Every recommendation on DetectProven traces to a published number. This page is the method — what we check, where the numbers come from, and what we deliberately don’t do.
The specifications we reconcile
Every guide works from the same core figures: operating frequency (in kHz, and whether the machine runs one frequency or several at once), ground balance (automatic, manual or tracking), waterproof rating and depth (and whether it covers the whole detector or only the coil), coil size and type (DD or concentric), in-hand weight, target-ID scale and recovery speed. Where a kind of hunting needs more — pulse-induction versus high-frequency VLF for gold, saltwater handling for the beach, a pinpointer’s detection depth and waterproofing — the guide states its added criteria at the top.
We then reconcile those numbers against the ground you actually intend to search. Wet salt sand defeats many single-frequency machines; mineralized gold country needs ground balance that can keep up; a four-hour hunt makes every ounce of weight matter. The reconciliation, not the spec sheet, is the recommendation. Where we compare figures across models — a weight difference, say — the guide labels that comparison as our own calculation.
Where the numbers come from
Manufacturer manuals and specification sheets, in that order of trust; warranty documents; and owner feedback read at scale across public platforms. Every specification we publish is taken from a document we can point to. When two manufacturer documents disagree, we say which one we used and why. When a number cannot be verified from any published source, the guide says so in a named exclusions section rather than repeating a figure we cannot stand behind.
What we don’t do
We don’t buy, swing or hunt with the detectors we write about, and we won’t pretend to. There is no test field, no staged dig, no unboxing. When a question can only be settled in the field — how a machine behaves on a particular beach, how tiring it is by the third hour — we say so plainly and tell you what the published evidence does and does not support. The site’s verdicts rest on documents, not on anyone’s hunting.
Who it’s for — and who should skip it
Every recommendation names who it’s for and who it isn’t for. An honest guide has losers as well as winners, and ours name what we excluded and why.
Prices
We don’t publish prices. They change too quickly to trust in an article, so we use broad price bands (for example $300–600) and ask you to check the current price with the retailer before buying.
How we’re paid
Reader-supported, through affiliate links that never affect what we recommend — the full policy is in our affiliate disclosure.