Anyone with experience using "hull shield" ultrasonic antifouling system?

[hezi973]

So Boat Test are endorsing this product:

https://www.hullshield.net/

The promise is grand and if this works, it is totally worth it. But does it work?
Anyone with before and after that can share their experience, please do.
Thanks in advance!

[hezi973]

Okay, I found some threads that for some reason didn't show on my search prior to posting this. Here are some threads:

https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...-207522-5.html

https://www.thehulltruth.com/boating...does-work.html

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by hezi973

The promise is grand and if this works, it is totally worth it.

There's an old saying...

[Tellie]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

There's an old saying...

If it were true, there wouldn't be one boat that sits in salt water that didn't have these on board.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by Tellie

If it were true, there wouldn't be one boat that sits in salt water that didn't have these on board.

There's another old saying that seems applicable here

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by hezi973

So Boat Test are endorsing this product:

OK, is there a link to the results of their testing? Where did they test it? For how long? On what kind of hull? In what climate? Was it a double-blind test? What did they use for a control? Were the results confirmed by other labs?

I'd really love to find the holy grail of anti-fouling. But I'm afraid extraordinary claims are going to require extraordinary proof before I get too excited.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by CaptTom

I'd really love to find the holy grail of anti-fouling.

I assure you, it doesn’t exist yet. Ultrasonic is certainly not it.

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

I assure you, it doesn’t exist yet. Ultrasonic is certainly not it.

.....so says the bottom diver who likely charges $200 a pop to clean bottoms.

Here's the BoatTest video. Take it for what you will.....

https://youtu.be/MRDVtVMKp3c

[Lee Jerry]

Originally Posted by Tellie

If it were true, there wouldn't be one boat that sits in salt water that didn't have these on board.

Well, maybe in the future that will be the case that everyone has one...


Seriously though, I have no personal experience. But there is this from Sail magazine:
https://www.sailmagazine.com/diy/tes...ic-antifouling

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by mvweebles

.....so says the bottom diver who likely charges $200 a pop to clean bottoms.

I speak as a marine industry professional with decades of experience with anti fouling technology. I know what I'm talking about.

Originally Posted by mvweebles

Here's the BoatTest video. Take it for what you will...

The problem the BoatTest video (and all the manufacturers' claims) is that there is no comparison with a similar vessel under similar use in identical conditions. We have no idea what that boat would look like had it gone a year without cleaning (assuming that is actually the case with the test vessel, and there is no proof of that) and not had the ultrasonic system installed. It's simply not a valid scientific test and cannot be considered proof that the system performs as advertised.

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

I speak as a marine industry professional with decades of experience with anti fouling technology. I know what I'm talking about.







The problem the BoatTest video (and all the manufacturers' claims) is that there is no comparison with a similar vessel under similar use in identical conditions. We have no idea what that boat would look like had it gone a year without cleaning (assuming that is actually the case with the test vessel, and there is no proof of that) and not had the ultrasonic system installed. It's simply not a valid scientific test and cannot be considered proof that the system performs as advertised.

Do you have actual experience that it doesn't work? Or just conjecture "if it seems to good to be true....?" I'm mildly skeptical, but found the video interesting. BoatTest has a patina of coziness with marine companies they review, but they are worthwhile and they do have a reputation. In the video, they show small patches of isolation from ultrasound where growth was present made sense and lent credibility. And then the SailMagazine article someone else posted was a mild endorsement.

Just saying "I'm a marine professional and I know better" is interesting - you're entitled your opinion, but without more, it doesn't carry much weight.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by mvweebles

Do you have actual experience that it doesn't work? Or just conjecture "if it seems to good to be true....?" I'm mildly skeptical, but found the video interesting. BoatTest has a patina of coziness with marine companies they review, but I found the small patches where growth was present made sense and lent credibility. And them the SailMagazine article someone else posted was a mild endorsement.

Just saying "I'm a marine professional and I know better" is interesting - you're entitled your opinion, but without more, it doesn't carry much weight.

As I have said in this forum and others, if ultrasonic anti fouling systems performed as advertised, they would be in common use on pleasure craft. You would find the systems widely available in brick-and-mortar as well as online chandleries. But neither is true. This technology has been around for decades and has yet to gain any real traction in the recreational boating market. Why is that do you suppose?

Regarding the video and the claims made in it (which we have to take on faith, as there is no evidence that the presenter isn't simply telling us fabrications. Not to mention the possibility or even likelihood that BoatTest is paid by the manufacturers to provide glowing reviews), I find the small areas of fouling to be evidence that either the boat wasn't left uncleaned for a year or that the fouling conditions where the boat was allegedly kept to be extremely benign. The presenter claims that that (for instance) both the outboard motor mounts and the hull anode are insulated from the ultrasonic system and therefore not being protected by it. But neither of these locations had anything like the fouling one would expect in a high growth region where in-water hull cleaning is typically performed every two weeks. A year without needing cleaning? Why wouldn't everybody and their brothers be using this system? It simply doesn't add up.

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

Why wouldn't everybody and their brothers be using this system?

That's the OPs core question. Skepticism about why, if it works, doesn't everyone use it. If it was a mature technology for yachts, then a lot of people would have tried it and the internet would be full of "it's a scam" from users who feel they got ripped off. I couldn't find anything like that which tells me either few have tried it or those who have are happy with the results. That doesn't mean it will work, just means that the FUD from folks like yourself is misplaced.

So that's all you have? No one uses it therefore it must not work? I have say, I think it interesting that you deride BoatTest for having a dog in the fight when you're a bottom diver. Your hands are hardly clean - at least BoatTest hauled a boat.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by mvweebles

So that's all you have? No one uses it therefore it must not work? I have say, I think it interesting that you deride BoatTest for having a dog in the fight when you're a bottom diver. Your hands are hardly clean - at least BoatTest hauled a boat.

If you think I am trying to protect my livelihood from a device that nobody uses, you are sadly mistaken. I mean, I understand why it suits you to infer that I have an ax to grind, but having been in this business for over 28 years and in all that time have never lost a customer (or even had a reduction in cleaning frequency) to an ultrasonic system? Yeah, I'm not particularly concerned about a loss of revenue. So either the manufacturers haven't figured out how to sell them or the systems don't perform as advertised. But since a device that (according to the video) essentially eliminates the need for in-water hull cleaning hasn't caught on by now, I know on which possibility I'd bet my money.

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

If you think I am trying to protect my livelihood from a device that nobody uses, you are sadly mistaken. I mean, I understand why it suits you to infer that I have an ax to grind, but having been in this business for over 28 years and in all that time have never lost a customer (or even had a reduction in cleaning frequency) to an ultrasonic system? Yeah, I'm not particularly concerned about a loss of revenue. So either the manufacturers haven't figured out how to sell them or the systems don't perform as advertised. But since a device that (according to the video) essentially eliminates the need for in-water hull cleaning hasn't caught on by now, I know on which possibility I'd bet my money.

Come to think of it, given your self-proclaimed vast and successful 28 years of bottom diving, the fact that you no experience with Ultrasonics is kinda evidence they may work, certainly not that they don't work. If you've been that busy, surely you would have encountered one or two dissatisfied users who now need a bottom job, no? Maybe folks use them and no longer need a diver so your phone doesn't ring.......