Saltwater/Fresh water Transducers?
 

Picked up a Lowrance Elite 4 HDI, that I intend upon using between 2 kayaks for ocean fishing. Plan on picking up an additional transducer so that I can swap out the monitor/battery between the two kayaks and not worry about having to swap out the transducer.

Sent Lowrance an e-mail about which transducer (model #) do I need to purchase to run on the Elite 4 HDI:

From: Lowrance Products <products@lowrance.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2014 8:03 AM
To: Eddie
Subject: Re: Form data from "ContactFormLowranceGeneral" (Lowrance) [#375863]


Thank you for your inquiry.
We have 2 transducers, one for fresh water which is part# 000-10976-001 and one for salt water which is part# 000-10977-001. Both can be purchased from store.navico.com.

Thank you for choosing Navico products!
Navico Technical Support


I may be asking silly questions, But I’d like to know if anyone would enlighten me about the difference between a saltwater and fresh water transducer? I’ve sent Lowrance an email inquiring about the difference between the two in addition to my questions below – awaiting their response. I didn’t know there is a saltwater & fresh water transducer. I fish saltwater, what happens if I use a freshwater transducer in saltwater? Which transducer is included with the Elite 4 HDI? I don’t recall anywhere on the box indicating a fresh water/salt water model.

Thanks in advance!
Eddie

Did a little bit more snooping. Boils down to depth you're fishing, not salt vs fresh water...
Under 100 M/328' use 83/200 KHz
Greater than 100 M/328' use 50/200 KHz
?

After
 

Peace

Spudz, you should probably go with the same transducer that you already have. That way you will not have to fiddle with your FF settings every time you switch yaks. The average user is not going to see almost any difference between the two. The exceptions would be if you do a lot of deep rockfishing, or you prefer the cone angle of one over the other.

99% of kayak fishermen would be fine with the fresh 83/200 vs the salt 50/200 I am one of the 99%. The 50/200 is massive in size, costs about $100 more and uses more power.

you are correct, they do not label them as salt and fresh.

http://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwegall.../photo_88_.JPG

Here’s Lowrance’s response:

From: Lowrance Products <products@lowrance.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2014 7:43 AM
To: Falch, Eddie
Subject: Re: Form data from "ContactFormLowranceGeneral" (Lowrance) [#375863]


Thank you for your inquiry.

The box will not show any difference but if you fish salt water you will want a 50/200 455/800 transducer and for fresh water you will want 83/200 455/800 transducer.

Thank you for choosing Navico products!
Navico Technical Support

Navico Inc.
Lowrance website: http://www.lowrance.com
Accessories website: http://store.navico.com

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I don’t know why they differentiated the two transducers by salt vs fresh water instead of explaining the performance difference between the two.

Iceman, GregAndrew and Ful-rac,
Thanks for your advice and input. The transducer that came with the Lowrance I have is the 83/200. No need to spend extra money and power for a 50/200 – I too am part of that 99% and I’ll get an additional 83/200 and all will be good.

TJones… nice yellowtail fillets!