Transducer burnout

[SeaRay]

When I pull my TM out of the water to change locations I don't turn off my DF. I read somewhere on here that you would burn out your transducer if you ran it out of the water.
I don't profess to be a sonar expert, but I spent 32 years in the telecommunciations industry so electronics are not foreign to me. I ran this by a fishing buddy who was a coworker of mine and he agreed with me that it just did not ring true.
You can turn your DF on when the boat is on the trailer and if the transducer is pointed down you will get a depth reading. Because sound travels faster in water, the depth will not be correct, actually higher by a factor of 4.3 since that is the difference in speed in air vs water.
For the life of me I can not see how it would damage the transducer by running it out of the water. I can see how a trolling motor would overheat running in air, but a transducer??
Anyone else heard of this?
SeaRay

[genec]

Never heard that before,but I been running mine out of water on TM since the 60's with no trouble

[REDEYE50]

Had a friend of mine that when he was a tournament he would leave his df on for the entire week. The seal was bad and it would fog up every night if it was off, so he left it on and the light created enough heat to keep it clear when he started the next morning. Lol

[rnvinc]

I would think that only the higher wattage transducers (for deeper water applications)....could generate enough heat (from the piezoes vibrating) to cause damage to the xducer (without the cooling effect of the water needed to dissapate the heat generated in a higher wattage xducer)...

The "burnout" term we've always heard about is indicative of higher wattage xducer's designed for deep water ...with the actual xducer "housing" melting from the heat generation of the piezoes vibrating...vibration is energy...energy creates heat...heat (out of the water) melts plastic housings...

Our recreational units (most recreational units)...don't operate at that high a wattage...

Rickie

[Barnacle Bill]

I've never heard of that happening with any unit. BTW, I'm retired from Mitel.

[jimp]

I've always turned mine off until I got the HB on the bow, and now I leave it on with moving to another spot since it takes so long to acquire a gps fix every time. I've read on other forums of guys leaving theirs on accidently for extended periods without damage and when moving from spot to spot with issue as well.

[Cmj]

I normally leave mine on when I change locations. Sometimes I forget to turn it off and it runs for days at a time. Never had a problem.

[Cane Pole]

1000 watts is a lot of power. Ha.

[rnvinc]

I'm still looking for the thread I found some time back that showed a high wattage xducer melted from operating out of the water...

I will post it as soon as I find it...

Rickie

[Cane Pole]

1000 w is a lot of power.

Since on the subject of transducers, here is an excellent line on the theory of operatioon.

http://www.airmartechnology.com/uplo...Operations.pdf