Lowrance 113c quit working first trip out!

[Hookem_9]

I picked up a new Lowrance 113c over the winter, I was thrilled to get one of this caliber.
Well, on the first fishing outing, after a half hour, it lost is location, then locked in, then flipped back and forth for about 20 minutes, then was "lost" and never lock in again. Meanwhile the x-27 on the bow was locked in and working great! I do not have them networked at this time, they are set up individually in both locations. I tried swapping puck, and locations all with the same result. I search on WC, and found some others had good luck with a Linda that worked in Tech Service. She referred me to calling in to the Tech Service Phone service... I could believe how long the wait was... terrible! The person agreed that it's narrowed down to the head unit, and when this symptom occurs, it needs to be sent in. How long will this take? at least 3 weeks... What? I just spent $2K on a locator, and now I shipping it in after the first hour of use? She offered a High Priority turn around at MY expense of $30, plus I have to pay to ship it to them in the first place??? What is going on here? I'm paying for shipping to and from Lowrance? to warranty a new product I've barely used it? They should be sending me a brand new unit, and I'll send them this one in return... Am I alone here?

[Lundexp]

Nope you aren't alone. If you look back, there are alot of similar posts similar to yours with the exact same problems with customer service and the new lowrances taking a crap. Apparently the product and service has gone way down in the past several years. I was looking real hard at the lowrance myself but when I saw all the problems others were having, I went with Humminbird instead and never looked back.

[Dan...]

what is the distance between your antenna and unit? 36" would be too close and could cause what you describe.

[Hookem_9]

It's less than 36" away, never saw anything in the manual saying that, my x-18c on my previous boat had the puck about 15" away. about the same distance in the new boat. As I mentioned, the X-27c works just fine in both locations.

[perchjerker]

as long as you werent broadcasting from the vhf at the time the problem occured I dont see how that could be the issue anyway

[Dan....]

Your LCX 113 is not an 18 or a 27 and I am pleased that the later 2 worked well for you. Your eagerness to discredit my input will have me keeping additional suggestions to myself. After reading your post again I understand now that your intent was not to seek input for resolution, but to bash customer service. Sorry…my mistake. Spend the 30 clams and send it back! I have an idea why Linda referred you to customer service……

[Hookem_9]

I'm sorry you feel that way, it was not my intention. My original post may have some venting in it, but it had been a long day. Just frustrating, you know? to have that much invested, and to have it fail right away. I'm a pretty laid-back person, and I assure you my communications were nothing short of professional with Lowrance. And from searching this forum, I'm not the first person to be frustrated with Lowrances Customer Service, this isn't news. I contacted Linda, as I found positive comments about her on here. She did reply, but was too busy to help me, and suggested I call the Tech Line. I posted here to find out if others are having the same problem with there 113? is it common? or a fix that I could perform myself?
From what I can see, the X-113, X-27 and my old x-18 are similar units, and I don't understand why the 113c is that much different? Not discrediting you, but you didn't explain why they would be different?, I'm going off my previous experiences. What are yours? Did you have this same problem with your 113? Please explain Dan... Thanks

[Dan...]

Yes, my 113 did exactly what you describe. I then moved the antenna to the opposite side of the boat from which my unit was mounted as per a Lowrance tecs instructions…..problem solved. Perhaps you have done this, but the next time you observe a loss of position, hit the pages button then arrow left to the satellite status page. Confirm that the unit is seeing individual satellites. Good luck!

[Hookem_9]

Thanks Dan,
I haven't tried it. currently it's about 18" or so. I've spent alot of time staring at the Sat. Status page with nothing showing on it, not even one Sat showing any signal.