Stowe Electronics - why are replacement parts so expensive??

[pvb]

....but they were already wildly expensive in 2017! They are a company that is expensive, has a limited range of products, and are very clearly pushing their "spares" up to the point where the customer is left weighing up just buying new. Unfortunately for them, other companies are streets ahead, and buying new would probably involve ditching Stowe - so they are shooting themselves in the foot

The Stowe electronics business is a tiny part of the parent company, Tinley Marine Electronics. Tinley has for decades run a major service operation for a number of leading brands. When the original Stowe company went bust, Tinley bought up a load of spare parts, and has since also started manufacturing some Stowe spares. The market for these is very small, so prices will naturally be high. But if your choice is buying an expensive spare or throwing away your Stowe system, sometimes the expensive spare makes sense.

https://www.tinleyelectronics.com/home.htm

 

[JonJon]

I suspect for Suffolktim no price is cheap enough since he hasn't paid me for the Stowe parts I sent him after twice advising me he is doing a bank transfer and then nothing. He has now disappeared off the radar be warned!

 

[Stooriefit]

Agreed, at the time of their design, the Stowe kit was pretty good. Almost entirely Non NMEA, that kit now can't be integrated with anything new. If your whole boat is that vintage and you want to keep the boat, I think you are better off considering going for NMEA 2000 networked gear. It works without much fuss, less wiring and will mostly work with other manufacturers sensors.

We don't all need everything integrated.

 

[pvb]

We don't all need everything integrated.

If you have an old Stowe system, it's already integrated; it'll only work via the Databox.

 

[pvb]

I suspect for Suffolktim no price is cheap enough since he hasn't paid me for the Stowe parts I sent him after twice advising me he is doing a bank transfer and then nothing. He has now disappeared off the radar be warned!

That's rather bad. We expect forum members to be honest in dealings with other forum members.

 

[JonJon]

Exactly why I sent him the stuff before receiving payment.

 

[Concerto]

suffolktim. You have not tried B&G spares. When I bought my Fulmar 5 years ago, I did not notice, nor did the surveyor, the B&G wind strut was not fitted. Only after completing the purchase did I find it had been damaged several years before, but he still had some bits. For the first season, I sailed without the wind instrument, as the rest of the instruments worked fine despite being c1996. I thought about replacing all the electronics at about £1500. Tinley quote £625 to £650 depending on exchange rate for a new one to be made. Ouch. A complete new system seemed attractive.

However I decided to see if I could find a second hand one. One came up on my eBay search after a couple of months. It still cost me £215 as someone else desperately wanted it. So I am still using a complete B&G set of instruments.

My advice is to trawl eBay and your local electronic installers and they keep old instruments when they upgrade boats, finally place wanted adverts on this web site and other places like Facebook.

 

[Stooriefit]

If you have an old Stowe system, it's already integrated; it'll only work via the Databox.

Nonsense.

 

[rogerthebodger]

If you have an old Stowe system, it's already integrated; it'll only work via the Databox.

Nonsense.

I have a stowe/Simrad IS 11 system with a Simrad plotter, Simrad autopilot and Simrad Radar. This is integrated with my onboard PC running NavModPC and OpenCPN both using data from the Simrad instruments and Plotter.

I also have an AIS receiver also feeding the OpenCPN and my DSC VHF radio

I do have a separate GPS mouse when I don't use the Simrad plotter.

All fully integrated.

The Databox takes the analog data from the depth, wind speed/direction and water speed transducers to NMEA. It also acts as a multiplexer to receive NMEA and send it out with the calculated data from the transducers.