Hummingbird vs Lowrance Opinions

[utinator]

I am looking at a boat with two large screen Hummingbirds with HDS11 and One HDS 9. All with Sidescan

Humminbird doesn't make any such model. You must be talking about the 1199 and 999. Both are good units, but the 999 wastes a lot of screen space with the overlay data. There was a software update that fixed that problem for the SI screen, but not the regular sonar screen.

I have used Lowrance, H-bird, and Garmin units. The H-birds are way easier to install and use. You don't have to study a manual to figure out how to set-up and adjust the H-birds. They are super easy to work with, and the 3 pre-set buttons are awesome.

I'm running 2 HDS-9's, and I'm wishing I had 2 1199's instead. The biggest advantage to the H-birds, is with the SI transducers. With 1 transducer, you can have 2D sonar, SI, and DI on the trolling motor. I can't even get all those features with the HDS-9 on my Fortrex. The most I can get is 2D sonar and DI. That would take two different transducers. I do get 2D, SI, and DI on the console unit, but it has 2 transducers connected to it.

The Humminbird GPS antennas are better too. They lock on and refresh twice as fast as Lowrance. You can also use Lakemaster maps with the H-bird. You can't run those on Lowrance. You can get Navionics on the Lowrance, but Lakemaster is far superior.

[GhostComanche]

On my 12 up front (or 9 for that matter) most often I run DI and 2D on the screen and Structure Scan pulled from the back through the Ethernet. It works good. With structure scan pulled from back ducer, if I see something that interests me I simply drop a waypoint and spin and fish it.................. P.S. Point 1 Antenna's are incredible on these units Steve........................RR

[Orion922]

Humminbird doesn't make any such model. You must be talking about the 1199 and 999. Both are good units, but the 999 wastes a lot of screen space with the overlay data. There was a software update that fixed that problem for the SI screen, but not the regular sonar screen.

I have used Lowrance, H-bird, and Garmin units. The H-birds are way easier to install and use. You don't have to study a manual to figure out how to set-up and adjust the H-birds. They are super easy to work with, and the 3 pre-set buttons are awesome.

I'm running 2 HDS-9's, and I'm wishing I had 2 1199's instead. The biggest advantage to the H-birds, is with the SI transducers. With 1 transducer, you can have 2D sonar, SI, and DI on the trolling motor. I can't even get all those features with the HDS-9 on my Fortrex. The most I can get is 2D sonar and DI. That would take two different transducers. I do get 2D, SI, and DI on the console unit, but it has 2 transducers connected to it.

The Humminbird GPS antennas are better too. They lock on and refresh twice as fast as Lowrance. You can also use Lakemaster maps with the H-bird. You can't run those on Lowrance. You can get Navionics on the Lowrance, but Lakemaster is far superior.

If you are a weekend angler then I recommend HB. I could not pass the boat deal I got and it came with Lowrance. I am giving it a year playing around with them before I make a final decision. However, after several weeks I am leaning toward ripping the units and sonic hub out and replacing it with HB. HB took me a week to learn. I also like Lakemaster much better.