Recommendations on GPS Receivers

I'm thinking about purchasing a GPS then using a Rammount to put in on the kayak.

I've narrowed my choices down to two different GPS receivers.

The first is the Garmin GPSMAP 78sc: https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/on-the- ... 63603.html

The second is the Magellan eXplorist 510 Pro Angler FHS3L 3" GPS with Lifetime Map Updates: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/magellan-ex ... Id=9867185

Does anyone have any experience with either one of these receivers; or experience with both receivers?

Your observations and recommendations would be very welcome.

I have the Garmin and have been very satisfied with it. I have not used the GPS map too much, but have mainly been using it to track speed and later look at where I have been. Besides using it on the water, I have used it hiking. Some of the reasons I picked it was it was waterproof and I think it floats as well. The big thing is that it comes with the marine maps.

Check with West Marine. I got mine for $249 and I have seen it on sale since I bought it for the same price. May be worth the wait if you are not in a hurry. Check their website. They have a good video talking about the product. Garmin also has software you can download. I use that to map out my trips and then do screen prints to take along with me.

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2015 Hobie Tandem Island

I have had some sorry experiences with my marine electronics. I kayak & kayak sail on the sea where the water state can be worse than on inland lakes and it is a marine environment so my comments should be qualified with that info. I have used Lowrance & Eagle/Cuda FF/chartplotter units that are supposed to be waterproof and 'kayak- ready'. They have been installed via a ramball mount in the RHS drink holder on my Adventure using a Ram 'stalk' which is abut a hand's span tall - the head unit has then been screwed onto a plastic ram ball base with the cables running through a waterproof seal into the hull where the battery and transducer are located.

Now the problem has been 2 things: one is wave splash over the unit - basically the ramball stalk has not been long enough to lift the electronic device above the wave splash so they have been getting a regular dousing with salt water. I always wash my boat off after use and like to think that I have taken care of the electronics but they have all suffered as a result - typically from corrosion of the connectors and/or water entering the units themselves to the point that they go haywire. The second problem has been the 'waterproofness' of the units themselves... basically they aren't (or haven't been).

Of the two types I have used the Eagle/Cuda 250s (now obsolete) that I have had have been OK but have still only lasted so long. These units have rudimentary in built maps so no card slot, but water has still got into them either through the seals into the body of the unit somehow, or into the electrical connections at the back where the salt water has corroded the plug (not the connectors on the unit so much).

The Lowrance Elite 4 DSI that I paid a whole lotta dough for was absolutely useless and a very expensive mistake. This unit has a card slot and you have to buy a Navionics cart to go into it which ain't cheap. But the problem is that the slot itself is not waterproof - not at all, despite what the manufacturer claims - so water can and does get in and it ruins both the unit and the card. Furthermore the warranty is rubbish - I bought the unit online because they weren't for sale in NZ; when it crapped out after about 5 trips I took it to the local Navionics office for service & they told me that I would have to take it back to the country of purchase to get any warranty - this is for a marine GPS for ********* sake: presumably these can end up anywhere in the world !!! but you have to go back to your starting point to fix it if it goes wrong. Anyway, I whinged (like a good Pom) at the supplier who was very reluctant indeed to accept a return and eventually, after several months, got another unit which lasted exactly 3 trips. The other issue with this unit was that the screen is far to small for my ageing eyes to be able to see the detail on the Navionics chart anyway, especially mounted where it was, relatively low down in the cockpit. Be warned!

So the moral of the story and my advice is:
1. whichever unit you choose make sure your installation allows the head unit to ride above any wave splash and close-enough to your eyeballs to be able to read the detail you are expecting to see (I am about to install another Eagle/Cuda 250s - old stock that I picked up cheaply - and this time I am going to use a Railblaza mount because it is plastic - the aluminium ramball ones corrode in the marine environment - and it has a longer stalk which you can add more sections to so that it really is quite high up. I am also thinking of mounting the head unit inside an upended plastic lunchbox without its lid and one end screwed to the mounting plate to protect the top, sides and rear from water splash and rain.)
2. don't believe them when they tell you the unit is waterproof - it is more likely to be water-resistant for a while. If the head unit is sealed you still have the problem of properly protecting the power plug connections. And DEFINITELY don't believe claims of waterproofness if the device has a card slot - if it has one of those a) it is going to be a lot more expensive to buy and replace when it goes wrong and b) it ain't likely to be anything like waterproof enough for a kayak.

Final point - have tried doing my own aftermarket waterproofing using self-amalgamating tape, waterproof duct tape, Captain Tolley's Creeping Crack Cure, silicon goop, etc. Nothing seems to work. I suspect this is because in our summer weather the devices heat up and cool down during the course of a typical trip. The expansion of air inside the unit will, I believe, cause it to expel air through any tiny gap in the seal and then, when it cools down it will also have the effect of sucking air back in through that tiny gap - if water is present then that will get sucked into the device too as it cools down. My conclusion is that electronics and salt water fundamentally do not mix and the only real way of making electronics last in a marine environment is to encase them in a housing which prevents saltwater getting at them - which is pretty darn difficult on your average kayak, so the only options are not to use electronics or put up with the fact that they are expensive and have a decidedly finite useful life.

Don't get me wrong they are great when they work and I would rather put up with the cost and have a FF/GPS than not. But there are fish-hooks...

Hope this is useful

I can see where saltwater would eat away at any electronics devices. Even though the Garmin says waterproof and floats, I keep it in a sealed dry bag for electronic devices. The ones that are clear, so I can still use the device through the bag. It also helps to protect it as it gets knocked around the boat.

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2015 Hobie Tandem Island

I have had the same luck with every gps I have owned, in salt water they crap out in about 6 months. The only exception I have found to that is the lowest of the low end garmin gps with no features to speak of (it's the low end yellow one) I think it was around $49 bucks.
I also have a lifeproof case on my Iphone, and keep it in my shirtpocket. I have the Isailer app and it does everything I need. Plus I have several other app that I use. I also keep up with email and stuff when I'm out.
Works for me
Bob

I also strongly echo Stobbo's experience.
I've had much greater luck using a smart phone for GPS with the Navionics boat map. I use a railblazer device holder (works very well). Also I enclose my phone in a waterproof see thru bag (also works well, see Amazon).

The downside so far has been that seeing the screen in a bright sun can be difficult with my mini Samsung 3. Maybe a tablet or larger phone would be better? Another issue with the Samsung mini is that the battery doesn't last long and I need to change between 4 batteries on the water (again another phone might be better), which is a risk and problem in rough weather.

Overall, my expense is much less and I have yet to have a failure or incident. Also I use my phone for other tasks.

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Mark
Tandem Island- 2013
2 - Sports - 2014

+1 for the comments re waterproofness!
Ever since my Magelan 310 succumbed to spray in our Oasis back in 2007 I've made sure any electronics were housed. From 2008 until early this year my favorite GPS data logger was an old Nokia Navigator phone (no sim) housed in an Aquamate case. I'd sit in in the cup holder where you could clearly see the readout. It worked great and the only reason I replaced it was due to it taking longer to get a GPS fix and a diminishing battery life.
I wanted a similar sized GPS and earlier this year got a Garmin eTrex 30 which takes maps on a micro sd card. The screen, though somewhat small, is easy to see in broad daylight (thanks to my +1.5 reader Sunglasses) and 2 AA batteries last around 25 hours.
Even though it's supposed to be IPX7 waterproof, I don't trust it and use it in one of those cheap waterproof motorbike phone cases (4.3") sold on ebay:


An O-ring around the toggle stops the case from depressing it. The side buttons surprisingly work OK through the case.


On camping trips I take along a tablet in a waterproof case that has the Navionics app on it. It works great and the mapping is superior but for everyday use I prefer the eTRex.

I have had very good experience with Garmin handhelds over the years. I have a 12 do that still works and it at least a dozen years old. Had a legend that lasted about six years of hunting and fishing. And now I'm using a 62s that's about 3 years old and spends about 50 days a year on the ocean and no problems at all. No case and it sits in a cup holder that usually has water in it.

Thanks to everyone for the excellent responses. I'm not stranger to GPS receivers. I've had quite a few but nothing with a marine application. I live in Ohio. So the opportunities to get in salt water are very few.

However, I'd like to be able to take my son in his sport and me in the outback into some calm salt water sometime.

I've got the Lowrance Elite 3X on both boats. I agree that they aren't very waterproof. We don't get much wave action on the lakes where I live but on one of our camping trips, it rained for 3 days and I left everything out in the kayaks.

I figured that everything was designed to be in the water, so what the heck. Anyway, the displays of both fish-finders fogged up really bad but cleared up in the warm sunlight later on. My fish finder would not display temperature; only dashed lines. After I got home and few drier days later the temperature read out started to work. So the problem was the connections being so wet that the temperature read out would not work.

I had to get another iphone and I discovered the Lifeproof case that's supposed to be waterproof. I'll get a Lifeproof case for my son's iPhone and we can use the GPS features on the iPhone for now. Which brings me to the next question.

Anyone have any experience with the Lifeproof cases with their smart phones? Do the cases live up to the waterproof claims?

Not exactly that model, but an earlier version, the GPSMAP 76CSx, which I've had for 6-7 years (can't remember). Mine has been attached to jetskis, boats, my Hobie Revo, ridden in my backpack on hunting trips, RAM-mounted to my truck windshield, dropped on rocks, dropped in the water, etc, and it still keeps ticking! Other than the relatively small screen, it's been great and I still like it better than the Garmin Oregon we use at our office.

A good friend had one of the handheld Magellans, but after he used mine, he bought a Garmin 60CSx (same electronics, different form factor) for himself. To me, the menus are a bit easier to use than the Magellan, plus there are so many Garmin maps available (both commercial and user-created) that it is a no-brainer to me. I've been planning on RAM mounting mine in my Revo, but thus far, it rides fine in one of the cockpit mesh pockets. You're moving so slow on the water that you don't need to reference it that often.

Oh, and mine's been dunked plenty of times, but it hasn't yet affected it. It appears to be sealed extremely well.

Here's a follow-up on the Lifeproof cases. I dunked mine in the swimming pool and it kept the cell phone dry. That's the good part.

Now for the bad part. The microphone was sealed off so good that people on the other end had a difficult time understanding me. They were being very polite and didn't say anything to me about the difficulty in understanding me. My son, on the other hand wasn't shy and told me that he could not understand me.

You can imagine my frustration. I was getting upset with my son thinking that he either wasn't paying attention or wasn't holding the phone up to his ear. Being almost 10, he could not adequately describe the problem on his end.

So I called a friend and asked if he could understand me. He described the distortion as if I had some water around me! After I took the Lifeproof case off, I called him again and he told me that I was easier to understand tand the sound was clearer.

I even made some voice memos with and without the case. The clarity without the case was remarkable.

The only way to make the Lifeoproof case work for day-to-day operations is to have a bluetooth stuck in my ear or wear the ear-buds all the time. That isn't going to happen.

I got the tried and trusted Otter Box and will be returning the Lifeproof case. I have plenty of other waterproof boxes that I can put the iPhone in.

Out of 5 stars, I can only give the Lifeproof case a one.

I use my iPhone for tracking my kayaking with its built-in GPS. I really like the Motion-X GPS app. Has a lot of features, you can download different types of maps, etc.

I use a waterproof case on the phone for years and haven't had any problems. I only put the case on when I am kayaking because I think all the waterproof cases dimish voice quality. I find taking it on and off just for a kak trip no big deal.

My friend recently took his iPhone with a Lifeproof case on a kayak trip. Water penetrated it and actually ruined the phone (he had to get a replacement phone for $300 from Apple). Lifeproof gave him a free new case though!

I actually use this cheaper case from Amazon and despite many splashes and dunks in over a dozen trips it has worked fine. Amazingly the fingerprint reader actually works with it unless my finger gets particularly wet.

I don't mount the phone but I do put it on a retractable leash and keep it one of the side mesh pockets. It's nice to be able to check the radar, email, etc. when out for a day.

I too have had numerous premature salt water device failures with various electronic gadgets on my kayaks, and spent way to much effort on mounts and waterproofing. I recently purchased a Garmin epix watch but so far have only used it in fresh water. The user interface has a steep learning curve but it is quite powerful, capable, and customizable. It does support maps and nav including topo, streets, and BlueChart. And it can track your activity for later review and sharing with position, speed, and temp and heartrate with optional sensors. (I am trying to figure out how to mount the temp sensor to best track water temp.) Of course, it is still just a large watch footprint so display size could be problematic to some.

Peter

The mic problem on the iPhone Lifeproof case typically has to do with it covering the iPhone's 2nd mic, which allows the phone to diminish background noise. With it covered, the iPhone mic has a very tinny sound.

I've seen 3 Lifeproof cases fail, which is not acceptable. I've used the generic waterproof bags that you can get at West Marine & other marine shops. My iPhone (and now Android) works pretty well in one of them and you can immediately see water infiltration, should it occur. Cheap and effective, plus it's easily removed once you come off the water.

But I still use a dedicated, waterproof, handheld GPS when I'm in my Revo.

Sent from my Droid Turbo using TapaTalk

I dispensed with the LifeProof box and went back to the Otter Box. I also went back to using the generic waterproof boxes which haven't failed me yet. My son and I will probably go with a bluetooth ear piece and leave the phones in the dry boxes. We can call each other on the phones if we need to. I haven't been impressed with the radios. Of course, trying to get a 10 year old kid to use a radio properly when it's windy, wet and bumpy is another challenge altogether. So, I just stay close and yell at him when I need to

On the other hand, he's got pretty good with just a plain old map and cheap compass on the water. I looked at him one day and said, "I'll follow you back to the boat ramp and just keep my mouth shut and see if you can do it." And he did!