marcum showdown5.6 and 2.0

[jacksmelt71]

last march i bought the showdown 5.6 and 2.0 on sale from amazon. brought the 5.6 out for the 1st time in the shack, wouldn't read anything. come to find out the transducer didn't work. they sent me a new one. used it twice and put it away for the summer. tried to power it up 2 weeks ago and nothing. checked battery  charge connections and fuses. no problems. shipped it back for repair. good thing i had my 2.0 but decided id upgrade that to a 12v performance pack. well i ordered it. connected it to my 2.0 w/ the 12v and it wouldn't power up. went back to aa's it worked fine. again checked connections, battery charge and fuses. all were good so back to marcum that went! i had a lower end flasher from them for 3 years that i sold to scalloper that never let me down. thought i was a upgrading to the showdowns. big mistake! i can't believe the quality has gone down that much coming from a reputable electronics company. I've read a lot of negative reviews on them from many sources. some say they are real sensitive to moisture and drops. the rest have the same problems as mine. why would a company make something that poorly engineered and constructed knowing very well what these things are going to be subjected too? 1st chance i get ill sell these and get a hummingbird flasher!

[Elkhnter]

Well there is one thing even better than a Humminbird Flasher, Get a Graph model then you can use it on any boat. I have posted a great price on a graph model that comes with a suction cup for the back of your boat. You can use that transuder or get one of the humminbird ice ducers for like $60.00. The only thing with the Down Imaging finders is you just have to make use it has the update on it. There are tons of threads about how to use humminbird Finders on hardwater under the equiptment section "Electronics".

http://www.anchorexpress.com/humminbird-fishfinder-570-di-portable-408140-1
 
if you cant get the link to work just type Anchor Express in a search engine, once the website opens click on fish finders on the right side, This Humminbird 571 DI model is a protable for 179.00 dollars.. Cant beat that deal..

Good luck.

[SpitzoMT]

Sorry to hear about your troubles. I've had my Showdown 5.6 for three seasons now with no problems. Best of luck to you with your next purchase !!

[lefty2053]

I own 2 of the Showdown 2.0's, Neither one has had a problem.

[ugillme]

thats why i love vex so much. i had mine drop from 6 ft and snapped the handle right off the propack2 case. my heart missed a beat. i picked it up and was surprised it fired right up and works fine til this day.

[Chris338378]

I have the Showdown Dual beam for two years and no problems.  Do you charge your batteries at least once a month during the off season, that helps keep the batteries in shape to hold a charge.

[carcus1]

I had 3 showdown dual beams, all failed, my cousin has a dead showdown troller  that's useless, never again will I buy a marcum product, oh should mention that I had 5 failures of my lx3tc, when it came back after the 5th failure I sold it, hope the guy I sold it to has better luck

[mathews4ever]

My showdown dual beam has been nothing but trouble too. Just got it back from Marcum and hopefully everything is cricket now. It is odd how much trouble I have had considering my LX3(pre TC) was a trusty workhorse.

[Invader440]

I've had my Showdown 2.0 for 3 years now and never had any problems with it.

[walkndude]

I'm on number four. First was a unit from bass pro -it was one of the originals without the zoom, all four corners had cracks from being over tightened when assembled. Returned it. Bought the 2.0 from amazon for 170.00, had cracks in three corners. Sent it back for an exchange and Amazon sent me another unit with cracks in the upper 2 corners.

Ended up talking to Chris at Marcum and He sent me another unit for exchange. He was very cool about it and said he would hand pick a unit. He even sent it 2nd day and left me at my honor to return the other unit to them. Received the new unit with no cracks but the transducer rattled, the lead bb's hadn't settled into the epoxy. Swapped transducers between the units and took the un-cracked unit out on the ice. It lasted one day. One single day and it wouldn't power on/off unless the battery was disconnected. None of the buttons functioned either.

Re-contacted Marcum and had a completely different experience with Mark. Said he had never heard of any of these problems and I got the feeling he felt I was wasting his time on a $170 unit. He told me to re-send the defective unit back to them and either return the cracked unit to Amazon or keep it. He didn't care either way. That's what he actually said. Thanks a lot Mark.

I was already into the unit for a 12v battery, carrying case and a battery whip for the 12v so I reluctantly kept it. The unit is on its 3rd year now, it gets visible condensation on the inside every time I use it and needs to be left next to a heat register if I want to use it two days in a row. I cross my fingers every time I turn it on. Thing has zero resale value unless I want to be a dick and shovel it onto someone else. I wouldn't touch a Marcum product with a 10 foot pole. I guess it might be a different story for someone that spends $700-$1100.

[crappieslayer37]

I've ran into the same problem, all I did was twist the connections a little bit then it turned on fine.