Anglers spend a good chunk of change on high tech fish finders these days, and we’ve been hoping for a while there would be some options to protect the screens after seeing some nightmare pictures from anglers who cracked their screens casting lures along with other mishaps in the boat.
FLW Tour angler John Hunter wanted to find a solution to not only protect valuable fish finder screens but make them easier to use and with less maintenance like cleaning screens of water spots constantly. The result is a company he launched last year called Graph Glass. Hunter sent me a couple of the screens for Lowrance units earlier this year to test and was developing more screens to fit various other sizes, makes and models of electronics at the time.
Here’s a quick run through of this new product to protect your marine electronics investments.
The packaging for the graph glass is not a clam shell but rather a cardboard binder with plastic enclosures to keep the screens secure. The screen itself was in a sleeve in the binder floating between the plastic shells. I would recommend keeping it in a secure place and making sure it does not get anything set on top of it just to be certain nothing happens to the screen before install.
When you open the Graph Glass Binder you will find the sleeve with your Screen Protector as well as a few simple tools and wipes for making sure you get a perfect installation on your fish finder. There are also simple step by step instructions printed on the inside of the back cover behind the cover sleeve.
A cleaning cloth, a dust wipe and a suction cup is all you need to get the perfect install of your new Graph Glass screen in just a few minutes.
I cleaned my Lowrance HDS Carbon 12 screen with the provided Graph Glass wet wipe, then dusted it off with the cloth and used my camera bulb blower to blow away any visible specks of dust on the screen. I recommend you do this on a calm day when the wind is not blowing dust or pollen around out of trees and onto your screen. You want nothing on the screen when you go to seal it to your fish finder screen.
The screen is much like the ones you have seen for your smartphone or tablets. It has a film cover over the sticky side that you will need to remove before applying to your graph. I wet the suction cup slightly and stuck it to the opposite side and then peeled off the film backing to the sticky side to apply to the graph.
I centered the Graph Glass over my screen with the provided suction cup before applying. The Graph Glass screen protector was about 1/8 inch smaller than the actual screen on my HDS Carbon 12 unit. So I decided to mount it slightly higher on the screen leaving a little bit of exposed screen towards the bottom. Just a personal preference thinking about how items might impact my screen. With it tilted up I figured the top of my screen was more susceptible to lure strike than the lower half.
When applying the Graph Glass, you simply press it on in the center and then push outwards to force air pockets and bubbles out of the screen. I used the cloth to push on the screen and force the bubbles and air out to the edges of my Screen Protector.
This is what it looked like moments after I installed the first one on my graph. Now my expensive Carbon 12 screen is protected. And even better it will bead away water spots from fish that splash on it when I land them on the front deck as well as rain spots. And your finger prints aren’t noticeable on the Graph Glass screen because it is oleophobic. It won’t allow dirt, oils or water to penetrate the screen. It cleans easily but so far I haven’t needed it.
I haven’t slung a bait into the screen yet to test it’s fracture protection. Call me a big chicken if you want. But if it happens I will definitely update this post.
All in all, I’m very impressed with the Graph Glass screen protector if for nothing else how clean the screen looks and how much nice the screen stays through a day of fishing. Water really does bead right off of it, which has made water spots a non-issue. I’ve wiped them down with a dry rag and got them looking brand new.
You can checkout the Graph Glass Screen Protectors at Tacklewarehouse.com or at GraphGlass.com. They retail for around $45 depending on your make and size.
