Garmin newby, considering buying one

Hey everyone, I went to my local Cabelas last weekend with plans of buying either a Helix 9 or an Elite 9. I’ve had both Lowrance and Bird in the past. I love Humminbird mapping but I haven’t been all that happy with their sonar. I like Lowrance’s sonar but I haven’t been that impressed with their mapping. I saw the Garmin 93sv was priced quite a bit less than the Helix and the Elite. The Garmin mapping looks pretty decent and being that this unit has Chirp sonar, I’m assuming the sonar will perform really well.?.? I made 2 trips to Cabelas to try to find someone that could help me decide on which graph to purchase but I never really had much luck finding someone that had much knowledge on these new graphs. Does anyone have any experience with the 93sv? I would love to hear your opinion!! Thanks in advance!!

I have the 73sv which was told same machine smaller package.

Sonar, SI, chirp, contour draw all awesome. Being able to pick your own screens and customize them is awesome. Id plan on purchasing the upgraded maps though, the HD built in maps have been decent to mostly poor for myself, even with the one free update they give you.

Can’t tell ya how good the other maps are, but everything else about the unit been quite impressed with. Night mode is pretty sweet. Fast processor so mapping always keeps up when you need it to.

nhamm wrote:

Being able to pick your own screens and customize them is awesome.

This isn’t a shot at you or garmin, but customizing screens isn’t exclusive to garmin. My HDS Gen 2’s are fully customizable. I would guess that HB is the same way.

That said, I almost went garmin back in 2014 but no one, I mean no one had any info on them nor were there any display models to be found. 1 year later I kicked myself after all the great reviews and the release of panoptics.

I still love my lowrance units but I think I would have been happier with garmin.

I’m clueless Gill maybe you can enlighten me….

Can you decide where you want the map, 2d, SI, di, on your screen and then resize each one to your liking. Get rid of or minimize the huge number bar on the sides?

Would be good to know next go round of sonar purchasing.

I bought the 93 earlier this summer, put it on my alumacraft, have to say it is great. I got a super deal, around $700 at the time Garminm, lowrance, lawsuit, other issues, I got the right transducer and am very happy. I also have a hds-8 and a helix 10 on my warrior, same thoughts as you on these units

Shefland is there a right or wrong transducer? Is there a better one than what comes with it?

Yes, you can. It’s in a few different spots, to adjust the settings.

I put a 73sv in my boat for a total of 2 weeks. I hated the mapping and the “downvu” which is not true downscan. I returned it and replaced it with an elite 9ti and love it. I don’t think I could go without the touch screen anymore. Maybe the 93sv is different but the 73sv felt cheap and the buttons were terrible.

Can I ask what you mean when you say downvu is not true down scan?

I have the Echomap Chirp 93sv and love it.
Ya, I know it’s Ford vs Chevy debate.
When I bought mine I had no experience with any of the other units that were available at the time. Did my research and felt this was the best unit for the money out there.
The transducer that is recommended on bbcboards.net is the GT52, which is the one that I have.

What Rwilliams said the GT52

Tom Anderson wrote:

Can I ask what you mean when you say downvu is not true down scan?

There was a series of Garmin units( non echomap I believe?) that were sold for a short time, then big-time clearanced out which included a transducer that didn’t have a DI element, rather would “patch” in the missing space with SI returns.

Tom Anderson wrote:

Can I ask what you mean when you say downvu is not true down scan?

Due to lawsuits regarding copyright infringement, Garmin discontinued including the “GT” transducers and began to include the “CV” transducers with their Echomap units. The CV or ClearVu transducers use software to stitch a left and right side scan image to create a down scan image. The GT transducers have a dedicated down scan crystal. The GT transducers are still available for purchase separately, but are not included in the box with the Echomap.

If you are wanting a top performing down scan unit, this probably isn’t for you. If that’s not a critical factor, then the sidevu, traditional sonar and quickdraw contours make it a good investment.

Don’t all the new units include this ducer? It was all the cheap ones that are no longer available in store no?

Trent W wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Tom Anderson wrote:</div>
Can I ask what you mean when you say downvu is not true down scan?

Due to lawsuits regarding copyright infringement, Garmin discontinued including the “GT” transducers and began to include the “CV” transducers with their Echomap units. The CV or ClearVu transducers use software to stitch a left and right side scan image to create a down scan image. The GT transducers have a dedicated down scan crystal. The GT transducers are still available for purchase separately, but are not included in the box with the Echomap.

If you are wanting a top performing down scan unit, this probably isn’t for you. If that’s not a critical factor, then the sidevu, traditional sonar and quickdraw contours make it a good investment.

I dont know if your purposely spreading misinformation or your just misinformed.
Yes some of these units did come with a cv transducer, from what I read garmin will exchange a cv for gt transducer.
These units now come with gt22 gt52 gt40 transducers.

The gt52 came with my 73cv this spring. Love it

A good sonar, side imaging and mapping are my main concerns. This unit being quite a bit cheaper than a Helix 9 Mega or an Elite 9ti sounds like it’s worth a try. Does anyone know if my old lake master chip will work in this unit? It’s a Garmin lake master chip that I used to use in my handheld GPS. Thank you to everyone that replied!!

I don’t believe you can use other map chips. I bought a 73sv this spring and live it. Live mapping is pretty sweet btw.

I tried my 2010 lm chip and my 73sv said I needed an unlock code to acces maps.
Even if I had the unlock code I would think the proprietary format has change since lm and garmin parted ways. I may try calling garmin to see what they think.

I remember updating my old garmi530 sonar and the 2005 lm chip no longer worked in the sonar but worked in the hand held. Lukily I had purchased a 2010 chip that works.

nhamm wrote:

I’m clueless Gill maybe you can enlighten me….

Can you decide where you want the map, 2d, SI, di, on your screen and then resize each one to your liking. Get rid of or minimize the huge number bar on the sides?

Would be good to know next go round of sonar purchasing.

The short answer is yes. I don’t want to hijack a garmin thread though.

I just went through this. The boat I got came with garmins but didn’t like the mapping as much as Hbird so added a helix 10 mega. Most places the garmin mapping is pretty close to hbird with lake master chips. I haven’t had the boat to many places yet but on Lake of the woods some of the reefs aren’t very well detailed on the garmin.

I have had humminbirds before and the helix 10 mega si is a big step up from previous units. I was told to go with the helix 10 over the 9 because of the faster processor not sure if it’s true but it works really good.

I love my 73sv. Mine came with the gt-52 transducer that has a dedicated did crystal . The helix 5 si had a stitch together di transducer and honestly the picture was about the same given the 2″ screen difference. si on both units rock but the garmin has a more reliable gps and holds bottom much better in all conditions. The pre loaded maps on the garmin are not the best but the fact that I can do live mapping more than makes up for that.and yeah the 3d panoptics option blows the competition away. I wont be happy with a so ar unit until it can show me whats in front of the boat BEFORE I GO OVER IT AT SPEED!

Before I bought my Garmin, I talked to a Garmin rep at the Mpls. Sportshow
and was told the Garmin Lakemaster chip would not work in the new units.

1hl&sinker wrote:

I dont know if your purposely spreading misinformation or your just misinformed.
Yes some of these units did come with a cv transducer, from what I read garmin will exchange a cv for gt transducer.
These units now come with gt22 gt52 gt40 transducers.

The gt52 came with my 73cv this spring. Love it

First off, not trying to spread misinformation. Coming after a person like this makes you look like a real A$$. Just trying to answer questions with the information that I have. I own 3 Garmin Echomap units and love them. Second, my information comes from Garmin directly. I contacted Garmin in July 2017 about transducer options and this is the reply I received from Garmin…“At this time the devices are still coming bundled with the CV transducers. There have been no announcements of that changing. As for exchanging the transducers with GT, we only can do that if the transducers are malfunctioning. If the CV transducers are working normally, we cannot just swap them out. You can purchase the GT transducers and try to sell the CV transducers online.” Certainly something may have changed since July, just passing along the facts as I received them. I purchased 2 Echomap Chirp units 93SV and 73CV in August 2017 and both came with the CV transducers. I also own a non-Chirp 73sv (purchased in early 2016) that did come with the GT transducer.

It can certainly be said Garmin made this whole transducer and downscan issue very confusing.

Thank you everyone for your replies!! I’ve decided to give the 93sv a try. I’d love to have a Helix 10 Mega but the price is almost double of the Garmin. Hopefully I’ll be happy with my decision. Thanks again everyone!!

If you are interested in a bit of an upgrade I have a year old GPSMAP® 7608xsv that I will sell for $1200. I want to get 2 10″ screens