What should I do

roweac · Oct 20, 2020

Mercury Smartcraft depth just shows three dashes and sea temp say -27. Looks like the through hull transducer has a ding right in the middle. Should I replace it for like 300 bucks plus labor or was thinking about getting a Garmin Echomap and installing that. Do not like transom mount transducers. Just wanting opinions or anyone with experience with these smartcraft transducers.

Thanks

blaster · Oct 20, 2020

If you have a price to replace the transducer for $300 I’d go ahead with that. Those things are glued in so tight from the factory that it can be a real pain to get the old one out.

sorry I just re read your post. $300 for the new xducer then additional labor. Get a quote on the labor up front. Don’t let a shop charge you for countless labor hours because they had “such a hard time getting it removed”.

sbw1 · Oct 20, 2020

Before you replace anything try hanging the transducer over the side of the boat with it temporarily wired into your display and see if you get readings. If you do, install it.

roweac · Oct 20, 2020

sbw1 said:
View attachment 93807 Before you replace anything try hanging the transducer over the side of the boat with it temporarily wired into your display and see if you get readings. If you do, install it.

So to do that I would have to remove it, put in the plug, right?

roweac · Oct 20, 2020

blaster said:
If you have a price to replace the transducer for $300 I’d go ahead with that. Those things are glued in so tight from the factory that it can be a real pain to get the old one out.

sorry I just re read your post. $300 for the new xducer then additional labor. Get a quote on the labor up front. Don’t let a shop charge you for countless labor hours because they had “such a hard time getting it removed”.

Yeah its 300 + Labor. Not even 100% sure its the transducer, although I read a lot of complaints online about similar issues and mine has ding it for sure. I was just wondering if I should leave it and put the 5 or 6 hundred bucks towards a chartplotter sonar rig. I like the Garmin Echomap 7 or 9. Like I said though I really dont like transom mount anything. Had one before, on my first boat, and I was always messing with it and it was far less stable on readings that the thru hull.

I only boat on inland lakes but I find that I cannot live without good depth, especially late in the season when they are draining the lakes.

blaster · Oct 20, 2020

If you want good sonar and need to replace the smart-craft xducer you could go with an airmar through hull compatible with the Garmin. The B60 is a great 50/200 shallow water transducer. Mine holds bottom until I’m under 2’ depth. It holds bottom great at 50mph and doesn’t drop out like my factory depth finder did.

roweac · Oct 21, 2020

blaster said:
If you want good sonar and need to replace the smart-craft xducer you could go with an airmar through hull compatible with the Garmin. The B60 is a great 50/200 shallow water transducer. Mine holds bottom until I’m under 2’ depth. It holds bottom great at 50mph and doesn’t drop out like my factory depth finder did.

Thats actually a good idea. Is it a 1 to 1 swap on the transducer?

blaster · Oct 21, 2020

roweac said:
Thats actually a good idea. Is it a 1 to 1 swap on the transducer?

I know mine was close but I didn’t do the work on the installation. I took my boat to Jim at BOE marine and he set me up. His guys did nice work but they were cussing the 5200 gluing in the old transducer. It took a lot of effort to get out. No problems with the new thru Hull B60 in almost 8 years.

sbw1 · Oct 21, 2020

roweac said:
So to do that I would have to remove it, put in the plug, right?

No. You leave the old one in and try the new transducer to see if it works. If it does, install the new one. That's what an experienced tech would do because it's easy and a fast way to troubleshoot the issue.

blaster · Oct 21, 2020

I forgot to add that I also have the 20*tilted element B60 which gives a much stronger return than the 0* element in the stock transducer.

What should I do

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