Airmar transducer... what garbage is this?

Greetings all,

So I know that I'm not as active as I used to be but I've been dealing with an issue lately and it's frustrating and wondered if it's only me that has seen this problem. So 4 years ago I upgraded all of the electronics on the boat and put in a new Airmar B150M chirp transducer to go with my Garmin 741xs MFD. The Garmin is great and does everything and more that I need. Except it shows that the current Lake Erie water temperature is between 120 and 140°F. I have made several calls between Garmin and Airmar. Garmin has been more than helpful in trying to figure out what exactly is going on and we've done hard ware updates, checked wire runs, and all. They were finally out of ideas and suggested that I contact Airmar (GEMCO) and explain the issue to them. After a few unanswered emails I made the call and I was told rather quickly that the transducer is only guaranteed for 2 years from the date of manufacture and it is what it is.... So I have also had suspicions that it doesn't read the bottom quite right either but I have thankfully never run aground. So what do I do. Do I pony up the money and just replace it? Which sucks because I have to haul the boat and re-run the wiring to the helm which is a chore. Or do I have any other options at this point. Has anyone else ever had the same type of issues with Airmar? I know that the water temp isn't a big deal but I specifically opted for the higher end model to have that function...

Sorry for venting but was curious what other ideas anyone had?

No experience with that exact model transducer, but when I was shopping for a DT800 over the winter I came across many complaints about early failures and poor resolution from Airmar. Needless to say I bought it anyway and it’s lasted 2 months so far!

The problem is that Airmar is the only game in town and they know it.

quality time said:

... The problem is that Airmar is the only game in town and they know it.

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It's funny they use to be a great company with a great product. Now I have to say from recent experiences they are horrible! Their products seem to let go right after the warranty expires.

That said I have a 744 and a DST800, both have been replaced this year just out of warranty. And they are the only game in town for the most part, and they make everyone elses transducer as well ...

EDIT: BTW when my DST800 temp failed it stayed at 133 degrees for a few weeks then totally died. While Speed and Depth still working.

SKybolt said:

BTW when my DST800 temp failed it stayed at 133 degrees for a few weeks then totally died. While Speed and Depth still working.

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The main reason that I upgraded was to get temp, ironically that seems to be what fails the most...

Airmar is a good company and is the transducer of choice here. In fact, on new intalls not including a transducer, the installers order Airmar. The problem is that transducers are sealed and are, therefore, not servicable, so you are SOL if yours is out of warranty.

My boat came with a tri-data temp, depth, speed display from B&G.....it works fine but is 20+ years old. I had a Furuno plotter fail laast year and chose to replace it with an e127 Raymarine which is the 12" MFD with a bottom machine built in. It needed a dedicated transducer tht would communicate with the e127, so we ordered an Airmar. After a few weeks.....it took me that long to learn to set up the NMEA sentences between the new plotter and the existing autopilot. I immediately began to notice some flakiness in the bottom machine read out for depth and temperature. The electronics guy at the marina told me to try removing the original B&G transducer for their tridata head. His theory was that the new Airmar and the old B&G were interfering with each other. Sure enough, the e127began working perfectly as soon as the other transducer was secured with a tie-wrap inside the boat.

Might not help but it may be worth a try if you still have the OEM tri-data unit in the boat.

fwebster said:

Airmar is a good company and is the transducer of choice here. ... My boat came with a tri-data temp, depth, speed display from B&G.....it works fine but is 20+ years old. ...

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I could not agree with you more for the older transducers. Recently they have taken a turn for the worse in my opinion, as I have seen so many failures in my marina alone regarding the temp thermistor going bad. I get and understand the technology but having to replace the whole transducer because a bad thermisor ($.02 part) is a little crazy. Too bad it isn't replaceable like the paddle wheel is.

And I realize my comment was a little harsh, but they are the only game in town and they do make the transducers for a host of other companies as well. You would think the quality of there sounder would go into the rest of there design. I guess it is conceivable that they received a bad lot of thermistor's and we are only now seeing that result ...

Thanks all for the response... It's nice to know that I'm not alone but then again it still kind of sucks...

Frank,
Everything thing electronics wise was updated at the same time so nothing from the old set up is remaining on the boat. I did it all when I did that electronics upgrade... I wonder if they have a nmea 2000 compatible temp sensor to just tie into the network??? HUM... off to google...

The DT800 is a NMEA 2K smart sensor with depth/temp. I did not see a standalone temp transducer while researching them.

My experience over 4 different boats now is that sea temp is the first thing to fail in these transducers.

Yacht Devices makes an NMEA2000 temp sensor. I have three of these on my boat. Although I am not sure how easy it would be to adapt to sea temperature. It does support all temp PGN's though.

https://yachtdevicesus.com/products/thermometer-ydtc-13

There is also this:
https://www.starmarinedepot.com/tem...avvYj-RGTFIoKYjkhBVfgJlkwXy3p_EUaAgQmEALw_wcB

But you would still have to haul the boat to install.

SKybolt said:

Yacht Devices makes an NMEA2000 temp sensor. I have three of these on my boat. Although I am not sure how easy it would be to adapt to sea temperature. It does support all temp PGN's though.

https://yachtdevicesus.com/products/thermometer-ydtc-13

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Hum.... I wonder if I can use this on the raw water intakes which means i can get water temp and not have to haul the boat to do it... This is a pretty neat device I'm intrigued and wouldn't mind adding this along with the GFS 10 from Garmin that I also have planned for each engine... I'd only have to buy a 3 way t connector instead of a 2 way... Thanks for the info!

Pyrojodge said:

Hum.... I wonder if I can use this on the raw water intakes which means i can get water temp and not have to haul the boat to do it... This is a pretty neat device I'm intrigued and wouldn't mind adding this along with the GFS 10 from Garmin that I also have planned for each engine... I'd only have to buy a 3 way t connector instead of a 2 way... Thanks for the info!

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Yeah these things are pretty cool and seem to work real well. The only thing I'm wondering is how to get the probe into the intake? It's about a 2" x 1/4", you might need to make a sleeve of some sort to mount it in.

If your going to order one of these, have them program one for you. You are going to want the Sea Temp instance number to be +1 of what your other no functional one is. I am not sure if you have anything to program this with is why I mention this. I have Maretron displays and use their N2KAnalyzer to program them. Good Luck!