Speed Transducer failed after just 2 weeks.

 Speed transducer doesn't work

After just 3 weeks, our brand new Garmin DST810 transducer failed - at least, it didn't report our speed through the water - that counts, right?

When we got back to the dock, I pulled the transducer out and inserted the plug.

Looking carefully at the speed transducer paddle wheel, it would turn but obviously had something slowing it down to a crawl.  Looking even closer, we would see a yellow gummy stuff that appeared to be sticky and stopping the paddle wheel rotating on the spindle. 

A quick 'how does it work' ... The four bladed paddle wheel has magnets that when the wheel rotates, the magnetic force is detected by the electronics inside the transducer, the faster the wheel spins the greater the transducer signal to the NEMA 2000 network, the boat electronics translates that into speed.

So, back to the Paddle wheel. The sticky yellow muck looked like it could be washed off, as we looked even closer we noticed that it moved! It was alive! 

A quick wash with some very diluted bleach water and then a rinse with fresh water and the paddle wheel spun easily. A quick test spin and the Chartplotter showed that we had speed. Woo Hoo!

Last weekend, we did an in the water test, it matched our gps speed (taking the current into consideration)

Now? Well, we're pulling the transducer out every time we get back to the dock.

Another reason not to go swimming in the canals! 

See you on the Water.