Lowrance Elite 4 FF question

[J.A. Veil]

Just a thought, ask anyone who has ever dealt with customer service at Lowrance and they will tell you they will never buy another Lowrance product. Ask a Lowrance rep at a show if they have had any issues with customer service.....

I must disagree with your statement. You may have had problems with Lowrance service, but I have not. I have owned quite a few Lowrance units over the years on various boats going back to about 1990. I have not had very many problems, but when I did, the Lowrance customer support folks were responsive. In one case when my early GPS unit went bad, they told me that model had been discontinued. They replaced it at no charge with an upgraded model.

I still have Lowrance units on my kayak and power boat. I am comfortable with the layout of the buttons and the menus. If I had to replace an electronics unit today, Lowrance would be at the top of the list.

[Backwater]

How much less sensitive is a thru hull set up then one of those scupper mounts? It seems like there is going to be alot of drag with something like that hanging under the yak. I clamped one of those humminbird fishin buddys on the front of my native one day just for fun and although the shaft on it is much wider then that it felt like the kayak was anchored or something. I dont think it would be quite that bad but anything that causes you to burn unneeded energy out there isnt very desirable. If the thru hull isnt much less sensitive it appeals to me more.

[john from md]

John V.

+1 to Backwater's post.

I think I have narrowed down my choices to the Elite 4x. However, like him, I have reservations about the transducer hanging out of the scupper hole. I haven't seen one other than online but the Lowrance transducer looks like it is smaller and more rounded than the HB transom transducer which is flat on the bottom.

Does this make it any harder to mount to shoot through the hull?

Thanks for your time,

John

[DOGFISH]

Just a thought, ask anyone who has ever dealt with customer service at Lowrance and they will tell you they will never buy another Lowrance product. Ask a Lowrance rep at a show if they have had any issues with customer service.....

I have heard some of that myself. There is alot of that type talk on the internet also. There are always mixed results. Not to start a debate, but I have had great luck with dealing with the folks at Humminbird. I have never had a problem with their products, except when I dropped one of my older units. Their tech people are easy to deal with when mixing and matching set-ups. Although, I am sure Lowrance is also a fine company.

[Memory Maker]

+1 to John V post .............

I've had the best service and the best deals from Lowrance ............. I have the LMS 332c, the LCS 111c and the 8" LCS and when I had a problem with the 332c they replaced it immediately. I also had an X70 that was discontinued and they sent me a coupon to use on a new Depth finder ........ got $300 off and it was on sale to begin with ..... that was $300 at the register.

The Hummingbird 385ci I bought last year was disappointing in my opinion compared to the Lowrances. I just pulled the trigger on the HDS 7 w/structure scan ......... They aren't the largest DF manufacturer for nothing ........ hope my luck with their service holds.

[Tyrone Shoes]

I too have been considering the elite 4. Spoke with Lawrence today. The rep told me that it is water resistant......as in rain or incidental water. Not ok to submerge it.

Due to its price and lack of water proofing, had to scratch it off my list.

[Tyrone Shoes]

Does anyone have first hand experience dunking an elite4 or mark4?

[FRED driver]

I have the mark 4 (and love it)...I have used it for about 4 trips so far this year in both fresh and saltwater and have seen no issues with waterproofing. It has an ipx7 rating which supposedly means it should be able to be submerged in a meter of water for 30 minutes without any water intrusion...who knows how trustworthy that really is but I took it on a 10 mile trip one day through 2-3 ft seas and it seems to be just fine. Really can't beat the value of this FF at $200 anywhere in Lowrance or elsewhere.

[Tyrone Shoes]

I've been drooling over the mark 4. Price point is not as painful as the elite 4. How did you mount the transducer?

[Pinch]

I like my elite 4x dsi. Its holding up well.

[FRED driver]

I have a hobie outback and mounted it using a wet well duct putty seal under the front hatch. I have had no issues with the transducer. Takes about 45 minutes to get the water temp accurate. On a kayak, I don't feel the dsi capability adds enough to justify the huge cost increase. I did a bunch of dsi research and it seems that most people are a bit disappointed with the lack of promised clarity on dsi models (especially with thru-hull transducer mounting on kayaks).