Do not get the Lowrance Iway 350c. It maybe cheap and have alot of features, but it is a piece of crap. Its not worth the headache. My experience below.
My frustration with Lowrance knows no bounds. After doing much research about the time that the iway350c was coming out I decided that it had all the features and size that I needed. So after waiting for the unit to come into stock I purchased one, and thats where the headache started. After a month or so of light use the unit was acting up.
Problem 1: When left out in the cold it would not charge (no red light) or turn on. It would click a few times and thats it. Not until the car warmed up did it want to turn on, and by then I was at work. Had the unit replaced by lowrance.
Problem 2: There was a clicking in the audio whenever songs were changed with the second unit. Lowrance replaced the unit.
Problem 3: The new unit they sent me was blowing fuses directly out of the shipping box. I called their tech support and was told the following “due to the high performance wiring in you car (Nissan Z) the unit is being fed to much current.” Now I’m an electrical engineer that is very versed in trouble shooting. Their response is not even logical and defys many of the basic principles of electronics. A device draws as much current as it needs, it is not fed it. If the unit was drawing too much current, the problem was in the unit not the “high performance” wiring of the car. After explaining this to them they eventually replaced the unit.
Problem 4: Now it was summer time and I was using the unit in a car that had no AC. With the unit mounted in the dash driving along with the windows open, it would overheat and stop charging. Now it was summer, but I live in NJ not Africa so it couldn’t have been more than 90 out.
My friend left his garmin in a closed car in the windshield all day in the sun and his unit doesn’t overheat. At this point I didn’t want to send the unit in again so I delt with it. There probably wasn’t anything they could do anyway since its the thermo switch they have on the battery that keeps it from exploding.
Problem 5: After getting that all worked out I thought that I had a good working unit. 6 or so months went by and all of the sudden, the unit is blowing fuses again. I call up and get a very condescending tech. I explain my problem and tell him that its blowing fuses in both my cars, one in which I am using the stock cable and one it which I have the unit hardwired. He then goes on to tell me that I have voided my warranty because I used a hard-wired source. He explains that the stock cord has a regulator in it to regulate the voltage. I say bullsh*t that the cord has only a fuse. He tells me that there is a regulating transistor in there.
So I ask to speak to a supervisor and am told that I have to leave my name and number and a supervisor will get back to me at their convenience, possibly tomorrow. Well that’s not very good customer service in my book. I left the conversation being told that my unit was out of warrantee and even if it was in warrantee I had voided it. So I set out to find in the literature where it says to not hard wire your unit to the car. Guess what it doesn’t state that anywhere.
I then proceeded to take apart the stock power cord and guess what, there is no regulation in there. All that’s in the power cord is a LED and a current limiting resistor for that led. The rest is just a fuse and straight wire. So at least twice the techs at lowrance have proved they don’t know their a$$ from their elbow about their products or basic electronics in general. If I wasn’t an engineer I probably would have bought their statement at face value, and I’m sure 90% of people who call up with problems do.
This product looked so promising, but the poor product design and cruddy customer service really has forced me to never ever think about buying lowrance again. In fact, I’m writing this for people who are thinking about this device and its a warning to you. Just think about it, who designs a product to be used in an automobile that overheats in mild temps when placed in the sun (where its going to spend 90% of its operating life) and doesn’t work when the temp drops to near freezing? I am extremely disappointed with this unit and am as mad as if someone had just stolen $400 from me.