I am getting a new mx 1825 next spring. I have ran Lowrance all my life but with the changes with bird and minnkota I am wondering if now is not time to change. Is anybody else in the same boat. I would think with the mapping, locators and trolling motors there will soon be true auto pilot.
Im looking to up grade my electronics right now to and am leaning towards Humminbird. Having 2 broken down lowarance units in my boat right now is making me look that way.
Anyone seen any deals on birds lately?
I was in this same spot this yr when getting the new boat. I could have got birds a lot cheaper but being I have ran lowrance I stuck with them. Glad I did as I am not crazy about how the birds are layed out. I do like birds gps as far as having certain depths highlighted but I like lowrance sonar better. Just my opinion both great units.
I went with lowrance HDS units and have always owned lowrance but will never again. Customer support is seems to be sketchy at best no more lakemaster for them either thank god for having Thorne Bros less then a mile from home so they always kept me on the water and setteled my issues offline. I got into the HDS when they were fairly new and have had both units exchanged twice on warranty. All seems good now after working the bugs out other then one unit has a card reader that comes and goes. Just my 2 cents but I will be switching to bird on the next upgrad…
I switched from Lowrance to HB, and never regretted it. I’ve heard some people regret going with Lowrance, but I’ve never heard anyone regret going with HB.
Everybody has heard that the bird is the word 
The only thing LOW had over HB was radar capability. Now that HB has introduced low frequency radar I don’t see any reason to go with LOW. Plus you can’t get LakeMaster for LOW anymore. That’s not going to help their desirability.
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Im looking to up grade my electronics right now to and am leaning towards Humminbird. Having 2 broken down lowarance units in my boat right now is making me look that way.
Anyone seen any deals on birds lately?
Guess Im not in the market anymore. Picked up a new 788Ci HD DI today at Thorne Brothers. They have some pretty good deals going on right now. Thanks for getting me hook up again Pat.
I run a Lowrance X-27 and HB 997 on my boat. I prefer the HB GPS because I can highlight depths and it works better at slower speeds. As far as sonar, the Lowrance is better. I have messed with all of the settings on the HB and the Lowrance still picks up more fish and shows bottom transitions better. With that said, I would be happy to have someone take a look at my HB and make sure I have the settings optimized. 
I had the opportunity to run my Uncle’s boat with an HDS 10 and I thought that graph was pretty sweet. I’ll be in the same situation if I decide to get a new boat and at this point I am still on the fence as well.
I tried the Bird for 2 years, they were fine I had one transducer issue. The Lowrance sonar performance brought me back, like Bigfife the Bird wouldn’t mark fish, i played with settings etc…. I am back to Lowrance and couldn’t be happier! The fish can no longer hide! And the adjustability of the Lowrance is way better!
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I run a Lowrance X-27 and HB 997 on my boat. I prefer the HB GPS because I can highlight depths and it works better at slower speeds. As far as sonar, the Lowrance is better. I have messed with all of the settings on the HB and the Lowrance still picks up more fish and shows bottom transitions better. With that said, I would be happy to have someone take a look at my HB and make sure I have the settings optimized.
I have wondered about how my Eagle will show arches and my Bird will not show any. It seems when my Eagle shows fish I rarely catch any but if both units show fish my chances go way up. Was fishing next to a friend running a HD8 and he was marking all kinds of fish and my Hbird showed nothing and we both caught nothing. So I wonder if Low dosen`t tweek there returns to show more arches even thought there not really fish.
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As far as sonar, the Lowrance is better. I have messed with all of the settings on the HB and the Lowrance still picks up more fish and shows bottom transitions better.
Dont feel bad I played with my buddies 1198 this year cause what he said were fish I thought they were minnows. His buddy works at bird and also had a bird pro tell him how to set it up as well. He got in my boat and couldn’t believe how much more defined the arches were on my HDS8.
HDS example of fish arches
Well it looks like I will be buying some birds. All I hear is how bad the service is at Lowrance and there is more for less with bird.
Who do hear from that the service is bad from Lowrance? 
I think I called them once, and got right thru and it was a simple issue, if it doesn’t break why call?
Everything I have read on people that have used Lowrance service were satisfied with the results.
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Who do hear from that the service is bad from Lowrance?
Everything I have read on people that have used Lowrance service were satisfied with the results.
There was a lot of talk about how bad LOW service was a few years back. Unfortunately you hardly ever hear much good. I don’t see to many posts recently about LOW’s current service.
The funny thing is that most of the people that rip on Lowrance customer service don’t even own a lowrance and have never tried calling their customer service in the first place. That or they have a 10 year old unit from 4 generations back and can’t believe nobody has parts for them. I’m on my 4th or 5th generation of Lowrance units and have had a total of one problem, which was a bad button that Lowrance fixed for free even though the unit was out of warranty.
Both Lowrance and bird make good products. Check them both out and go with the one that best fits what you are looking for. Don’t base your decision on a bunch of here say you read on Al Gore’s internet.
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Both Lowrance and bird make good products. Check them both out and go with the one that best fits what you are looking for. Don’t base your decision on a bunch of here say you read on Al Gore’s internet.
Thanks John, this is the best advise anyone could give! Gather all the information you can and then make the decision that is best for you.
BTW, thanks Al for the opportunity to communicate with like minded people so easily.
I’ve had a LMS520C for 6 yrears and linked with a HDS7 W Side scan for 2 years now, I’ve had a couple of issues and cuustomer service has ben great. A couple of years ago it took about 20 min on hold the last 3 times I’ve called to ask a question about a couple of things I never waited for more than 2-3 min,once no wait and the questions were answered fast and correctly. I’m a Lowrance MAN with out question. get what ever works for you and don’t let a couple sour apples ruin a good thing!
Stan 
There were many reports of below average customer service a year or 2 back, but I think Lowrance really tried to improve that area. I never had to call during that time frame, but have within the last year and there was only a minute or 2 wait time. Issue was resolved quickly. I don’t think the customer service issue is an issue that should influence your decision at this time. Pick the product that best fits your needs and budget.
I was debating between Lowrance and Bird when I upgraded this past summer. I don’t know that I could be happier with the performance of my HDS 8 and 7 with the Structure Scan.
Does anybody know if the new birds have true downscan?
As far as I have heard the Humminbird transducers for their side imagining only have two crystals in them, one for the right side and one for the left side. They use this information to produce a down image.
The Lowrance transducers have three crystals in them, one for the left, one for the right and a dedicated one for the downview.
I do not mean to hijack this thread, but am I the only one that does not like the fact on a HB that you cannot get rid of the defaults that eat up the screen or move them ( temp, time, speed, GPS, course ) unless you get to their highest end models ?
It just seems to really take up way too much of the screen.
Paulski
I’m one of the ones who actually had a unhappy experience with Low customer service, it’s been a couple years and it seems they are trying to improve though.
Unfortunately they soured me to Lowrance and I keep thinking that when my 27C’s die I’ll replace them with HB….except I like the Lowrance units better….grrrr
Hopefully I won’t have to make that decision for a bit.
Al
Al, this isn’t a static situation. When something goes wrong a proactive company like Lowrance does something about it.
Lowrance customer service wait times are down to a couple minutes, they have increased their factory warranty on the new HDS units to two years from the previous one year. Now they have given their customers the opportunity to extend the factory warranty beyond the two years for a fee, it’s buying an extended warranty like we all do with our outboard motors.
Lowrance went through some tough times but learned from them and have made improvements that I believe will make you feel comfortable going on with the best sonar picture in the business.
Don’t give up on Lowrance quite yet Al.
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Al, this isn’t a static situation. When something goes wrong a proactive company like Lowrance does something about it.
Lowrance customer service wait times are down to a couple minutes, they have increased their factory warranty on the new HDS units to two years from the previous one year. Now they have given their customers the opportunity to extend the factory warranty beyond the two years for a fee, it’s buying an extended warranty like we all do with our outboard motors.
Lowrance went through some tough times but learned from them and have made improvements that I believe will make you feel comfortable going on with the best sonar picture in the business.
Don’t give up on Lowrance quite yet Al.
Naw, I won’t, but had they split the cost of them transducers after admitting they were bad I’d been much happier.
I still have a 510C sitting on the shelf and trying to decide whether I want to chance a new transducer for it or buy elsewhere.
I was out friday night and had a chance to look at a HD8 in action…pretty nice unit I must admit. 
Al
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Al, this isn’t a static situation. When something goes wrong a proactive company like Lowrance does something about it.
Lowrance customer service wait times are down to a couple minutes, they have increased their factory warranty on the new HDS units to two years from the previous one year. Now they have given their customers the opportunity to extend the factory warranty beyond the two years for a fee, it’s buying an extended warranty like we all do with our outboard motors.
Lowrance went through some tough times but learned from them and have made improvements that I believe will make you feel comfortable going on with the best sonar picture in the business.
Don’t give up on Lowrance quite yet Al.
Good to hear this. Sounds like a company heading in the right direction.
My 03 cents.
Lowrance has an up hill battle that it’s currently working on. It shows with people like Ken checking websites to help with problems “in the field” and with the reported MUCH lower hold times than there was two or even 1 year ago.
Although they are on their way to gaining the loyalty they once had, it’s going to take the life of a bird to get it back…and some new technology.
People don’t switch unless they experience horrible service or one brand offers a distinct advantage over the other. With the service Lowrance users were getting and the advent of SScan it’s going to take a very long time to get back the solid Lowrance following.
Lowrance is on the right track (after getting hit in the head) but they will need to do something to “blow away” the competition.
I’ve always ran Lowrance like alot of people. When I got my 2009 Ranger 619 I had the choice of getting the new Lowrance HDS units (that were still very new)or go with the LCX28 & 38 units. I chose the LCX units just because I did’nt want the headaches of the bugs in the new HDS units. My LCX units have worked flawlessly. Until my 28’s power button took a crap. So I called Lowrance and they set me up with an upgrade to a HDS10. All I can say is amazing. I’ll be selling my Bird 898 that I got in May.
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I’ve always ran Lowrance like alot of people. When I got my 2009 Ranger 619 I had the choice of getting the new Lowrance HDS units (that were still very new)or go with the LCX28 & 38 units. I chose the LCX units just because I did’nt want the headaches of the bugs in the new HDS units. My LCX units have worked flawlessly. Until my 28’s power button took a crap. So I called Lowrance and they set me up with an upgrade to a HDS10. All I can say is amazing. I’ll be selling my Bird 898 that I got in May.
Maybe they could set me up with a upgrade to the transducer I have that doesn’t work???
Fat chance, I’ve decided to replace the 510C with a Humingbird unit and see how that goes.
When one of the two 27C’s I have finally fail, then I’ll have to decide again, maybe the sour taste I have for lowrance customer service will have faded by then.
Al
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