Lowrance WS320 Wireless Wind Pack, with Interface, Black, Large

Paired immediately for me. Power up your NMEA2000 network. Place the mast head unit within 1 foot of the puck. Then plug in the puck then plug in the battery to the mast head unit within a few seconds. After doing this is just powered right up and I had wind data on the network right off. Now to mount it and see how she performs after that. So far reviews for this unit have been very positive over what little time they have been out. B&G gear is always pretty top notch.

That's ridiculous ...

Few things are as necessary as a wind instrument, and they have to work. If it "just stops transmitting" and it's raining, windy, you're underway, you are left in a dangerous spot. If the only way they have to troubleshoot it is you need to go up the mast and then work with them over the phone, and the replacement parts are in Europe, and it takes their dealors weeks just to find someone at B&G who can find the part numbers, and then months for those parts to come in... put simply, you can't use this for safely cruising. Their tech support was asking why we can't just "lower the mast" like a 20 ft day sailor. I'm going to have to spend hundreds to fix it, weeks again to repair it again, argue with their tech support "are you sure you sent it up with a fully charged battery?" when, to be "fully charged" it just needs to be in the sun, and mine has spent months doing nothing else but being in the sun. Other questions like "have you had any thunderstoms in the area?" looking for any excuse not to honor the warranty. I mean really, if you have your boat and there's ever been a thunderstorm, they won't honor the warranty, what's the purpose of that question? All these things unfortunately don't just speak to the wind instrument, but the company, were I to do it over again, I'd pick something else. You shouldn't rely on a company that makes something that is necessary for safety, fails without warning (no logs, no warning indicators on the chart plotter, no warning on low battery except looking at a LED on the physical instrument which you can't get to), doesn't have replacement parts in the country, and the people serving it don't understand really anything about the intended environment.

Unit stopped charging and then battery died, replaced battery, but again, it stopped being able to charge. B&G customer support is "send us in the old one, and we'll give you a discounted price" after a few months past warranty. Since, we've talked to lots of B&G customers and none have anything good to say. Garmin, by contrast, I couldn't find anyone who had anything bad to say.