Fish Finder Protection

[J. Rentch]

Going to install a FF on my yak this winter. Question, should I enclose finder with plexiglass for waterproofing? Saw a post about this on You Tube. Would appreciate your ideas on this.

[Cowpokey]

Going to install a FF on my yak this winter. Question, should I enclose finder with plexiglass for waterproofing? Saw a post about this on You Tube. Would appreciate your ideas on this.

Modern (current) versions are water resistant, should be fine in the open.

[J. Rentch]

Thanks for the reply.

[JKay]

You should be fine unless you roll in the water. The waterproof rating for some fish finders is nonsense. I have a Lowrance Elite 4 with a waterproof rating of IPx7. This summer while in the Long Island Sound I wound up in the water with the kayak overturned. The fishfinder was underwater for about as long as it took to right the kayak (about 15 seconds). It started reading a constant 60' after that and was basically toast.

I also have an older Eagle Cuda 250 that's survived a bunch of crashes in the surf. I can't kill that fishfinder! Now I won't take the replacement Lowrance Elite 4 through the surf. No trust whatsoever in it's ability to survive anything more than a drizzle of rain or occasional splash.

[Cowpokey]

I've read you have to be sure the card slot plug is securely in place on them, I have an Elite-4 also. Some folks even suggest putting a piece of gorilla tape over the plug.

[rob-kayak]

Not sure which fish finder you have.. but the SD card slot is a "weak" point... at least with my Lowrance.
Some people use dielectric grease for the slot...
Basically I use a big fat rubber band around the unit and that keeps the rubber SD slot from popping open and tight.
My fishfinder gets wet all the time going through wave chop.
Here's a link from last year where we talk about this stuff...
http://www.snaggedline.com/showthrea...ng+fish+finder

[JKay]

I have the Mark 4 and Elite 4. The Mark 4 was stuffed with dielectric grease, and the SD card slot cover was Gooped shut from the outside. I bought the Elite 4 because the screen on the Mark 4 washed out in bright sunlight. The screen is much easier to read on the Elite in direct sunlight.

I installed the Navionics chip in the Elite 4, stuffed it with dielectric grease, then put Gorilla tape over the flap. After the Elite unit failed, I inspected the tape and SD card slot cover. Everything was intact. I could not detect any leakage in through the SD card slot.

I spoke with one of the technical guys at Lowrance before putting dielectric grease in the units. I wanted to make sure that I didn't void the warranty. He said "no, it won't void the warranty and it can't hurt". So much for the warranty. Unfortunately, that little rubber flap is a shitty design. I let Lowrance know that, and told them the the unit was totally inappropriate for use on a kayak with the design as-is.

[Cowpokey]

I have the Mark 4 and Elite 4. The Mark 4 was stuffed with dielectric grease, and the SD card slot cover was Gooped shut from the outside. I bought the Elite 4 because the screen on the Mark 4 washed out in bright sunlight. The screen is much easier to read on the Elite in direct sunlight.

I installed the Navionics chip in the Elite 4, stuffed it with dielectric grease, then put Gorilla tape over the flap. After the Elite unit failed, I inspected the tape and SD card slot cover. Everything was intact. I could not detect any leakage in through the SD card slot.

I spoke with one of the technical guys at Lowrance before putting dielectric grease in the unit. I wanted to make sure that I didn't void the warranty. He said "no, it won't void the warranty and it can't hurt". So much for the warranty. Unfortunately, that little rubber flap is a shitty design. I let Lowrance know that, and told them the the unit was totally inappropriate for use on a kayak with the design as-is.

With any luck (for the rest of us) you had a defective unit to begin with and it wasn't water tight to the standard they are supposed to meet.

[JKay]

With any luck (for the rest of us) you had a defective unit to begin with and it wasn't water tight to the standard they are supposed to meet.

I'm hoping it was just a bad unit that got some water intrusion. I replaced that unit and still have the Mark 4. With Lowrance transducers in 3 different kayaks, I'm sort of joined at the hip with this series of fish finders. There are a LOT of them out there on kayaks. I'm hoping that they do a better job with that card slot cover on their next design.