Issues with Lowrance sonars loosing bottom reading...

[steffanf]

This seems to be a common problem with many of the Lowrance sonars produced over the past 2-3 years. I've heard it many times on this forum and I am sure their reputation is suffering. Everything from LCX-27's to LMS-332's, 520's, 510's down to some of the X units. What is the general concensus of the reason behind this? I ask this because my 520 is having problems with loosing bottom at times over weeds in 4-5 feet of water. I have to pull out to deeper water, sometimes up to 10-15 feet deep to regain bottom readings. The thing is, I also have an X-135. When I swap it out with the 520, everything works almost perfect. I may loose bottom once in a while when I go over some weedbeds in less than 2 feet of water, but it finds the bottom again within a few seconds... and there is no need to pull out over deeper water either. Can anything be done about this? There is more to the story than this with my latest Lowrance "issues", but I will delve into that later...

-Gregg B.

[KJSnider]

I have the same problem here, except I have the infamous 334 iGPS.

Another Lowrance Fail unit. I still loose my position very frequently, and loose the bottom reading when getting into weeds at 10 or so feet, and it finally picks up the reading at about 17-20 feet.

The 334 was a 1 year production, probably because the GPS didn't work. It should have been recalled. Then they replaced it I believe with the 520, and the thing can't take a bottom reading in weeds.

For $650, these things should work. My next one will not be a Lowrance.

[fisherdog19]

I agree, they are just so user friendly, and for a while where the only ones that could take most of the lake cards. Now it's not the case but I really don't want to spend another $600 for a different unit. Even if the unit is out of warranty, they should really stand by it and either replace or fix, at no charge, those that are not working properly. As consumers, when you spend that kind of money, it should work, and flawlessly at that! If not, it needs to be fixed, period

[fisherdog19]

There is now a new Beta update 2.4.2 that is for people like me having severe issues.

[fisherdog19]

That didn't work either. I lost bottom for over 30 minutes the other day and I was in 27 fow at the time. I am working on trying to get it fixed but I am out of warranty and they tell me I need to pay for the repairs which I find to be unfair. We'll see what happens.

[PerchJerker]

fisherdog - are you sure your transducer is good? Losing bottom like you're describing sure sounds like a transducer problem, not a software problem. The software problem was in shallow water and/or thick weeds, I don't think the software problem was showing up in 27 fow. Good luck getting it working like it should.

[delcecchi]

I have a 334 and transducer went bad. I got a new transducer and it worked good. Now it has started acting up again. I think it is the new transducer going bad. I am starting to wonder if Lowrance got a batch of bad transducers.

[fisherdog19]

The problem started the day I updated to the 2.3 software, the unit worked over deep water the day before that. I have a friend with the same unit on his boat and my unit had the same problems on his ducer but his unit worked fine. His worked fine is relative, it worked in deep water but not through weeds in 15 fow or less. I'll check again if I can, it's getting kind of late in the year for it.

[delcecchi]

Then you must have a different problem than I did. Maybe it is a power output or input sensitivity problem, perhaps aggravated by changes made in default settings to fix other problems. I actually wonder if I don't have a little of your problem as well.

[fisherdog19]

After venting some frustration here and at a poor customer service rep (I was kind of harsh) with Lowrance via email, I contacted Linda from Navico and she is fixing me up with a replacement unit. Her service helped me re-gain faith in Lowrance, and other large companies when it comes to taking care of customers.