Can’t say anything about the others, but I did install the JPI 700 with fuel flow, spent the extra $300 for the 3” face, at the time they threw in either outside temp, oil psi, or fuel flow , I went with the fuel flow.
I will start by saying it’s the second best purchase/ investment I put in the aircraft, first was the 496. The unit also links to my 496 GPS and calculates fuel used to destination, something I thought I would never use, Boy was I wrong, long trips and head winds or long trips and tail winds, it turned out to be a great tool. There is a bit of tuning and set up. Setting CHT limits and tuning the fuel flow were my main concerns, not hard. The only thing that I did not like was the recommended installation routing of the wiring to the CHT and EGT probes. They recommend running them down either side of the cowl, requiring disconnecting them from the cowl every time it’s removed, I bent the recommended instructions and ran them over the engine and only crossed or parallel engine wiring where I had to, the install came out clean and works flawlessly .

172heavy wrote:Can’t say anything about the others, but I did install the JPI 700 with fuel flow, spent the extra $300 for the 3” face, at the time they threw in either outside temp, oil psi, or fuel flow , I went with the fuel flow.
I will start by saying it’s the second best purchase/ investment I put in the aircraft, first was the 496. The unit also links to my 496 GPS and calculates fuel used to destination, something I thought I would never use, Boy was I wrong, long trips and head winds or long trips and tail winds, it turned out to be a great tool. There is a bit of tuning and set up. Setting CHT limits and tuning the fuel flow were my main concerns, not hard. The only thing that I did not like was the recommended installation routing of the wiring to the CHT and EGT probes. They recommend running them down either side of the cowl, requiring disconnecting them from the cowl every time it’s removed, I bent the recommended instructions and ran them over the engine and only crossed or parallel engine wiring where I had to, the install came out clean and works flawlessly .

Great feedback, thanks for the heads up on the wire routing.

It have the 700 in my plane and it works well. That being said, my old flying club just put in the 730 into one of their planes. It works the exact same way in terms of button pushing as the 700. In fact on their site it says it is simply an updated screen. In talking to Western Skyways, Ryan here confirmed that I could just do a head swap for about $2800 since the sensors are the same. Very tempting.

Anyway, I set the club's unit up and they then asked me to show them how to use it and to do a short presentation last week at their meeting on leaning and use of the 730. In my opinion, the 730 is MUCH easier to read than the 700. At a glance you can see everything you need to know and your not waiting for the scan to get to what you need to see...or have to manually sequence to what you need to see...because it's already there. It's still a simple enough of a display that the issue of sensor overload isn't an issue. I'd say go for the 730 if you can swing it.

They were offering an upgrade special at KOSH last year. I believe it was for a 730 display on your 700 device. $1000.

I don't think you need to buy the whole new head. For $1000, it's a very attractive upgrade.

Looks like we are going with the EDM 830 now. Go big or go home!

To anyone considering a full-function engine monitor, I would strongly recommend going to a show where you can see them "live and in person"... It made all the difference to me. I really liked the looks (and form-factor) of the EI CGR-30P, versus the larger JPI and EI units, but was very concerned about readability with older eyes.

When I got "hands on" with the EI CGR-30P, it was obviously the right choice for me, even though I'd been flying with a JPI EDM-700 for nearly 3 years. The CGR-30P was a LOT easier to read (even in direct sunlight) and was IMMEDIATELY more user-friendly and intuitive to me. Add 7 gallons of fuel? No digging for a manual - it's intuitive. Fuel flow calibration a bit off? Again, instead of digging into the manual and decyphering how to convert fuel flow error into calibration changes, the CGR-30P makes is super-simple. You enter the amount of fuel the system calculated it would take to fill the tanks, then the actual quantity it took, and select "Auto Adjust K-Factor" and it does the calculation and makes the changes for you. Within a couple of flights, it was accurate to within <0.5 gallons per fill-up (on a 68-gallon system). Doing that same thing on the JPI-700 required me to dig out the manual every time, to figure out the ratios and come up with the correct K-factor. Basically, the entire design of the two user interfaces is like the difference between using an Apple Mac versus a PC with the old DOS operating system...

Seeing them basically side-by-side made my choice super-easy, and I have never once regretted purchasing the EI CGR-30P instead of one of the JPI EDM-700-series monitors. The fact that I could replace my inaccurate tachometer and a bunch of other primary instruments was a bonus.

PS - someone recommended keeping the old gauges after the new monitor is installed. That is very difficult to do, because in general you can only connect one device to a probe, and there is often only one proper place for an oil temp probe, MP probe, etc. This is EXACTLY the reason you should pick an company with excellent customer service and support.

Although they're probably a good idea, I'm not a big fan of these all-in-one engine monitors.
Just too busy a display with way too much information to easily absorb/
But I have to admit that I like the looks of the CGR-30.
Even with a 6-banger, the display looks clean and uncluttered and easy to read, in spite of the large amount of data displayed.
Unfortunately about $3600 for the one I would want, I'm not sure if that includes all the probes & harnesses required.

Tried it out for the first time Sunday. Still learning how to set it up and use it, but I really like it so far. The new FRM engine is unbelievably smooth compared to the old one.