I have heard about some good radar detectors, Escort, Valentine, Bel, but my question is do they work in the real world? My friend says they don't really work and I would be wasting my money. So tell me people, are radar detectors worth the money? Thanks for your responses.

 

http://www.speedzones.com

i have a whistler 1783 (one of the top 5 rated on that site). do detectors work? here is my explanation:

i would say that probably 70% of the time you speed (without a radar detector) you would go without getting caught. i'd say that with a bad detector, that percentage would rise to about 75-80%. with a good detector, i'd say the percentage would rise to about ~90%. in other words, nothing is going to keep you from getting a ticket.

i only have a detector not because i speed all the time, but if i ever am speeding and not paying attention, the detector could save me. if you buy a detector thinking it's ok to speed always, you will get caught eventually. buy it and think of it as a partial re-assurance, not as a way to completely avoid tickets.

and i've had good and bad detectors before; in my opinion, don't buy anything that www.speedzones.com or another popular radar-test site doesn't recommend. the whistler cost me $130 brand new with a hotwire kit and everything.

 

I am in the process of buying one. I just have not made up my mind between Valentine one or Passport 8500.

 

Both are rated VERY high. I personaly run the passport. Passport is a little better looking IMO. If you go with the 8500 be sure you get the newest one the 8500 X50.

But i do like the direction arrows on the Valentine, lets you know witch direction the radar is comming. but its styling is dated and bulky.

 

the features that distinguish the more expensive brands of radar detectors from the less expensive are characteristics that really shouldn't cost as much as they do. for instance, the escort reads about half a mile further on Ka bands than the less expensive brands (only the ones that are listed on seedzones.com - brands like cobra or whistler). as long as the detector reads 1.5 miles or more, you're good. why exceed that distance? you'd have to be going 200+ mph for that extra .5 miles in detection to make a damn difference. and if a detector can read from behind, and if it can read POP (and valentine one CANNOT), then why spend $150-$250 more on a detector that does the same thing? (only the valentine can't detect POP, which is definitely not a very good feature)

i think the nicest feature and only truly distinguishable feature that the escort and valentine have are their filtering capabilities (other than valentine's arrows). if you think driving around town and not getting a lot of auto-doors setting your detector off is worth $150-$250 more, then go for the really expensive ones. i can honestly say that my whistler filters great. it does have false alarms occasionally, but hardly ever unless you are in the parking lot of the store where the auto-doors are. and otherwise, if a detector can basically detect just as good, but is half the price, i really don't get why you would want to spend that extra $150-$250. once again, you're paying more for a name than more for a detector. tests don't lie, so what you see on speedzones.com and other test sites is what you get.

 

I have an escort and though its nice to have a little extra piece of mind it still wont save you all the time. No detector will. Matter of fact, I dont even keep mine mounted and plugged in most of the time. I only use when I travel long distances.

Ive heard a lot of first hand praise with the valentine, even with its higher $$$ cost. THose that have it swear its the best out there. I agree its a bit ugly but if it works, who cares.


As for distance? well of course their all rated capable at an attractive distance, but in the real world, that distance id more like, ooops their he is. Ooops, to late. You know it an I know it, they sit behind trees, shrubberies, around curves, and over hills. So it doesnt matter if the best one could sense radar at 5 miles, it cant see around corners.

My two sense. Drive responsible ALL the TIME,

 

What is not being able to detect POP?

 

POP is a new form of instant-on radar. you should look up on it, but as you drive by a POP radar, it reads your speed; police are supposed to physically convert their POP to "regular" radar mode and lock your speed. once your speed has been locked on "regular" radar, they can then pull you over and ticket you. pulling someone over and giving them a ticket by means of reading your speed from just POP is illegal for police to do. however, if you are going 140 on the highway, and you pass a cop using POP, you can guarantee he's not going to give a damn about that small legality when you are going over twice the limit. and unfortunately, i'm sure that happens a lot, and many cops issue tickets based on their POP readings only. after all, how are they going to prove otherwise?

many cops are beginning to use this POP as their primary source of radar, especially highway patrol. when i make my 250 mile trip to my parent's house, every cop i encounter along the way is using POP and POP only. POP is still K/Ka band, but it is not dected by many radar detectors; and even the ones that do pick it up most of the time don't pick it up far enough in advance to save you. mine has gone off from no detection straight to a 7 signal strength with the cop less than 100 yards away. in other words, he knew how fast i was going a quarter of a mile before my detector knew there was a threat anywhere around. sometimes it will bounce off other cars, because that happened with me, and the detector warned me in ample time. so that's why it's good to have a detector that can at least sense POP, whether or not it senses it within a reasonable amount of time is a different concern; valentine one cannot even detect it. i don't think any $400 detector that can't detect the largest threat on the road is worth $400 or $100.

 

i have a V1 and i love it it's saved me more than once and compared to anyother detector i have used the v1 is 2nd to none.

 

I have to agree. The V1 is big, bulky, and ugly. However, it has something that no other radar detector has. The remote display, directional arrow, and bogey counter are superlative. It has helped me spot hidden radar traps more than I'd care to admit.

Here's the situation. You have a normal radar detector, and you know that every time you pass that supermarket/ mall/ radio station/ office building, the automatic door sensors will trip your detector. So, you start ignoring the beeps. One day, a cop sitting in the broadcast shadow of these devices, gets you on the gun because you're used to hearing it. This is a common tactic. Now, with the V1 in the same situation, you see every day that your detector goes off in the forward position (trouble ahead) with 6 bogies. You start to ignore it, just like you would a normal radar detector. One day, coming close to the usual area, your display reads 7 bogies. That's when you know there's a cop there. Additionally, the remote display can be mounted anywhere, so you don't have to advertise to ewveryone else on the road that you have a detector. Personally, I have my V1 mounted to my roll cage, and my remote display in the spot where my ashtray used to be.

 

I actually don't speed too often, but I am going on an 800 mile trip soon and I worry about going fast on the interstate. It seems as if people do think radar detectors work. Where did you guys buy yours?

 

They work, but you have to use them like another sense... If you see a large overpass up ahead, you have to know that there may be a cop, if you see a bend with bushes, same thing. Use the detector to add to your natural defenses, not as a replacement for them.

 

I couldn't have said it better myself.

 

 

I have a passport 8500 and i love it. What ever you do, don't waste your money on a cheap one, they're useless.

 

What PFDarkside said! EXACTLY!

I have a Bell 980 and it has served me very well. It saved my *** many a time, and I have not gotten a ticken since I owned it (about 2 years). Great I just totally jinxed myself!!!

Anyway, the range on my Bell 980 is amazing, and it has even picked up scatter from LASER which is amazing to me, because regular detectors have a very hard time with laser. Anyway, I would not speed without one now. I feel like a ship in a fog without radar...

Tommy

 

I have to disagree with this. I bought me a Bel 910 Express for $100 at Fry's. This isn't necessarily cheap ($30-$40), but it isn't in the $300-$500 range that some of you are paying for the high-end detectors. However this thing has saved me plenty of times during my long commutes. I wanted the Bel 985, but it was a little out of my price range. The sales associate said that my 910 is basically the same detector with a shorter range and a few less features. He may have been bullshitting just to make a sale, but this thing has consistently given me alerts at 2-2.5 miles away even in hilly regions with virtually no false alarms. Sure it is not the 5 miles that the 985 will do, but who needs more than a mile or two to slow down? Also with a larger range you are bound to pick up radar from cops on side-streets that you will never run into.

Also like some said above you still have to drive smart when using a detector. The best thing to do is be a clinger and trail a rabbit. Don't tailgate them but keep a nice buffer distance between you and them. That way when they get hit with instant-on, most likely your detector will pick up on some of the scatter and give you plenty of time to shut it down before you are clocked. Believe it or not, this worked for me when the car ahead of me was shot with laser. I got a really weak laser signal as the car ahead was shot, and about 5 sec. later I got a direct hit.

Also be aware of the cars in front of you. When you see people hitting their brakes as they go over a hill, it's a good sign that a cop may be waiting ahead or a traffic jam in which case you need to slow down anyway. But you can usually tell if people are drastically slowing down or just slowing down to the limit. Again just make sure that there are other cars in front of you on the highway when you speed. I never go more than about 5 mph over the limit when there are no other cars on the highway. It's just too risky with instant-on. No matter what detector you have once you are directly hit with instant-on Ka, you are caught.

Anyways that's about it, I think I wrote enough, but as for your question, they do work if you know how to use them. With all the money that mine has saved me, I could afford to buy the 985 easily now.

 

Quick story to prove my point:

I was approaching my house yesterday (probably doing 45 or so in a 30), and my detector went off. It NEVER goess off in this spot, so I slow down to 30 and sure enough a cop right down the block from my house.

Literrally FOUR of my neighbors got tickets that day, including my one neighbors son who just started driving! I would have for sure without my 6th sense....

Tommy

 

Here is a good write up on the top 3 detectors

http://www.radartest.com/article.asp?articleid=9090