Garrett buys Whites.

[bob79]

Garrett has announced the acquisition of certain assets of Whites Electronics, not sure how this bodes for Whites UK.
Quick update, factories not included in the sale, seems they were after the products any outstanding patents and the trademark.
Shame Tesoro couldn't have found a buyer.

[Saffron]

The following is the announcement on the Whites site

[Saffron]

This is the announcement on the Garrett website

[Pete E]

I wonder what the Whites real estate in Scotland refers to? Did Whites have a factory or service centre over here?

[bob79]

I wonder what the Whites real estate in Scotland refers to? Did Whites have a factory or service centre over here?

Factory and service centre in Inverness, served UK and the rest of the world, apart from the USA.

[Oxgirl]

Sounds like it’s really patents and trademarks they are buying. Good way to introduce new models at different price points without causing an issue with your existing customers I suppose. But I don’t think Whites have introduced anything new for years though have they?

[Saffron]

Whites actually stop production in June, due to struggling (although they did not use that word) with cheap copies of there machines from China (hence the Garrett comment about defending the brand and trademark), strong competition from other manufacturers and problems due to Covid 19 (if I remember correctly they were having some issues getting parts, and I suspect that sales of detectors were also hit).

Like Oxgirl I am not aware of them having introduced any new machines in recent times, and how the market has moved on in the last 2 years (eg Nox at the top end, and Vanquish and Simplex in midrange) I suspect that they were already struggling and issues with covid proved to be the final straw.

I have never had a Whites detector but believe they were good machines and very well built and reliable. But technology moves on and from what I saw they were being left behind. Over the years on digs I have seen people using them, but the number does seem to be decreasing and I can not remember having seen a new one, suggesting that the customer base was reducing.

Evan

[muddy mick]

Whites actually stop production in June, due to struggling (although they did not use that word) with cheap copies of there machines from China .
Evan

If anything you will find it was the Chinese who making cheap imitations of Garretts, Iv never seen any imitations of Whites to be honest

Whites actually stop production in June, due to struggling (although they did not use that word) with cheap copies of there machines from China (hence the Garrett comment about defending the brand and trademark), strong competition from other manufacturers and problems due to Covid 19 (if I remember correctly they were having some issues getting parts, and I suspect that sales of detectors were also hit).

Like Oxgirl I am not aware of them having introduced any new machines in recent times, and how the market has moved on in the last 2 years (eg Nox at the top end, and Vanquish and Simplex in midrange) I suspect that they were already struggling and issues with covid proved to be the final straw.

I have never had a Whites detector but believe they were good machines and very well built and reliable. But technology moves on and from what I saw they were being left behind. Over the years on digs I have seen people using them, but the number does seem to be decreasing and I can not remember having seen a new one, suggesting that the customer base was reducing.

Evan

Iv been a whites owner for over 20 years, Having had the classic III, a 2000 pro XL, a XLT which was a cult machine, replaced by the DFX Another cult machine, which i also had, it was a brilliant detector that could run with the big boys, I currently have the V3 which replaced the DFX, Iv had it for 10 years and have no wish to replace it, Its a brilliant detector and will match the top of the range detectors any day of the week, i detect with a mate who has a CTX and more often than not we match each other on find rates, never known them to be short on parts to be honest
Whites are massive in the States, always have been, go on any US whites facebook pages / Forums and they have a massive following with 1000s of users
Whites have to a extent being part of their own downfall, theyve never been brilliant on the advertizing front, when the V3 and the V3i were brought out, there was hardly anything in the magazines when they launched, I bought mine before any reviews were published, as i thought if its as good as the DFX it will be great, I was wrong it wasnt great it was bloody fantastic and paid for itself in the 1st year,
I know my detector inside out, Tis a powerful beast, and thats the trouble nowadays, peeps dont stick with their detectors and get the best out of them, a new one comes out and their like sheep, flocking to get the latest machine and more often than not selling them when they cant fathom them out, mines going nowhere, a good few years left in the old girl yet

[Saffron]

Mudy Mick, I got the bit about the cheap Chinese copies and Whites having to fight about trademarks and copies from the Whites web site, when they initially stopped production in June, so although the Chinese are copying Garretts it was an issue for Whites.

Glad you get on so well with yours. As I said from what I have seen they are good reliable well made machines, and I have not heard anybody knock them. But my gut feeling is that I am seeing less of them on digs than I used to, but this could simply be because some Whites users "behaving like sheep when a new machine comes out and flocking to it".

I am sure that knowing your machine as well as you do you will keep finding the goodies, and junk!, for years to come.

Evan

[muddy mick]

Mudy Mick, I got the bit about the cheap Chinese copies and Whites having to fight about trademarks and copies from the Whites web site, when they initially stopped production in June, so although the Chinese are copying Garretts it was an issue for Whites.

Glad you get on so well with yours. As I said from what I have seen they are good reliable well made machines, and I have not heard anybody knock them. But my gut feeling is that I am seeing less of them on digs than I used to, but this could simply be because some Whites users "behaving like sheep when a new machine comes out and flocking to it".

I am sure that knowing your machine as well as you do you will keep finding the goodies, and junk!, for years to come.

Evan

Ah well you learn something new everyday, where the V3s are concerned i know who a few who use them, and seen a few on rallies, but not loads, but and as said they sell better in the States, as to people flocking to get the latest detectors, its across the board, I remember when the CTX came out and its price, lots of people saying they wouldnt pay that, then the next minute buying one, When the Deus came out people flocked to buy them, but then had to have the Nox which even though being slated in a lot of reviews, peeps were selling their Deus,s to get a Nox, then slating it and going back to the Deus, its comical i know quite a lot of people who have swapped and changed over the years, must have fat bank accounts lol

[Bors]

An Old friend of mine Matt Renshaw has used the V3i for years now and he knows his inside out too. Matt likes to use his to its full capacity of an analytical machine and will often spend longer than average analysing his found target before digging it ,all information being logged in his Computer type Brain.
Quote Efan,..." trouble nowadays, peeps dont stick with their detectors and get the best out of them, a new one comes out and their like sheep, flocking to get the latest machine ".
I think to a degree ,we're all guilty of that somewhere along the line . I can remember one detector in particular the Blisstool LTC 64x was a Pig of a detector which defied all logic as far as working the damn thing was concerned and there was even one knob on the facia that actually didn`t make any difference to the working of it, no matter how or when you turned it. so with all that, I should imagine there were very few Blisstool owners that kept theirs for much more than a few months . Apparently it had been built on the same construction parts as a Fisher 1266 and then fiddled about with and built upon to become a Blisstool but I think things got lost on the working side and it just went wrong somewhere.
There was obviously a few people who "thought" it was a decent enough machine ,but to what degree was decent in one mans view from decent to another persons view ? It all depends on your degree of what mark decent was hit at I suppose . All I remember was it was grossly over hyped and it performed like a stubborn Mule with a bad bought of depression most of the time, so I soon realised this ,and on to fleabay it was placed where a big sigh of relief was uttered by myself when it was sold. So on occasion ,no matter how hard you try to get to grips with a detector, it soon becomes apparent , your never going to Gel with it for one reason or another, and in my book that`s nothing to be ashamed of , because if you just cannot get on with a detector its probably because of one simple realisation. You simply just don`t like it !

[Oxgirl]

Quote Efan,..." trouble nowadays, peeps dont stick with their detectors and get the best out of them, a new one comes out and their like sheep, flocking to get the latest machine ".
I think to a degree ,we're all guilty of that somewhere along the line

Never a truer word. It takes a long time to learn a new detector so it's got to offer a lot more to make that worthwhile

[Easylife]

Thats the trouble nowadays, peeps dont stick with their detectors and get the best out of them, a new one comes out and their like sheep, flocking to get the latest machine and more often than not selling them when they can't fathom them out.

I've noticed that happens a lot on FB groups as if they're chasing some magic bullet. Some detectors perform much better than others overall, like simultaneous multi-frequency over single frequency, but still people will prefer characteristics of one over another.
When I upgraded from my DFX I did very seriously consider a V3 but instead bought a Deus whether rightly or wrongly. I knew it well and it was good but lacked the ability to ID targets at any good depth. My Nox 800 is the perfect detector for me and like you with the V3 I would never part with it.

[Bors]

Quote ........."My Nox 800 is the perfect detector for me and like you with the V3 I would never part with it. "

Well, "never " really is a long time
& there almost certainly in the future be a detector that comes along that will out gun, out shine ,and out perform the Equinox , So before you consider using the word " never ", it might be better to not say never, but leave a few spaces in your mind for "Not part with it till something better comes along" maybe.
I havn`t ,to my knowledge ever said I would never part with any particular detector because although I`ve thought a few different detectors down the line have been exceptional, such as far back at the early 80`s the CScope Promet and Metadec 2 were outstanding machines I always knew that as time passed others would come along and outshine them , so I didn`t ever say I`d never get rid of either of them because of that.

[Marley]

Today, the equinox 800 is the best Performance machine available .
It just is, no point in trying to argue my deus or my nokta or whatever competes, because they just don’t .
The equinox only has one drawback that makes many people dislike it, and that’s its swing speed .
When your used to zooming along with your weightless deus It’s hard to change to slow and concentrate.
But once you get it, you’ve got it and would never buy single frequency again