Raymarine or Garmin

[Team Temptation]

Raymarine C120 or Garmin 4212? I have a great deal on an almost new C120 from Raymarine or a new Garmin 4212, I will compare the 2 side by side this weekend at the Miami Boat Show but would like fellow fishermens real world experiences and opinions.

TIA

Armando

[Free Spirit]

THe chart plotters are both excellent but the Raymarine uses Navionics charts that are updated more often than the Garmin blue charts. As far as the FF goes, the Raymarine is truly digital and , in my opinion, blows them away. You also get Raymarine customer service that answers questions with a real person who speaks English. If you need to see what the Raymarine will do, contact me.

[Shortfin]

Garmin
Excellent cartography
Excellent english speaking in america customer service !!
easy to use
OK Radar
Good Sounder


Raymarine
Fair Cartography
Excellent english speaking in america customer service !!
easy to use
Great Radar
Excellent Sounder

[Team Temptation]

Thanks guys, headed to the boat show in a few hours hope to make the call then. Seems RayMarine is the way to go.

A

[Bligh]

The first year they will be in the same ball park. The Raymarine might even have an extra whistle or two. The Garmin will be user friendlier. Going into 2 or 3 years from now you will wish you bought a garmin.The quality will rise above the fluf.

[LuckyLady]

The first year they will be in the same ball park. The Raymarine might even have an extra whistle or two. The Garmin will be user friendlier. Going into 2 or 3 years from now you will wish you bought a garmin.The quality will rise above the fluf.

I agree on the user friendly part. The Raymarines have a lot of menu's and sub menu's you can get in to and 9 times out of 10 its by accident. People get worried and confused and just start pushing buttons trying to get back out of where they are at. Changing settings that don't need to be changed, then it becomes the issue of what did I do, and how do I get back to the point.

Some owners are more electronic savy than others. On this one particular boat I had to send my installer out at least 3 times within the 1st year to fix what got messed up.

The new garmins are incredible and way cheaper than raymarine or at least they were. Haven't done a side by side price comparison this year yet. In the past after all components were added data cables, black boxes, mounts etc. It broke down like this

Highest to lowest

Raymarine or Simrad (I can't remember off hand which one was directly 1st)
Furuno
Garmin

Hope this helps...

[Free Spirit]

It would be a great idea to check the prices and rebates from Raymarine. There are some great buys right now and IMHO, the radar, chartplotter w/NAvionics cartography and the HD digital sounder can't be beat. I make a living with them and have for 8 years. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

[DEEP DEFIANCE]

I agree on the user friendly part. The Raymarines have a lot of menu's and sub menu's you can get in to and 9 times out of 10 its by accident. People get worried and confused and just start pushing buttons trying to get back out of where they are at. Changing settings that don't need to be changed, then it becomes the issue of what did I do, and how do I get back to the point.

Some owners are more electronic savy than others. On this one particular boat I had to send my installer out at least 3 times within the 1st year to fix what got messed up.

The new garmins are incredible and way cheaper than raymarine or at least they were. Haven't done a side by side price comparison this year yet. In the past after all components were added data cables, black boxes, mounts etc. It broke down like this

Highest to lowest

Raymarine or Simrad (I can't remember off hand which one was directly 1st)
Furuno
Garmin

Hope this helps...

I have to agree with Mary on this one! my raymarine manual is about A total of 1" thick it does take alot of getting use to if you are not electronic savy.I went from garmin electronics and had A hard time with this! Chartplotters are all the same if they work! I am currently having A problem with my raymarine,as I am getting the GPS lost signal and on my last trip had to run in from about 65mi with this problem(It has happend to me about 3 times in the last 4 trips.)So in my opinion A chartplotter is A chartplotter as long as it is working. In my opinion the Furuno and Ray radars are second to none but my opinion is the Furuno is better but I havnt had A problem with my Raymarine radar.The Raymarine sounder unit blows the competion away! When it works.I had to get A new module last season and it has been working fine for me. I can relate to all of what mary is saying and if you are not electronic savy your better bet would be to choose your electronics A little more carefully.But as I said there digital sounders are second to none. capt.Steve will be on your side if you ever need anything and he is A asset to the ray community so this is A plus. Oh by the way Capt.Steve I looked on the top of my antenna and it does have A led indicator so I do infact have the updated antenna now what do I do to correct the problem?

[Free Spirit]

Deep, drop me an email and I will help you figure out the problrm. Check to see what color the LED on the top of the 125 is blinking and the rate it blinks at. It could be nothing more than a loose connecttion but I have to have a bit more info to figure it out.
gotumon@comcast.net

[Bill_N]

I have the same choice and have pretty much decided to go with the 4212. My buddy has 2 E120's on his big CC and he has never figured out some of the menu's. He has alarms going off all the time. He had the dealer come out and look at his set-up a few times over the summer and still had issues in Sept last year.