"Waterproof" is the most abused word in this hobby. On a lot of detectors it means the search coil survives a puddle while the control box is rain-resistant only, and the difference between those two machines is the difference between a good day at the surf line and a ruined detector. Every detector on this page is submersible as a whole machine, control box included. The ones that are only coil-waterproof are deliberately not here.
How deep, by machine
These are the manufacturers' own published ratings, and they sort into three honest tiers.
| To 10 ft / 3 m | Garrett AT Pro, AT Max, AT Gold and ATX; Minelab CTX 3030 and SDC 2300; Nokta Magnetar 9000. Wading, creeks, shallow surf. |
| To 16 ft / 5 m (IP68) | Minelab Manticore, Equinox 700 and 900, Vanquish 460 and 560, X-Terra Elite; Nokta Legend, Score series, Simplex Ultra and Simplex Lite; Garrett Vortex; XP ICON. Full submersion well past standing depth. |
| To 66 ft / 20 m and dive machines | XP Deus II (remote and coil IP68 to 20 m), plus the dedicated underwater units: Minelab Excalibur II, Fisher Impulse AQ, CZ-21 QuickSilver and 1280-X Aquanaut. |
What is deliberately missing from this page
Several excellent detectors are not listed here on purpose, because their control housing is not submersible: the Minelab GPX 6000, GPZ 7000, Gold Monster 1000 and 2000, the Garrett Axiom and Goldmaster 24K, the Fisher F-series, and the Garrett ACE Apex. On all of those the coil is waterproof and the control box is rain-resistant, which is genuinely useful in weather and genuinely not a machine you can put under water. If one of them is on your short list, that limitation is worth knowing before you buy rather than after.
The Minelab GPZ 8000 is a near miss worth naming: Minelab rates the detector, coil and WM 14 to 1 m for under 30 minutes and says plainly that it is not a diving machine, so it sits outside this collection too.
Choosing between them
Depth rating is rarely the deciding factor, because almost nobody detects at 16 ft. What matters more is where you actually hunt. Salt water is the hard test: wet sand and surf need strong saltwater handling, which is why the multi-frequency machines dominate the beach. Fresh water, creeks and lake edges are far more forgiving, and a 10 ft rated machine is plenty. If you are diving rather than wading, the dedicated underwater units are built for it and the general-purpose machines are not. If you want the decision walked properly, tier by tier, our Waterproof Metal Detectors guide does exactly that.
One thing that catches people out: a waterproof detector does not mean waterproof audio. Most wireless headphones are not submersible, and several of these machines need a specific wired or bone-conduction set for use under the surface. Each product page states which. Our headphones collection separates the waterproof sets from the rest.
Buying from History Seekers
We are an authorized dealer for every brand on this page. Everyone here detects, several of us work wet sand every season, and when you call 256-284-2247 the person answering has had these machines in the water. Orders of $199 or more ship free inside the USA. The story is more important than the artifact.
