Lowrance or Humminbird?

I need some help please?
So I’m in the market for some new electronics for my bass boat. What I have now is pretty old, but I don’t have thousands of dollars to spend either.
I want GPS,down and side imaging so I have narrowed it down to Humminbird 798ci or Lowrance HDS 5 structure scan. Obviously I’m leaning towards the Humminbird only because it will cost me less.
My main question is there a big difference between these two units? The price difference between the 2 is almost $400! My friend has the HDS 7 with structure scan and it has a normal transducer and one that looks like a tampon for the structure scan. I saw a few post with guys stating they did not like the transducer on the humminbird stating it broke off at high speeds. Does anyone have a picture of the humminbird transducer? Does it have 2 different ones like the lowrance? Any help would be much appreciated.

up until the last four or five years, it was a no brainer.. and it was all Oklahoma / Texas..

not any more.. its time to get on the “bird”.. if just for the service alone..

numerous posts on numerous SITES, tell me its time to change …

BIRD…BIRD…BIRD…BIRD’S THE WORD Once you play with the feathers of the bird you will realize that Humminbird will even find a Lowrance on the bottom of the river due to a pissed off operator.

Studebaker

I run 2 transducers on the back of my boat hooked together with a “Y” cable. This enables me to run at up to 10mph with the side imaging and once I get up on plain my other transducer picks up because I have the side imaging ducer mounted about 8 inches up from the bottom of the boat and the other ducer mounted where it should be. That way if something comes in contact with the bottom of the boat it will only flip the skimmer ducer up and the side imaging ducer remains safe up high on the transom. I will try to take a picture of my set up tomorrow and post it to better explain.

I own both and can tell you it’s really Ford/Chevy with the two.

A lot of the negative things that have been true in the past with Lowrance are getting better.

I personally think that the Lowrance units are better but in your case I think I would go with Humminbird.

The Humminbird transducers are the size and shape of an iPhone.

A lot of guys still get the Humminbird transducer splitter and run the SI transducer higher up like on a jack plate to keep it from getting wrecked then use the other transducer at high speeds.

There are a few screen shots of Humminbirds at speed in the Humminbird forum.

Either way, you’re gettign a great unit.

The Hbird 798 transducer is much smaller then the 898, 998, or 1198. I run the Hbird 797c2SI is basically the same unit as the 798, and have never had a problem with loosing bottom up to 50mph GPS using only the SI transducer. After 3 years now I have never broken any part of the transducer and unit itself has never skipped a beat.

LR and Hbird both are making a good unit I find the Hbird menus much easier and quicker to use even thou I was nothing but Lowrance for the past 35 years. My Lowrances were good to me but I never liked the complexity of some of there menu systems.

I have always owned Hummingbirds.
I recently purchased the 798.
It has most of the features of the bigger units.
It has the internal GPS antenna
(mount it so it has visibility to satellites)
I anchor fish a lot so:
One advantage is it has more vertical pixels than the larger units.

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I run 2 transducers on the back of my boat hooked together with a “Y” cable. This enables me to run at up to 10mph with the side imaging and once I get up on plain my other transducer picks up because I have the side imaging ducer mounted about 8 inches up from the bottom of the boat and the other ducer mounted where it should be. That way if something comes in contact with the bottom of the boat it will only flip the skimmer ducer up and the side imaging ducer remains safe up high on the transom. I will try to take a picture of my set up tomorrow and post it to better explain.

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Pictures would be great! Thanks for all the great info guys.

If you ask me both a great. Flip a coin and pick one!

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BIRD…BIRD…BIRD…BIRD’S THE WORD Once you play with the feathers of the bird you will realize that Humminbird will even find a Lowrance on the bottom of the river due to a pissed off operator.

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I only have a decent Lowrance to compare to, but the bottom is where I want to throw it frequently!

Next one I get will probly be a Humminbird…

I have an HDS 7 and 5 w/structure scan and have only had it for two weeks now and I can tell you they are awesome. I had a few questions where I called the company on two separate occasions and once it took two minutes for them to answer and the other time about five minutes and I was talking with a live tech who helped me out. In the past I had some costumer service problems but it seems they are really improving. I don’t think you will be disappointed with either unit you go with.

After running Humminbird for 2 years and then seeing what a Lowrance could do I made the switch back to Lowrance, there is CLEAR difference

I run both and like both, but have to lean towards humminbird due to ease of use. Humminbird has come up with some innovative features in the last 2-3 years.

The debate continues…

Don’t let the bird guys scare you with the service bs.

Most if not all questions can be answer right here by posting the question. If one of our good members can’t answer it for you the Ken will be along shortly and have the answer for you. Seldom is there a need to call Lowrance.

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The debate continues…

Don’t let the bird guys scare you with the service bs.

Most if not all questions can be answer right here by posting the question. If one of our good members can’t answer it for you the Ken will be along shortly and have the answer for you. Seldom is there a need to call Lowrance.

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BK, it’s not service “BS” when ALL the forums were lit up a year or two ago concerning the service. Has it gotten better? Hopefully. When I start seeing positive posts on the other sites as well as here I will consider the issue fixed. Until then…………….

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The debate continues…

Don’t let the bird guys scare you with the service bs.

Most if not all questions can be answer right here by posting the question. If one of our good members can’t answer it for you the Ken will be along shortly and have the answer for you. Seldom is there a need to call Lowrance.

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year or two ago concerning the service. Has it gotten better?

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Mine WAS a positive post. Seems like every time there’s a positive post, a bird guy comes “flapping” in saying how bad it was “a year or two ago”. This is now.

Once people know they can come to this site and others and have their questions answered not only does it help the OP, but dozens of other that happen to google it or just read the forum.

The more people Ken (Lowrance Pro Staff) can help on line the less calls that go into the factory…which leaves the CS folks to answer warranty/repair/replacement issues.

Don’t want to post your question in the public view?

Send Ken a Private Message Ken’s Profile- Click on Private Message at the bottom of the page.

I’ve called CS once since I’ve known Ken was frequenting IDo and that was less than a three minute hold.

Lowrance knows their customer service sucked and that’s why they have and are adding people to man the phones and sending people like Ken out to fix the questions before there’s a need to call.

Sometimes the answers are right under our keyboards.

/rant

(Disclaimer: Ido or myself is not sponsored by Lowrance. The above post is of my sole opinion as an HDS 8 user)

X2 as a happy HDS7 user Oh with side scan too

X3 on happy Lowrance user. Soon to be HDS user.

People were jumping ship merely due to Lowrance’s customer service–they had NO CHOICE but to improve it. Prior to that, if you did not have a hotline to Linda Colt, you were SOL–which I went thru with my X-27 when it filled with water. I have always loved lowrance and think overall their product is good—but, as the saying goes “once bitten twice shy”. I really hope they make quality customer service a permanent priority and it is good that two companies are now making quality products for people to choose from and us to argue on which is better!

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they had NO CHOICE but to improve it

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Totally agree….and those improvements started over a year ago.

I would like to say that I am a fisherman like all of you guys. I am sponsored by Lowrance but I’m enthusiastic about the quality of the product and the improvements in house with customer service and product availability, it’s a priority with the company and will always be. Lessons from the past have been learned and responded to.

As for me being on iDo and a host of other web sites helping out with answers to questions, I’m a part of a whole team of guys doing the same thing on web sites all over the nation. This team effort is our passion to help a company we believe in to be the best it can be so we all benefit from the most superior electronics that can be had with the end result being that we can enjoy our weekends and tournaments to the fullest.

I’m always checking in to help in any way I can and will continue to do so. As you surf around you may notice that there are “regulars” on other web sites doing what I’m doing here.

Thank you for the kind words and the support that you offer Lowrance with your loyalty and questions that help the company address any issues that arise in a prompt and satisfactory manner.

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I need some help please?
So I’m in the market for some new electronics for my bass boat. What I have now is pretty old, but I don’t have thousands of dollars to spend either.
I want GPS,down and side imaging so I have narrowed it down to Humminbird 798ci or Lowrance HDS 5 structure scan. Obviously I’m leaning towards the Humminbird only because it will cost me less.
My main question is there a big difference between these two units? The price difference between the 2 is almost $400! My friend has the HDS 7 with structure scan and it has a normal transducer and one that looks like a tampon for the structure scan. I saw a few post with guys stating they did not like the transducer on the humminbird stating it broke off at high speeds. Does anyone have a picture of the humminbird transducer? Does it have 2 different ones like the lowrance? Any help would be much appreciated.

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Get a Garmin

heres a pic of hummingbirds transducer if it works ?

Link<<

Not wanting to start another thread, I figured I would bring this one back. Also in the market for a 5″+GPS. From a bare bones perspective of accurate GPS reading and fishing ID/separation, does either brand have an edge anymore? I am looking at the HB 7 series or the HDS-5. Can’t afford SI right now so just looking at the fundamentals. Also, user friendly is nice, but I am willing to take the time to fine tune either unit.

Please don’t bring back the CS debate as having worked with a CS group, I know a lot of the success/failure lies on the individual reps themselves. Catch one on a bad day (not acceptable) but it could skew your opinion of an otherwise helpful group. Thanks in advance for the input.

I think both brands are going to work just fine. (I know you didn’t want to go CS, but I am going to comment anyway.) I understand Lowrance CS was less than desirable for some, but I have never had an issue that was not resolved in a timely fashion. It may be that I never had a reason to call when the CS was “bad,” nonetheless, CS was not an issue for me when making my decision. Also, there are reports that CS has improved dramatically as of late…Lowrance figured out there was a perceived problem.

To me, the decision was based on 3 things 1. Ease of use. I don’t think either HB nor Lowrance are particularly difficult to use. I was able to maneuver around in both. I had had Lowrance (3 units) for many years and the familiarity with them was a plus. 2. Side Imaging. Not entirely sure how to interpret your comment on the SI. Are you not considering the SI in either unit or just the Lowrance due to it being an add-on? If you are not considering SI at all, I would suggest reconsidering that decision. If you are just delaying the SI if Lowrance, you should take into consideration the number of units you plan to eventually have. If you only plan to have 1 unit in the boat, the HB may be less expensive as the SI in included. If you plan to ever have more than 1 unit, the cost factor may swing in Lowrance’s favor. For me, I knew I would have 2 units. Only having to buy the SI module “once” was attractive. 3. Pixel count. If you are looking at the HB 7/8 series vs HDS 5/7. The pixel count will favor HB. The pixel count is much closer in the HB 9 vs HDS 8 and is equal in the HB 11 vs HDS 10. Only you can decide how much difference there really is. Going strictly on pixel count, the HB has the advantage overall, but the screen shape may change your perception of that “advantage” to an extent.

I doubt that you will be disappointed in either product. I ultimately chose HDS, but my father owns HB. After seeing my HDS 8, 7, and Structure Scan in action, he was somewhat envious. His HB 9 is still a good product though.

I have been running HB for 5 years now. The ease of operation is AWESOME. I fished the TBF National Championship last year and we ran Low. I know I am not comfortable running them, but they seemed complicated. The support staff was not very helpful.

Also the customer service for Low has been terrible to say the least.

I noe have a 998, 798 and 586, I really like them all.

Bottom line it is all in what you are looking for and comfortable with.

HB for me.

How’s the Gps screen refresh rates on the birds compared to a Lowrance?

I had a HB 9×9 home for a couple weeks two years ago. I ran it in my office to get use to the functions (mostly the gps functions). I returned it and went with the HDS-8.

What was important to me was the Lowrance unit had upto 99 waypoints in a route where the HB had only 50. What this meant to me was that I would need to stop half way home and select a second route to finish my trip. Doc Sampson spent way too much time trying to help me over come this issue before I switched to Lowrance.

I like the compass rose to tell me if I need to turn left or right.

I will say that I had a X-19 prior the the 8 and I thought they would operate the same. They did not.
Ken Sauret and his direct line to a exceptional Lowrance tech helped get the bugs out of my head…right here on Ido.

I can’t comment on the sonar differences between the two.

Disclaimer: I boat over 10 miles in the dark/fog/rain and there are times when I rely on my gps to get me home. I check my pre made routes each day on the way out fishing and trust them whole heartedly on the way back in.

It’s not recommended to boat with only one form of navigation.

that’s why I like BK—always living on the edge!!!!!!!!!!!

Disclaimer: most catfisherman live on the edge.