Depth Finders: Lowrance or Hummingbird

[cliftp]

I'm kind of new to this sonar/gps thing but will share my experience. I purchased my first new unit, a Lowrance 334c. It was pretty nice when it worked, and would still have it I'm sure if it would have. Some of you will remember Linda Colt, from Lowrance customer service. She was soooo helpful and actually completely replaced both my unit and transducer. Still didn't work. In the meantime I upgraded boats and was so tired of doing fishing trips with a unit that only worked part time. Found it especially annoying during our fall trips to Huron, OH, getting there and seeing the flashing depth at 2.4 feet and the constant, lost signal, found signal on the GPS.

I'm not a really quick study sometimes so went to my favorite local sporting goods store and was planning on getting the HDS-8. The owner of the store came to assist but said from his perspective as a store owner, deeply involved with customer service, he was pretty fed up with the Lowrance quality and customer support, especially when a few months out of warranty.

He encouraged me to look at the Humminbirds, and now have an 898 on the console and a 788 on the trolling motor, with the ability to mount it on the console for mapping when on big water. They have been pretty much flawless. Almost two years on the 898 and 6 months on the 788. So far so good. Gave me 334 to a friend with the stipulation he could not hate me. Fished with him Friday. Still does not work correctly.

I have several friends with Lowrance units and they have been great. I was lucky I guess.

I don't plan on going back to Lowrance anytime soon. Plus the Humminbirds are made in the USA.

Good luck with your choice.

Paul C.

[BBG Marine]

Originally Posted by mrg

Budget - I'd like to be $2,000 or less for original outlay. I know a bit more about Lowrance than bird, so from what I know I'd love to see an HDS8 on my dash with a lesser unit up front. Is it worth the extra money to go up to the HDS8 from the 7? Are their compelling reasons to look at hummingbird over lowrance? What should I be thinking about in terms of longer term or expandability if I want to add on to my electronics down the road (networking, etc).

Thanks, Mike

The bigger screen is better especially if you're adding side/downscan but if you're budget is $2000 for 2 units, you may have to look at the HDS7 or similar size unit in the Humminbird line.

Brian

First off both companies (Lowrance / Humminbird) make a great product - ultimately it depends either brand has what you as a consumer want.

Lowrance's strong points are modularity and extreme control over sonar functions. The units (HDS) were designed to be modular and communicate with a great number of extensions such as structure scan/deep imaging sonar/radar/etc. They also can use different manufacturer's transducers if you feel like trying something other than the usual Lowrance tranducer.

The downside to all of this modularity and ability to interface comes at the cost of a much steeper learning curve for programming the unit. You can control everything, to include setting up tranducers to controlling the size of the fonts on the screen as well as their placement. Many people don't want to invest this time or don't understand how deep the rabbit hole goes when they start down it. I'll be honest - the Lowrance manuals stinks, aftermarket videos and instructions can go a long way in shortening the learning curve.

Humminbird's strong points are a strong out of the box experience and a very competent support staff - they have made great strides recently in increasing the quality of their sonar and imaging technology as well. They also have started to become more modular within their own right, now interfacing with mapping/trolling motors as well as with downriggers etc. They are very intuitive right out of the gate, and hide some of the "deeper" menues out of the way so that you can get to the screen(s) you want fast.

They are not as strong in networking as the Lowrance products, and require units to be purchased in the features users want up front (eg, if you want side/structure you need to buy a unit that has it - it can not be added to the unit later on). They also don't offer programming of the GUI, so whatever screens are present are the ones you have to work with - which can be frustrating if you're trying to maximize screen area for viewing data.

Again, both are great units that allow users to choose which options are most important for their own style of fishing. Personally I perferred the features found in Lowrance, however I know that I'd like to have features of both units as each have items that I would love to use. That's probably why I'll end up with an H-bird right next to my HDS eventually.

[whofan]

Originally Posted by cliftp

I'm kind of new to this sonar/gps thing but will share my experience. I purchased my first new unit, a Lowrance 334c. It was pretty nice when it worked, and would still have it I'm sure if it would have. Some of you will remember Linda Colt, from Lowrance customer service. She was soooo helpful and actually completely replaced both my unit and transducer. Still didn't work. In the meantime I upgraded boats and was so tired of doing fishing trips with a unit that only worked part time. Found it especially annoying during our fall trips to Huron, OH, getting there and seeing the flashing depth at 2.4 feet and the constant, lost signal, found signal on the GPS.

I'm not a really quick study sometimes so went to my favorite local sporting goods store and was planning on getting the HDS-8. The owner of the store came to assist but said from his perspective as a store owner, deeply involved with customer service, he was pretty fed up with the Lowrance quality and customer support, especially when a few months out of warranty.

He encouraged me to look at the Humminbirds, and now have an 898 on the console and a 788 on the trolling motor, with the ability to mount it on the console for mapping when on big water. They have been pretty much flawless. Almost two years on the 898 and 6 months on the 788. So far so good. Gave me 334 to a friend with the stipulation he could not hate me. Fished with him Friday. Still does not work correctly.

I have several friends with Lowrance units and they have been great. I was lucky I guess.

I don't plan on going back to Lowrance anytime soon. Plus the Humminbirds are made in the USA.

Good luck with your choice.

Paul C.

I left Lowrance and been totally happy with my Humminbird 581I.
http://www.cabelas.com/product/Barga...3Bcat105681780

I too had the Lowrance experience.
God bless Linda Colt, but theres something wrong when things get so bad that a service rep becomes famous on a crusade to give the customer satisfaction.
She fought the tide of the new Lowrance and ultimately lost. But she is loved by us all who just wanted a working graph. Thank you Linda.
I went back to a simple monocrome graph and feel thats the best all around value out there.

[RyanK1]

I was always a Lowrance guy but got a killer deal on a Humminbird 898 with side and down imaging. I've run boats with new Lowrances and I find them to be good also. To me it all comes down to the Lakemaster chip and the possibility of upgrading to I-Pilot Link. Those two things will keep me with Humminbird. Honestly though, you will be happy with either but always go with the biggest screen you can afford.