Thread: any body else leary

I have a garmin striker 7dv and I love it, had it about a year now and no complaints or problems.


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If money is tight I would get an older core humminbird unit, 9xx series or above. Now that the helix series is out used units are a dime a dozen.

The big consideration is what kind of features do you want? If all you want is 2d you will be happy with almost anyones. If you want side imaging you will find a larger screen makes a huge difference.

The biggest issue is large corporations are all over the board. They get so many pencil pushers running things the thing that produces the best quality fishfinder gets pushed under the rug sometimes. At one time Garmin was much more than a company just cranking out a few fishfinders. They had the engineering and capability to produce superior products in many fields especially their GPS stuff.

At the end of the day....I have had Lowrance,Humminbird ,Eagle and Garmin. The two oldest finders I have are a Garmin 240 and a 250. I still use them and they work flawlessly. I "thought" I had a problem with the transducer on one of them and I called them and they sent me a new one....not many question's asked. It turned out it was my bad anyway.

Things change so fast now I don't know what to say....except I use have a lot of confidence in them.

Garmin units are still a good value - especially if Panoptix may interest you in the future ... Just don't consider the newer bundled package units ...

The newer bundled package units are the only Garmin products affected by the Navico lawsuit against Garmin ... Garmin had to remove the dedicated DI piezo from any xducer bundled with a head unit (thus the inclusion of the ClearVu xducer in the bundled packages which the ClearVu xducer cannot even be purchased separately) ...

Consider a Garmin head unit ... And buy the GT xducer separate and you will have the dedicated DI piezo that was removed from the CV xducers in the bundled package units ...

Or contact the dealer of your choice and make them open the bundle package and verify that specific bundle package is older stock that includes the GT xducer ...

Rickie

If you are interested at all in the Garmin, then Rickie gave you the best advice possible. Lowrance used to sell ducers separate, too. I have Garmin 93 with the GT ducer. Quite happy all the way around. I do think HB, compared to Garmin, shoots SV more laterally. However, I have two friends with HB and their pics are not close to mine. BUT I am 100% sure that is in the operation. I would not be scared from Garmin, I would just do as Rickie said. Their warranty and after warranty repair is the best out there. Raymarine has some great pics, so do Low and HB. Get one with the features you want, the price you are comfy with, ease of operation and don't look back. It isn't about a favorite brand, it's about what works for you.

I recently ordered a Garmin Echomap Chirp 73Sv for the bow of my boat. I feel like I got screwed on the transducer. I spent months this winter considering which brand to buy and all the time Garmin had the dedicated DI transducer piezo which was a factor in my decision. When I heard about the change in transducers I even called Garmin Support checking on the difference between the GT52 transducer and the new CV transducers since I could find no info on the CV's on their website. I was told the only difference between the two was "the CV has a little wider angle". LIE! LIE! LIE! After all that I can still say I like everything else about the unit. I just received a P21 Panoptix (due to the rebate )and am working on installing both transducers on a downrod. It just still leaves a bad taste in my mouth about Garmin!!! I am also considering an upgrade to my console unit which is currently a HB 1197. I was thinking about the Garmin Echomap Chirp 93SV. NOT ANYMORE!!! Just go into a Garmin purchase with your eyes wide open. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me!

Keep an open mind. Ask here or other forums. Most of those "phone pholks" are reading from line scripts and don't know dodo.

I do not concur with the way Garmin handled the DI issue transducer. That being said. I run a Garmin GPSMAP 1040 and a GarminGPSMAP 741. Networked with PS21 and PS 30 panoptix transducers. Even though these units are a couple generations old Garmin updates their software on a regular basis. I am more than happy with their performance. The panoptix to me is just too big a factor to ignore.

I liked the performance of my old 1198 which I have replaced with a Helix 10 Mega G2N. I have not enough experience with it to even give an opinion on it yet. It is networked with a Terrova I-Link and 360 Transom. Love the I-link but have never been happy with the 360. If I ever get a chance to sell it not involving shipping I would do it in a heartbeat. Have tweaked it till blue in face. Others love it so the what I expected from it may be too much. All I know is when I see on the panoptix I know what a fish looks like. With the 360 it is a guessing game at best.


In summation all I am trying to say each maker has advantages and disadvantages . To rule out Garmin over the DI fiasco is a little shortsighted. One of the factors that Lowrance left out in their video.They compared their top of the line MFD to Garmin's almost entry level MFD that has been discontinued. Again I disagree with the way Garmin handled this issue. Better way to handle was to immediately quit offering units packaged with transducer. Then offer upgrade to the better transducer for the remaining affected consumers. Bean counters usually decide in the corporation headquarters that ignore the affect on reputation of their company.
Remember lying in politics is = misspeaking ???? Lying in corporate speak = marketing. And we all suffer the consequences.