Schonstedt GA-52Cx Magnetic Locator

Schonstedt makes the BEST pipe locator there is!

An exceptional instrument! I've been able to locate numerous survey pins, some at depths over 3' and deep in the woods. I read several reviews before making this purchase and it has exceeded my expectations.

This company provides a remarkable product that works well in the oilfields. I have used this product for the past 30 plus years and have nothing but things to say about it. I definitely will purchase from this company again.

Great locator

i have worked with many metal locators over the years and Schonstedt makes a very high quality device . having said that , you can do better for the price. these particular units are for old school surveyors that have been using this type of 'beeper' for many years and just dont want to transition. they are prone to breaking when dropped and have dials and screws that strip out easily. if youre careful with it , it will work just fine for many years but accidents happen in the field , so i prefer other Schonstedt devices that are sturdier or a Subsurface (ML-3) device that is , in my opinion , much better.

Space age technology. A magnetometer with high precision. Sensitivity was set to 2 when I found this survey pin in my yard. It pointed to the exact location above the pin made from a piece of steel rebar. The pins tend to settle into the ground as they age. A plug was removed from the turf and there it was.

I bought this after reading reviews for it, After it arrived I read instructions and did many test runs. Many employees also tested it again and again. Not one was able to get anything but load obnoxious noise from it. It read metals just about in every part of the ground. I would not recommend this item to anyone.

My office has one of these and it's still working great after several years of use. We use it every few months for locating water valves that got paved over, buried property pins, etc. It takes practice to learn to interpret the sounds. It has four sensitivity settings and runs on two 9-volt batteries. The Schonstedt website has some good how-to info to introduce new users to magnetic locating.It picks up large objects (water mains, property pins) and small objects (nails) alike. It also picks up ferrous rocks though, so that is where user experience comes in. I have had several experiences where I dug down only to find a small rock that the detector loved. Because of that, it's helpful to get familiar with your area's natural rocks/the aggregate they use in your roads and to expect some superfluous noise as a result. The volume has a good range but if you are around heavy equipment it gets drowned out easily. The GA-52C model is the top one in the Amazon picture. It does not have a screen to show the +/- magnetic fields around objects, but it has good sensitivity and is a good tool for a trained user.