Locate equipment durability

[ProfessionalLocator]

Looking for comments of the durability and reliability as well at the lack thereof of locate equipment in use in the environment of the production locate firms doing call before you dig tickets. This is not looking for use in private locating doing one or a few jobs a day but where there is heavy use in all weather and conditions.

[TBONE]

Radiodetection or rycom seems to be the most durable that we have used beeen beating them up for years and they keep kicking you can get them wet and drop them out the back of a truck (if you forget to close your tailgate) and they seem to hold up well

[The Big-E]

while I love RD 8000 in it's locating abilities, I don't think it stands up to well in day in and day out locating... it doesn't take "bumps" too well, even under normal use...
I do like the durability of my old subsite 75 and 950 series though...

[Jcbro86]

i love rycom, i've been using the 8879 since i started i've been so successful with it i managed to keep it even when the whole office went to RD. i do have one negative comment about their design. just under the "head" of the receiver is the handle, right under the handle is the battery compartment and the rest of the "blade." that point at the head end of the battery compartment is a weak point. i've had two receivers develop cracks at that point in the past 3 years. they are great and can take alot of bumps and falls but if it ever falls in a way to create pressure on that point it will probably break.

[clownshoes]

While I've only used 3 pieces of equipment....RD4000,RD8000 and Vivax....hands down the Vivax!! For day to day extreme use its been the best holding up so far,not to mention the capabilities of it! Love the peak function with the guide arrows plus the battery life is awesome....the carrying case is a different story but it does have wheels lol

[ProfessionalLocator]

I use the ViVax and my durability review is negative, do not buy one.



Our ViVax’s were all manufactured roughly within the lost 18 months, I am interested in how older models have held up, perhaps there have bee design changes.

The ViVax is manufactured in China and the Chinese factories are notorious for skimping on design specs and putting out defective, even dangerous, products.

The large ring clamp is a major weak point. It is screwed together hollow plastic and where the metal socket for the extension rod screws in breaks off. This leaves you with a ring clamp the cannot be repaired and yo0u cannot reach up poles or into manholes with it.

The other future problem I see with this clamp is that it’s closing tension is not provided by a spring. Instead there is a rubber band inside the clamp rather than a durable spring that will last for many years.

The transmitter used to be very vulnerable to water entering through the faceplate making it unusable in even the lightest rain.. The factories’ rep came around and replaced some components that required removing the face plate and he put sealer on when he put the faceplate back on, seems to have helped.

A problem that has appeared is something causes the D cell batteries to occasionally rupture, perhaps a startup surge with the 5 watt model. I have heard of two incidents of this and one resulted in chemical burns. We have been to be careful when changing batteries.

The receiver, 6.6 pounds takes some getting used to, is well sealed against light rain. But failures seem to occur within it as well. Seems to be connections breaking lose inside. I have not seen one taken apart but intermittent failures which can be restored by slapping the case indicates broken connections. There are also other failures with no apparent cause.

We do not have exact numbers, or numbers I have access to, but it seems that at any time 10% of our ViVaxs are in the repair shop.

If it were up to me I would not have the ViVax VLocPro in inventory.

My take is a good design with poor quality construction.

[Goldenboy]

I used the Rycom for about 6 years and only went through one transmitter and one reciever. They even handled the rain very well except the speaker on the reciever. When this got wet there was no sound but if you just blew into the speaker it would work again. The reciever was small enough you could use a Subway bag to go over the reciever for waterproofing it. The reciever definately wasn't good to use as a crutch while tripping because they would break at the neck.

Now I've been using the RD7000 for about 6 months and haven't had any weather issues with it except that as soon as the temperature drops below 40 you better buy stock in batteries because even on the lowest power setting you will go through a set of batteries every other day.

[ihoby]

By far an split box Dynatel. If something went wrong with it you could usually fix it in the field. Admitting to using one is dating myself though isn't it?