Winter Transducer Storage?

[Fishook]

Do transducers need to be removed and stored inside during winter? This question was asked of me and I had not heard this before. My boat is stored inside but not in a heated facility - definitely gets down to zero or lower and I have never had any problems. A friend with a Lowrance 522C is on his third transducer and the folks at Lowrance swear his problem is due to cold, winter storage. What's your take on this?

[Esox_Magnum]

I have ran Lowrance or Eagle for over 20 years and always stored indoors unheated or outdoors and never had a bad transducer....

[Northlander]

I have never taken mine off and they have always been stored in my unheated garages.

[CAMAN]

Never had any problems with any of mine and they have all been stored either outside under a tarp or in an unheated pole barn. Not once have I ever replaced a Vexilar, Lowrance, or Humminbird transducer.

Just another reason everybody should switch over to Humminbird if Lowrance is making these kind of excuses for their poor quality.

[iffwalleyes]

No should be a problem with storage in the cold.

[seasock]

Guys I know way up north will take a heavy zip lock kind of bag an slip it over the transducer then they will fill the bag to the top with melted parrafin wax sealing the ducer in wax for the winter. They swear by it and have never had a problem come spring.

[Northlander]

So how do they getall the wax off and then the final film of wax off the ducer making sure they have a good reading in the spring? I have never done a thing to any of my ducers and never had a issue on any brand. Bird, garmin, Lowrance or Eagle.

[SkunkedAgain]

They swear by it and have never had a problem come spring.

Every fall I hold a candle seance around my transducer. I've never had a problem come spring either!

In all seriousness, unless someone gives me a good reason for winterizing my transducer (which doesn't hold water) I'm not going to do it.

[EBass]

That's a horrible excuse. I run Lowrance and have for 5-6 yrs now and it's the same ducer that has seen it's fair share of stumps and rocks and works like a charm. My boat it stored in an unheated garage or sits outside under a tarp.

Send them this tread - step up Lowrance or loose out to Hummingbird.

[reinhard1]

i think you nailed it with your post. transducers can go bad due to the cold. i had it happen to me. i take mine off its support and have a very unprofessional made styrofoam box just big enough to encase the tranducer and duct tape it shut for the winter. the wax proccess sounds good also.

for the doubters out there call your manufacture's and they will tell you to not store the tranducer outside in areas were it is cold for an exteded period of time, like here for example.

the guy i talked to [lowrance] said the last two years they and other manufactures have updated the epoxy and other elements to better insulate the tranducers but it is still a good idea to insulate them in some manner. good luck.

[TooTallTom]

It kind of makes sense to me that the cold would be bad for the transducer. But it's cold enough for long enough outside in MN that I don't think that any kind of inuslation will keep your transducer any warmer than just letting it sit out. The temperature changes will occur more slowly, but eventually the transducer will get just as cold as the air temperature.

You can pack a cooler full of ice in the summer, and even if you never open it all that ice will eventually be water. So, I guess I think that the winterization process is more peace of mind than actual help... But peace of mind is worth something.

[reinhard1]

the person at Lowrance told me not everyone wants to take the tranducer off completly and re-install it every spring so insulating it somewhat would help prevent damage. i haven't had a problem since that one time. it does give you peace of mind and only takes less than 10 minutes. but it is better than nothing. does insulating it someway make a difference? i dont know, only what the manufacture reccomends realy.

it's kind of like a guy at work would tell me, that wind chill doesn't affect your ability to start the car. i said i think it does, well that's another topic. good luck.

[harvey lee]

Do transducers need to be removed and stored inside during winter? This question was asked of me and I had not heard this before. My boat is stored inside but not in a heated facility - definitely gets down to zero or lower and I have never had any problems. A friend with a Lowrance 522C is on his third transducer and the folks at Lowrance swear his problem is due to cold, winter storage. What's your take on this?

Lowrance will never admit that they have a transducer issue with the 552 units.

Now to blame it on storage, what a joke.

All the more reason why I switched from Lowrance to the Birds.

[h8go4s]

Wow. There's so much male cattle excrement in this thread that it's hard to know where to start. I'd be interested to know the job title of the Lowrance employee(s) who claim cold weather storage can damage transducers. My guess is they're not qualified to make that call. If they are, I'd like to know what the temperature threshold is where damage can occur, and where in my owner's manual that information is found. I've never seen any such specification. To suggest that "manufactures have updated the epoxy and other elements to better insulate the transducers" really makes me wonder who answered the phone on that call. Insulating a transducer with a different epoxy is hokum. Unless the epoxy is full of cavities (like styrofoam, which we know it is not), it has virtually no insulating property. And to actually make a styrofoam box to insulate your transducer will do no good. After a few hours outdoors, the transducer will be the same temp as the surrounding environment. It will take longer to cool down and longer to warm up, but it will still get just as cold and just as hot as its environment. Encasing it in wax is even more useless than styrofoam. Furthermore, I've stored my boats outside or in indoors unheated sheds since 1972 and never have had a bad transducer. We get temps in the metro to -20F or colder every winter, and more than once that I can remember close to -30F. Our friends in more northern locations get even colder temps for longer stretches. If cold were a problem, we'd have epidemics of failures every spring, and we'd all have heard of them. Oh, I've also used more than one transducer for ice fishing. Nothing special, just normal transom-mount transducers. I bet thousands of guys do the same. And probably millions store their boats unheated, including a lot that have glassed-in transducers. How does Lowrance suggest you insulate those?

[BobT]

Quote:

In all seriousness, unless someone gives me a good reason for winterizing my transducer (which doesn't hold water) I'm not going to do it.

It better not hold water. It's supposed to be sealed.

Putting an insulated box or wax around it won't prevent it from reaching the low temperatures except for maybe one night. Isulation does not generate heat it only slows down the rate at which the heat is transferred from the object and vise versa. After a couple days at zub-zero temps the transducer will be at zub-zero temps too. If the mfr. is telling you that it helps to insulate it from the cold they've had their head in a freezer too long.

h8go4s beat me too it.

[CAMAN]

If transducers needed to be kept warm in the winter why isn't there a quick disconnect a foot or two above the transducer? Instead there is like a 20 foot long cord that runs through the most complex of passages and along the inside of gunnels and up to the helm. Also fastened securely along trolling motor shafts and and through different configurations on trolling motors. Then there's the ones that are permanently epoxied to the hulls and through hulls. If they weren't designed to withstand the cold temps there would be a ton more people with transducers going bad up here in the great white north.

And NO amount of wax or styrofoam will protect them from getting cold.

Now I can see if they were powered on when they were frozen, but that is why I always have the batteries disconnected so no power can get to them. But that still might not be a problem since I've kept my Vex and Marcum in my truck overnight or on the way to the lake and they can get completely frozen and they turn on and run just fine and I've never had to replace a transducer on them either.

Lowrance needs to step up, do the right thing, and quit making dumb excuses for their poor quality and designs!

[Cheers]

I have gone through 3 ducers in 5 years, every spring it is a [PoorWordUsage] shoot as to whether or not they will work . If you have to buy one keep the receipt and put in a claim for next year, they a warranted for a year, let lorance fit the bill instead of the consumer. P.S. The temp in North Western Ont hit -35 a few times each winter

[polarsusd81]

Couple guys already said it but encasing your ducer in wax or foam isn't going to do a thing for it. There is no heat source, so it will still drop to the same temperature as the ambient air around it. Insulation doesn't do anything if both sides have the same ambient temp.

[TravP]

Couple guys already said it but encasing your ducer in wax or foam isn't going to do a thing for it. There is no heat source, so it will still drop to the same temperature as the ambient air around it. Insulation doesn't do anything if both sides have the same ambient temp.

Exactly what I was thinking Tom. Another thought, think about transducers on flashers, used AND stored, in freezing temps...

Congrats by the way.

[reinhard1]

it's pretty easy to contact your maker of whatever product you have for depth finder. call them and see if they tell you anything different. i am no expert at tranducers, so that is why i called the people who make the one i have. i cant see why they would intentionaly lie to the customer. i will call again today and ask questions about some of the comments made. i do appreciate the input about whether to insulate or not and a lot of it makes sense to me also. i do like to have accurate information given to me, especialy when i have the product asked about. good luck.

[BobT]

it's pretty easy to contact your maker of whatever product you have for depth finder. call them and see if they tell you anything different. i am no expert at tranducers, so that is why i called the people who make the one i have. i cant see why they would intentionaly lie to the customer. i will call again today and ask questions about some of the comments made. i do appreciate the input about whether to insulate or not and a lot of it makes sense to me also. i do like to have accurate information given to me, especialy when i have the product asked about. good luck.

Make sure you're talking to a technical support person and not a store clerk. This may require calling the mfr. directly.

[goose89]

Lowrance will never admit that they have a transducer issue with the 552 units.

Now to blame it on storage, what a joke.

All the more reason why I switched from Lowrance to the Birds.

That is pretty funny they are blaming it on storage / cold. lol.

It wasn't really just an issue with just the 522's, it was across the board with many the LCX era transducers. It's no secret that a large "batch" of transducers went out with epoxy that wasn't up to specs. That's why for a while Lowrance had all the transducer issues. Combine that with H/S CS, and HB stepping up......good thing the HDS seems to be solid and they've stepped up the CS a bit. They were teetering with the end, IMO.

Kinda funny they says it "upgraded" epoxy now. I guess you could call it upgraded when they let the below specs stuff out the door knowingly. Maybe it is, but I'm guessing its what they wanted in the first place.

Cold storage for me. Never even thought of taking them off. , no issues after getting an "upgraded" lol, transducer 2009ish or now since moving to HB. Haven't heard alot of ducer issues either with newer Lowrances. good luck......

[reinhard1]

i was talking to a technical support person. after reading through all the posts here with people with no issues i may have been stuck with a lemon tranducer that they had issues with before. i haven't had any problems since i had it replaced. i think i will just let it be this year as is. i still want to contact the technical people anyway again. i want to be told the truth [stubborn german in me]. thanks good luck.

[SkunkedAgain]

After reading everything, it sounds like Lowrance had some bad transducers (that maybe were letting in water) so they suggested that people winterize/store them to avoid more warranty exchanges. To me that's poor customer service, but some executive probably told the call centers to throw out some bogus solutions in order to avoid sending out replacements to angry customers.

What those types rarely realize is that it costs you customers and profit in the long run, versus a short term gain.