Do transducers wear out?

T

Tom on Icarus

New member
My Lowrance X88DF depth sounder has been working very poorly lately......most of the time not reading the bottom at all. The problem seems to correct itself briefly from time to time but mostly it can't find the bottom.
The water temperature sensor is in the transducer head as well and shortly after the unit had trouble finding and keeping bottom, the temp sensor began to work intermittently as well.
Everything on the depth finder screen seems to be fine. The water speed wheel is a seperate device and it works fine as does the voltage readout on the screen. This leads me to suspect the transducer head is malfunctioning. The unit is about six years old and I have had other units for much longer with no problems.
Could the transducer just wear out and become intermittent? If so I will buy a new one......much cheaper than a whole new depth finder unit.
Your thoughts will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers :beer
Tom
 
Short answer is yes-

But also check for any growth on the surface of the transducer. Bottom paint on the 'ducer face can also affect performance. If the problem is at speed, be sure the transducer hasn't shifted in it's mount. At the wrong angle additional turbulance and air bubbles can be introduced across the 'ducer face, also negatively affecting perfromance.
 
Matt Gurnsey":2dphv53f said:
Short answer is yes-

But also check for any growth on the surface of the transducer. Bottom paint on the 'ducer face can also affect performance. If the problem is at speed, be sure the transducer hasn't shifted in it's mount. At the wrong angle additional turbulance and air bubbles can be introduced across the 'ducer face, also negatively affecting perfromance.
Click to expand...

Everything Mat has said plus check the xducer connections. It is probably a factory sealed connector that should be good. If it the connection was made by an installer then it is possible that there was a cold solder joint that is just now showing up. The prongs on the connector could have also gotten corroded over time. I have had all of this happen.

I am in the process, as we speak, of trouble shooting a similar problem. Mine is not intermittent. I just get a very weak reading of the bottom. In the past it has been one of the above issues but does not seem to be the case this time. Yesterday I wired up a spare xducer and just hung it over the side for a test. All works fine with that one so, in my case, all is pointing to the xducer being bad. This is on my old Furuno 292, a 4k dollar commercial machine. The xducer is about $600 by itself so I think I'll be selling it. It's way too big to put on the C-Dory full time but it is unbelievable the difference of what it picks up compaired to even a high end smaller unit. It is absolutely the best fish finder I have ever used.
 
The thru-hull Garmin transducer that was installed on my CD purchased in Fla in April was intermittent. It would not work at all on the trailer but would work for a short period when splashing the boat. Each time it would work for a longer period of time but would just disconnect. When it did work the depth was perfect but the temp. was way off.
I finally got tired of that game and purchased a new transom mount Garmin transducer and it works perfectly all the time including the temp.
I left the thru hull in place to plug the hole in my boat.
End of story.
 
For those who keep the boat on a trailer, is there a possibility of damage to the xducer is it is turned on (or left on) while the boat is out of the water? Have wondered if it needs to be off if the electronics are on while the boat is high and dry (for programing plotter or radio etc.) Thanks,

Harvey
SleepyC
 
One transducer tip that has always kept my transducer in top form is to thoroughly clean the face and then wipe some ordinary dish detergent on it before dunking the boat back in the water. Never had a transducer "wear out" with use but the wires and connections have definitely suffered from long term use in a wet environment.

Don
 
hardee":2wfeuca0 said:
For those who keep the boat on a trailer, is there a possibility of damage to the xducer is it is turned on (or left on) while the boat is out of the water? Have wondered if it needs to be off if the electronics are on while the boat is high and dry (for programing plotter or radio etc.) Thanks,

Harvey
SleepyC
Click to expand...

I don't know about that Harvey but I sure burned an image of the East Coast into the screen of my Garmin GPS by leaving it on while on the trailer for a week or so. That was the 188C when I had the 22 :shock: :embarrased

Charlie
 
Charlie said:
"....leaving it on while on the trailer for a week or so...."
Click to expand...

So, did the transducer work OK after that? It didn't melt the sender housing or anything did it? Wondering, because they are designed to work in water, not air. Thanks,

Harvey
SleepyC
 
Okay.....so I bought a new transducer and mounted the head on the existing bracket beside the old one. I ran the wire straight through the door to the helm so I could switch back and forth between the old and new transducers. Sure enough, the old one was working fine :? .......for a while......then it would lose the bottom at speed. Then I switched to the new one and it never lost the botton. I did this several times and the new one always worked perfectly and the old one kept losing the bottom at higher speeds.
So I rewired the new transducer in properly and am looking forward to having accurate readings once again. :smile

Happy Fathers Day to all of you Brat Dads out there. Enjoy your boat today.

Cheers :beer
Tom
 
Tom on Icarus":3ljq9ioc said:
Okay.....so I bought a new transducer and mounted the head on the existing bracket beside the old one. I ran the wire straight through the door to the helm so I could switch back and forth between the old and new transducers. Sure enough, the old one was working fine :? .......for a while......then it would lose the bottom at speed. Then I switched to the new one and it never lost the botton. I did this several times and the new one always worked perfectly and the old one kept losing the bottom at higher speeds.
So I rewired the new transducer in properly and am looking forward to having accurate readings once again. :smile

Happy Fathers Day to all of you Brat Dads out there. Enjoy your boat today.

Cheers :beer
Tom
Click to expand...


Thanks for the update Tom. Thats a new one for me. I've never seen one that was intermittent like that.
 
hardee":2gdogk7f said:
Charlie said:
"....leaving it on while on the trailer for a week or so...."
Click to expand...

So, did the transducer work OK after that? It didn't melt the sender housing or anything did it? Wondering, because they are designed to work in water, not air. Thanks,

Harvey
SleepyC
Click to expand...

Harvey, that GPS was a 188C that didn't have the depth sounder built in. I had the depth module external and don't think it had power to it. Nevertheless, it wasn't affected if it did, the only thing that was futzed up was the display. Not real apparent at that, only when it was off, you could still see stuff! :disgust

Charlie
 
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