year round with each day having an avg temp variance of about 10c so storing in this temperature will not be a problem 

However if you’re in a hot climate where the daily temperature variance is plus 30’s in the day to low single digits at night then you should consider storing the detector inside the house or in an underground basement with a steady temperature as repeated temperature variance like this will cause the connections to expand and contract frequently resulting in joints losing their integrity and breaking as soon as there is any physical exertion put on the detector like banging it off the ground when swinging. The Temperature at which it is stored will also have an effect on the battery but we will get onto that in a bit.

Now although Ireland is grand for temperature we would not be so good with humidity or moisture as everyone knows it rains everyday in Ireland with most families having a pet fungus in the house due to the humidity or moisture content in the air. 

So this would be something I would consider having to negate by either storing the detector in a bag preferably a vacuum sealed bag  coupled with desiccant silica pouch’s just to ensure everything stayed dry. 

If you’re in the arid wastelands then this will not be a problem for you and you could probably hang it on the wall of you shed without to much of a panic. 

In Fact the Garden shed or basements seems to be the most favoured spot for people to store their detectors be it for the long term or short term however if most are like me then the garden shed is not exactly the cleanest spot with potential for garden dust or wood working dust to cover everything a good rule of thumb is if you can see a layer of dust on a shelf in the shed or basement then maybe you shouldn’t store your detector there. 

Last thing to consider is the battery especially if it’s a sealed in rechargeable type similar to what comes with the simplex and the Nox both are lithium Ion types of batteries, if you have a detector that uses single use batteries or batteries that can be removed from the detector then you needn’t worry about the following. 

Do you know that you shouldn’t let a lithium Ion battery fully discharge below 3.2v per Cell if you do it can cause the battery to degrade by forming copper shunts which can short the battery out when next charged, or swell even burst through the casing of the detector or potentially burst into flames the next time you charge it. 

Serious stuff litium Ion batteries are no joke just google videos of people stabbing them and you will see what I mean. It is advised that these batteries be stored in flame retardant bags so that’s why it is so important to ensure you store them correctly. 

The key to keeping the battery healthy is that number of 3.2 v and not letting each cell in the battery go below this number but how can you do this when planning on storing a detector for years especially when you consider a battery naturally looses 4% charge per year when stored at 25c or 77f. So Ciaran im gonna fully charge my battery and leave it in storage for a few years and if its only gonna lose 4% a year I should be grand right well know that 4% is not taking into account any charge that may be used by the detector itself to maintain stroed memory for example. 

That 4% also doesn’t correlate to a straight line of discharge in fact if you fully charged your detector and store it would lose 20% of its charge in the first year. 

The best charge state to leave your detector in is between 40% and  60% believe it not in this sweet zone you will only lose 4% charge per year giving you a safe year of storage of the battery but I would advise recharging up the detector every 12 months to 18 months letting it discharge to about half and put it away for another year, year and a half. 

So pulling it all together If I was to have to store my detector of longer than a year, I would firstly give it a forensic level clean I would inspect any seals and apply suitable lube to them, If I had the original box I would use that which I would stick it in a vacuum sealed bag with a few desiccant silica pouches and seal it up tight ensuring that the battery was between 40% and 60% charge and if I could I would make sure I downloaded any bespoke programs I may have had or if I can download them I would copy them down to a note pad which would get sealed up with the detector. 

I would then place it somewhere away from people traffic and dust but a place that didn’t suffer from big swings in temp like a basement of attic. 

I would make note of the date knowing that I would need to check it out in about 18 months’ time making sure to charge it back to that sweet spot and ensuring to fully inspect the detector for any potential of signs of a battery swelling, if all good I would pack it all up again till next time but I would think that I couldn’t stay away from the hobby for that long for this to be a major problem. “I just can’t quit you” 

Wrap Up 

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Get out there eyes down and Happy Hunting.