Why are so many folks down on Humminbird? Seriously!

[Mister Sharky]

My boat I just sold had a 787c2 and I upgraded the software and a quad beam ducer and I loved it. I have been on alot of boats and most of the ff I have seen couldnt touch the way mine looked at the bottom. So easy to read the bottom and the gps was spot on with tons of setup options and you could set it for deep/shallow salt or freshwater and it would adjust itself for power output to give the best view possible. I would say two would be much better than one though since to use both at once you have to split screen(I got used to it easy enough). I just bought a new boat and want to upgrade the gps and ff and am trying to figure out why so many people scoff at Humminbird when mine worked so well before I buy another one...or two. Can someone give me a good reason not to buy Humminbird? When my first transducer was going out they asked me to call from my cell when on the water so they could try to help me figure out the problem. Very helpful and being in Alabama they are friendly southern folks. I am thinking it is just people are set on a certain brand and cant imagine that the old Humminbird company can be producing state of the art equipment...and leading in some aspects.

[XV2PS]

Where did you read stuffs against Humminbird?

[Mildog]

Probably the main reason is that there are mostly salties on this forum. Humminbird really does not fit the bill for heavy offshore use. Proprietary networking, limited NMEA support are additional factors.

[mr buck]

Hummingbird makes a lot of cheap, low end entry units so most people have experience with that. We had a $120 one on our boat back in 2000 and it was absolutely terrible, I vowed never to buy a hummingbird ever again after that. Their new stufff looks nice though.

[G8RDave]

I don't know about other people, but for some reason I always associated Humminbird with freshwater fishing. Their new stuff looks really cool, and I will certainly take them into consideration when I'm ready to buy a new unit.

I don't recall reading anything negative about them on THT.

[Mister Sharky]

I was just going through old posts about fish finders. Seemed like if someone mentioned humminbird there would be someone else that would say that they didnt compare to garmin, furuno, lowrance. I used mine only in saltwater up to 25 miles out and no problems. They do make nice units that are indeed meant for saltwater use. I was just looking for legit reasons not to consider another humminbird product. I would not buy a low dollar unit from any manufacurer and expect it to be any more than it was.

[Mister Sharky]

The bi directional communication issues or lack of makes sense to me. Seems like a legit reason to go with another brand if that is something you need. Although I still would consider a Humminbird for my bottom machine.

[dolphan]

I have a 797 C2 Si that came with my boat along with a Garmin 4212 with a B260 Transducer. That little Humminbird has a better sonar display [no screen noise] up to 200 feet or so and the side imaging is amazing. I never would have believed it until having one. I pretty much leave it on auto and it just flat works! I just wish the screen was bigger. Heck they even just added down imaging and a bunch more new features in a software update. Love it!

[musella]

My old boat had a humminbird side scanner... my new(er) boat was purchased used with electronics already installed and it has a pair of garmin 12" displays...
the fishfinder feels retarded compared to what I am used to with the humminbird. I fish in water less than 200' deep - mostly less than 100'.. for my purposes, the humminbird wins hands down over garmin

[pastaman1234]

Humminbird doenst cater to offshore. Their weather will only work 11.5 miles offshore. Not that the units isnt capable of more.....just how their contract is set up with the satelite provider. They dont offer radar so that excludes them from consideration to a lof of people here.

I have a 987 with SI and love the unit. I dont really see any negative posts about them on here except from maybe a few non owners that remember the old days when they were junk.

[madkate88]

I think they got a bad rap because up until the side scan they really had the reputation as making an inexpensive no frills fish finder. The market for them has always been with bass fisherman and Lowrance had always dominated that market until now. Humminbird has definetly gotten into the game with the new side imaging and even their regular sonar is excellent.

[sandyda]

The best thing about Humminbird is that Navico didn't buy them.

[musella]

The ideal is the humminbird for fishfinder, and another brand mfd for radar, gps, weather with a backup fishfinder

[bradmd]

I like my 1197c with sideimaging. Makes finding wrecks a breeze. Cust svc is great. Guy above is right about NMEA out limited options in networking though. I like the chartplotter and fishfinder functions on this unit.

[philgorp]

i never thought i would see a hummingbird sold for 1700$

[jethro1]

How can a company be thought highly of when they can't even spell their own name?

[chemoniepilot]

Da spells it rite -- donch'a think?

[Mister Sharky]

They are in Alabama remember.