Humminbird Depth Sounder and Wholesale Sports

[IslandNewb]

This is more of a gripe then anything but I need to vent. As a gift my wife bought me a Humminbird 140c. In the past I had the 120 and had no problems however the new sounder was eating through a set of batteries in 4-5 hours. Initially I thought it was bad batteries but after trying two new sets and a set of rechargables I came to the conclusion that it was the unit. Here's what sucks. Basically if your Humminbird product is faulty it has to be sent to a Humminbird service/repair and there is no replacement. Even though the unit I purchased was acknowledged as not functioning properly by both the retailer (Wholesale Sports) and Humminbird and I took it back to the store within 10 days, neither Wholesale Sports nor Humminbird would replace it. Both said that I would have to wait until the unit went to the service repair.

So here I sit after spending 300 bucks without a sounder waiting for who knows how long to get a sounder that works. So in the future I would not purchase anything from Humminbird and I will likely not purchase anything from Wholesale Sports because of the icredibly terrible warranty and service option and the lack of action on Wholesale Sports part to remedy the situation.

There.. I vented. I dont feel any better but at least its out there.

Here's the question part. Is there another unit out there that is portable, that I could use on both my bellyboat and aluminum? And, where could I purchase the unit other then Wholesale Sports.

 

[Seafever]

I had a couple of Humminbirds....both of them died.

Then I went Garmin....which was better than Humminbird but it still acted up eventually and died also.

Then I went Eagle.......and have had no problem so far (3 years).

Garmin and Humminbird have flimsy wire in them for power hookup and also their transducer wires don't seem to last either.

You can get the less expensive finders at:-

Can tire
Wal Mart
Gone Fishin'

and many of the marine supply stores.

Remember.....for salt water you need something with decent power.....the inexpensive models will often do a fair job shallow...but once you get over 200ft deep they start to fade out.

 

[finaddict]

My Eagle DF has been on 3 boats and had two different transducers (destroyed one with a surprise log under first narrows) Has been accurate, and plugged along for the past 7 or 8 years with no problems. I bought a 2nd one for a second boat on e-bay for $80 used and it has been fine as well.

 

[Big Green Machine]

For portable units, Eagle all the way for me, have two and for the price, very reliable and durable. My higher end Hummingbird is great however. Would be interesting to see a Lowrance portable, is there such a thing?

 

[Reel Knotty]

You might want to try running litheum (sp?) batteries in electronics for a longer battery life. I found rechargables and cheapies suck for battery life.

 

[IslandNewb]

Thank you all. Will I be able to run any of the eagles on a pontoon or bellyboat as well as my aluminum?

Reel Knotty. Thank you I tried that as well. After going through the 1st set (duracell) I bought another 6 (energizer) since I figured I had bad batteries. I got no more then 5hours on either. Then just to be sure I went out and bought rechargables with the same results.

 

[tubber]

Thank you all. Will I be able to run any of the eagles on a pontoon or bellyboat as well as my aluminum?

I bought a cheap Eagle portable in Tofino when my cheap Humminbird died. It works pretty well to see bottom, read water temp and see bait balls inside the one deep and narrow cone. I noticed a huge difference between the Kirkland batteries and the better Duracells from Costco. Same thing in my portable gps. 1/3rd to 1/2 running time. I took the rubber suction cup off my portable, screwed the transducer to a 40" x 3" x 1/4' piece of plywood and clamp it to the electric motor rack of my pontoon. (or the stern of my whaler until I get a real sounder). Not sure about a belly boat. A hemostat on a spool of leader works good enough on most little lakes to find your chironomid edge/depth.

 

[Seafever]

The color units suck up more internal power to run the color screen than do units with the black/grey screens.....

Maybe that's part of the problem too.

 

[IslandNewb]

Thanks again guys. Its great getting all this information from people who know.

As for me. I went in and saw the manager at Wholesale Sports here in Nanaimo (Robyn) and he fixed me up (replaced the transducer portion and said if Im still having problems he'll replace the display). My feeling is that if he would have been in the store when I originally went in, he would have fixed me up then. Alls well that ends well.

Cheers