Garrett ACE series
Garrett ACE Series Weight Comparison and What It Costs Your Arm
Quick answer
Garrett publishes under three pounds for the ACE 200, 2.5 pounds for the ACE Apex and 2.9 pounds for the Vortex VX9, rising to 3.05 pounds with the coil cover fitted. Published weight is only half the story, because balance decides what your forearm actually feels.
Weight is the specification that decides how long you stay out, and it is the one buyers discount hardest at the point of purchase. Two and a half pounds sounds trivial. Held at arm's length, swung through an arc roughly once a second for three hours, it is not trivial at all, and the injury that ends most detecting careers is a tendon complaint in the forearm or elbow rather than anything dramatic.
What follows are the figures the manufacturers publish, with the gaps named as gaps. Garrett does not put a weight in every product listing, and inventing one to fill a table would be exactly the sort of thing this site exists not to do.
Top pick
Garrett ACE Apex
At a published 2.5 pounds with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, the Apex is the lightest machine Garrett publishes a figure for in this family.
Price was accurate when this page was compiled and changes often.
On this page
What do the manufacturers publish?
Every figure below comes from the maker's own listing. Where a listing carries no weight, the row says so rather than estimating.
The published spread across these machines is narrow, from 2.5 pounds for the ACE Apex to 3.05 pounds for a Vortex VX9 with its coil cover fitted, which is why balance matters more than the headline number.
| Machine | Published weight | Source note | Power |
|---|---|---|---|
| ACE Apex | 2.5 lb | Stated in the Garrett listing | Built-in lithium-ion |
| ACE 200 | Under 3 lb | Stated as under three pounds in the Garrett listing | 4 AA cells |
| ACE 300 | Given in the owner's manual | Not carried in the product listing | 4 AA cells |
| ACE 400 | Given in the owner's manual | Not carried in the product listing | 4 AA cells |
| Vortex VX9 | 2.9 lb, or 3.05 lb with the coil cover | Stated in the Garrett listing | Built-in lithium-ion |
| AT Pro | Given in the owner's manual | Not carried in the product listing | 4 AA cells |
| Minelab Equinox 700 | 2.8 lb | Stated in the Minelab listing | Rechargeable |
| Nokta Simplex Ultra | 2.6 lb | Stated in the Nokta listing | Rechargeable |
Weights are as published by each manufacturer and generally exclude accessories, headphones and any coil other than the one supplied. A larger aftermarket coil adds weight at the far end of the shaft, where it costs you most. Where a listing does not publish a figure, the owner's manual is the place to look.
Why does balance matter more than total weight?
A detector is a lever. The load your forearm carries is not the mass of the machine but the moment about your wrist, which is the mass multiplied by how far forward it sits. Move weight from the coil end to the control box or the elbow rest and the machine feels lighter without losing an ounce. This is why some three pound machines swing more easily than some two and a half pound ones, and why fitting a large coil to a light machine can make it feel worse than a heavier machine with a smaller coil.
Two practical consequences. First, judge a machine by picking it up assembled with the coil you intend to run, not by reading its box. Second, if you already own a machine that hurts, the cheapest fix is almost never a new detector. Garrett states the Vortex collapses to 24.75 inches for transport, which tells you about the shaft design as well as about the bag it fits in.
What actually reduces arm fatigue?
A sling or harness takes the moment off the wrist and shares it across the shoulders and back, which is the single largest intervention available. A simple sling is the low-cost version and a full harness is the version for heavy machines and long days. Beyond that: shorten the shaft so the coil is not further forward than it needs to be, swap hands periodically, and stop before the ache starts rather than after.
Coil choice is the other lever, and it is the one people forget. The coil compatibility chart sets out what will actually fit, and the coverage and sweep time tool will tell you whether the bigger coil is buying you enough ground per hour to justify what it costs your arm.
Does a lighter machine find less?
No. Weight tracks build materials, battery type and shaft design, not detecting power. Carbon fibre shafts and lithium-ion cells are the reason modern machines got lighter, and neither has anything to do with transmit power or signal processing. The Apex is lighter than the Vortex VX9 and the VX9 is the more capable machine; the Simplex Ultra is lighter than both and is a fully waterproof carbon fibre design.
The only weight-related performance trade is coil size, and that is a choice you make per site rather than per purchase. If you want the practical settings side of this, the Apex settings page covers how to work a machine you can actually carry all day.
What takes the load off?
None of this is glamorous, and all of it extends the number of hours you can put in per season, which is the only variable that reliably produces finds.
Garrett ACE Apex
$384.99A stated 2.5 pounds with a built-in lithium-ion battery rated at up to fifteen hours, at $384.99.
Best for: long sessions without a battery bag
Check price on Amazon
LimbSaver Comfort-Tech Metal Detector Sling
$20.23Distributes the machine's weight across the upper body instead of the forearm, which is where the injury happens.
Best for: anyone detecting more than an hour at a time
Check price on Amazon
Detecting Harness and Swing Support
$36.99A full harness with multiple adjustment points, for heavy machines, big coils and all-day permissions.
Best for: heavy machines and shoulder trouble
Check price on AmazonHow we chose
We did not test these machines in person and we publish no find claims. Picks are researched from manufacturer specifications and owner manuals, published listing features, waterproof ratings and warranty terms, and the recurring themes in verified owner reviews. We favour the established detector brands because coils, shafts and control boxes have to stay available years after a model is discontinued, and we place every pick in the tier where its price and capability honestly belong.
Sources
- Garrett ACE 200 published listing, for the under three pounds figure
- Garrett ACE Apex published listing, for the 2.5 pound weight and battery rating
- Garrett Vortex VX9 published listing, for weight with and without the coil cover and collapsed length
- Minelab Equinox 700 and Nokta Simplex Ultra published listings, for comparison weights
Frequently asked questions
How much does the Garrett ACE Apex weigh?
Garrett states 2.5 pounds, alongside a built-in lithium-ion battery rated at up to fifteen hours of use. That makes it the lightest machine in this family for which Garrett publishes a figure. Remember that published weights generally exclude headphones, a pouch and any coil other than the supplied one, all of which add to what you actually carry.
How much does the Garrett Vortex VX9 weigh?
Garrett states the VX9 weighs 2.9 pounds, or 3.05 pounds with the supplied searchcoil cover installed, and that it collapses to 24.75 inches for transport and stowage. That cover figure is a useful piece of honesty from the manufacturer, because most published weights quietly omit accessories that you will in practice always have fitted.
Why is the ACE 300 weight not listed here?
Because Garrett's public product listing for that model does not carry one, and the owner's manual is the correct source. Putting an invented figure in a comparison table would make the whole table untrustworthy. If you need the number, the manual gives it, and if you own the machine a kitchen scale gives it more reliably than any website can.
Is a three pound detector too heavy for an older detectorist?
Not by itself. The load your arm feels depends on how far forward the mass sits, not just on the total, so a well balanced three pound machine can be easier than a poorly balanced two and a half pound one. A sling or harness makes a far larger difference than any weight saving available between models, and costs a fraction of a new detector.
Does a bigger coil make a machine much heavier?
It adds less mass than people expect and more effort than they expect, because the extra weight sits at the far end of the lever. A large coil can make a light machine feel heavier than a mid-size coil on a heavier machine. Judge any combination by swinging it assembled for a few minutes, not by adding the two published weights together.
Researched, not professional advice. This page is compiled from published specifications, manuals and owner-review consensus, not hands-on testing. Target ID numbers, depth figures and settings vary with soil chemistry, moisture, target size, depth, orientation and firmware version, so treat every figure here as a starting point and verify it against your own machine's manual and your own ground. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.