Yesterday I went down to the boatyard to check some things on my own boat, Hooked UP and I got queried immediately about something I always forget to write about. The question is, should you apply anti-fouling bottom paint to the transducer for your depth sounder? My answer was sure, it won’t hurt anything. I’ve been painting my transducers with anti-fouling paint for well over 20 years and I’ve never had any problems with my transducers or the accuracy of my depth sounders.
I’ll bet the painted transducers you see above which I took photos of here at the boatyard this morning work just fine!
So, in my never ending quest to learn and dispel any urban myths that exist in boat land USA (and there are many) I went right to the source for most all of the depth sounder transducers used here in the US, Airmar Corp. Here’s what they have to say about this one:
“Use water based anti-fouling paint only. Never use ketone-based paint, since ketones can attack many plastics possibly damaging the transducer. We recommend brands such as MDR, Woolsey, Pettit, and Sea Hawk. These water-based anti-fouling paints can be found at your local marine supply store or contact one of our distributors.”
Well, there’s the answer as far as I’m concerned.
