I installed a Lowrance Elite-3X fishfinder on the kayak and have been very disapointed with the performance, to say the least. I did a super careful installation and documented each step to update the photos on the kayak fishfinder installation page of the watermanatwork.com website.
I tested the fishfinder and transducer before installation to make sure it wasn’t a DOA unit, but there is no way to test the sonar until it is in the water. First time out it was pretty clear the fishfinder was defective. Bummer. On the phone with Lowrance and a customer service representative gave me instructions on how to do a “soft” and “hard” device reset, neither of which did anything. If you own a Lowrance Elite-3X and you see the display in the photo below, your unit is defective.
Another call to Navionics, Lowrence’s corporate entity and they told me they are sending out a transducer for me to test and see if the transducer or head unit is defective. Maybe my standards are a little high since I’ve worked as an aviation and medical electronics technician, but I would hope that companies test their electronic components to see if they actually work before they leave the factory. Heck, the Lowrence Elite-3X only has two components to test, how hard can it be?
When I review and rate products here at watermanatwork.com, it’s just like you sitting here because I have to buy all this stuff, nobody sponsors us. You can’t wait to get your new thing and when it gets here, you wish you never bought it. I’ve been installing electronics in kayaks for years and in boats for decades; nobody wants to install, then rip out, then re-install a fishfinder a couple times. I guess the people who make Lowrance fishfinders have not spent a lot of time working on boats, maybe never been on a boat.
Anyway, this is an ongoing deal. Maybe the transducer is bad, then I have to tear out the transducer, which is securely attached with Lexel, and install a new transducer, power cable and fuse; a lot of work. Or, the head of the unit is bad, then I suppose I have to send everything back to Lowrance and hope they return a working unit. That will probably take a month. Or, cut my losses and buy a different brand fishfinder with better quality control and customer support. There is not much of a choice if you are in the market for basic fishfinder. I’m really bummed because I got a piece of Lowrance junk, but the truth is I was thinking about buying one of their higher end DSI or CHIRP models. I emailed Lowrance/Navico a number of times for technical information, they never returned a single email, so I decided to not go too big with a company that will not respond to pre-sales information requests. If a company won’t answer questions to get you to buy their products, guess what things are going to be like after they have your money.
Maybe Navico/Lowrance will come through, but if I might try another company. A lot of people will look at this fishfinder because it is inexpensive, but it might not be the best buy in the long run.
So finally what was the problem? The head unit or the transducer. I think mine is doing the same thing.
The transducer that comes with the Lowrance fishfinder is not able to “shoot through” the thin kayak hull. The transducer must be in the water for the fishfinder to work.
mine was doing this when it was installed in my boat and on my yak also
Hi is this a faulty unit or is it the transducer when the screen has vertical lines
It could be a faulty unit or transducer. The transducer that comes with the fishfinder will not “shoot through” a boat or kayak hull and will display the same vertical lines.
How do you do a hard rest on this unit?
Follow the directions in the blog post