Whistler DE1730C Radar Detector

 (11 customer reviews)

I bought the Whistler 1730 at [a local store]. I must have forgotten the "get what you pay for rule." The poor performance of this detector brought it to mind. After several minutes of operation the unit gets overly hot and begins false detects in the X band, beeping about every 3-5 seconds. When it does detect real radar it does so too late to be of any use. This unit performs much worse than the Radioshack 360-degree detector which I also own.I took the Whistler 1730 back for a refund and ordered a Bel-tronics Express 936 from [Amazon.com].

Pros: Sleek and stealthy, hard to spot -- VERY compact. Nice & LOUD alerts.
Cons: LED indicators hard to see in extremely bright, direct sunlight. Contrary to the other reviewers' experiences, I have nothing but compliments for this radar detector. I've used and abused costly [brand name] detectors over the years and I ended up buying the Whistler DE-1730 in mid-2002 at BestBuy. I paid significantly less than what other detectors were selling for and I figured, "If its cheap, I'll just return it". Well, a year later I still have it and its kept me from getting speeding tickets on numerous occasions. I've used it on expressways, highways, local roads, you name it.
I have only been caught speeding ONCE with this detector, and it was by a motorcycle cop hidden under a 10 lane freeway over-pass, who didn't flip his radar on until I was right in his invisible lair. That was not the detector's fault, that was the work of a skilled police man and the...Read more

Take from a person who has tried a few radar detectors in his day, this may not be the best one on the market but it's the best value going. Look at the features you get for 40 bucks...Audible alerts with separate tones for each band of radar plus laser, visual alerts with separate LED lights for each band plus laser, simple on off volume control, city modes that mutes all signals to 2 quick beeps but continues with all visual alerts unless the signal becomes very strong, auto-mute mode that silences all alerts after 5 beeps but keeps the visuals (also with a 20 second reset so if you're driving in a heavy false signal area where the same false signal pops you intermittently or several are very close together the unit stays silent until you're well away from the falsing without it constantly resetting itself, a nice idea), VG-2 protection if you need it...most don't, Safety Radar (for emergency vehicles) detection if you need it...most don't, Pulse Protection to detect pulsed radar if...Read more