"Defender" & Electronics

[Evergreen]

When compared to other boating supply businesses, Defender seems to consistently have exceptionally reasonable prices on many of their products. I have noticed that as far as electronics are concerned they often carry many of the older products that other businesses no longer carry.

Question: Does anyone know if Defender's newer electronic devices and software are truly up to date or do they have a slightly older shelf life and that is why they can offer them at a discount?

I need to spend a significant amount of money on electronics and GPS mapping software and I want to be sure that I am getting the most up to date equipment and information.

I would appreciate your input if you have any personal experiences with their electronic products.

Thanks & Best Wishes

[Russell]

Personally I prefer to buy from local buisness when I can, but of course its hard to turn down the prices of places like defender! So what I tend to do is find the best prices I can online, then go to my local buisness and give them the chance to match the price.

I redid all my electronics in Annapolis before heading out cruising, and given your location I can highly recommend Electronic Marine, in Annapolis, they matched the Defender prices(though grumbled a bit in the process, cant blame them, they are not a bulk buyer so probably made little money off the sale), and since they dont carry a stock, each item I bought came direct from the manufacturer so you can be sure its as up to date as possible.

The owner (I think his name was phil, been a couple years) was also insanely helpful in chosing between the options (they are dealers for all the major brands) and a true expert and gave me installation support and gladly answered questions anytime I called(you wont get that from defender), even spending probably over an hour just on questions about SSB installation alone. I bought a chartplotter, radar, all new insturments and SSB from them, all at the defender price (though one item, cant recall which was slightly more, but another item ended up as less!).

By all means, get the best price you can, but give the local guy a chance to match it, if he can (or for just slightly more) you will be far better off for it. Seriously though give Electronic Marine a call though, I really had a great experience dealing with them.

[kwf05001]

I've heard horror stories about their return policy:
http://www.defender.com/termsofsale.jsp
It doesn't seem aweful if you buy wisely, but...
I've shopped at their warehouse often and are usually great
be sure to check out their warehouse sale--I believe march 27-30
you'll do even better then

[bhartley]

I have never had any trouble returning things to Defender (even after 30 days). We ordered everything to barrier coat the bottom of our 25D and then sent it all back 60 days later. We're talking gallons of Interlux Barrier Coat 2000 and all the prep stuff. There were a few other returns too at the same time.

I am gathering my list now for their Spring Commissioning Sale. The shipping is a bit slow after their big sale, but the savings are very good. I can say if we had a local independent marine supply, I would prefer to shop there. No such luck.

I would have no problem recommending them. Your mileage, however, may vary!

Bly

[The Patriot]

When compared to other boating supply businesses, Defender seems to consistently have exceptionally reasonable prices ... I need to spend a significant amount of money on electronics and GPS mapping software and I want to be sure that I am getting the most up to date equipment and information ... I would appreciate your input if you have any personal experiences with their electronic products ...

My friend who works for West Marine always advises me to buy from Defender (although he has from time to time gotten me his employee discount which was VERY low). No doubt that Defender has the lowest prices on many items. However for certain specialty or high ticket electronics I have often gone elsewhere. Marine software is one such area. I found that the Defender selection was not as broad as other suppliers (e.g., Landfall). For charts, I have often had to go to specialty suppliers since Defender doesn't carry Admiralty charts, etc. I have used pYacht and Landfall a few times for electronics (e.g., a Questus radar mount and Furuno radar that Defender did not have), and the prices were good. For routine items (epoxy, paints) I could find no lower price than Defender.

Unfortunately from the above I can draw no general conclusions about Defender. It seems to be the case that each item must be evaluated individually.

[Steve Laume]

I priced out Raymarine chart plotters from various locations, including Defender. After checking the Defender sale price and my marina store's boat show price, I found the latter to be cheaper. I would have been willing to pay slightly more to deal with them so as to have them available for installation questions. I was pretty amazed that they had the best price without having to beat them up with price matching. The only thing I bought from Defender was the chart card. They are authorized to burn their own on site and there is a big price difference there. I always like to buy as close to home as possible. I still buy lots of stuff from Defender and always get down to their warehouse sale with my spring list, Steve.

[Clay Stalker]

I have had good experiences with Defender. Their prices are often the lowest on many things and they are pleasant to deal with. I am not as big a fan of their annual warehouse sale as others as a 45 minute wait in the checkout line is considered good. Also, I have often been able to get my local West Marine to price match the Defender price....they are not always happy, but will usually do it.

[Joe Myerson]

I have often bought stuff at Hamilton Marine in Portland, since they have a sale during the Maine Boat Builders Show (this weekend).

Their customer service is outstanding. I once had to call their headquarters with a question during the winter, and didn't realize it, but my call was answered by Wayne Hamilton himself!

--Joe

[Russell]

I have often bought stuff at Hamilton Marine in Portland, since they have a sale during the Maine Boat Builders Show (this weekend).

Their customer service is outstanding. I once had to call their headquarters with a question during the winter, and didn't realize it, but my call was answered by Wayne Hamilton himself!

--Joe

I recently had my first experience with hamilton marine. I have been a loyal customer of Jamestown Distributors for awhile, but recently they stopped offering FedEx as a shipping option (using any other shipper to the Caribbean is begging for trouble) so I had to find someplace else that offered similar products and did FedEx. Hamilton Marine is who I came up with, I have ordered from them a couple times now and they are extreamly helpful and very friendly, definately a company I am happy to deal with, ultimately Jamestown stopping FedEx was a good thing, cause the people at Hamilton have far better service (Jamestown screwed up international addresses a couple times due to the inability for the orders department to communicate with the shipping department).

[Joe CD MS 300]

Phil,

What makes are you considering? I have only purchased Garmin products over the years, from handhelds to full chartplotters and radar, (GPS 12, GPSMAP 12, GPSMAP 478, GPSMAP 3006). All were purchased from online vendors: GPScity.com, TigerGPS.com or AbesofMaine.com. No problems with any of the three. Which one I went with depended soly on price. Their prices are far less than either WM or Defender. For example the GPSMAP 478 is $1,000 at Defender. Abes of Maine lists it at $734. All were brand new in the original unopened boxes with full warranties. With the high volume internet sellers getting the newest model is not an issue. The Garmin software, when updated, is merely downloaded to the unit or a data card depending on the model. Not sure how Raymarine or the others update their software.

Joe

[bottomscraper]

We purchased all of our instruments and autopilot from Defender when they had the Newport boat show sale in 2006. Everything had recent date codes from Raymarine, none more than 2 months old.