Combo comparison

[Daintreeboy]

Hello all.
I'm considering getting a side scan chartplotter combo, either a Lowrance HDS or Humminbird and keen to get feedback from people who may have used both. Current prices show the Lowrance to be more expensive so was wondering if they are worth the extra dollars? I'm looking at either a 5 inch or 7 inch screen.
A side question that I have not been able to find out yet is whether my old SD map card out of my Lowrance LMS 334 will fit the HDS units? They say they use a micro SD but maybe that fits into an SD size carrier card so I might be right? It could have a bearing on what I get considering the map card costs.
Thanks.

[Jsmfun]

Find choclatemoose he seams to know heaps and very good with price

[james norton]

Hi There i purchased a hds 7 touch and my standard map of a australia fits it its not a micro

[chocolatemoose]

the lowrance ELITE range and simrad NSS range take micro SD cards
the HDS series takes full size SD cards

humminbird make solid units. no doubt" spite sending one back today :S" easy to use on the water. simple and simple is often good
they are a bit dated. and the usability of the LSS on the lowrance HDS series makes it more friendly "plus touch screen... cant express how good it is to be able to type waypoint names a lot easier.. and pinpoint things on the map.. and or sonar. "

heres a swag of videos ive made the past few weeks showing .........well stuff of interest!
feel free to shoot us an email or pm or fax <- yeah i still use fax :P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIY-B9gLRvg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi-y1elWrMw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib08dZ1XtSc

[myusernam]

if you after a 2d combo (non side imaging) id say you cant go past one of these
furuno 1870F for $719 or $780 with transducer
7 inch screen, combo gps fishfinder with the same sounder cct as the ledgendary 687 and 585 sounders.
http://www.furunousa.com/products/productdetail.aspx?product=GP1870F
Furuno transducers pretty economical too.
lowrance/ navico are a terrible company to deal with and if the system fails out of warranty they wont repair and want half of retail (according to rep) to replace with a new uinit. I think this contravenes australian consumer law (the old statutory warranty) particulary if you chell out $4500 for a HDS12 and then in 2.5 years are asked to fork out $2k because of failure. If you pay for an expensive item, it mast last for a reasonable amount of time. Lowrance can't get away with throwing them away anymore because they are no longer cheap sounders (just cheaply made)

[chocolatemoose]

ive never had nothing but good experiences with lowrance? tit for tat?

[myusernam]

plenty of threads on here about it. perhaps they have lifted their customer service. I still think it is terribly arrogant to not offer repair (or fixed price repair) on their units when their peers do.

[bigpat]

Just bought a Humminbird 998 HD SI combo, and love it!

Easy enough to navigate the menus, and plenty of options to customise how you want to view different screens. Very easy to navigate back and forth on split screens which is good. Screen is big enough to run run split screen and still view what you need. The GPS/ tracking side is quite good too, a breeze with Navionics map installed....

Piece of cake to install too. Everything comes in one box, no need for a second transducer etc. Had mine all done (including stripping out the old one, and install the RAM mount for the screen) in 3 hours....

Side and down imaging are great. Example, was going to flick a plastic under a moored boat to see if any fish lurking, but just looked at the side scan instead, so didn't have to waste time!

I originally wanted a touch screen, like the HDS Gen 2 Touch, but figured that I'd spent half the time cleaning the screen, and eventually scratch it.....

Have a play with them all and make you choice, that's what I did....

[chocolatemoose]

so lets take a HDS7 gen 1 as our example

inside its warranty. if it stuffs up. its a no questions no cost repair
if you want to upgrade it to a gen 2 hds7 it will be $100 +p/h
if y ou want to upgrade it to a hds8 gen 2 it will be $300
if you want to upgrade to a HDS7 gen 2 touch it will be $600

outside warranty
general repairs $300
upgrade to a gen 2 hds7 $799
upgrade to a gen 2 hds8 $999
upgrade to a gen 2 hds7 touch $1299



and then those units are brand new and the 2 year warranty cycle starts again.

so lowrance keeps you as a customer. and you get the most up to date unit "in warranty"

[myusernam]

so lets take a HDS7 gen 1 as our example

inside its warranty. if it stuffs up. its a no questions no cost repair
if you want to upgrade it to a gen 2 hds7 it will be $100 +p/h
if y ou want to upgrade it to a hds8 gen 2 it will be $300
if you want to upgrade to a HDS7 gen 2 touch it will be $600

outside warranty
general repairs $300
upgrade to a gen 2 hds7 $799
upgrade to a gen 2 hds8 $999
upgrade to a gen 2 hds7 touch $1299



and then those units are brand new and the 2 year warranty cycle starts again.

so lowrance keeps you as a customer. and you get the most up to date unit "in warranty"

say you dont want to get it upgraded, you just want the unit going again. It might be 2 years and 1 month old. THe $300 repair is only for buttons, connectors etc. They cant replace circuit boards or fix any compnent failure. You HAVE to upgrade because they dont repair and no longer make the HDS7. You could get the gen2 but they are just about obselete. Might as well get the touch (will have to soon as soon as they stop making the gen 2). $1299 to upgrade. You can get a new one on sale for $1699. That's $400 for your two year old unit. in 6 months time they probably wont make the gen2 so you would have no choice.

Take the equivelent size screen in a humminbird. $200 fixed repair fee.
http://www.humminbird.com/Faq.aspx?TaxonomyId=95A1764

Lets extrapolate to the HDS12
2 years 1 month it fails with a circuit board component failure. Half of RRP to replace. Thats $2250. You'd buy something else but you have $1500 tied up in transducers, sonic hub and structurescan module and other accessories. You just flushed $2k away.

Humminbird fixed price repair $370

For the price of a HDS12 you can buy a raymarine e series, furuno navnet or any number of commercial systems. These units have extensive support and qualified repair networks.
They are far more reliable and are fully repairable.

[myusernam]

HDS12 $4500 RRP. That is not a throwaway item FFS. Australian consumer law states that if you pay for an expensive item, it mast last for a reasonable time beyond the warranty period. I beleieve they are walking a dangerous line for charging so much to replace an item, not offering a full repair service.
It might fly in the US, but Australia has much more stringent consumer law.

[chocolatemoose]

i think its very much a case by case scinaro. it sounds as if you or someone you know has been burnt.. thats fair enough. we have all suffered something "this stupid washing machine of mine" but i guess thats their policy and what they think works and it seems to work.
i have returned all brands for warranty and out of warranty repair quotes. "Garmin prob the least so far". humminbirds can be obscene to repair outside warranty "that quote you found i believe would only apply in the united states" and as much as a lot of people on this forum would love it. we dont live in the united states. "sometimes thats a good thing sometimes it can allow us to aspire"

i personally think the 5 year advantage is a good concept "if you want to retain new warranty status with all your electronics"

[myusernam]

Well I did have a problem last time, and I kinda swore off lowrance, and had to write nasty emails untill they lowered the replacement price. (Other posts detail). But I want side imaging so am stuck with either lowrance or hbird (waiting untill new year just in case garmin do something.) my point is though is that it's not right. I contacted lowrance for some sort of guide on pricing/ they said the same sort of thing. "case by case basis","around half rrp of replacement" WHAT sort of response is that for someone who wants to fork out thousands of dollars?! Q

[myusernam]

i did quote Hbird us prices - that's what i am looking at at the moment. No way I am contributing to bob litters next ferrari. They (bla) are gougers IMHO. I would gladly pay half price and know all I have to do is ship back to US for a fixed service price.
Northstar/ Navman before the wound up had fixed price repair. Garmin, raymarine, furuno all repair their units.

[chocolatemoose]

where is this half price humminbird stuff people speak of?

[myusernam]

you're kidding?
998 hd si $1,194
1198 hd si $1844
Yes you have to pay duty and freight

the exchange rate has to go up a bees dxck and you will be able to land an 898 for under $1k and avoid duty.

personally I want a larger screen and want to avoid duty,

Please pm me with any tips on avoiding or vendors who are happy to do so.

[myusernam]

furuno are good to import with the bonus being they are more reliable and also repairable.
Good savings on 585's or you can get a combo GP1870 for $719 or $790 with a transducer! sane sounder cct as 585

[chocolatemoose]

any idea where i can get them at that price.
you are kissing a local warranty goodbye i guess

[bluefin59]

any idea where i can get them at that price.
you are kissing a local warranty goodbye i guess

With the reliability of furuno and the ridiculous version of a warranty that lowrance gives I would take the chance with furuno myself accept my 620 is still going great and I've had mine since the australian release ...Matt

[davo]

Lowrance have been dreadful for reliability and service. A shame as when they are going they are excellent units. I run Humminbird 798 and am very happy. After some software updates even more so. If I was buying Humminbird from OS I would go Canadian as they are metric/imperial. I noticed that when over there last year. I Have had problems with Humminbird but much better service and a lot less problems than Lowrance. Not sure if Simrad are better quality but they manufactured by the same company as Lowrance. Simrad were Shipmate which were Danish. My brother in law had Shipmate on his trawler and it was good gear.

I always say the unit with the most bells and whistles is no good if it fails.

[myusernam]

any idea where i can get them at that price.
you are kissing a local warranty goodbye i guess

you need to look no further than ebay if you dont want to sniff the cheapest ones out. all I did was a search on ausfish for previously mentioned sites anb links from sellers on ebay. The hull truth has some forum sellers also. :)

RE: warranty. You're right. it will probably cost you forty or fifty bucks to mail the head unit back. Probably save more than that if their fixed price repairs are cheaper though?

I am holding out for a bcf club night or an oseas trip. Local tackle shop got rid of their birds at cost + $! because they were sick of competing with large chains. Can't say I blame them.

[chocolatemoose]

large chains and local shops should be receiving the same pricing. ..read.. should
it will be a shame when we have a woolworths/coles thing with......well everything. i guess we arnt far from that.

[Gimme5]

Big thumbs DOWN for Lowrance/Navico, both product and customer service. I've been using Lowrance FF and CP for the last 8 years and now even got structure scan but I'll never choose to buy the brand again. Structure scan only look good on demos. Nothing beats Furuno with a good 1kw transducer, or Garmin for that matter. Just my opinion.