5 Things You MUST Know Before You Buy A Fish Finder!

[cris]

Originally Posted by JohnMckroidJr

Many mfgs are not even supplying plugs to cover the wires when the head units are disconnected. It's like they want the FF to go bad so you will have to buy a new one. How sweet it would be to have water proof units with internal LiPo batteries and no wires in the hull to corrode!

There are several available on amazon for around a hundred bucks with sealed LiPo batteries. Just not from any of the big name sonar brands...

[GregAndrew]

Yes, the main issues deal with water intrusion. Through the connectors, the unused ports, the SD slots and even the heads themselves. You can mitigate most of the issues taking the steps mentioned above during launch and landing. But there are still rogue conditions that can get your unit wet well away from the launch.

Another consideration is that most of these units are not designed to be connected and disconnected each outing. There is wear and tear involved with all of that.

Not ever going to be able to get to fully wireless units due the the transducer being in the water. But I would love to see the waterproof head and rechargeable internal battery and storage, as long as it has capacity.

I too love the West Marine warranty, and buy all of my electronics from them with it. Not only do they replace your unit under their extended warranty, they will replace the unit under the manufacturers warranty and return it themselves.

[SoCalEDC]

Originally Posted by GregAndrew

they will replace the unit under the manufacturers warranty and return it themselves.

Wow, thats great customer service. I will have to keep that in mind next time I buy something.

[JohnMckroidJr]

Quote:
Originally Posted by GregAndrew View Post
they will replace the unit under the manufacturers warranty and return it themselves.

Originally Posted by SoCalEDC

Wow, thats great customer service. I will have to keep that in mind next time I buy something.

West Marine has great customer service. When the price match that I found was not within the now required 50mile radius from the store, they did find me a comparable price match. The extended warranties have some fine print that store by store is disregarded subject to the location. I would inquire with the store to confirm their warranty policy. The largest West Marine in the US(Ft Lauderdale) encourages the extended warranty because then one can bring it back to the store for an exchange, instead of having to go to the manufacturer. That is also the selling point for buying their brand of certain products.

[cris]

Originally Posted by GregAndrew

Yes, the main issues deal with water intrusion. Through the connectors, the unused ports, the SD slots and even the heads themselves. You can mitigate most of the issues taking the steps mentioned above during launch and landing. But there are still rogue conditions that can get your unit wet well away from the launch.

Another consideration is that most of these units are not designed to be connected and disconnected each outing. There is wear and tear involved with all of that.

Not ever going to be able to get to fully wireless units due the the transducer being in the water. But I would love to see the waterproof head and rechargeable internal battery and storage, as long as it has capacity.

I too love the West Marine warranty, and buy all of my electronics from them with it. Not only do they replace your unit under their extended warranty, they will replace the unit under the manufacturers warranty and return it themselves.

I have noticed some pins bending in the connectors, great point.