Showdown negatives

[mozy]

I have never used a flasher of any sort before and want to get one this year. I was wondering what negatives there are to this unit as I'm having a hard time finding any. Seems like a good price and an easy to use unit. I know most of the good about them, but what about anything bad that I may be missing? Please don't turn this into a product bash, I'm just wondering it's disadvantages against the traditional flashers.

[aquafang]

I have a showdown, Marcum LX-3 and a Vexilar FL-8. All are good units. The only downside to the showdown that I have experienced is the fact that it is sometimes difficult to see your jig if it is small without turning up the gain and then you get alot of blips on the screen from interference. But if the showdown is the only flasher you can afford, I wouldn't hesitate.

[Deitz Dittrich]

As Aqua stated, not a lot of negatives. I like Aqua own quite a few different depth finders, I am a bit of a junkie.(Lx-5, LX-3, FL-18 and Showdown) My wife actually prefers the showdown when we fish. She states that its easier for her to read. I can see like aqua states if you use a really small jig, but we are talking REALLY small. Its been a great unit. The only other down fall would be if you had the unit turned off in ultra cold temps it may damage the screen, but I have not had that problem and I have had it in some very cold temps.

[Ed Carlson]

Terminal connections at the head unit and other points need to be more stable and better suited to the cold environment it is intended to be used in, also needs to be more shock resistant. Poor connections led to the units shutting down due to low voltage to the unit from the battery. It would shut down if the voltage spiked below 10V...again..poor connections.

The majority of the problems reported to me on these units were somehow connected to poor connections or too sloppy of connections. The case could also be more stable and better designed to protect the unit. A clam hard shell type case may be better suited for this style of unit?

I am afraid we may see some of the same concerns with the new Hummingbird units, as they also use push connections and not threaded connections on the power led.

There is a good reason why Vexilar and others designed the power connections to be secure, as well as the transducer connections. Use on the ice produces a lot of jarring and vibration and connections also get stressed or contract in the cold.