Fish Finders & Depth Sounders

[ETTY]

Hey Boater's

I was just looking at Fishfinder/Depth Sounder prices and was very shocked at how expensive they were.

I was wondering what other people used and how much you should expect to pay for a quality unit.

I have always regarded Raymarine as a very top quality brand but they are so expensive!

Any feedback on good brands or one's to avoid (+price ranges) would be great.

Thanks

Etty

[njsconst]

All Furuno products are very good. Both my GPS & sounder are furuno I find them to be great quality (made in Japan) and very user friendly. The new furuno colour range FCV-620 (RRP $1400) looks tops.

If thats too pricey then the Furuno LS-6100 (LCD) is a good alternative retailing for $599. This unit is rated to 500m but I find about 300m is its limit.

[Guest Big-Banana]

Iam gonna buy a Furuno next time around. I have a 160 Blue Garmin which is pretty average but it does the job for now.

[netic]

Mate you can always look in the states to see if you can get it cheaper, i know people who have saved $600 dollars in comparison to Oz prices.

The only issue off course is the warranty, if it stuffs up it will need to be sent back to the states.

My mate bought the lowrance combo for $880 which retails here for $1590. And in all honesty the lowrance units are probably the best these days, I have owned a furuno and currently own a Raymarine and would gladly swap it for a new lowrance any day of the week, And my raymarine is only 3 months old.

[Guest danielinbyron]

Yeah my house mate bought a lowrance from the states ; the service was unbelievable and the saving was about 30% after he paid customs...

They even had a return within a month fully transport paid full refund no questions policy..

[Wetpatch]

I bought my Lowrance LMS339 2 months ago from the States ended up delivered at $ 852 Compared to $1349 from Bias worth the look for sure

http://stores.ebay.com.au/GPS-SPECIALS_W0Q...sQ3amesstQQtZkm

http://www.xe.com/

[squizzytaylor]

Out of interest, has anyone actually had a warranty denied on a product bought overseas?

If the product is defective and a same product is sold locally as well, it should be covered in the country of destination by warranty and should not have to be shipped back to the USA. The major exception to this is where the distributor in the destination country is an agent at not a branch of the manufacturing company itself. Having said that even then it would be considered bad practice not to warrant the defective unit.

GT

[Bashir]

I've owned 3 sounders, an apelco (old raytheon/raymarien sounders), humminbird and now a simrad. From what I've seen all the commercial type sounders leave the h'birds, lowrances, navmans etcc for dead! Simrad, furuno, raymarine, jrc, koden, sitex are the only sounders I would even look at these days.