ChrisNik HoundDog Magnetic Locator

I would be interested in any reports.?ÿ Thinking of getting a new locator, too.

I have been using them for years. Works great if you run into chain link and barbed wire a lot.

Pros: super light and handy carry case for hiking, ignores negative poles well. Very ergonomic, require only 1 9v battery.

Cons: very quiet speaker cannot hear over traffic, about 20% of buried plumb rebar have their poles reversed so using mode 2 will cause you to miss some monuments. Scan area is small so you must take very small swipes. Must have knob at 12 o'clock to be sure you are finding stuff.

I bought 1 to try and bought more later on. Takes a little getting used to, I always scan t posts and chain link posts top to bottom to see where their poles are, some have 4 poles instead of 2. Then you can be sure the bottom is negative if you suspect a monument may be next to em.

?ÿ

@jon-Collins   

Thanks jon

These have been around in various forms for a while, and they are my preferred locator. Simple and work very well.

@dmyhill 

that's good I am mostley working in construction sites and most of time I am looking for property bars near the fence that's mean its working

good to ignoring the fence

thanks.

I think ChrisNik bought the locator business and renamed it, since it's been around for a while. It's a polarity switching function.?ÿ I considered getting this unit, but my local supplier didn't recommend the product since it can only be repaired in Canada for any warranty service. In my online research, it seemed the build quality wasn't that great from user reviews, comments, etc. It seems the houndog is either detecting polarity positive or negative but unable to detect both at the same time, hence the "fence ignoring", but with that you could be not detecting metal you want since if you set it to positive it won't detect any metal of negative polarity.

Instead I got the Schonstedt Maggie which has a polarity indicator on its display which provides the same benefit of what the houndog does. For instance with the polarity indicator of it, you can tell if you have something horizontal because you could move from one end of the buried horizontal object and notice one end is positive and the other is negative. The houndog would only detect one of the ends and you'd be digging that up instead of ignoring the horizontal metal. Very happy with the Maggie.

@jon-collins

I have used them while working in the Toronto area and this review is spot on.  They do work a bit different than the old Schonstedts, but one quickly gets the hang of it.  

We bought a HoundDog on September 18th of this year and it has already quit working. I replaced the battery with no change. On Monday I will be finding out just how good the warranty is. Hopefully it is a fluke.

?ÿ

I bought one. It was ONE generation before the one NOW being sold. It was too slow. Meaning, it did not have fast response time. I could MISS stuff. I am USED to Schonstedt, and I would end up missing stuff. ChrisNick told me that "The next generation is faster". I did not try it. I just sent the old one back. (New item, old style).

How are they on SPEED?

I am always in a hurry, and need fast detector speed, to keep up.

Thanks,

N

@nate-the-surveyor Look into the Maggie by Schonstedt. Read my previous post.