last years model LX-3 issue

[aquafang]

I bought a new LX-3 this year and I am having trouble. I have to use a minimum of 4 to 9 for a gain to see my jig as yellow. Battery is fine. has anyone had similar trouble?

[CrappieJohn]

Check the transducer cable for severe kinks. If you find any the cable may be damaged but not fully severed. You may have an onry transducer. Are you in an area with hard current? That can sweep your jig way off to the outside of the target cone and require more power to stay in contact with. Extremely muddy or turbid water shouldn't be an issue but I guess with some current it might be. Have you checked in the manual for possible clues?

[iffwalleyes]

Sounds like a bad transducer. Check with Marcum they will be more than helpful. I had a bad ducer last year I sent the whole unit in and had it back very quickely. I think I was without it for only 4 days including the shipping. That is from out in ND as well.

[mark n]

Make sure the ducer is all the way through the hole. I've had mine up against the side of the ice hole and experienced the same problem because the ducer was pointed at a slight angle in 25' of water.

[rpaulson7]

I agree, bad transducer. I had the same problem last year, got it fixed by Marcum in a week and it works perfect. Great customer service there, unfortunately there seems to be a lot of problems with the transducers up-front. After the fix it's all good.

[Stratosman]

Had the same problem with mine right out of the box.. wouldn't read bottom but would read the jig, only color visible was orange, sent it in and got it back the other day with the TC upgrade, trying it out tomorrow.

[Rick]

Just to be clear that is last years model LX3 not this years model LX3tc you guys are talking about?

[Stratosman]

right on. mine anyway.

[Northlander]

My 1st guess is transducer. If you have a friend with a 3 try his ducer and see if thats all it is. If not send it in to Marcum and you will have it back in no time.

[Mr. Pike1]

If you just bought the unit return it to the place of purchase and get a brand new one. No need to drop 400.00 and then be messing aroune when you should be fishing. Get a new one and hit the ice.

[aquafang]

Thanks for all your input. I hope they find something. with my luck, they will return and say it's fine. I tried dropping the ducer below the ice, so I know its not at an angle. I did not check for kinks toward the back. Well, I sent it in on friday, so I hope they return it with good news. thanks again for the input.

Ty Smith

[hondavxr]

Shoot, what you are saying that is happening to your lx-3 sounds exactly like mine. I have to turn my LX-3, with TC upgrade, to 4-9 also, and thats around 17-18 ft of water only. I think I should send my transducer in also. I bought this thing a few months ago only, brand new.

[Trouthunter]

yep, I have the same problem. I also noticed I cannot move the rubber stopper more than 1 foot up the cord before it hits a "kink" or something in the wire.

Guess I'll have to send it in.

BD

[Braley]

I had the LX3 TC upgrade, got it back in time for Devil's Lake trip....drove just under 700 miles to get to the ice and the MarCum LX3 doesn't work! Can't mark my jig, zoom window markers won't go to the botom like they used to, there is a constant mark about half way between bottom and surface and every so often, more often then should, a light starts spinning full circle around the display. Tried it at differant spots, differant depths, nothing helped.

Needless to say, at this particular point in time I am even less impressed with MarCum Technologies,,,,they have batting .000 with me this season.

[hondavxr]

Aquafang keep us updated to see if a new transducer fixed it. I need to fix mine, but can't afford the down time. thanks

[Rick]

There wer some bad ducers on last years LX3. The fix does work. I had to get mine fixed as well and it works like a charm. Contact MarCum at http://marcumtech.com .

If you happen to be headed up Brainerd way and you let them know ahead of time they can likely exchange ducers with you right there for no downtime.

[hondavxr]

I also just sent my whole unit with the transducer back Marcum. They emailed me and said it might just be the whole unit. Why did I get stuck with a defected one? All the money I spent for the LX-3 upgraded TC,the shipping back and forth, I could have just bought the real LX-3 TC. I have only used this thing once. I really like the products that Marcum has to offer, good technology for the money, but I am going to really think twice about owning a Marcum product now. I haven't heard any problems with this years LX-3 TC. Maybe Marcum needs to field test their products longer before they release them. It's good to introduce new products and inovations, but make sure you smooth the wrinkles out, and not make your consumers the guinea pigs and testers. Hope MarCum fixes my unit, sucks to fish blind.

[MNice]

[Please read forum policy]

[Trouthunter]

contacted marcum and there is a new ducer on it's way. Thanks for the info guys.

[Braley]

Wow! Here's what i got from MarCum's Customer service yesterday:

"Jim,

I’m sorry you are having a problem with your LX-3. You are the only upgrade customer who has had a problem so I’m not sure what may be going on. The quickest way to get you fixed up is to have you ship it to us once again. Please return your LX-3 unit to us following the directions below. We will repair or replace the unit and get you back fishing."

I too am sending my whole unit back today and am wondering how soon it will be before this thread is pulled,,,,

So Hondavxr you are not alone...just being told you are, like me...I don't know about you but they sure do make me feel special!

Tight Lines!

[marine_man]

I understand your frustration hondavxr... but all the field testing in the world is never going to flush out all the bugs in a new design... I work for a large construction equipment manufacturer, and if anyone field tests equipment it's us... and we still fail to catch all the hickups...

I don't believe that marcum knew your unit was defective and shipped it to you anyway... no manufacturer would do that knowingly... and I haven't heard of any other issues from people on this site in regard to the upgraded LX-3's either so I don't think it is a system wide problem...

I'm sure Marcum will take care of you this time around...

marine_man

[Kylersk]

Yup, I have the same exact problem. My gain is always set to at least 4. Called marcum and they wanted me to send the unit in for repair, turn around about a week. I cant be with out it for a week.. So, I guess I'll have to deal with the problem till end of year.

[Dave]

Looks like this thread has a variety of "issues" (gain, TC upgrade and gain, kinked cable) and it's getting all lumped together in this thread. If you have a LX-3 that seems you have to turn the gain up quite high, you may have one of the defective transducers that everyone talked about on here awhile back. Here's the thread.

LX-3 Transducer

For one gentleman, I don't believe the upgrade to True Color(TC) has anything to do with the transducer. The jostling from shipping could have caused the older LX-3 transducer to go bad.....(if you sent the whole unit in) Could be one of the defective transducers in the batch talked about in the other thread...

The gentleman who's LX-3 transducer cable has a kink in it.....you sure you didn't cause it....

Whatever the case is, I will say, Marcum does stand behind its product and will correct the situation. I've had very good luck with its customer service. Send an email or give them a call.

[hondavxr]

Well, I don't think it was my head unit that was broken. It sounds like it might be the transducer like what you guys said. The thing that puzzles me is that most companies should be like car companies, if there is something wrong, especially in big numbers, there should be a recall. All the store shelves will be cleaned and returned with upgraded fixed ones. I think many people do like Marcum because they seem to be leaps and bounds ahead of the competition, but little things like this will make them lose their customer base. In this business, the word of mouth and reputation is what drives the business larger. A few people I know want to convert to MarCum from Vexilar, because they saw mine LX-3, and the store displays, but when they heard that I had to send my unit in already, this deters them. And then they come to a great HSOforum like this and see that their friend wasn't the only one sending his unit, and that there is a good number sending in there unit. Little things like this will deter your customer base.Ice fishing , by itself, is such a small market, so you will always have to do your best to put out the best product. Sorry about the rambling, but at first I thought it was just my LX-3 doing this, but when I came on this forum, it almost seem like it was normal for last years LX-3 transducer to act up. Even through this whole ordeal I still don't have bad things to say about Marcum, because they do know how to handle their customers. I hope mine gets fixed soon I already miss it , because sucks to fish blind.

[hanson]

Kylersk-

I don't think you will be able to wait until after winter to get it fixed, I found that mine kept getting worse until my gain was up to 7 or 8 and then it became almost useless due to interference & clutter. I would ship it in ASAP while we have this yucky warm weather in the cities.

My LX-3 has worked flawlessly for 2 years now other than the transducer going wacky! Simple fix at no cost to myself.

I "usually" never have my gain above 2 unless the battery is going down, then I'll have to bump it up a little bit.

[Surface Tension]

We reported last year that MarCum had a bad batch of ducers and what symptoms you'll experience if you have a bad ducer.

Those that contacted MarCum support had the problem fixed pronto. One week turn around is pretty good customer service. I can think of other instances were a company gave me the run around before owning up to their mistakes but not MarCum. Contact MarCum's Customer Service and they will take care of you. http://marcumtech.com