I wanted to see if anyone else has had a similar issue with their Lowrance HDS units as the one I'm currently experiencing.

The short story is I was fishing and it started raining pretty heavily. I have the HDS-10 mounted on my console, and of course I was fishing from my bow during the rain. When I sat back down at the console the screen had faded to white.

Now, I've seen instances before where rain can 'shock' the screen due to a temperature change, and I figured this was what happened. So, I dried off the unit and stowed it for the rest of the day.

When I pulled the HDS-10 out of my compartment later, a bunch of water ran out of the corner and my heart sank into my shoes.

I plugged it back in and still got the faded white screen. So, I've had the HDS-10 in my house for two weeks in an air-conditioned room in front of a fan hoping the moisture would evaporate and everything would work again. I tried to power it up last night and it wouldn't even turn on.

Please don't take this as a Lowrance bashing post, because that is not the intention. I just wanted to see if anyone else had experienced something like this. I've contacted Lowrance about the issue and am waiting on a reply. I purchased this unit in Mid-may, so it's only about 3 months old. I've fished through rain a lot worse than the stuff that killed the HDS, and have never experienced water in my GPS. I'm wondering if this particular unit just had a seal issue.

Anyone else here dealt with the Lowrance warranty department? I'm crossing my fingers and hoping it all works out for the best. I LOVE the HDS-10.

you need to get Linda Colts number, and call her directly to get the fastest response. That HDS-10 is a nice unit!

I have Linda's contact information, and she was the first person I contacted.

Bad news... she's out of the office until the 31st of August, so I had to send an E-mail to general customer service. I have two tournaments coming up in consecutive weeks (the 22nd and 29th). I thought there might be a chance I could get a replacement so I could at least have the unit for the last event, but I know that's not likely, especially with Linda away.

I think some of the HDS-7 have had some water leakage problems. As much as HDS-10 costs they should do something for you.

Not a bash, I love my lowrance's but, I wonder why they put these out w/out having the bugs fixed?

This exact same thing happened to a buddy of mine. He tried for a few weeks to get in contact with somebody at lowrance. After he finally talked to someone, they replaced the unit.

He said they were very difficult to to get in touch with, but when he finally
did they were great.

I read on BPS a customer comment that the same thing happened to his HDS-7. Same issue with Lowrance but BPS stepped-up and replaced the unit.

I'm not sure how wide-spread this issue is, but it is disturbing. It doesn't seem to be a highly technical issue to properly seal the units. Does Lowrance have a position on this?

Well, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who's experienced this issue. Hopefully Lowrance realizes this is an existing problem and we can work on a warranty claim promptly.

I will certainly keep everyone informed!

where did you buy it, and can you take it back to swap with them. your waypoints will be lost, as you wont be able to see the screen to export them.

I bought it at BassPro online.

I have a BPS about 5 minutes from me. If I purchased online you think I could take it back to an actual store and they would swap it?

I really hope they don't need the cables and all that stuff back. I don't to have to completely rewire a new unit.

they could swap the cables, and yes- they should honor thier reciept from the online store. I would call and speak to a manager about it at BPS. If so, that would be the fastest and most convenient exchange.

I'm going to give that a shot, Ronnie. Thanks.

PM sent

Seems like quite a few of these new units are having this issue.

Maybe as a stop gap measure we should put a baggie over our units.

But I'll shut-up about it for now though. Maybe this is just a few isolated cases, and these are killer units when they're not full of water.