My first experience with lowrance. Not so good.

[Rick Baker]

Here's the story.....

I buy a lowrance elite 4 hdi on sale in February for 199 from basspro. Had omtc put the head unit on a ram ball and put the transducer in marine goop inside the hull. Small 12v 7ah battery in a dry box to power it. Works great the first four times I take it out. GPS, downscan, sonar, I like the unit.

On the fifth time out I notice the unit flashing 60.0 ft no matter where I go. I do a soft reset, check connections, nothing. Strike one. I called lowrance, they said to take it up to basspro and see if it's the unit or the transducer. I take it up there and they look at it for 30 minutes. Try to update the software, and then they bring in a manager. I asked them to hook it to a different transducer to see if it's the unit or not, and they won't. He tells me they won't because the transducer needs to be in the water. I said well that's crap because my transducer is in the hull. He then tells me that's why the transducer burned up and that it's designed to be in the water because it's hdi or downscan or whatever. . I said more bs, the manual that came with it says through hull installation is fine, and actually tells you how to install it that way. He then tells me that's because lowrance doesn't make their manuals for specific models. Strike two for Lowrance. He tells me they probably won't warranty it because of incorrect installation. Strike three. They tried to get me to exchange it for another. I said no. Then they said he would give me store credit. I told him no that won't fly with me. So he's giving me my money back for it tomorrow when I bring it all in.

He even tells me that transducers only last 5-10 years if you take care of it.

Here are my questions.

After all that bs, should I be looking into a different fish finder company? The ram ball I bought from omtc is set up for lowrancE unfortunately.

Would I be alright getting a cheaper lowrance model and hope that the non hdi transducer won't burn up in the hull?

Should I cut my ties with lowrance?

I thought I would be happy with having downscan, GPS, the works. Now I just want a dang depth reading.

[Rick Baker]

[fishinwrench]

Academy has the Mark 5X pro for 130.00

It's old school=Good stuff/does all of what you really need.

I have 3 and love them.

I've never liked shooting thru the hull though, always externally mounted my transducers.

[Rick Baker]

I can mount the transducer in the water through my scupper hole.....as long as it's not a hdi transducer like I had, it was easily three times the size of a normal transducer.

[Rick Baker]

I'll also add, that's great advise on going to acadamy. I would have done that in the first place but bp had a sale on that particular model.

I bought a rapala lithium ion cordless filet knife the other day from acadamy, $20 cheaper than basspro. Looks like quite a few acadamy items are cheaper than Bp.

[Ketchup]

Love Academy. Were there every week, and i mean every week. Go simple for the yak, and enjoy.

[Rick Baker]

I got my cash back, and then bought a lowrance elite 3x. Not so fancy this time, and pocketed $100. It was th exact same price at acadamy, but I was already at Bp. Transducer will fit in the scupper hole, and I'm told it will last longer they're. We'll see.

[moguy1973]

Are you sure all the air bubbles were out of the marine goop? I've heard a lot of kayakers that have never had a problem with shoot through installs but I've heard a lot more that have had nothing but problems. I personally have my Elite 4x DSI installed through my scupper hole using the Lowrance scupper kit and don't have any problems. Plus with the transducer in the water you get more accurate water temps.

[Rick Baker]

Yea it never got dislodged. It just burned up. that transducer was easily 1 inch to wide to put into the scrupper groove. I would have tore it off in no time. The new one is about 1/3 the size. Will probably use less juice as well without it being downscan and no GPS.

[jdmidwest]

Did you reset all to defaults in the setup menu? If you reset, there will be a question regarding deep water or something, if you answer it correctly, you will get the shallow depths back. Looking at the screen, it is showing depths of 400 ft., I doubt you will encounter that around MO. I don't think you hurt the transducer, I think the instruction for mounting show how to mount it inside the hull, dry.

I only know this because I just bought an Elite 4 from an outlet store that sells BPS returns for $20 over the weekend. The cable looked like a dog bit it, but all the rest looked like new. Sealed the cable and hit the power to it. Loaded up and started working, but the depth was showing 60'. Scrolled thru menus and found the reset to default, answered the setup questions, and all worked. GPS locked in and works.

I bought a Mark 4 DSI a few years ago on sale. I like the down scan and being able to see the structure, but I missed the fish arches. The Elite 4 shows arches and has an old traditional sonar. I notice the newer units have both the down scan and the older type sonar that shows fish arches.

Both units give me good coverage now, I have one transducer in the back of the boat and another on the front off of the trolling motor.