Anyone use a Si-Tex,Furuno,or RayMarine

[JiMinneye]

I need a new depth finder and wonder why all I read about on this board is HBird and Lowrance, once in a while Vexilar. Has anyone used a Si-Tex, RayMarine or Furuno depth finder. If you have one of these could you tell me what your experience has been with the unit and customer service. I am leaning toward a Vexilar Edge 3 but wanted to do a good job of learning about what else is out there. Not interested in the Lowrance P.O.S. but might consider a HBird also. Thanks, Jim

[bob oh]

I've used a Si-tex and am now using a Furuno. both have been good units. Brother is now using the Si-tex (old cath tube type) and it is still going strong. Can't tell you about customer service, I've never contacted either. Furuno is big with salt water fishermen.

[SteveW]

One of the guys I fish with has the Furuno 585. That thing is amazing! He bought the 1000 watt transducer for it and you wouldn't believe what it shows as far as bait and salmon down at 400 feet. I have also been fishing with him in 20-30 feet of water for walleye and there is no doubt about whether it is structure or a fish laying on bottom. He has had no problems with it so I can't speak for customer service. The only reason I didn't buy one this spring is because for the same money I thougt a Lowrance HDS unit with a split screen GPS would be a better value. I was wrong and after not having my unit for a month due to it not turning on and it having major problems again I will be buying a Furuno and separate GPS (non-Lowrance) this winter. I believe I have some pictures of some walleye on the 585 somewhere. I will post them if I can find them.

[Burr]

I need a new depth finder and wonder why all I read about on this board is HBird and Lowrance, once in a while Vexilar. Has anyone used a Si-Tex, RayMarine or Furuno depth finder. If you have one of these could you tell me what your experience has been with the unit and customer service. I am leaning toward a Vexilar Edge 3 but wanted to do a good job of learning about what else is out there. Not interested in the Lowrance P.O.S. but might consider a HBird also. Thanks, Jim

I've used a Si-Tex CVS-106 for many years. I was retiring it this year, but it's coming out of retirement until I can get the warranty with my replacement unit completed.

Si-Tex does not make the CVS-106 any longer. It was pretty much an unchanged model for about 20 years. It had good points and bad for me.

Good - best sonar performance of any sonar I've ever used. It is one of the first color units, and color is pretty valuable in reading/interpreting the display. It marked fish laying on the bottom of the lake better than anything else I've experienced. Mine runs at 120 kHz - so it was a good second unit in the boat with other units typically running at 200 kHz. No cross-talk. Used the sonar through 4 different boats
I owned - a period of 10-12 years. Never needed servicing, and as far as sonar interpretation - the new units on the market still don't measure up. I tested a Lowrance Broadband - that comes close - but it certainly is not better sonar. I am in the process of replacing with a broadband compatible unit - but that's a different story. I've contacted Si-Tex customer service twice - once for paper for my old papergraph, and once for an additional gimbal bracket. Both calls went well, I had what I needed within a week.

Bad - The CRT screen has poor visibility in open deck daylight conditions. It's a large unit. It's really gobbles up battery. I could drain a 24 size battery in a full day of fishing. The bottom lock is marginally successful - I'd have to set my depth range and then zoom several times a day. There are also settings on the unit that are not defined in the user manual - I once pressed the key combination that changed the display language to Chinese. Somehow I figured out the key combination to change it back to English.

[LWinches]

SteveW and Burr. Tell me more about seeing fish ON the bottom. For years I heard about the Genetron units ability to show fish on the bottom. I bought one and did some testing. While I found that it was a great unit I did not find that it would or could mark fish on the bottom. Even on a flat bottom, all the sonar units I've used operated with a transducer that had some size of a "dead spot". That dead spot varied in size based on several factors but nonetheless the dead spot was there and prevented seeing fish on the bottom. I measured the size of this dead spot using a #9 Rapala Balanced Jig dropping it straight down until it disappeared then noting how much farther it was to the bottom. Nothing could be seen in this area.

I'm not disputing what you've said, simply inquiring as to what type technology would perform at this level. Is the transducer single/dual element or multiple elements? A transducer with multiple 1-2 degree elements might possible do this. I don't know as I've never used one.