Who has a radar detector??
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From: Twisty backroads
Bel 985. I researched them all, and picked this for my commuter because of superior filtering and nearly the level of accuracy of the V1 & 8500. It has worked perfectly, and more importantly for me, it hardly ever falses. For my play cars, hardwired V1 is the way to go.
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From: Foster, RI
djohnston,
The snoozing I am referring to is something akin to the Cordless Escort turning its Local Oscillator (usually the highest power draw item in a superhet receiver) on and off continuously to reduce power drain. I am not sure what the timing is but it is significant enough to cause a slight delay in the unit sounding an alarm -- sometimes (it depends upon the timing of its snoozing and the timing of the inbound radar signal). I drive a lot and own several detectors that I use in several different cars, and I innocently became very suspicious about this issue with the Cordless Escort due only to several real driving experiences (I was even pulled over once when it didn't alarm until it was too late).
You are correct that this is not mentioned at all in the manual, so I called Escort to ask about this. They admitted to me on the phone that it has such a power saving feature and further said that they sell an optional power cord to make this less problematic. I accordingly asked if I could simply return the cordless detector towards another detector, although I had owned it for 3 months before becoming suspicious about its battery saving circuitry due to real driving experiences. They told me they would only give me a $50 credit (I paid $218 for it 3 months earlier, including shipping from www.radarbusters.com, an authorized dealer -- who wouldn't help me either). I think this is pretty terrible customer service. First they all hid the fact that their cordless detector(s) may not alert you immediately to a radar threat, and then they won't let you trade up once you drive with it enough to find out on your own.
It is now even noticeable to me when driving up on known door opener and alarm signals. Sometimes it does alarm right away, and sometimes there is a delay. Usually the delay is only slight. However, to me random delays are a bad feature for such a countermeasure. Maybe it's just me. Accordingly this unit was relegated by me to service in my large sedan, in which I rarely speed and power cords are unaesthetic.
My older Escorts always worked fine, but due to the sneakiness in how Escort deployed this power saving delay in their cordless detector(s), and their very poor customer service in responding to my complaint about it, I will never again trust Escort -- and have sworn to never buy their products again.
BTW, I feel that my V1 is noticeably better than the older corded Escorts and Unidens that I own, and of course better than the Cordless Escort.
Kind Regards, Chris
PS: Would you or anyone like to buy my six month old Cordless Escort, for say $150 (I will include the original receipt showing that I paid $218) for their second car? This is a $68 dollar savings over what I paid new (and it does work around the hardwired power cord issue with the S2000).
The snoozing I am referring to is something akin to the Cordless Escort turning its Local Oscillator (usually the highest power draw item in a superhet receiver) on and off continuously to reduce power drain. I am not sure what the timing is but it is significant enough to cause a slight delay in the unit sounding an alarm -- sometimes (it depends upon the timing of its snoozing and the timing of the inbound radar signal). I drive a lot and own several detectors that I use in several different cars, and I innocently became very suspicious about this issue with the Cordless Escort due only to several real driving experiences (I was even pulled over once when it didn't alarm until it was too late).
You are correct that this is not mentioned at all in the manual, so I called Escort to ask about this. They admitted to me on the phone that it has such a power saving feature and further said that they sell an optional power cord to make this less problematic. I accordingly asked if I could simply return the cordless detector towards another detector, although I had owned it for 3 months before becoming suspicious about its battery saving circuitry due to real driving experiences. They told me they would only give me a $50 credit (I paid $218 for it 3 months earlier, including shipping from www.radarbusters.com, an authorized dealer -- who wouldn't help me either). I think this is pretty terrible customer service. First they all hid the fact that their cordless detector(s) may not alert you immediately to a radar threat, and then they won't let you trade up once you drive with it enough to find out on your own.
It is now even noticeable to me when driving up on known door opener and alarm signals. Sometimes it does alarm right away, and sometimes there is a delay. Usually the delay is only slight. However, to me random delays are a bad feature for such a countermeasure. Maybe it's just me. Accordingly this unit was relegated by me to service in my large sedan, in which I rarely speed and power cords are unaesthetic.
My older Escorts always worked fine, but due to the sneakiness in how Escort deployed this power saving delay in their cordless detector(s), and their very poor customer service in responding to my complaint about it, I will never again trust Escort -- and have sworn to never buy their products again.
BTW, I feel that my V1 is noticeably better than the older corded Escorts and Unidens that I own, and of course better than the Cordless Escort.
Kind Regards, Chris
PS: Would you or anyone like to buy my six month old Cordless Escort, for say $150 (I will include the original receipt showing that I paid $218) for their second car? This is a $68 dollar savings over what I paid new (and it does work around the hardwired power cord issue with the S2000).
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From: Parsippany
Chris- Wow! Kudos to you for delving into the "snoozing" issue and getting to the bottom of it. I guess I've been lucky to never have the snoozing be a problem to me, there's a stretch of Rt. 80 in NJ near me where there are some kind of radar generators on almost every highway sign, resulting in any of my detectors sounding off every minute or so, I think it's a ploy to get people with radar detectors to turn them off because of the annoyance. But my Solo always alerts me to these, so I figured it was working normally all the time.
Sorry you had a negative experience with Escort, I had just the opposite happen. I had a problem with the flimsy visor bracket attachment with my Passport 8500, to the point where it would release and let my detector drop every time I hit a bump in the S2000. My detector was a few months out of warranty, so I expected them to give me the brush off when I called for help. Instead they asked me to ship it back to them, at which time they "re-cased" it (to fix the bracket attachment problem) and they also gave me a courtesy upgrade of the horn and internal electronics, all for no charge on a unit that was out of warranty. So you can see I have my reasons for sticking by them, just as you have reasons to stay away.
So thanks for alerting me to the snoozing thing, I'll be more careful in the future, I too leave the Solo in the car that I do less spirited driving in.
Good luck selling it, the new model just came out and it makes the older Solo look positively antique by comparison.
-Duncan
Sorry you had a negative experience with Escort, I had just the opposite happen. I had a problem with the flimsy visor bracket attachment with my Passport 8500, to the point where it would release and let my detector drop every time I hit a bump in the S2000. My detector was a few months out of warranty, so I expected them to give me the brush off when I called for help. Instead they asked me to ship it back to them, at which time they "re-cased" it (to fix the bracket attachment problem) and they also gave me a courtesy upgrade of the horn and internal electronics, all for no charge on a unit that was out of warranty. So you can see I have my reasons for sticking by them, just as you have reasons to stay away.
So thanks for alerting me to the snoozing thing, I'll be more careful in the future, I too leave the Solo in the car that I do less spirited driving in.
Good luck selling it, the new model just came out and it makes the older Solo look positively antique by comparison.
-Duncan
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From: Elk Grove
Originally posted by ChrisfromRI
BTW, I feel that my V1 is noticeably better than the older corded Escorts and Unidens that I own, and of course better than the Cordless Escort....
...PS: Would you or anyone like to buy my six month old Cordless Escort, for say $150 (I will include the original receipt showing that I paid $218) for their second car?
BTW, I feel that my V1 is noticeably better than the older corded Escorts and Unidens that I own, and of course better than the Cordless Escort....
...PS: Would you or anyone like to buy my six month old Cordless Escort, for say $150 (I will include the original receipt showing that I paid $218) for their second car?
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Joined: Nov 2002
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From: Foster, RI
OK, I'll sell my six month old Cordless Escort for $125, that's $100 off what I paid six months ago. It's also $275 less than a V1 costs. Considering the low price I'm willing to sell it for, and that being cordless is a work around for the S2000 power cord challenge, it's a good deal. No, it doesn't work as well as much more expensive units like the V1 and the Escort 8500, but it's still an Escort and it's only $125. Any takers?
Kind Regards, Chris
Kind Regards, Chris
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Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 62
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From: Greenwich
I have had 4 or 5 Valentine1's, I swear by them....they have saved my butt many times in various cars, they are well worth the money. Factory support is by fat the best. I have used Escorts, K40's etc...I will have a V1 until another company has a technology breakthrough that is CLEARLY better than anything else...btw the Blinder M06 laser jammers are excellent!
Christopher Anders
Greenwich, CT
03 Silverstone S2K
Christopher Anders
Greenwich, CT
03 Silverstone S2K
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 23,390
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From: Kuna Idaho
I have owned Passport, Bel, and Cobra, and I keep coming back to Bel. Presently all three vehicles have Bel's. Two are 850's and the other is a 900 model. I found them to work best for me. I have never had the opportunity to own a Valentine and I hear they are the best from numerous sources, But the Bel works best for me. JMO
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From: Sheridan
Originally posted by GChambers
Hmmmm... Did the Valentine "overestimate" the number of radar sources or did the Passport miss radar sources that the V1 just happened to pick up?
Hmmmm... Did the Valentine "overestimate" the number of radar sources or did the Passport miss radar sources that the V1 just happened to pick up?
When I arrive at my hospital parking lot, there are two radar sources: one from the hospital's front doors and one from a nearby traffic light sensor. I know this landscape well. I am a doctor and I drive to this hospital every day. The V1 reads four sources most of the time. The Passport 8500 reads two. I am assuming that this is a penalty of the V1's greater (2x) X band sensitivity and the V1 is picking up multipath signals.
It is a bit of a PIA since a city policecar often sits in a nearby doctor's parking lot to pick up speeders. He's also often on X. I usually see him before I can tell from a detector.
Although I love the V1 most, for my daily driver I usually use my older Passport 4600. It is not nearly as good as the Passport 8500 or the V1 but it gets the job done. When I originally ordered the 8500, I thought I'd use it in my daily driver. When it didn't beat the V1, I decided just to move that one back and forth. But I got lazy.