Removing bottom paint from transducer lense.

[Late Again Grady]

New to the forum and as the title says, I want to try to remove the bottom paint that is coverng the lense of my transducer without damaging the transducer. Sonar unit began shown water temps about 15 degress hotter than actual. Hope removing the bottom paint may help. Anybody have any suggestions for removing the paint as to not damage the transducer?

 

[freddy063]

what type of bottom paint did you get, will it ware off in time by it self? And what do you have for a system?

 

[DennisG01]

It's very common - and often recommended - to apply anti-foul a transducer. They should work just fine with the paint on there. Did the issue happen immediately after the paint was applied? I would lean towards thinking that the issue is with the transducer itself, not the bottom paint.

Is it a plastic or bronze transducer?

 

[Halfhitch]

You should have a range of calibration available in the "settings" section of you MFD.

 

[seasick]

The paint probably wouldn't affect the temp reading that much if at all. Check with the manufacturer about paints to use. I assume your ducer is a thru-hull. Transom mounted ducers shouldn't be painted with regular bottom paints sie the solvent can damage the housing and the copper that may be in the paint can affect the sonar beam. There are paints for those transducers and if applied per instructions work quite well (if only for one season.

 

[SkunkBoat]

Clean the connection of the transducer plug. Otherwise it's shot. You might be able to calibrate an offset to read closer to reality.
My B744 is reading 11 degrees too low but when I try to calibrate on the Garmin 4208 it won't hold the offset, just returns to 0 when I hit enter.
Luckily I have another FF & transducer with temp

 

[Uncle Joe]

Just FYI.....there are anti-fouling paints made specifically for transducers.....if you need to do it in the future. A friend of mine hooked me up with a bracket configuration which allows me to raise the transom mounted transducer out of the water when not in use. It is a little unsightly but I don't have any marine growth problems anymore.

 

[Late Again Grady]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I believe the ducer has gone bad. Can't null it out, not enough adjustment capability in the machine. Running a Lowrance HDS2 with an Airmar B175 (I believe).

 

[everwhom]

I think I may have read that the temp sensor dying is a sign of overheating. Any chance the sonar system was on when the boat is out of the water? As you may know, those big airmars (I have a B175HW) shouldn’t be run out of the water...

 

[Late Again Grady]

Correction, it's a B117.
It's highly possible, but I wouldn't think for long periods of time. Boat stays in a slip most of the time. I do remember one time when putting boat on the trailer the unit was left running. Might have run 15-20 minutes out of water.

Guess it's time to change out the transducer.

 

[DennisG01]

I'd give Airmar a call and talk to them, first. It's worth the 10 minute phone call - just in case.

Or... if the only thing not working is the temp, just live with it? You can always just do the quick 15* math adjustment in your head. Who knows - it might last like that for quite some time. When/if it does go fully kaput, you're no worse off than you are now.