Humminbird Helix 7 Ice

For all those who have been asking here is my review on the Humminbird Helix 7 Ice setup!

I set mine up and I sure like it. I have a G2 DI Helix 7 (same as yours I believe) that I use in the summer as well as a G1 SI unit on my boat. I opted to convert the G2 to ice for winter use, and may do the same with the G1 at some point. I also have an old 3 color SiTex FL-5 that still works well too.

I have only used the Helix on the ice on one outing so far, but found the standard graph sonar screen and that same screen with zoom to be my preferred screens to use. I did use the flasher type screen and found it to work, but man the graph just seemed to be the best for me. I do not have mine on the H’Bird shuttle or bag, I was given a Vexilar shuttle that works for now but I’m still looking for the ultimate solution here, which may or may not be the H’Bird shuttle.

I did use an FLX-28 Vexilar on an outing, and it really worked well. Based on the two single outing, and that I already own the Helix, I see no reason to spend the money on a Vexilar at this point although they are really good useful units.

Besides the initial purchase of the Helix 7, for the ice I have $75 invested in the ice transducer, $20 in a 9ah battery, and $15 into a power cord for a grand total of $110. Harbor freight sells a real nice computerized 4 amp charger (Viking) that works real well for charging it and other batteries for like $20-$30, and it came with a nice charging lead plug in that I wired into the shuttle I have. My battery life seems to be pretty good, I got down to 33% after about 7 hours of fishing with my screen brightness on 5 and a “night”/black screen background, and I left the GPS on the entire time. I’m sure as the battery ages, it’ll give up sooner but this seems to be pretty acceptable. I’d like to figure out a way to house my 18ah battery with the unit in an ultimate shuttle setup but that remains to be figured out yet.

LM

lazermule wrote:

and may do the same with the G1 at some point

I wouldn’t recommend converting the G1; the enhancements made with the G2 + up in ICE mode are quite a bit better.

That said; if you want to try I’ve got a G1 Ice Ducer I’d sell for a less than new price!