Vexilar or Marcum

[WalleyeGuy17]

I am trying to decide which flasher to buy. It is between the Vexilar FL20 and the Marcum LX3tc. I have never owned a flasher before and would like some of your input on which unit to buy. So far talking to a couple salesmen I am leaning towards the Marcum but want info from people that aren't trying to make a sale. Thanks!

[Catman59]

That is up to you and this will draw a lot of "Ford vs Chevy"
arguements. I personally have 2 Vexilars and that is all that I will ever use. I have had great luck with them and they do an awesome job. They have been around for a loong time and service and quality is #1.

[bea3bri]

well i both flashers will help you see what is below you but i would say if you try the vexilar and then use the marcum you will not got back to a vexilar. you will just have to try it out for yourself, possibly rent one for a day if you get a chance or use one if a freind has one, i have used the lx-3 for about five years now and had no trouble with it at all and just purchased the lx-5 for this year.

[WalleyeGuy17]

Just to add to what I'm looking for in the unit. I usually fish Lake Winnebago and the surrounding lakes (anywhere from 8 to 20ft). I want the flasher to work in the shallow water and thats why the vexilar's low output setting is starting to become more appealing.

[Box]

I have a Marcum LX5. Basically, you don't need the low power mode on the Marcum because it works fine as it is. If you do some research on it, you will find the Vex has it because of some engineering design decisions they made.

With that said, and you know my current bias, I was in the same boat last year. Looking at them all and researching. I had used the FL18 before, and loved it. But the LX5 is basically the top dawg right now. Here is a big advantage the LX5 has over the FL18 or FL20 - you can move the zoom anywhere in the water column you want.

Also, you may hear people say that Vex and Marcum can't fish near each other or they will drown each other out. Not true. We fish with LX5 and buddies FL8 and FL20 in same shack. The FL8 has a bit of trouble, but we can set them so they don't interfere. If I wanted, I could drown them out with the more power, but I don't. So they can get along just fine down close holes.

Another thing to look at is the case. I like the padded case the Marcums have over the "bucket" cases the Vex's have, but some may like the Vex cases better.

It is a Ford v. Chevy thing for sure, as they all will work great. Just depends on how much you want to spend and what features you like better. But you CAN use the Marcum in shallow water or weedy water just fine without the "feature" of low power mode.

Also, I did have to send mine in as the brushes were bad - John the tech said he can't imagine why they were bad in just one year - but I sent it out on a Tuesday, and it was back in hands that Friday. So service, should you need it, is good. I didn't like that I needed to send it in but glad they took care of it so quickly.

Good luck, enjoy whatever.
-Box

[none]

Here's my question, is it worth the extra $$$$ to upgrade to the fl-20 or lx 5 to the the bottom zoom option?? What exactly do you gain by being able to zoom on the bottom?

Also, any comparisions on the transducer styles - floating vexilar vs the swivel arm of the marcum? The swivel arm seems a far more cumbersome than the vexilars.

[Box]

Until you use the zoom you won't really need it ;) after you use it you will always use it :)

Also, the Marcum lx3 and lx5 have zoom ANYWHERE not just bottom. Also two ranges of zoom, I believe the FL20 does as well, but only on the bottom (i.e. zooms on 5 feet or 10 feet).

The LX5 also has dual frequency transducer, the FL20 has it as an option. Is it needed? No, but nice to have. The dual transducers are big larger though.

As for the arm versus the floatie... You really don't need to position the arm over the hole, I just flop my cord out and let it hang in, the arm just sort of extends to support it, and folds back in easily - it basically is used to adjust the cord length to keep the xducer wherever you want it depth wise. Either way, arm or floatie, some people will always pull it out of hole and some people leave it there when landing a fish. I keep mine at the length so when walking to check holes, I just need to lower the whole unit a bit for it to hit the water but it is at a comfortable length -can do same with Vex.

The arm is really easier to use than it might seem, as you don't really "use it" as much as it just keeps the cord length where you want it.

I actually wanted an FL18 after using one the bottom zoom sold me, and I still think they are great. But when I started comparing and checking them all out, for everything I got in the LX5 it is just "more" and more flexible. One thing the FL20 has that is nice is that it can be dimmed (I believe it can be?...) The LX5 is nice and bright, and really crisp compared to others, but after staring at it for hours you tend to think, hmmmm, can we dim this sucker a bit ;)

My buddy who has FL20 is now thinking about getting the soft pack after seeing and using my LX5. So consider the case a bit in the whole picture. All of them are nice, and I am certainly no pro, but very glad I got what I did.

Good luck, sorry for being long winded.

[Icefishingmaniac]

The gain of zooming on the bottom is to see those fish that will hold very close(less than 6 in) to the bottom. Walleye and perch will commonly hold very tight to the bottom. I have the Vexilar FL-18 and have not tried a Marcum with the zoom at any level although I can see its use.



Icefishingmaniac

[none]

I'm defenitly leaning towards the marcum now.... Just one final question. Are you better off having dual frequency transducer (9 and 19 degree) or having the zoom feature with a 20 degree cone?

I realize the lx - 5 is the best of both worlds, but the lx 3 is at the top of my price range.

[Box]

I don't think the dual freq xducer is needed. Just nice, not necessary. Make sure whatever you get, you shop around. I got my LX5 last year for $350, with price matching and a Gander coupon, and my buddy got his FL20 for $400 at another store.

Good luck with whatever you get.
-Box

[none]

$350??? The prices i'm getting for the LX-5 are around 450 - 500!!!! Was it an online store or end of year sale? Do you mind me asking what store?? Thanks!

[Box]

I got mine from Gander (and a Gander coupon), but with a price match to a Fleet Farm store - this was in January of last year, so they were sort of closing them out at the time. Don't want to say and get in trouble as I am not sure if they are a sponsor, but another MN store with both retail and web store usually has good prices.

I believe Wade and Jolly Ann Marine is a sponsor here, and while I did not buy from him at the time, his prices always seem the best and has free shipping, and maybe no tax depending upon where you are. Right now the LX5 is on sale there. Go to
http://www.jollyannsales.com/
and add it to your cart to see the sale price. Wade helps out tons of folks here, and I will most likely buy from him next time I am in the market. He has Vex as well if you'd want to go that route.

Good luck,
-Box

[creo]

Both are fine units. However, one of the more common comments regarding the Marcum units that I've seen on the ice forums over the years, is the "quick turn around time and friendly Marcum service staff".
This is rarely seen in regards fo Vex and for a very good reason. They're practically indestrucible and require no service for many years.
I'm going on my tenth year with the current FL-8 I own and it's still going strong. And that's with year around use.
What happened to my previous FL-8? It is buried at sea do to a boating accident.

[Fish For Fun]

Both are good units, i have an older Vex FL-8 with the dual cone and it serves my purpose. One of the guys that I work with has the Marcum Lx-5 and it is a great unit, very bright with good separation when fish are close to the bottom, and very quiet. If I were going to buy new it would be a Marcum.

[Fish For Fun]

Both are good units, i have an older Vex FL-8 with the dual cone and it serves my purpose. One of the guys that I work with has the Marcum Lx-5 and it is a great unit, very bright with good separation when fish are close to the bottom, and very quiet. If I were going to buy new it would be a Marcum.

[Marble Eyes]

Just a note on Vexilar service.

I had the main switch go bad on my FL-18 Ultra. I sent Vexilar an email on Saturday asking for a part number and cost to order a new one.

They responded the following Monday with an email saying, We are sorry for the switch failure, we are sending a new one out today.

Can't beat that.

[Seedtree]

I have the Vexilar FL-18 and have used it extensively for 4 years now. Its one of those notable purchases over the decades that have actually resulted in catching more fish. I have had no problems with it and its been in some extreme conditions.

I also use it on my boat with a high speed transducer kit from Vexilar. The bottom lock feature is great on the softwater, as is the auto zoom feature on the hard water.

Don't know if the Marcum has a sofwater high speed kit, but I've heard good things about their flashers too.

With my experience with Vexilar though, no reason to change.

Frankly, for soft and hard water applications now, if doing it from scratch, I would have to also consider some of the Lowrance Ice Machine-type color sonars with flasher capability and built in GPS with mapping. Talk about a sweet unit for the shanty and the boat.

[Mr.Bluegill unlogged]

To answer your comment on the low power mode or suppression cable...

The receiver is way outdated on the Vexilar units as for the most part the internal components on a Vexilar are pretty much 25 year old technology. To my knowledge and testing, the only thing that has changed in Vexilar is the cosmetics and the "digital zoom". more on this later....The low power mode and suppression cable are the band-aids to make the unit work. For the guys that have a vexilar with a low power mode or s-cable, try this.... Set your unit on a table and place a hard object under the transducer on the floor. Turn your unit on and your gain all the way down. Almost everyone of the Vexilars I have used new and old will still give you a signal picking up the object on the floor. Now, if the receiver is properly designed, you should be able to turn the gain down and completely remove the signal. It kind of works like the volume on your tv. I want to be able to turn the volume all the way down to where the tv is 100% mute. On a MarCum, when you turn the gain down to 0, there is nothing being transmitted onto the screen. This is all being done without any low power or s-cable..It is better engineering and technology.

Power is everything. It creates a stronger cleaner signal right from the beginning. The stronger and cleaner the signal you send out, the stronger and cleaner a signal is received. Sonar works like a ball being thrown against a wall. Throw it hard and it bounces right back to where it came from. Throw it soft and it may bounce and roll close to where it came from.
So, if you have a strong signal being sent out, the capability of the interference rejection working better is a lot higher due to a cleaner, truer signal. Target separation is greatly increased and being able to see things in the weeds is very easy. Along with all of this, distortion is kept at a bare minimum giving you a better clearer picture on your dial.

If low power is better, why do all lowrance, raytheon, humminbird, etc....boat units strive for the most power they can get.

Touching back on the zoom....When MarCum uses the zoom, they use an optical zoom. It actuall increases the target separation to less that 3/4 of an inch. On a Vex, they use a digital zoom that just blows up the already 2.65" target separation onto the opposite side of the screen.

here are some tests that were done with some very sophisticated equipment.




MarCum Technologies LX5 VS: Vexilar FL20


Receiver sensitivity :


Receiver sensitivity is the measurement of a sonar receiver’s ability to detect an input signal. This measurement tells just how small of a return signal the unit is able to pick up and display. The LX5’s receiver is more sensitive.


Measurement:


LX5- 24uV

FL20- 40uV


Receiver Gain:


Receiver gain is a measurement of the total system gain or amplification. Typically the more gain a receiver has the smaller signal it will be able to detect.

The LX5 receiver has more gain.


Measurement:


LX5- 89.77db

FL20- 70.89db


Receiver distortion:


Receiver distortion is a measurement of the sonar receiver to filter, amplify, detect, and display a return signal. A receiver with less distortion will give a more accurate display. The LX5 has less distortion.


Measurement:

LX5- less than 1%

FL20- more than 40%


Transmitter power:


Transmit power is a measurement of the output power into the transducer. This is usually defined in Watts peak to peak or Watts RMS. In the sonar world more power means a better return signal with less noise and less filtering. The LX5 has more power.


Measurement:


LX5- more than 2000 Wp-p or 300 Wrms

FL20- more than 400 Wp-p or 50Wrms


Conclusions: The LX5 surpasses the FL20 in every sonar measurement that was made. With these measurements it becomes clear that the LX5 is a superior product in respect to its receiver/transmitter design. These measurements were made on off the shelf units using an industry standard tester.

What this means to the ice fisherman is that with the LX5 you will get a clearer, less distorted picture of what’s below the transducer. We at MarCum believe that these measurements reflect what LX5 users have been seeing on the ice. The MarCum Technologies LX5 is truly the best and this can be backed up and verified by scientific measurements.


Duane Cummings

Chief Sonar Engineer

MarCum Technologies Inc.



Vex is the Kleenex brand due to their great products for the past 25 years...However if you try to live off your name, other companies will surpass old technology and come out with better, lower priced products with todays technology.

My 2 cents....

Troy

[SUPERTROLLER]

He asked about the LX3tc vs. the FL20. Could you please post the spcs on the LX3 for us too? No need to run through the FL 20's vs. the others again. I just want to see the LX3's numbers. Thanks!

[montanacurt]

Excellent! I'm glad to be part of the debate this year! Last year I was trying to decide the same thing-- I read every post I could find and ended up buying a Lowrance m68 with an ice ducer from cabelas.

The reason I went this route was that I also needed a fish finder for my boat in the summer. So here is what I've learned:

Pros:

1) It is nice if your winter fish finder is the same one you use in the summer. I was out ice fishing yesterday and had all the spots marked where I caught fish in the summer. (Not that it helped me much yesterday).

2) It was easy on the budget given that to rig it up for summar fishing all I had to do was buy a regular transducer for the boat.

3) I got the m68, which is a small color finder that has a GPS. This way you always have a GPS with you and can conveniently mark any good spot or find your way back if you are down the lake on the ice in a blizard.

4) You can fish it in the regular mode, or in flasher mode. I ended up fishing it in regular mode almost all the time.

Cons:

1) I experienced some interference when fishing with a buddy that had a vexilar. I was able to get rid of it by tweaking some settings (I found a post somewhere here that gave me all the settings needed to remove the interference.)


So... long story short, I'm really happy with my choice. That said, I've fished with a vexilar before and they work great too.

[Small Fish On]

Get the Vexilar they have Honda motors and are bullet prof. I have used Vexilar back to 1985 when they were imported by Sitex. Never had a issue I just sold my Fl-18 after 4 years on ebay and got 5 dollars under what I paid for it 4 years ago when was the last time you had a electronic item hold its vaule like that.

[I Fish GS]

Get a Lowrance. I don't know how I icefished with my old vexilar. With the lowrance you don't have to stare at the screen if you miss something it is ther scrolling on the screen. No guessing what the depth is, or figuring wat setting you have depth at and What numbers to use on screen.
Converted my LMS 330 to icefishing used it once and my vexilar was 4-sale the next week.

[blueroof]

I've ran a Lowrance on ice for over two years now, the thing is OK. It is good if you are in one spot most of the day. Hole hopping with a graph is far slower than a flasher. A graph doesn't give the feedback like a flasher - with a flasher you can see the fishes mood better (they appear to vibrate when active when charging your bait) and if you are using familiar lures, you can see when you jig is fowled with your line, not something easily seen with a graph. My graph also shifts intensities every so often (with auto sensitivity off) and looses the depth around other flasher units. It is OK. A flasher is a far superior winter fishing tool. I will still use the graph at times, usually on a deadstick. I would run out tomorrow and buy another flasher if mine broke, the graph is no substitute IMO.

As mentioned, a graph is good for when you go take a leak, you can see you missed that big one.. LB

[Marcum]

I love my Marcum LX-5. I've used it 2 winters and 2 summers in the boat. In a nutshell, it's simply the most crisp display that identifies a lot more than my Vexilar did. I now refer the Vexilar as the blob machine, because that's what my lure and any fish would look like... you won't be disappointed.

[eyewitness]

Both units are very good units. I have used both, fished with both along side the other, and going with an FL-18 or LX5 is a hard choice.

Both have their advantages for sure. The advantage of the multicolor spectrum offered by Vexilar is something you will appreciate and learn to use to "see fish" before they ever pop up completely within your cone angle. Like wise, having the movable zoom range offered by Marcum can be a nice tool for fishing suspended panfish like crappies. However, for walleye fishing and the majority of the time you will be chasing other species, the bottom 6' of the water column is all you need anyway.........

Personnally I keep going back to the one thing that seems to be the common thread between everyone I know who has used a flasher for ice fishing.

At the end of the day, you NEVER here anyone say they wish they would have NOT bought a Vexilar. I CAN say that I have heard the opposite though........

[PierBridge]

If you go Marcum make sure you get an extra transducer because as we all know it fail, nice thing is Marcum will send you one out real quick.
Tough to beat Marcums customer service for sure.

I'll stick to my Clearwater Classic!

[blueroof]

Peirbridge, nobody told my transducer it's supposed to go bad, going on three years with my LX5 without a problem. I have seen a few Vex's that won't light up, certainly more of them out there to see though...

LB

[walleyekid_22]

All I know is that I have Had a Vex for 5 years and mine takes a pounding going across LOW. I Bought a new snowmoblile 4 years ago and it now is just shy of 4000 miles which are 95% fishing miles. So if durability is one thing to consider. I would say Most of the locals use a Vex. I have use my buddies LX-5 and would say that it is comparable to my FL-18. So in my opinion it is personal preference. I went with the Vex because it was my only option at the time. The new units from Vex are great but expensive. Thats all I know is that Reeds in Walker MN are selling Genz FL-18 for 339.95 and free shiping in the US. Great deal. $$$ wise and everything you need in a flasher.

[Carbo]

I use the lowrance x-70A it has a flasher mode and graph in one screen and is great in the boat.I don't know what the comparible Lowrance is now but I would get one. The bar graph is on the right and instantaneous, the screen to the left has the record of what's been happening. Been using mine for 10 years and it's still the best unit I've seen on the ice. Has many screens to choose from and zoom's in where you want it. Will tell you how much power you have left also.

[Meat Hunter Unlogged]

I have a Vexilar FL-18 and have been using the FL-20 once in a while. The FL-20 is a dynamite unit, there is NO othere unit that can come even close to the FL-20!!!


Meat Hunter.