they are right i used to have one, you will get blow back and if it gets just on the side of the cone of the transducer you might not pick up the signal or you will get goofy readings like 90 degrees and 1 mph. you can try to adjust your trandsduce so it angles more away from the boat . that way when you troll at faster speeds the back of the boat sits farther in the water and the angle of the transducer will be shooting back into the swaying ball. batteries- keep a good supply of them and not cheep ones, the water is cold down there and the temp will eat them up fast and give you false reading or no readings. if your not getting water seapage from the lake you will definatly get condensation from being in the cold water then brining it up in the warm air temps. since the probes are not sealed from the battery area the cond. will leak into the wiring. check the battery connection terminal also. the cheep radio shack ones they use come apart after taking the batteries out so much. personally i like it when i first got it but the more i used it the more i hated it. i liked the no coated wire but since then i have sold it and went to a coated cable down speed unit. too many headaches with it for me. hope this helped some.