First I posted this in the General Discussion forum, but now I found this forum so I am placing it here as well. (By the way, I think the General Discussion board should be titled "General Fishing Discussion." Sorry, there are way too many off-topic posts there and unfortunately I think it will only get worse now. Enough on that.)

I like the idea of using the handheld PolarVision to check depths easily without having to punch a bunch of holes. I thought I'd post here first, and if they're aren't too many negatives I'm going to buy one. Any info appreciated. Thanks.

Marco,
Had one now for two years and love it. One drawback,you must carry something that has water in it. It must have contact with water in order for it to work.I carry a old small detergent bottle with me. You use your boot to scrape any snow covering off the ice,pour a little water on the ice,put the Polarvision in the film of water and push the button,bingo theres your depth. That coupled with a gps are real time savers. Oh yea,it doesnt work too well on cloudy ice.

love mine. all locators need water to see depth, this is no exception. nice to have such a compact unit. you wont regret getting one. you may get some arguments from the hand held vexilar unit but from my experience they are equals. they do not replace your regular unit for seeing fish though, only for checking depyh.

Thanks for the info guys...I feel better about making the purchase. As far as carrying the water around and pouring a puddle, I had heard that you can use a Ziplok bag with water in it and the contact between the bag and the locator and the bag and the ice is good enough to get a reading. Any truth to this? If so, what about using anti-freeze in the bag instead of pure water? Thanks again.

ive tried the bag with limited success. ice has to be very smooth for it to work . better get used to taking water.