Customer Reviews

Beltronics Express 916 Laser/Radar Detector

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I carefully read all the reviews and decided on one of the more expensive radar detectors. (Valentine One) I installed that detector and it works well.
I also decided to purchase a detector for the wifes car, but did not wish to spend the $ again. So after reading more reviews, I decided to go with the Bel 936 ($ at local Circuit City.) I thought I would do a comparision of the two, so I installed the two in one vehicle. (Seperated enough to not give off false signals.) I found that they both did an excellent job. They would each pick up the radar signals at almost the exact same moment. There were just a few times where one would pick up the signal a few seconds before the other. (Sometimes the Bel and sometimes the Valentine One.) I have used them in the same vehicle for over a month now. I believe that the Bel 936 is every bit as good as the Valentine One. And is priced at almost half the cost. (I do however like the direction finder of the Valentine One.) But if you do not want to shell out the $. The Bel 936 is money spent well.

I purchased a Bel 936 for a trip from Colorado to California recently. Driving one of the "usual suspects," a Corvette, I figured a little extra protection couldn't hurt.

I was not disappointed in the unit's performance other than it "faults" often when passing other radar detectors or microwave towers. It gave me ample warning over a hill on I-80 in Nevada when a state trooper appeared going in the opposite direction. He had used his "instant on" radar on another vehicle which gave me plenty of time to slow down.

I like a digital voice warning rather than trying to figure out various tones to differentiate between X, K, and Ka and this unit has voice plus plenty of volume to hear it with.

The windshield mount was a little tricky to get just right but not bad and adjusting the volume level by holding down the button took some time. The levels change rapidly and I found it took a few passes to hit the volume level I wanted.

If you don't want to pony up the money for a Passport 8500 or a Bel 980, try the 936 Express. But don't expect miracles and it always helps to use a little common sense when pushing the envelope on speed limits.

I do a lot of highway driving everyday, so I wanted to make sure that I got a radar detector that would detect radar from behind overpasses and over hills. This one has definitely done a good job so far. In the last week that I have used it, I got a radar warning when a police car was coming from the other direction over a small hill and in between a barrier and the radar detector picked him up from about a half mile away. I was driving along wondering where the officer was, and then realized that the detector just picked him up from so far away. My last radar detector would not have been able to do it that fast. I also like how the radar detector talks to you, instead of just beeping and the fact that it uses actual text writing. It is good to be able to be driving along and not even have to look at the detector because it tells you exactly what it is detecting. That is definitely a bonus from the last detector that I owned. I plan on buying another one of these in the near future for my husband's car. It is definitely worth it for the price!

I've used my 936 express for just under 2 yrs in my Subaru WRX and I can say it has saved my bacon on a few occasions. Now while I would say that I don't drive like a maniac, I'm no saint either when it comes to obeying speed limits on the highway, but I have, so-far, NEVER had a speeding ticket -touch wood.

The unit did fail (stopped detecting radar altogether) after a couple of months. Bel repaired the unit quickly (I was without it for about 10 days) and it has been problem free since.

This detector is fairly basic, it has no 'bogey counters' or 'direction indicators'. I personally believe that a direction indicator is of dubious value anyway -owing to the radar energy's potential for being reflected off other vehicles / roadsigns / buildings etc. A 'bogey counter' feature on the other hand might be useful, but as I mentioned, the 936 doesn't have one. What the unit does offer though is excellent detection ability of X, K and Ka band radar. I've taken it on trips to California and in the flat expanses of Death Valley, the detector would pick up approaching police vehicles sometimes 2-3 minutes before we passed each other, that means they were over 4 or 5 MILES away when 1st detected. Naturally this range decreases in urban environments.

Because of the highly directional nature of Laser (it's a pencil thin beam) I'm personally of the opinion that if a genuine Laser alert is received, it's probably too late, if you were speeding, the ticket is as good as in the mail. The unit does sometimes give false Laser alerts (a particular overhead dot-matrix sign in my area sets it off about 75% of the time I pass under it). From what I understand, many laser detectors are susceptible to this type of thing.

False alerts on X band are common too (automatic door openers, fast food microwave ovens etc. are touted as the reason for this). It sometimes also chirps when passing other vehicles, I guess they are equipped with radar detectors - some of them leak a bit. By running it in CityX mode it is possible to reduce false alarms significantly by turning down the sensitivity to X band radar. I always run mine this way.

I give the 936 Express 4 stars since it offers solid performance at a budget price. I'd give it 5 if the volume was easier to adjust and the signal strength meter didn't go away in the nighttime use DARK mode (I see no reason why it can't be made dimmer)

What this thing isn't though is a licence to speed recklessly. It may alert you to the presence of police radar in a timely manner, but it does nothing to reduce the odds of an accident. In busy urban environments, the reduced range plus the false alarms from shop door openers etc., limit the effectiveness of any radar detector, not to mention the danger of inappropriate speed in these environments. If you drive like a maniac you will eventually get caught -or worse. It is perhaps best viewed as a useful indicator when to ease off if you're prone to doing a few miles over on the highway. Speed Safely.

Unit has very useable features and is simple to use. Tones are a little annoying, but maybe this is a good thing. Memory function and volume control are very useful. Detection seems to be good. Lot's of false alarms due to sensitvity being so high. This is a given trade off. Voice is easy to understand. Automute is a very nice feature in congested areas.

I have been using my BEL 936 Express for 3 years now (paid $95 new in 2002). I drive like a maniac. The only ticket I have gotten since I started using this was at 5am and the cop driving down the other side of the road didn't have his radar on until he saw me come along. The BEL 936 picked it up right away after he turned it on, but by then it was too late. No radar detector will be able to detect radar that isn't on. I have to say that the guy who left the review in November of 2004 (below this one) gave it bad reviews, but he isn't even reviewing the same product. He says right there in his review that he was using a different model. Likewise, there was another negative review in relation to another BEL model, not the 936 Express. The reason some of these detectors stopped working is likely do to the users leaving it out in the sun while they are not in their cars. The heat will destroy the electronics eventually. To avoid this, take it down when you go inside. Put it under the seat or in the console. I get a few false positives on X-band, but Ka and K are always reliable. I use "CITY X" mode almost always unless I'm on the highway. I have detected laser with this unit. I have picked up K and Ka as far as 3 miles away on the open road while driving across Louisiana in the middle of nowhere. The only problem I have had in the past 3 years is the speaker died. I ordered a new speaker from BEL for $7 including shipping. I installed it myself and now the unit works like a charm again. I highly recommend this. They are really cheap on eBay now. You can get them for under $40 brand new.

I've tried this unit in two different cars in a wide range of driving conditions. The false alerts will drive you crazy, even on city mode. I find that I'm hardly using it because it's always beeping. When I enabled the VG2 alert, it was constantly false alarming, and telling me that radar may be in use (there's no way there are that many radar guns being used on an empty interstate in the middle of nowhere, or even in heavy city traffic for that matter). My first ticket in 10 years happened on my first road trip using this new detector.

The speaker is on the right side of the unit, so it's perfect for the front seat passenger to hear loud and clear. Hmm... maybe it was designed for right hand drive cars? The volume control is very tedious to use. It's the same button as the power, so you have to press and hold it just right or it will just turn off. Basically, if you have it loud enough to hear clearly, your passenger is being blasted.

If you're thinking that the SWS feature is nice (as I did) take a look at where SWS is in use. I've driven through alot of places with this detector in use and SWS has never activated.

I think I'll go back to my old Uniden Stalker - I have never gotten a ticket while using it and it couldn't be easier to use. It even falses MUCH less than the Bell.

I'm sorry to have to write a review like this, but I wish someone else had. It would have saved me the time and trouble of buying and returning this 'severely challenged' radar detector.

I 'tested' the Bel Express 936 for a little more than a week. During that week I drove approx. 900 miles, experiencing a variety of driving conditions, from high-rise inner-city business districts to two-lane rural mountain roads.

Really, the only good thing I have to say about this radar detector is it is quiet - the quietest radar detector I have ever owned. As a matter of fact, it doesn't do much of anything except look pretty. For those of you that are looking for an attractive radar detector that doesn't make a lot of noise, this Bel is for you. Everyone else, keep reading.

There is hardly any reason to comment on the windshield bracket. However, if this is the first Bel radar detector review you have read, Bel makes the worst windshield bracket in the industry, so I won't belabor the point. Take my word for it, and countless others. The same criticism applies to the flimsy visor clamp. The 'Velcro' strip isn't bad if you have a dash mat.

The digital readout seems like a dandy idea in the store. In the real world, however, you will find that it is too bright at night and too dim during the day. It is, for the most part, useless. LED indicators would have been a much better idea.

How about the voice alert? This actually works pretty well. The only problem is you can't hear it, since the speaker is mounted on the right-hand side of the case.

Another major complaint is the power plug location. Bel put it on the left-hand side of the case ensuring the drooping power cord is constantly in your way.

The only logical place to mount this unit is on the dash (using the hook-n-loop strip), next to the A-pillar. Once there, you can easily get to the top-mounted buttons, hear the voice alerts, and ignore the annoying digital display. The power cord is also out of the way. This, of course, doesn't address the biggest problem of all - the fact that the unit itself doesn't work very well. How bad is it?

As you may have figured out by now, the Bel Express 936 is a 'Sleeping Beauty.' It DOES detect radar, but it doesn't give you much time to do anything about it. When and if this unit actually goes off, you had better believe a traffic cop has you locked in his sights. My experience has been that this detector will give you anywhere from a few hundred feet to a 1/4 mile of warning. That's it! And, that's only if the cop is directly in front of you. You can forget about cops to the side and rear of your vehicle. I can assure you this radar detector does! This thing is so dead to the world that it doesn't even 'max-out' when you pass within a few feet of a bogie.

I am now 'testing' a Bel 980. I was so disappointed by the Bel Express 936, that I decided to buy Bel's top-of-the-line radar detector. Why? My thoughts were this. I decided if the 980 didn't work any better than the Express 936, I would return it and never buy another Bel product. I am pleased to report that I have 'tested' the Bel 980 for an equal amount of time and distance, and it'll be a 'keeper.'

Really, my friends, if are interested enough in the Bel Express 936 to have read this far, please, listen to me. Don't buy this radar detector. In the end, you will feel like a jilted lover. Save your milk money and buy a Bel 980 instead. I will post a review of the Bel 980 soon, and it won't read like this.

I had the Express 916 for two months. It worked great for the first month, then just stopped. It turned on and went through all the motions of working, running through all the bands and the laser detector sounds, but never went off again. I had someone with another radar detector follow me around to make sure it wasn't working and sure enough. The other detector would go off passing a police officer, through a construction zone and other places where it normally would have gone off before and nothing from the Express 916 this time.

The city setting on this unit is terrible. You cannot drive in any halfway busy area without it going off constantly on K or Ka band. My old passport that finally died was 500 percent better than this. I just returned from a drive to Portland Or. and this thing drove us nuts.