Hook 5: Bought in July, Dead by September - Help?

[CON KSO]

This thing was awesome while it worked - and I've come to rely on it.

But now it seems to be dead.

Nope, didn't ever roll the kayak or dunk the unit (I did wash it off with freshwater after each use).

Nope, it's not the battery or connections - I bought a brand new Nocqua lithium battery for it and checked voltage all the way to the red terminal end of power - over 12volts going into the unit.

Nope, not any butt connectors screwing things up - again, I checked it with voltmeter, 12volts all the way the red connecting nut.

Symptoms: Went to power it up, Hook5 logo came on for a minute or two and then screen went black. Subsequent attempts, a brief flash on the screen and then nothing.

Lowrance Customer Support isn't available on the weekend (I already tried to call).

Any advice for me? I know there will be wide ranging opinion but what are you guys liking out there in terms of reliability? I like the split screen feature of the Hook5 with GPS and side scan screens side by side - is there something better out there?

I'd hate to kiss 360 bucks good bye but if there's something out there that's much better I might consider it.

Anybody else have similar problems with a Hook5? I'm all ears - just trying to prepare myself for the fight to come.

[Iceman]

regardless of your voltmeter reading it seems like symptom of low voltage, I would start my testing with a different battery if possible.

[CON KSO]

Originally Posted by Iceman

regardless of your voltmeter reading it seems like symptom of low voltage, I would start my testing with a different battery if possible.

Tested it with two different batteries - a lithium (Nocqua brand) replacement battery and a sealed lead acid battery - both won't get the unit to power up. Neither will the Hobie kit battery and all read approx. 12.8 volts at rest on my meter.

Wired the unit directly (through the power cable) to a brand new battery - nothing.

[vincegat95]

I was in the same predicament, also bought mine in July and tested everything and thought everything, meaning batteries, connectors etc. were ok. Make a long story short, it was the power cable(red). Went to West Marine together with the unit - which I strongly advise, and have it plugged in with one amongst the display and check to see if it powers up, thankfully mine did! And buy the replacement cable. Hopefully it solves the problem.

[jorluivil]

Occam's razor (or Ockham's razor) is a principle from philosophy. Suppose there exist two explanations for an occurrence. In this case the simpler one is usually better. Another way of saying it is that the more assumptions you have to make, the more unlikely an explanation is.

[CON KSO]

Originally Posted by jorluivil

Occam's razor (or Ockham's razor) is a principle from philosophy. Suppose there exist two explanations for an occurrence. In this case the simpler one is usually better. Another way of saying it is that the more assumptions you have to make, the more unlikely an explanation is.

Ok - so,

[CON KSO]

Originally Posted by vincegat95

I was in the same predicament, also bought mine in July and tested everything and thought everything, meaning batteries, connectors etc. were ok. Make a long story short, it was the power cable(red). Went to West Marine together with the unit - which I strongly advise, and have it plugged in with one amongst the display and check to see if it powers up, thankfully mine did! And buy the replacement cable. Hopefully it solves the problem.

Ok - that's a good next step - I'll go see if I can test the unit out at West Marine and report back. BTW - did they sell replacement power cables there at West Marine?

[makobob]

Should be under warrantee, if you got it at WEST Marine they might just trade it out.

[CON KSO]

Originally Posted by makobob

Should be under warrantee, if you got it at WEST Marine they might just trade it out.

Yes, still under warranty.

I went to West Marine and they let me hook it up to the power cable for their Hook5. It was a NO GO. So, my assumption is that the unit is defective.

I'm going to call up Lowrance on Tuesday and see how that whole thing goes.

Anybody ever call up Lowrance for an issue like this? Any words of wisdom/advice/warnings?

[TheBentRod]

Originally Posted by TheBentRod

For me the problem was the backlight was down to 0. Try to adjust the backlight. It is easy to mess up while on the water. Let me know what happens.

Since it actually comes on, it is not a power issue. Hook it up to your battery in the dark and see what you see on the screen. You have to be careful on the water if you lean on the power button and the left arrow, it will dim the display.

[jrip]

I found plug was arcing and burnt. Instead replacing the transducer cable, lt was cost effective just to replace the whole unit.
I make the battery connection now after connecting cable to the F.F.

Sent from my LG-TP260 using Tapatalk

[Bruntoj]

I'm on my 2nd Hook5. The first got splashed and dunked in the surf and failed after about 6 months. Corrupted graphics, unresponsive buttons, rebooting itself etc.

Swapped out at WestMarine because I had he extended warranty (after a bit of runaround from them) and now I drybag the unit during launch and landing. It's been another 6 months and so far I've only had one day when the buttons didn't respond.

[LJ H2Oman]

the reason for the address being at the border crossing is that Lowrance has a factory down by Ensenada.

[SorryCharlie]

Just a thought (because I burned a few this way) it could be how you rinse it.

Yes the units are "water resistant" but that is with all the connections in place (and obviously the SD card slot properly plugged). I am religious about rinsing things but noticed I would still burn through finders (various lorance models) at a ridiculous rate (almost 2-3 a year).

I do two things differently now, I always dry bag my finder on surf launch/landing, and I NEVER rinse the back of my FF when disconnected from the battery/transducer. I used to completely rinse everything, including the back which was getting water into the plug terminals slowely (or in one case very quickly) killing the finder. It would start with one or two finicky issues, then quickly become a unit that did a whole lot of nothing.