Lowrance H2O - what replaced it?

[Midnight1890]

I have a Lowrance H2O which I really like. My buddy is looking for something like it. I did a small search and really came up with nothing . Does anyone have a suggestion on a hand held GPS that a Lake Master Chip will work in??

[bigbad401]

Do you have the Lake Master chip for the H2O? If so, the H2O is the last Lowrance handheld GPS to use that chip. The new Endura Series GPS from Lowrance uses a different Lakemaster chip. The file formats are different for each. The Lowrance Endura series has had a lot of issues since it was released a year ago. If I were to get a new handheld GPS look at Garmin Oregon450 or Montana or eTrex. I don't know much about the eTrex, but I think they are able to take the Lakemaster files.

[pheasantpro10]

Hey midnight do you have trouble getting signal with yours it seems like mine can't find the signal or it takes forever to do so.

[broman]

Hey midnight do you have trouble getting signal with yours it seems like mine can't find the signal or it takes forever to do so.

Looks like your's is taking the death march. Many of the H20's begin to have this issue after a few years. It is not fixable. Start looking for a new unit.

[Midnight1890]

No mine works great and I hope it continues to work great because it is one of the most functional pieces of equipment I have ever owned for open water or ice fishing. Maybe that is why I made the assumption that Lowrance replaced it with a newer/better option but it does not appear that way.

[PerchJerker]

The Endura Series from Lowrance came out 2 years ago, but the first year it was on the market there were no map cards that would work in it. Now you can use 2010 LM cards in them, the packaging for the cards is marked as being compatible with the Endura series. The complaints on the Endura series have come WAY down since the mapping became available.

Your other option is Garmin, they have handhelds which can use Garmin LM cards or Garmin LM CDs. The maps for Garmin are becoming harder and harder to find though, so if you go this route I would make sure you have the map data before buying the GPS.

Hope this helps and good luck.

[fishersofmen]

What replaced it?? Droid!

[OnAFly]

I've been researching this a little bit lately. It seems like the Garmin Oregon 450 and the Garmin 62s are the standards right now. Plus, there's lots of free mapping available for these units including some lake maps. Also, they do have LM maps for Garmin available.

I can't believe that LM won't continue to make maps compatible with Garmin products since they are one of the biggest recreational GPS manufacturers around.

[schweady]

My whole sad Lowrance ExpeditionC story (but with a happy ending):

Purchased in Jan 2006, my unit immediately exhibited problems recognizing the external power cable, resulting in a free replacement cord from Lowrance. The external power problems continued until Lowrance agreed to replace the unit free in Oct 2006. Three years of trouble-free service until around Dec 2009 with occasional problems getting satellites to 'lock in.' (Many others on this forum started noticing the same thing right around this same time... Could this have been some sort of planned obsolescence on the part of Lowrance? After all, this was the very month that the original Endura line -- Out&Back, Safari, Sierra -- was just being introduced...) Troubles increased to the point that the unit would only work reliably for about 1/2 hour, then refuse to locate my position. Lots of "solutions" were suggested, ranging from soft reset to hard reset to connection to a 12v power source for a period of time. None of these resulted in any lasting improvement. I lived with flaky satellite reception for over a year until... Happy ending: Purchased in June 2011, I am now VERY happy with my new Garmin 62st with a LakeMaster chip installed. (Retailers still have Garmin LakeMaster chips for sale, and I think that once the details in the purchase of LakeMaster by Johnson Outdoors is worked out we will see updated Garmin LM chips available online also.)

Bottom line: I had thought that my Lowrance ExpeditionC was the best thing ever (at least for the 4 years that it worked for me), but it couldn't possibly hold a candle to my new Garmin.

[WallyGader]

I hope one of these gps companys come out with something as reliable as the vex sometime soon, would be nice. Until then ill be useing my 597ci in my truck.

[broman]

I hope one of these gps companys come out with something as reliable as the vex sometime soon, would be nice. Until then ill be useing my 597ci in my truck.

My gut feeling is that Marcum will be the first to integrate a GPS into their line. Moving to the LCD screen was a step in the right direction.