In article .com,
"Keith" wrote:

Sorry, I share Larry's opinion of Raymarine. I saw them replace THREE 4
KW open arrays on my pier alone because they were full of water. The
installer told me they were replacing them all over the area due to a
design fault. Because of this, I bought a Raymarine with a 4KW dome. I
had a good experience with an older Raytheon radar system so I was
trying to stick with them. While out on a trip, it just quit working.
To make a long story short, the guys sent in the dome and display for
repair under warranty. It took something like 8 weeks for it to be
returned, and it still didn't work! Turned out to be a "bad" cable.
Have no idea why it went bad... no punctures, breaks, etc. Good thing I
wasn't out full time cruising at the time. 8 week turnaround at the
Raymarine shop tells me that A. They don't have enough people working
the B. Way too many of their units are coming back for repair, or C.
Both of the above. Ever since I've warned folks away from Raymarine and
suggested Furuno. I've never seen or heard of problems with Furuno like
I've seen with Raymarine. I guess they're just going cheap after
spinning the company off.


I'll second the vote for Furuno over both RayMarine or JRC, which made
most of the older Raytheon commercial radars for years. I installed the
first Furuno Radar on the west coast 35 years ago, when I worked as a
tech for the original importer/dealer. It was on a small harbor tug in
Seattle, Wa. and was still in use 10 years ago, when the vessel owners
sold it. The original Powersupply failed after 2 hours of operation,
and we waited for two weeks for a replacement from the factory in Japan.
Replaced the magnitron twice since then, and the T/R Cell once. Last
time I saw it, its picture the tube was getting a bit dim, but was still
used daily. In just a few years Furuno captured the majority of the
commercial fleets, beating out Raytheon, Decca, Kelvin Hughs, and a
pile of upstarts, like Sitex, Simrad, Icom, Westmar, and the like.
Walk down any dock, where the commercial boys tie up and you will
see Furuno on the majority of the vessels. Reason? Great product,
Great Service, Super Great Support, and a VAST Dealer Network worldwide.
You can go into vertually any Port in the World, and find a Furuno
Dealer with Factory Parts Access. Other outfits will say they are as
good, but Furuno has a track record to prove the point. Other outfits
sell cheaper units, but you pay the difference many times over in Rapair
Costs and Downtime Costs while you wait for parts.


Bruce in alaska
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