Depth Finder Accuracy / Flashing

E

Eric R

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 16, 2017
Messages
150
Fluid Motion Model
R-21 EC
Vessel Name
Why Knot?
Does anyone find their depth finder to be a little unreliable? I have a 2017 C28 and since delivery it has seemed a little.. odd. Anytime I'm in water less than about 10ft it mostly just flashes and never gives a good reading. The container was found to be a little low on antifreeze at delivery and they topped it off. That seemed to help a little, but it still was never great.

Recently it started doing it again, in addition to showing depths of 100ft+ while sitting in the slip. Our marina has good depth and all, but not quite that deep! :lol:

I have emptied out the container, wiped it down and refilled it with fresh antifreeze thinking that would help. It seemed to, but it must have been placebo effect. Within a few minutes it was back to mostly flashing until I got back into much deeper water.

Thoughts?
 
Check your settings on the sonar. Can't remember exactly which one it is and I'm not at the boat, but I think it is the gain. Try setting it to auto. Are you sure that the fluid (antifreeze) is not leaking out of the canister? Sometimes the seal to the hull is not good and the fluid will leak out.
 
When we took delivery of our 26 Cutwater we had the same problem. It worked good on delivery while running on the river. We then went for a cruise on the lake (Michigan) 2' waves and it started acting erratic. I found that some some of the propylene glycol had liked out. I lifted the transducer off, got some more fluid,toppped it off, worked great! Until the next choppy day on the lake. Two things were wrong 1) There wasn't an o-ring installed on the housing to seal the fluid from leaking out.2) There are two tabs on the lid that is attached to the transducer one was broken off. The broken tab is not that obvious unless you are looking for it. Being the boat was new I wasn't looking for it and assumed the missing o-ring was the culprit. When I installed it (push down and turn the lid to lock it) the lid seemed secure and locked. It would come loose again ,and with further inspection found a tab (small tab) was broke off. Richard from Ranger parts assisting me with retaining the new lid and no problems since.
Brian Brown
Cutwater26
PORT-A-GEE
 
We have owned 3 different boats (including an RT 27) with 3 different models of Garmin GPS/depth sounders, with both thru-hull and in-hull transducers. None of these ever worked at depths less than 5', and they usually failed at depths less than 8'-10'. The display either flashed an obviously wrong reading, or it just displayed dashes. I have talked with Garmin technical folks, I have followed their advice on manual adjustments of gain and range, and absolutely nothing has ever resulted in reliable operation on any of these 3 installations.

I have tried to convince myself that the problem could be marine growth on the transducer, but I have had the problem right after spring launching, and even right after a mid-season bottom cleaning. Frankly, I have gotten much better depth sounder performance from a bargain-brand depth sounder than from Garmin.

If anyone has found a solution that works reliably, please share.

-- John H
 
knotflying":260ov7om said:
Check your settings on the sonar. Can't remember exactly which one it is and I'm not at the boat, but I think it is the gain. Try setting it to auto. Are you sure that the fluid (antifreeze) is not leaking out of the canister? Sometimes the seal to the hull is not good and the fluid will leak out.
Click to expand...

Interesting.. will have to dig around in settings and see if I can find anything.
 
BB marine":2qch21id said:
When we took delivery of our 26 Cutwater we had the same problem. It worked good on delivery while running on the river. We then went for a cruise on the lake (Michigan) 2' waves and it started acting erratic. I found that some some of the propylene glycol had liked out. I lifted the transducer off, got some more fluid,toppped it off, worked great! Until the next choppy day on the lake. Two things were wrong 1) There wasn't an o-ring installed on the housing to seal the fluid from leaking out.2) There are two tabs on the lid that is attached to the transducer one was broken off. The broken tab is not that obvious unless you are looking for it. Being the boat was new I wasn't looking for it and assumed the missing o-ring was the culprit. When I installed it (push down and turn the lid to lock it) the lid seemed secure and locked. It would come loose again ,and with further inspection found a tab (small tab) was broke off. Richard from Ranger parts assisting me with retaining the new lid and no problems since.
Brian Brown
Cutwater26
PORT-A-GEE
Click to expand...

Will have to check o-rings and tabs. I haven't seen any visible signs of leaking. It seems to be sealed to the hull properly with white caulking.

So with your issue fixed are you able to get stable readings even in shallow water?
 
eric9603":1gtur887 said:
Does anyone find their depth finder to be a little unreliable? I have a 2017 C28 and since delivery it has seemed a little.. odd. Anytime I'm in water less than about 10ft it mostly just flashes and never gives a good reading. The container was found to be a little low on antifreeze at delivery and they topped it off. That seemed to help a little, but it still was never great.

Recently it started doing it again, in addition to showing depths of 100ft+ while sitting in the slip. Our marina has good depth and all, but not quite that deep! :lol:

I have emptied out the container, wiped it down and refilled it with fresh antifreeze thinking that would help. It seemed to, but it must have been placebo effect. Within a few minutes it was back to mostly flashing until I got back into much deeper water.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Eric,

We have had good results with applying some Vaseline to the o-ring to help with sealing, sometimes it can leak out even when there is a good seal on the bottom as it tends to leak out past the o-ring and the Vaseline has helped with that. Also here is the link for the depth sounder: http://www.airmar.com/productdescription.html?id=3 you may want to read through the manual and see if it has the correct install, typically they are installed in the correct location and have a little leak causing the fluid to go low. Let me know if you have any questions, it is best to email me for a quicker response. My email is in my signature.

Thank you,
 
JohnH":3suqahv2 said:
We have owned 3 different boats (including an RT 27) with 3 different models of Garmin GPS/depth sounders, with both thru-hull and in-hull transducers. None of these ever worked at depths less than 5', and they usually failed at depths less than 8'-10'. The display either flashed an obviously wrong reading, or it just displayed dashes. I have talked with Garmin technical folks, I have followed their advice on manual adjustments of gain and range, and absolutely nothing has ever resulted in reliable operation on any of these 3 installations.

I have tried to convince myself that the problem could be marine growth on the transducer, but I have had the problem right after spring launching, and even right after a mid-season bottom cleaning. Frankly, I have gotten much better depth sounder performance from a bargain-brand depth sounder than from Garmin.

If anyone has found a solution that works reliably, please share.

-- John H
Click to expand...

My previous boat was a Sea Ray and I had zero issues with accurate readings. That depth finder was hooked to the Mercruiser Smartcraft system rather than the Garmin. Maybe I was spoiled! It's very nerve wrecking trying to go into shallower water or a sandbar to drop anchor and let the kids swim. I have no idea if I'm in 8ft or coming up on 0ft!
 
JohnH":2mzo9unr said:
If anyone has found a solution that works reliably, please share.

-- John H
Click to expand...

Our depth sounder on our R27 works very reliably up to around 500 feet (where may flash or give incorrect readings). If it is 500 feet deep I don’t think it is a problem! Readings are stable an consistent at shallow depths regardless of speed. Never had a problem and have never touched the transducer. I don’t have any suggestions other than to to keep working the issue. It can work very reliably.

Curt
 
If you're stumped, give garmin a call. They are great at helping to trouble shoot over the phone.
 
The only time we ever had an issue with the depthsounder on our ‘16 C30 was when the fluid ran low. Filling it up fixed the flashing numbers and it works perfectly at all depths. Reaching the damn thing was a nightmare. On the C30 the transducer/cup is located under the front starboard corner of the engine. You need gorilla arms to reach it.

My point is that if the settings are correct and the fluid is at the correct level, the Garmin setup works as well as any other.
 
Our R25sc has the Garmin 5212 package with the AIRMAR P79 transducer and it works fine in shallow water. To get down one of our local lakes we had to cross a shallow sand bar, which we were well familiar with from our old boat. The depth sounder read 3.5 ft most of the way through, just what we expected. There is also a short dock in shallow water, barely enough to float the boat, but the depth sounder again worked fine there. Gotta love that 26" draft of the RTs!
 
We just took possession of our new Cutwater C28 and the depth sounder only works when the boat is on step, running above 20 knots. When i slow down, i only get dashes on the readout. I realize I probably have a setting wrong but any insight would be greatly appreciated.
 
After installing an o-ring and then replacing the cover with broken tab it has worked fine. There have been a few times when it displayed incorrectly but momentarily. I relied on the accuracy while running the river system ( Loop) and it did not fail. If you find the o-ring and tab in place give Garmin a call. Garmin customer service is great. Plan on being on hold for a while and have as much documentation as possible, Model, serial # a good brief description of issue. They will stay on the phone as long as it takes to help troubleshoot the problem. I have had a few problems /issues some small some large with the Garmin installation on my Cutwater. They have walked me thru troubleshoot procedures, repairs, and proper set ups and the Garmin system as worked great since.
Brian Brown
26 Cutwater
PORT-A-GEE
eric9603":2feiid2k said:
BB marine":2feiid2k said:
When we took delivery of our 26 Cutwater we had the same problem. It worked good on delivery while running on the river. We then went for a cruise on the lake (Michigan) 2' waves and it started acting erratic. I found that some some of the propylene glycol had liked out. I lifted the transducer off, got some more fluid,toppped it off, worked great! Until the next choppy day on the lake. Two things were wrong 1) There wasn't an o-ring installed on the housing to seal the fluid from leaking out.2) There are two tabs on the lid that is attached to the transducer one was broken off. The broken tab is not that obvious unless you are looking for it. Being the boat was new I wasn't looking for it and assumed the missing o-ring was the culprit. When I installed it (push down and turn the lid to lock it) the lid seemed secure and locked. It would come loose again ,and with further inspection found a tab (small tab) was broke off. Richard from Ranger parts assisting me with retaining the new lid and no problems since.
Brian Brown
Cutwater26
PORT-A-GEE
Click to expand...

Will have to check o-rings and tabs. I haven't seen any visible signs of leaking. It seems to be sealed to the hull properly with white caulking.

So with your issue fixed are you able to get stable readings even in shallow water?
Click to expand...
 
I have had the exact same problem for the entire time I have owned my R23. After working with my local dealer and talking to Garmin several times, I have resigned myself to carrying a container of fluid to refill the transducer cup whenever it starts flashing. Other options involved thru hull holes or transom mounts which I didn't like. If I top off the cup, I get readings to under 1 foot. I would appreciate any other solutions that you might find.
 
Coby Frampton":398ntgul said:
I have had the exact same problem for the entire time I have owned my R23. After working with my local dealer and talking to Garmin several times, I have resigned myself to carrying a container of fluid to refill the transducer cup whenever it starts flashing. Other options involved thru hull holes or transom mounts which I didn't like. If I top off the cup, I get readings to under 1 foot. I would appreciate any other solutions that you might find.
Click to expand...

Sounds like it is leaking some how. Is it an Airmar P79? I would have the dealer and RT deal with it, maybe insist they replace it. Once the warranty runs out it will fall on you.
 
We got a year old R310-S from the factory. The depth finder behaved much as yours did. When I tried to unscrew the transducer from what I expected was the mounting flange, I found out that the transducer had been glued directly to the hull with something like 3M 5200. There were air bubbles in the 5200 and I expect this what caused the flaky reading anytime we were in less that 8 feet of water. It also went to a blinking reading at depth over 200 feet. Don't know if this was a factory install or what, but purchasing a transducer flange online and gluing it in with 5200 and the putting in some propylene glycol has resolved the issue. Might what to verify that the transducer is actually mounted with a mounting flange.
 
Same deal. We have a 24 Cutwater. The sonar never worked from day one. The first time we took the boat out we ran aground and ended up with a bill of $500 to clean mud out of the engine. I reported the problem to the dealer several times and never got resolution. Still have to fill up the fluid reservoir every time. The o ring is missing and I'm not convinced the cup was installed properly. The top of the cup is on an angle of approx 20 degrees off level. Over the winter I plan to pull it off and replace it.

Overall not impressed with the performance of the Garmin even when it is working. I have a Humminbird and a Lowrance in my fishing kayaks and I get much, much better detail even at very shallow depths.

Sean
 
SilverSailor":1ngprfb9 said:
We got a year old R310-S from the factory. The depth finder behaved much as yours did. When I tried to unscrew the transducer from what I expected was the mounting flange, I found out that the transducer had been glued directly to the hull with something like 3M 5200. There were air bubbles in the 5200 and I expect this what caused the flaky reading anytime we were in less that 8 feet of water. It also went to a blinking reading at depth over 200 feet. Don't know if this was a factory install or what, but purchasing a transducer flange online and gluing it in with 5200 and the putting in some propylene glycol has resolved the issue. Might what to verify that the transducer is actually mounted with a mounting flange.
Click to expand...

Gansett Ranger was having issues with his depth sounder and the transducer was glued directly to the hull. Spoke to Garmin and they said this is not a recommended installation. He bought the appropriate receiver and glued it to the hull as per directions. As far as I know, no problems since then.
 
So it looks like we will be taking delivery of a brand new R23 sooner than expected and I hadn't even thought about the type of transducer installed on the boat until this discussion. I've always had transom mounted transducers on our C-Dory and don't know a lot about In Hull transducers. Our new boat will have an Airmar P79 installed. I know this is a 600 watt traditional transducer, not CHIRP.

My question: For those of you who fish on their Tug, does the P79 provide adequate fish finding capabilities? If I wanted to change out the transducer, how difficult would that be? I've never owned a boat with the level of fit and finish that these boats have so I would be a bit reluctant to start changing things around. The CD was basically a blank canvas.

Peter
 
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