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Threads like these turn into Ford/Chevy debates. I had the opposite experience as the last two who chimed in. Problems with the vexilars I've run, no issues at all with the Marcums. You'll hear more about units that don't work than you do about units that work flawlessly. Ran a 28 last year and it was a frustrating ordeal. That thing never worked right for anyone who tried it. A few years back the same sort of thing with a 20. In the meantime I was also able to use an LX5 and it was flawless. Picked up an LX7 this year and that thing has been rock solid as well. If you get a vex that doesn't crap out on you, you'll be happy. If you get a Marcum that doesn't crap out on you, you'll be happy. It's a personal preference and mine is that I won't go back to a vex. My LX7 can be updated for free. The way you updgrade the FLX28 is to buy an entirely new unit. I also intend on running mine on my boat so the graph option was a huge selling point. The work around for the bucket issue is to forgo putting that LX6 in a five gallon pail. Get your hands on a square kitty litter bucket or milk crate. I transport my LX7 in a milk crate.
What kind of problems were you having with the 28 and 20?I have run Vexilars since before they were Vexilar, I believe the first units were SiTech, and have owned 5 units. 1 FL8, 2 FL18's, 1 FL 20 and now the FLX28. All have been flawless for the last 25 years. I do not work for Vexilar and am not endorsed from them. I have just had Bullet proof units. All my buddies also have Vexilars and I have not seen one with any issues what so ever.That being said it would be interesting to see what problems you were having with the 28 and 20 ..........
I started a thread a week ago asking between Vexliar fl18 and Marcum lx1. I am now looking at and trying to decide between the Vexilar flx28 and Marcum lx6s. If they both cost the same what would be the better unit for fishing waters from 6-40ft of water. I fish with a friend who has the Marcum lx7 and like the display. I saw the Vexilar flx28 at Scheels yesterday and a worker showed me the demo mode and different color pallets to chose from. I think both would be good units but I am concerned with the durability of the Marcum screen since it wont fit in a bucket for transport as protection. They both come with a soft case as protection but the Vexilar will fit in a bucket to protect if during transport. What are your experiences in using these 2 units. thanksjr50
If those units are bullet proof would you be willing to set them on a stump and blast them with a 9mm? Anything mechanical or electrical can ultimately fail regardless of who makes them. If it's a car, truck, computer, sonar, boat motor, etc....whenever I purchase something like that I just accept that at some point in time they will have their own hiccups. When it happens with stuff right out of the box it's frustrating.... The 20 I had a few years back would intermittently lose contact with a jig and the bottom. Tried different transducers, different batteries, kept the transducers wiped clean so there wasn't any ice build up...nope, nothing was a permanent fix. You just had to shut the thing off every hour or so or she'd start going wonky. The 28 that a buddy let me use last year was giving him fits so he let me take a stab at it. That one would lock up every so often. It wasn't frequent enough where it was unusable but it wasn't what you would expect out of a $600 piece of equipment. The personal gripe I had with it when it was working is that one of the lakes I fish has a very, very soft bottom. To illustrate what was going on is imagine the top layer of muck starts 6 feet below the surface. That layer then goes down to about 20 feet where it thickens slightly but below that it gets watery again. We've driven pipe down in what is considered 4 feet of water and never hit anything solid until around 85ft. The 28 would be humming along fine for a few minutes reading a 6ft depth and then it would jump all over the place before settling back to 6ft. Power setting, gain, etc., it wouldn't eliminate that issue...and yes, it's a weird little lake but that LX5 I referred to was locked in with no problems. The bad luck with the Vexilars, the way the LX5 performed on that stuff, and the fact that I wanted a year-round unit is why I jumped at a good deal on an LX7. There's fine tuning to be learned but even on that mucky soft bottomed lake that thing performs splendidly.
The digital Marcum units are inferior performance-wise IMO. The variable depth based gain and signal filtering implementation makes near transducer performance terrible. Can it be fixed? Maybe, but considering how long this has dragged on, I'm guessing the kludge isn't as adaptable and will never perform like the simple gain knob.
What's that? I have an LX-7 and haven't found anything about a variable depth based gain in the manual or in previous discussions, unless you are referring to the absence of a return signal at very shallow depths.
I've been a Marcum fan boy for well over a decade. Still have a fondness for the LX5's level of performance. Still have the hats and stickers and hoodies. Marcum was always fairly reliable with a much needed level of customer service, the performance was always awesome.The digital Marcum units are inferior performance-wise IMO. The variable depth based gain and signal filtering implementation makes near transducer performance terrible. Can it be fixed? Maybe, but considering how long this has dragged on, I'm guessing the kludge isn't as adaptable and will never perform like the simple gain knob. The vex relies on a simple premise of signal fidelity and bombproof reliability. The near transducer performance of the flx28 w/ 9 degree crushes the digital Marcum units. The variable gain of the Marcums also lends to noise and plankton "noise" under some conditions.
if you want a flasher that you simply turn on and fish without fiddling thru menu/screen/features you don't need to mark a fish.vexilar flx28.you can dim the screen with night/day mode,weed mode is great for shallow weedy water,5 color pallettes to choose from,2 zoom modes,low power mode for depths under 20.its a get it done reliable flasher.some guys like to play around with screen setting/functions but I like to turn my vex on and fish.plus I can fish 2 long days on a battery charge unlike the power sucking Marcum digitals.jmo.
you simply turn on and fish without fiddling thru menu/screen/features
you can dim the screen with night/day mode,weed mode is great for shallow weedy water,5 color pallettes to choose from,2 zoom modes,low power mode
I ended up going with the Vexilar Flx-28. I had it out yesterday and fished from 6-15ft of water. I had no problem getting the clutter cleaned up on the display in low power mode. I am happy with my purchase and cant wait to get it out and try it some more and try it in deeper water to put the zoom to use. Jr50
I'm a little jealous, still using my 15+ old vex FL-8.... I spent already to much money this season on stuff that my wife is starting to give me the stink eye.
so that suppression cable is to cut power down to 50% on the fl vex's. some already have low power tho. like my buddies fl12. turn it to the left and it's low power in 20 foot range. the lines are huge tho.those cable must have a resistor in them is all. would be easy to build if you knew which resistor it has in it.
