National Geographic Starter Metal Detector Kit for Kids - Kids Metal Detector with 7.4" Waterproof Coil & Trowel, Lightweight Gold Detector, Beach Detecting, Gift for Boys & Girls

We love this thing! Grandkids are always so excited when it tells us there is “treasure”. Highly recommend for a starter metal detector. Lightweight enough as well.

Great gift idea for kids that are explores. I gave it to my 10 year old and he love it! Easy to assemble and a great size for kids.

Works very well children love this took it to the beach. They had a great time.

I got this metal detector for my son for Christmas and he loved it!!! He took it outside in the yard for over an hour looking for his “treasure”. He even took it to our community garden the next day and got asked by a lady to help her look for her lost wedding ring (he was really excited about this!). However, we then seemed to discover that the detector is very sensitive to metal in the surrounding areas and the “beep” can feel slightly off and delayed. We need to take it to the beach for more exploring! Overall a great value and very fun! We love the collapsing design and that it is lightweight!

My 10yr old son loves this. Good quality and easy to use.

It’s so much fun! Works great!

Was the perfect birthday gift for my now 9 year old! He absolutely loves it and wants to take it everywhere we go! Will be perfect for the summer at the campgrounds or even on the beach when we go boating!!!

The media could not be loaded. TL;DR: Reliable, no frills detector that technically works but leaves a lot to be desired. If you want to experiment and show children that metal CAN be detected and go into the science behind it, or are giving as a gift that you aren’t sure they’ll be interested in, this fits the bill. If you’re actually interested in metal detecting, pass on this and go for something else. Th nat geo brand: the national geographic metal detector is OKAY, I wouldn't say it's great, but it DOES work. It seems to detect only up to about 3”. We’ve gotten a lot of science kit from this brand that have been great, so we trusted the brand. Usually you get a thorough kit with everything you need to demonstrate the science, to that end you get exactly that from this kit, but what I expected from the brand was enough to be adequate for use, this however, falls short. It does include a shovel which is nice, but it has a headphone port and includes no headphones, which is inconsistent. This particular product was a big let down from the brand. On dry land (grass):when we first got it and ran outside to detect some metal, they found some rusty pipes, bottle caps and were thrilled by it. At the beach: We took it to the beach and it performed terribly, DO NOT GET THIS PRODUCT TO USE AT THE BEACH! In the sand it had EVEN LESS DETECTION RANGE and sometimes only 1" (I buried some rings so they kids would still be interested and excited and not heartbroken, I want to keep their passion alive). With the wet portion of the sand, it seemed that touching water to the detector made it throw false alarms, or if you couldn't hold it perfectly still and it tapped one side to the ground as you were turning, it would also do a false beep.As far as the beeps go, there's no indication or difference or strength to the beeps, so you can't tell how far something is, you can't tell which direction, the beep is indicated in, there’s only a volume knob. This makes it difficult to know if you’ve dug up the item, or if you’re digging in the right spot, or how far you should expect to dig.All in all, it’s about what is expected, a stick that detects metal and makes a beeping sound. It’s a safe bet as a gift. However, if you have ANY level of interest and want to pursue this as a hobby or have an EASIER time - splurge a tad bit more, or take a chance on one of the brandies ones that have a few more features/range. Detection distance and range: Items that you would be interested in (rings) don’t register until 1” or less, it seems this works best with LARGE metal objects, like pipes, which it seems to pick up a little over 3” away. It seems object need to be perfectly centered on the center coil and don’t pick up even if they’re nearby, you can see in the video the pipe isn’t registering even though it’s just as close (to the side) as it would have been when it registered from the center.Size, weight and build quality: it's sort-of light, but after about 20 minutes it starts to hurt your arm (as an adult) and the kids get pretty disinterested and start complaining about the weight after 5 minutes. It doesn’t immediately feel heavy and feels exactly like it looks, lots of light weight cheap plastic, but it hasn’t broken after some LIGHT use and it survived a long car ride. It does storage nicely as the pole telescopes in and the detector pivots up, this is great for wedging into small spaces between bags. That being said, there’s no stop on the pole, so if you loosen the telescope and extend it, it’s very easy to pull the whole thing apart and have its wire guts dangling everywhere. Not a big deal, easy to put back together, but it seems an extreme oversight as the simplest of modifications would have prevented this. Overall, this thing screams that corners were cut and it’s an extreme budget product. Value:At the time of writing I got this for about $50, it does not provide enough value to justify that price. If you can get it for $15 or $20 you probably wouldn’t be as dissatisfied, but price and value are an important consideration. At $50 you just end up feeling disappointed and cheated.So 3/5, get this if you :1: want to use it in your backyard2: only intend to do small bursts3: really like the nat geo brand4: giving as a gift and don’t know if the receiver will have any interest5: need to demonstrate science experiments and metal detection capability Don't get this if you:1: Want to find deep objects greater than 3"2: Want to find things at the beach 3: Intend to pursue this hobby for more than a day