Tough Furuno Radars

Sailor of Fortune · Aug 7, 2019

These are radars we use everyday. The one with 35,000 hours in standby is around 10 years old. It had a new magnatron installed a few months ago,hence the 400 hrs transmitting. The mag failed at around 27,000 hrs or so.
The other radar was installed about a year later. 27,000 hrs in stand by so far.

Sailor of Fortune · Aug 7, 2019

Ooops, sorry for the port list...

Camasonian · Aug 8, 2019

Kind of a side question. But is there a difference in the reliability of open-array vs enclosed array radars? I would expect the open-array antennas to be more prone to failure. But I have no idea.

Sailor of Fortune · Aug 8, 2019

Camasonian said:
Kind of a side question. But is there a difference in the reliability of open-array vs enclosed array radars? I would expect the open-array antennas to be more prone to failure. But I have no idea.

I don't think so but I remember people swore the open array antennas would freeze up in icing conditions. closed dome units didn't.

O C Diver · Aug 8, 2019

I have 2 Furuno Navnets on my charter boat, one open array and one closed. Did replace the mag in the open array, but other than that neither had any issues in almost 20 years. So I would have to think when comparing apples to apples, the reliability is the same. Performance will be better with a larger diameter array.

Most importantly, you look cooler with a large open array going around.

Ted

Heron · Aug 8, 2019

I have a 25 yr. old Furuno 1800 that is still going strong. One Magnetron replaced some years ago...

Camasonian · Aug 8, 2019

Sailor of Fortune said:
I don't think so but I remember people swore the open array antennas would freeze up in icing conditions. closed dome units didn't.

That’s true, In my past life I worked on Bering Sea fishing trawlers and have been in winter ice storms when everything on the boat freezes solid. I don’t remember being worried about the radar arrays. We were out with baseball bats trying to keep the ice off the superstructure and out of the scuppers to keep the weight off.

But then no one in their right mind should be out on a pleasure boat in those conditions.

syjos · Aug 8, 2019

We have a 30 year old Furuno 1830 with a dome and a 20 year old Furno FCR1100 open array.

The motor on the 1800 was replaced 15 years ago and a diode in the 1100 about 9 years ago.

The 1800 has more hours on it but we alternate radars every day while cruising.

Other than the above issues, no other problems.

We in the PNW are fortunate that Furuno Service Center is located in Camas, WA. They are very good at repairing older equipment like ours. They treat customers with 30 year old equipment the same as current equipment owners.

BandB · Aug 8, 2019

Wifey B: Don't know about freezing up in icing conditions. :rofl:

I'm a Furuno girl all the way. 6 Furuno radars and never a single problem. Oldest is just under 7 years but they have a lot of hours of usage. We have Furuno radars even on boats that Furuno isn't our primary plotting electronics.

ranger58sb · Aug 9, 2019

Hmmm... Ours is a 17-year-old #1942 Mk II with an open array antenna... didn't realize there's maybe an hour meter in there somewhere... hadn't stumbled across that in the manual...

-Chris

Sailor of Fortune · Aug 9, 2019

ranger42c said:
Hmmm... Ours is a 17-year-old #1942 Mk II with an open array antenna... didn't realize there's maybe an hour meter in there somewhere... hadn't stumbled across that in the manual...

-Chris

Hour metyer shows up when radar is in standby mode. I'm not sure all Furuno radars have this. No user intervention necessary.

Ksoulant · Aug 9, 2019

Furuno is the best with the best service. Especially when they have the ability to fix 20-30 year old units that’s why 99% of the commercial fleet uses them. Garmin or Raymarine, if they malfunction after 3 years they will not support the units but they will sell you another one. As they say buyer beware.

C lectric · Aug 9, 2019

Sailor of Fortune said:
Hour metyer shows up when radar is in standby mode. I'm not sure all Furuno radars have this. No user intervention necessary.

My recent 1815 shows the ON and the SCANNING hours when in Standby or warm up after the initial startup. Once set to scan it disappears.

sunchaser · Aug 9, 2019

How can a recreational vessel's radar amass all these hours when engines run only a few hundred hours per year? I'd guess our marine radar failures are due to the marine age and/or shoddy design factors.

My Raymarine radar went kaput after 7 years and 900 engine hours. Replaced, naturally, with Furuno.

syjos · Aug 9, 2019

sunchaser said:
How can a recreational vessel's radar amass all these hours when engines run only a few hundred hours per year? I'd guess our marine radar failures are due to the marine age and/or shoddy design factors.

One of the radars is always on when we are underway.

sunchaser · Aug 9, 2019

syjos said:
One of the radars is always on when we are underway.

How many engine hours?

syjos · Aug 9, 2019

sunchaser said:
How many engine hours?

Lehman has 6,300 hours on it. First owner put 3,000 hours on it and the rest is ours.

danderer · Aug 9, 2019

Ksoulant said:
Garmin or Raymarine, if they malfunction after 3 years they will not support the units but they will sell you another one.

Raymarines policy:

Raymarine will continue, where practicable, to manufacture spare parts for up to 5 years after the date of the last manufacture of the product and will continue to repair product, should spares remain available, for up to 10 years after date of last manufacture.

Please note that we will not hold any spares in our factory repair facility for products over 10 years old and that no products more than 10 years old will be accepted for repair at our factory repair workshop.

Wayfarer · Aug 10, 2019

Dang, you've got me beat. I've been using these same radars for my entire career on many different vessels, and have been very happy with them. One of my most trusted pieces of equipment. I've never used anything but Furuno, so I really can't compare. I've never had one freeze up before. I've had anemometers freeze, but never the radar.

ranger58sb · Aug 11, 2019

Found it. Not on the Stand-By screen, in our base. Instead, it shows up in the Self-Test.

2862.8 total, 1680.9 transmit. Total tracks pretty well with our engine ours, ~2535 just now.

The manual says life expectancy of our Magnetron is 2000-3000 hours, including stand-by time. Not to worry; if it craps out we'll just get a newer one, color, overlay onto plotter possible, etc.

-Chris

JDCAVE · Aug 11, 2019

We have the Furuno 1942, 4’ open array. 20+ years and still going strong. Original magnetron. Furuno’s support for older units is unsurpassed in the marine industry.

koliver · Aug 11, 2019

JDCAVE said:
We have the Furuno 1942, 4’ open array. 20+ years and still going strong. Original magnetron. Furuno’s support for older units is unsurpassed in the marine industry.

My boat came to me with an old Furuno radar. I don't recall the model #, but it was the style that had you put your face in the hood and wait until your eyes adjusted to the screen brightness. Then the image was great. You would see gulls flying, driftwood on the water, everything well defined. 4' open array.
When the Magnetron failed, the Furuno tech recommended tossing the whole unit, as it was way obsolete. I didn't get a price on a replacement magnetron, as I was ready for an upgrade.

I went to a JRC that has a much brighter screen, closed array, no problems whatsoever in just under 1000 hours.

JDCAVE · Aug 11, 2019

I’m going to the boat today. I will search through the menus to see if I can find out how many hours it has on it. At 20 years old, I won’t be replacing the magnetron if it starts to fail. The unit is turned on and continually adjusted as we travel, depending on the required range and environmental conditions. I’ll bet we’ve got 1500 hours on the unit ourselves.

ranger58sb · Aug 11, 2019

ranger42c said:
Found it. Not on the Stand-By screen, in our base. Instead, it shows up in the Self-Test.

2862.8 total, 1680.9 transmit. Total tracks pretty well with our engine ours, ~2535 just now.

The manual says life expectancy of our Magnetron is 2000-3000 hours, including stand-by time. Not to worry; if it craps out we'll just get a newer one, color, overlay onto plotter possible, etc.

JDCAVE said:
We have the Furuno 1942, 4’ open array. 20+ years and still going strong. Original magnetron. Furuno’s support for older units is unsurpassed in the marine industry.

koliver said:
My boat came to me with an old Furuno radar.

When the Magnetron failed, the Furuno tech recommended tossing the whole unit, as it was way obsolete. I didn't get a price on a replacement magnetron, as I was ready for an upgrade.

Yeah, I should have mentioned ours is 17 years old... so if it goes, it's an excuse for us to get newer technology. Although I can't think of any new capabilities I need...

-Chris

syjos · Aug 11, 2019

ranger42c said:
Yeah, I should have mentioned ours is 17 years old... so if it goes, it's an excuse for us to get newer technology. Although I can't think of any new capabilities I need...

-Chris

I bought a new Furuno 1831 around 10 years ago to replace my 1830. It had a lot of cool features that I didn't use and the return on the screen was not as clear as the 1830. I took it out and sold it. Luckily, it was a second radar on the boat so the 1830 was not removed.

I eventually purchased a used Furuno FCR1100 open array and installed that for a second radar.

The 1830 is still working great!

TBW · Aug 16, 2019

All I can add is another A+ for Furuno. Service cannot be equaled. Better than that. More than that is the help when you need it. Really serious help when you really really need it. They have bailed me out more than a few times. They always have time. They always help.

rgano · Aug 16, 2019

I had a Furuno FR 360 Mk II on my boat for a number of years until the range selector failed and nobody would fix it. Was on a cruise and needed ANYTHING available and grabbed a Garmin pieces of sh off the shelf and installed it and went on my merry way. Put two maggies into in a few years. Not so dependable. This boat has another Furuno (1824C) with no exposed range switches and not giving me any trouble so far..

angus99 · Aug 16, 2019

ranger42c said:
Yeah, I should have mentioned ours is 17 years old... so if it goes, it's an excuse for us to get newer technology. Although I can't think of any new capabilities I need...

-Chris

Chris, you may not need any new capabilities, but when the time comes you might want to check out Furuno’s solid state Doppler offerings. Despite Panbo’s rave reviews, I thought the target ID feature was probably a gimmick, but actually found it very useful—especially one Sunday afternoon on Lake Michigan where pleasure boaters were zipping all around us like a swarm of bees. It was helpful to get an indication of which of the many dozens of boats within a mile or two of us were potentially going to cross us and which were likely not. It also worked great in some fairly dense fog on the Illinois River. And the price, for the dome at least, is hard to beat. Just FWIW.

rgano · Aug 17, 2019

Older technology on mine, but I use track shadow on my Furuno 1824C with selectable time to see what is moving in other than the opposite direction from my course.

ranger58sb · Aug 17, 2019

angus99 said:
Chris, you may not need any new capabilities, but when the time comes you might want to check out Furuno’s solid state Doppler offerings. Despite Panbo’s rave reviews, I thought the target ID feature was probably a gimmick, but actually found it very useful—especially one Sunday afternoon on Lake Michigan where pleasure boaters were zipping all around us like a swarm of bees. It was helpful to get an indication of which of the many dozens of boats within a mile or two of us were potentially going to cross us and which were likely not. It also worked great in some fairly dense fog on the Illinois River. And the price, for the dome at least, is hard to beat. Just FWIW.

Thanks. And that particular display example is very illustrative.

-Chris

Tough Furuno Radars

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