Bow unit overheating (flush mounted)

Lowrance Live flush mounted on bow. Wasn't any hotter than normal for a July day on the water....Lowrance was overheating. Any advice on what to do? Is there a setting that uses a lower power for those hot afternoons? Even though I got the overheating message, the unit continued to work just fine but was SUPER hot to the touch. Worried about causing damage. My dash unit is also flush mounted so I'll worry about that one next.

Not sure there's an easy fix. I have seen that message and turned it off a few times, but never experienced any damage etc. I recently added a second unit so pulled the flush mount and haven't experienced so far. Did the same at the dash last year, but never saw that message with the dash flush mount.

That happened to me one time on my Live when it was about 80 degrees out - not that hot. I contacted Lowrance and they said:

If the unit is overheating it will shut itself off, by any chance do you have a photo of the message appeared on your screen?

Try to observe the unit again. Try to use it as is and see if the same message will appear. After using the unit for an hour, try to touch the unit if its warm or overheating.

Please let us know of the observation or if the issue will repeat again.

But it has never happened again?!?!?

I don't have a Lowrance unit , I have a Hummingbird up front and in dash . I am totally surprised that ALL depth finders don't overheat .
The LCD screens are just giant " heat " absorbers --- building up heat and driving that heat throughout the internal semiconductors . Most Semiconductor chips have a rating of either 125C , 150C or in some cases ( rare ) 175C . Once those chips reach that heat point --- the unit will shut off to save itself --- then reset at a lower temp .
Outside air temp is just one factor , angle of the sun to the unit probably has more influence than you would think .
My upfront Bird shutoff once ---- 80 degree day --- but the sun was perfectly angled directly at the screen .
I would not be surprised with the current Semi shortage if these guys lowered that temp rating just to get Semiconductors and ship out units . Yielding higher temp chips is much harder than standard temp chips .

I think you are correct. Angle of the sun seems to have been the biggest factor.

There was an earlier thread where someone was asking about adding some kind of ventilation around the unit....but it might have involved cutting some fiberglass which I don't want to do. Are there some simple steps to cutting back on the heat generation? (i.e. dimming the backlight/brightness, pausing sonar when not in use, etc.)

I had a ti9 that overheated as well. built a white shade cover and it went away. Mine was at the back so it was easier to shade,. Sounds crazy but white packing foam sheets will help in the heat from the sun..

Put the unit in standby when not in use. If you have a blower system on your boat to air out the compartments; and it also circulates air through out the hull. A small 12 volt fan mounted behind the depth finder would cost a little of nothing and would solve the problem.

Has anyone tried one of these? https://www.berleypro.com/product/lowrance-hds-visors/ Looks like it might be better suited for a non-flush mount.