More Garrett Vortex Delays - Shipping November

Although we had expected the Garrett Vortex to be available by the end of September, it will probably not come as much of a surprise to learn that it has now been delayed until the end of November. This is the third delay since the Vortex was launched back in June.

The announcement from Garrett reads as follows:

In the course of final testing the Vortex, the Garrett team has chosen to improve the environmental protection of the rear case connectors. Although failures due to corrosion were unlikley to occur for many months or even years, the original design does no meet Garrett quality standards. We have therefore opted to take the effort to create a more robust sealing system.

Initial product shipments are now expected to begin prior to Thanksgiving, so Vortex can be delivdered in time for the holidays.

Customer satisfaction and product quality are always of foremost concern to Garrett. We trust our dealers, distributors and customers will appreciate this move, as it was deemed important to the long-term success of the new Vortex product line.

There are several conclusions we can draw from the statement, the overriding one being: how can they possibly expect us to believe it?

Garrett is not a new kid on the block when it comes to metal detectors. They have a long and illustrious history in metal detector development, and yet, through all the no doubt rigorous testing that we are told was carried out before the launch of the Vortex, they didn’t notice this alleged issue?

If the ‘design does not meet Garrett quality standards,’ why did Garrett launch the machine in the first place?

With firmware, there can be bugs; we all accept that, and updates usually resolve them. But hardware? That is something you nail down in the early stages of product development, and most definitely before you launch to the world and provide a shipping date.

Realistically, we are probably now looking at an in-store date sometime in December.