I was at Bass Pro Shops tonight and planned to buy a Piranhamax 175 locator for $99 to use as a portable unit in the BWCA and elsewhere. They were out of it and offered me the 195C which is $170, for the price of the 175. Seemed like a no-brainer to me but my concern now is that the color unit will probably use more power. I plan to run it on 8 AA's.

Do you think I will see a dramatic difference in battery life if I keep the color one? Worst case I sell the color one and buy the 175 and probably come out ahead.

I'm not an electronics expert but I'm very confident in saying the draw rate will be way higher with the color screen. Even a unit with higher resolution will draw a lot more than one with low resolution. Hopefully someone chimes in with a more scientific answer.

If you go to their web site and look up the specs it says the power draw of the 175 is 100 mA and the 195 is 220 mA so more than twice the draw so half the battery life.

In your case less is more. I would shop around.

Sounds pretty cool to me. I only use B/W but I would keep it for these reasons:
1). Better screen visibility?
2) More detailed information.
3). I can carry extra batteries.
4). I only use the finder to locate structure then turn it off. If you are frugal, sixteen batteries might last a week.
5). You own it now. What can it hurt to try.

I've used a Cuda with a black and white screen with 8AA batteries. Color is not needed. I have fished on top of fish below the canoe and find they usually don't bite. But what a depth finder is great for is determining depth location, and finding reefs and drop offs.

I've used a Cuda with a black and white screen with 8AA batteries. Color is not needed. I have fished on top of fish below the canoe and find they usually don't bite. But what a depth finder is great for is determining depth location, and finding reefs and drop offs.

Use 10 aa lithium batteries. Almost doubles yourbattery life. See the post on " convert power source for depth finder ( 6-12)).

Color is better. Get more batteries, I think it would be worth it. If you decide to get rid of the color one, let me know.

I think you will like it better, I like Miketheflyguy1's post to look at power options.

T

Check the instructions or on-line owner's manual. You may be able to select B/W as a display option.

So, how many hours do most people us their locator over the course of a week? Looks like I could get up to 14 hours with 10 Lithiums with the color unit or 30 with the b/w unit. Certainly 30 hours would be good for a week and I wouldn't need to bring extra batteries. Color looks cool but will it really help me better locate structure or fish vs a b/w unit? Thanks for your opinions!!

Color will help you "read" the screen better...for the novice. However, learning bottom composition, transition areas, weeds(as in species) is easier for the "well schooled", also. Worth the weight of another set of AA batts?? yeppers!