Humminbird HELIX 5 Fish Finder

I bought this fish finder one year ago tonight. It’s a great fish finder, but the Real reason I am writing this review is for the warrantee and how impressed I am with Humminbird as a company. I rolled my kayak and the unit was submerged underwater for a moment and did not turn on afterwards. I was within the one-year warranty and mailed my head unit back to Hummingbird and within five business days they sent me back a new head unit, no questions asked, no charge. More companies need to be like this in today’s day an Real reason I am writing this review is for the warranty and how impressed I am with Humminbird as a company. I rolled my kayak and the unit was submerged underwater for a moment and did not turn on afterwards. I was within the one-year warranty and mailed my head unit back to Humminbird and within five business days they sent me back a new head unit, no questions asked, no charge. More companies need to be like Humminbird!!!

Excellent little unit. It fit my boat perfectly and works as expected. Down imaging is great as is the traditional sonar. Chirp adds some nice clarity. I mounted this to the ram unit and it's great. The best part about this unit other than the obvious DI/chirp/GPS capabilities is the clarity at all times, day or night. No matter if it's bright sun or complete darkness, the screen has no glare and looks great from almost any angle.Don't be afraid to purchase the humminbird cover for it as well. People said it doesn't fit very well over the unit, but it fit mine great and it should be a snug fit anyways especially if you trailer without a cover.One thing I do wish it had however is backlit buttons for night time fishing. Makes things a bit easier to see but once you get used to it I suppose it's no big deal!

Easy to use. Installation was clear.

I'll start with installation. I should never have to go searching for the COMPLETE instructions of any product that I have paid full price for! If your product is going to require updating the day that I buy it, YOU should supply the means to do that. I had to buy an SD Card. Cables aren't long enough. Believe it or not, there are boats over 20 feet in length being used for fishing. Extension cables are ridiculously priced. Over forty dollars for a 10 foot cable. I have about 20 hours of use on the unit now and am not impressed. I've primarily been fishing for Perch which tend to hug the bottom. I've tried every mode and method of adjustment that are obvious with just cursory observations but have rarely seen the unit identify fish. There is a good population of large Salmon and Trout as well but haven't seen them on screen. Some don't consider four hundred dollars as much money to spend on electronics but I do. Technology is at an amazing point today but it doesn't seem to have trickled into this industry. No one that purchases a product should have to consider watching internet videos or searching online forums for information on how to use it or its intricacies and idiosyncrasies.

Killer fish finder! I live that it shows you the depths of the lake you’re in. I also like that I can throw markers in spots with hazards. Great working device. Well worth the money.

The preloaded maps are outstanding with accurate details all the way up our river. Love the water depth on the maps. Installation was easy with just transducer cable and power and we were up and running in a short time. We use this on lake Michigan with no issues. Highly recommended.

I really wish I had purchased a 9" or larger, but this little 7" was a great purchase. The clarity is better than my Lowrance Hook2 12 TS. It was my first SI graph, and I use it on the bow attached to my trolling motor. Up front it is excellent, but I do wish it was bigger.

This is my second Helix 5 Di GPS but this one is G2 (Generation 2). It looks and acts just like the original (G1) version. Both units are GPS/DI the G1 had a promotion and included Navionics maps, a very nice map collection but it was subscription based and expired in 1 year. So this time I decided to try Hummingbird’s base maps included with the G2.Now the reason I am only giving this a three star rating is because Humminbird could have made it a lot easier to get setup. The first project was installing it. It required a 5/8" hole to install a large transducer cable; Humminbird should know people do not like holes in their boat. The unit shipped with out of date software and the rules for updating it were somewhat nerve-racking, I did not want to brick my new Helix. I read it very carefully and I did my best to update it. BTW, the update file need to be in the root of the SD and not in a directory I was a little confused because unzipping them in a folder. Just and FYI no folder.The next headache was the maps, they too needed to be updated, they are large files and the download did take a long time to complete .The base-map update had the same warning about bricking so again a little nerve-racking. After about 3 hours, I was ready to check out the new Helix, it was a lot like the G1, just a lot more work to get it setup. Humminbird could have shipped this software loaded and saved me hours of time. So, -1 starNow, this next part is a common issue on both G1 and G2. The menus take a real effort to figure out, a lot of tap-tap-tap to set it up. First challenge was setting the clock, the thing has a GPS so you would think it would know the time, but no you need to set it if you are in a DST area. Sounds simple not really the programmers are trying to protect you from yourself, the changing to DST required advanced setting and it is not intuitive but again after another hour I got that corrected. I think these are simple software changes but if they made it perfect, there would be no reason for a G3.Ok, one last word about the maps, I like the quality of Navionics even my small lake was well defined, including boat launch locations, a very complete map set. The Hummingbird base map had my lake on the GPS but its shoreline was not right and very little information. Larger lakes are ok I guess.Just an FYI: I have two boats, a Bass Tracker pro team 175 TXW and a 20’ Regal open bow boat; I installed the G2 in the Regal with a flush mount, it was a clean install I removed the voltmeter and the depth meter making room for the Helix.Ok, Humminbird holds back and wants to nickel and dime you to death, they sell a kit for flush mount and the only value might be the two-sided tape for the value it would have been nice to have it included. Therefore, there goes another star.

Fast shipping and works great easy install

Does what it’s supposed to do, and does it well. I’m a fishing guide that works at northern fly ins. The portability of this unit is a selling point for that type of application. I also set it up to icefish with and it’s been what I expected there as well.

ez to install does what it’s supposed to do,very happy with the product mind you I’m not a fisherman.just wanted depth and maps.

Love it it's very good and easy to work

Excellent product - works as advertised. My only complaint was that delivery was delayed & delayed & delayed.