The Best Fish Finder?

[skeeter]

In my opinion and experience, if you plan on keeping your electronic units for several years and expect to get them repaired when they need service, then I would avoid Lowrance like the plague. Lowrance has this nasty habit of declaring slightly older units, regardless of cost, obsolete and will refuse to repair them. I had this experience, as have others, with two relatively expensive GPS units that were 5 and 8 years old respectively. Seems to me if you spend over $1K apiece for a high end GPS unit the manufacturer should provide service and parts for it for at least 10 years!!!

Lowrance was sold to a new owner in the past two years and I was told by a large marine dealer that they laid off over 40% of their techs and customer service people. That lay off probably accounted for the 1 hour and 45 minute wait I had on the phone only to be told my LCX-15MT was "obsolete" and I could not buy a replacement GPS antenna for it.

Last Spring there were many owners of the new HD Lowrance units returning them, under warranty, due to water leaks only to find the new, replacement unit leaked too. When Lowrance finally corrected the manufacturing problem they refused to divulge the beginning serial numbers of the units that had the "fix" installed so no one knew if they had a good or a bad unit and I can only surmise they did that so merchants with defective units in stock would sell them rather than returning to the factory !

I now own two Humminbird SI units and am very happy with their performance and the support for both.

Caveat Emptor !

[solus_vero]

I have read reviews stating the same thing about Lowrance. It is a good product, middle of the road in price but support is a problem. What ever the reason is, be it the economy or bad management don't mean didley when your out on the lake with a 2,000.00 GPS/graf that doesn't work. I am leaning toward Humming Bird more and more.

I am finding it hard to validate the cost though. No matter what the brand.

Believe me, I'm no puritan when it comes to fishing out of my boat. Just because it is considered a "Bass" boat doesn't mean I'm just going to be fishing for "Bass". What drives me to want to get a good fish finder is the fact that when my kids go fishing with me I want them to catch fish. It doesn't matter what kinda fish it is, Bass, Crappy, Cats, Drum, carp. I just want my kids to go home feeling like they just had the greatest day of fishing they could have ever had. If some think it is "Cheating" well then so be it. I feel I would be cheating my family and friends out of allot of enjoyment if I didn't use every means available (short of TNT) to catch fish when we take the boat out.

I love the idea of turning off the "Fish" alert and reading the bottom cover. I never really thought of it that way. I think I'm good enough of a fisherman to know where the fish are, or at least, where they should be. Thanks for the tip Gatorjet.

Another good reason I want to have a good quality, reliable GPS system is that my wife is disabled. She can't fish but she loves to get out in the sunshine and ride in the boat. I traded my 2003 Harley Motorcycle for the boat because she can ride in the boat but not on the bike. I would love to be able to take her to all the different lakes with the confidence of knowing I can find my way back to the boat ramp no matter where I am on any lake.

By the way Fishing Cricket. I'm going to purchase a larger cast net this year. Like I keep saying ,,,, shad are fish too,,lol. If they ever hold a shad tournament, I'm a shoe in !!!

[bigredbirdfan]

Are extended warranties offered on this equipment like every other electronic in the world at checkout? If so sounds like not a bad investment.

[jeb]

I know HB does not offer an extended warranty. But some retailers do offer them on HB units, so depends on where you buy it.

Now that Lowrance finally has side imaging, or whatever they named it, things are more even between them and HB. That was a huge plus to the HB's over the Low for the last 4-5 years. Some say the Low's have better 2d, but HB has released some software updates lately that seem to put them at least on the same level. So hard to go wrong with either functionally speaking.

I was all set on a HDS last spring. But after being told the same horror stories of returned defective units at 2 Bass Pro's and a Cabela's, I forced myself to look at HB harder. I also heard about the horrible customer service rep at Lowrance from all over the net, which was added reason to look elsewhere. HB has outstanding customer support with many of their employees helping out on several forums on the net. Everytime I've called, I got right through and got the help I needed. So night and day different from what you hear about from Lowrance that saying night and day isn't sufficient. HB also has free software upgrades fairly often to add new features, correct or fine tune others, etc. Add the lower overall price, at least if you're looking at getting the side and down imaging units, and it was a no brainer in the end. I ended up with a 798CI SI and 997C SI.

I've heard Lowrance is finally getting on top of the HDS problems, and I'm sure they're great units. But I just can't see spending the same or more money on them when their customer service is rated so, so poorly. When I spend that kind of money, I expect top notch customer service.

[solus_vero]

(BUMP!!!)

I ran into the same conclusion as jeb did. HB seems to be the way to go.

I had my eye set on the 997C SI till I seen the price ($2,000.00) OUCH !!

(If I spent that kinda $$ on a fish finder, my wife (the boss) would kick me out and you'd see me along side the road with a cardboard sign that says "WILL FISH FOR FOOD" !!)

Anyways, my second choice is the HB 798CI SI. and I see Jeb already has one.

Hows that working out for you jeb?

.

[Larry Richards]

A friend of mine just returned from working the Classic Expo show.He said that the Humminbird booth was so crowded everyday that it was difficult to make your way to the displays,where as the Lowrance booth only had a few people at a time looking at there booth.At this point I think that Lowrance maybe in trouble.Looks like Humminbird will take over as the leader in the field.

[mosouthpaw]

well as far as Lowrance Customer service is concerned, ive read that Linda Colt the their top-notch well respected customer service lady was fired/let-go. From what the bassboatcentral.com crowd has confirmed and responded that without her they will go to hummingbird. Many have contacted the company. W/O a good customer service the product really is crapola

personally id love to have the cash for hummingbird si unit...

[skeeter]

Recently heard that Humminbird is suing Lowrance's parent Company for infringement on Patent rights to side imaging. It seems H'Bird claims Lowrance stole a lot of their SI technology.

As far as cost of H'Bird units, I hear you loud and clear. If it's any help I got an email earlier this week that Bass Pro is running their "six-pay" plan again where you can divide the cost of anything you buy over a certain dollar amount into six equal payments on your plastic.

H'Bird also released a FREE software update in January 2010 to registered owners that updates certain existing SI units to the 2D technology Lowrance is yapping about. I've seen both and they are pretty much identical in results. Neat stuff !!! All you have to do is download it to a SD memory card and follow very simple and concise instructions to install. The unit boots back up at the end of the install and your new 2D view is there !

[CourtneyLee0513]

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[jeb]

Wow, waking up a 3 year old thread just to spam us is not really very cool.