SI units

Which of the big 3, Lowrance, Humminbird, or Garmin, have the best SI unit?

nord wrote:

Which of the big 3, Lowrance, Humminbird, or Garmin, have the best SI unit?

Lowrance guys: “Lowrance”
Humminbird guys: “Bird!”
Nobody: “Garmin”

JK…all three are good

I have a garmin and a humminbird and the humminbird Mega IMO is much better than the Garmin. I use the humminbird for mapping, DI, and SI. I use the garmin for 2D, panoptix and livescope. I haven’t seen the latest lowrance SI, so I can’t say anything about those.

ClownColor wrote:

Lowrance guys: “Lowrance”
Humminbird guys: “Bird!”
Nobody: “Garmin”

JK…all three are good

Haha so true. Probably like asking about the better truck between Dodge, Chevy, and Ford.

I do know exactly where you’re coming from. Before I bought my first ice fishing flasher I had no idea how to decide between the main brands. Part of the problem with these comparisons is that they’re probably all pretty decent so it’s hard to see any real separation in quality or price. So I’d say keep doing what you’re doing and when you hear a recommendation that clicks with you, go for it.

Example: When I was wondering what flasher to get, I had no idea what would be the deciding factor. I ended up fishing with someone at a veterans fishing event who told me about an awesome experience he had with Humminbird when he was fishing in Canada and his Ice-55 broke. For some reason I just decided “well, that sounds real cool, I’ll just go with them.”

So the Ice-55 led me to get a Helix-7 this past year just to stay consistent with ‘Bird products.

I have used all 3, currently have humminbird si on the transom and garmin si on the trolling motor.

In my opinion, once you understand the technology and can interpret the screen then all of them are usable. If you want more of a set and forget unit, pick between Garmin and Lowrance. If you like to be able to change settings to get a certain result then look to Humminbird.

Ryan

Ryan Speers wrote:

In my opinion, once you understand the technology and can interpret the screen then all of them are usable

This!

They’re all junk if you don’t understand the technology.

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

They’re all junk if you don’t understand the technology.

I just finished my first season with SI and DI technology on a unit I bought last year for about half price. Its a Lowrance HDS7 Carbon with a Totalscan transducer. I can confirm that its definitely a new process and I need more experience understanding and utilizing it.

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Ryan Speers wrote:</div>
In my opinion, once you understand the technology and can interpret the screen then all of them are usable

This!

They’re all junk if you don’t understand the technology.

This!
Or they are all good if you do understand. Glass half full guy here.

I’m with you Ripjiggen. The Lawrance unit I have just has DI. I spent this past summer getting to understand using the sonar and DI together. I didn’t think I would use SI-MISTAKE. I will keep researching and talking to people over the winter. Thanks to everyone for your input. I really appreciate it.