How often do you change/purchase fish finders?

[FBM357]

Curious...

Of course I know finance plays a big part, but those who have FF that work very well and love it, how long will you keep it before purchasing another? Seems like some folks change em as frequent as their underwear.. (kidding) but it almost seems every year..

Your thoughts.....

[Little Skeeter]

If it works and does its job, I keep them as long as they will still work. I still use an in dash flasher as my backup cause you never know what can go wrong with these new ones, with all the electrical and software that goes into them.

But I just bought new ff's and I can tell you unless the die on me they will last a long time, if you take care of them. No need to upgrade to the newest thing out each year, unless you just have the money burn'n a whole in your pocket, and or your in high stakes tournaments. My last set lasted me 4 years, till they had a weird electrical issue and went out on me. But I make them last as long as possible, I still have others sitting in their box from over 10 years ago. Just cant seem to make myself get rid of them.

[vic n]

Only when I have to, which is a sore point for me. Electronics companies are notorious for doing what they call "end of life" on models they no longer want to support. In other words they refuse to repair models, even tho it may be an easy fix, in an effort to force the consumer to buy the newer model. If a model is ten yrs or more old, I can understand it, but it can be hard to get a repair done on a model that is only a couple of yrs old.....that chaps my hide.

Sorry for the rant, and sorry for highjacking your thread.

[papasage]

when they quit working!!!!!!!or when my wife gives me permishon. i have 2 565 and a 525 i change when i use the pontoon or bass boat . don`t remember how long i have had them .bought one used several years ago .would like to have a SI one day . but a i pilot is on my want list now.

[jimp]

I am just upgrading from an 04 model Lowrance x37 that came on my 04 tracker to a Lowrance Mark 5 pro. The old one worked fine imo, but just wanted something new and improved I guess w/o breaking the bank. I've used the new one 2 or 3 times, like it so far but its different and apparently I don't do change as well as I use to! LOL. I considered the latest and greatest, but had trouble with the number of $$ it would take, and putting that kind of $$ on a 7 y/o boat, just didn't add up to me. I'll wait until the this years latest & greatest is more reasonable in cost. I could have done the high $$ route but didn't really think it would increase the number of fish on the hook, but will never know since I didn't spend the big $$.

[crappiemax]

I upgrade usually when I see something that is exceptionally different. I bought a nice B&W unit just before all the color units came out. The color didn't really show me anything new, it just showed the same thing only in color.

Now when side scan 1st came out, I was fascinated. To me Bird added a whole new aspect to the world of electronics. It took me a couple of years to figure out what I was looking at and to decide to make the leap but I figured what the hell, why wait. I ended up buying Low mostly because that is what I've had in the past and I've been happy with them.

I put the unit(s) (I like the 1st one so much I added another 1 later) on a 17 year old Tracker so the electronics are worth more than the boat but I'm happy with the boat so why switch.

As far as justifying the cost.... thats always kind of a tough equation to figure out. I bought a 4x4 truck. I bought a boat. I keep about 10-15 rods in the boat (in Ohio only 2 are legal) in case someone joins me. I have enough jigs and tubes to last a looong time. I have enough terminal tackle to last even longer. AND to top it off, I only keep fish a few times a year, I think most of these lakes have too much pressure. I don't have any other hobbies other than fishing and hunting. It's what I do for fun so I think I can justify the expense. I will add that my kids are grown, the house is paid for and my wife is low maintenece. I would think it would be hard to justify any fishing as a cost saving measure on the grocery bill.

Did it add more fish.......heck yeah it did. Not everytime out but there were days it made a huge difference, that more depended on where the fish were. I fish off and on with another guy on here
EF-Slabs and I got to say once we kind of figured out what we were looking at and some basic adjustments....WOW! More important than even the fish, we had fun and that is whats it's all about anyway.

I got to say I've looked at electronics since my first flasher unit back in the 70's. They all made a difference. At the time, they were all a big expense. If fishing is what you do, if YOU CAN AFFORT IT, and it works into your style of fishing, I say why not.

[chaunc]

I bet i've had at least 15 finders since 1972. I'd buy the best i could afford when i wanted to upgrade to a model that showed a better picture than what i had. Couldn't afford top of the line for a long time as i was raising my 5 daughters. Now they're all grown so i can afford whichever models i want, now that i'm retired. If they have features that will improve my fishing, i get them. In 2006 i bought a used 987csi from a guy here on cdc. I had an eagle 640c on the console and a 320c on the bow. Liked that bird so much i moved it up to the bow where i spend all my time and got a new 997csi for the console. Sold the 320 and put the 640 away. Then the 1197 came out and i started saving to get one for the bow. Was looking on amazon.com and found one with the nvb package, new in box, for $1000 less than the original sticker price. Bought it and now i have it on the bow. Dont think i'll need to upgrade for a while but if something new comes out that will improve on my fishing success, i'm all over it.

Forgot to add that i sold the 987csi for $150 less than i paid for it and it still worked perfectly well.

[crappie4me2]

I still have young kids at home so I have to be tight with my money. I have done the samething I started out with a $100.00 HB back a few years ago and now I run the 788C and I love it. For me once I went to the color screen it made all the difference in the world.