Simrad 4g radar full of water

[tanglewood]

I've read numerous accounts of this with Simrad 4G radars. Simrad might make good on it.

[Snowpetrel]

Originally Posted by tanglewood

I've read numerous accounts of this with Simrad 4G radars. Simrad might make good on it.

Thanks, might be worth asking. It's clearly not fit for purpose, and the base was clear.

[Neptune's Gear]

Talk to Navico tech support. This is a known issue, and the newer cases have been modified to prevent it.

[Snowpetrel]

^^^ Thanks, good to hear.

[Snowpetrel]

Had a bit of a play with the drowned set today. There are two parts that look like they are vents/drains. No 1 does nothing when I blow on it from outside. No 2 had a paper sticker over it. With the sticker on I couldn't blow or suck air through it. But with the sticker off I could suck air out through the small hole, so presumably its some sort of drain or air vent?

Any further thoughts on what the proper function of these parts are?

Anyway drowned or not it is a very nice prop to show students, and we has a good discussion about the manufacturing incompetence that leads to a $2000 piece of marine equipment filling up with rainwater or condensation.

[Neptune's Gear]

The trouble is, with large temp changes, you have to allow for expansion/contraction of the air in the unit. The issue is how to do this cheaply, effectively, and moisture free. The original issue iirc, was only when the base was mounted directly on a large flat surface - in certain install situations, it could prevent proper drainage.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by Snowpetrel

Had a bit of a play with the drowned set today. There are two parts that look like they are vents/drains. No 1 does nothing when I blow on it from outside. No 2 had a paper sticker over it. With the sticker on I couldn't blow or suck air through it. But with the sticker off I could suck air out through the small hole, so presumably its some sort of drain or air vent?

Any further thoughts on what the proper function of these parts are?

Anyway drowned or not it is a very nice prop to show students, and we has a good discussion about the manufacturing incompetence that leads to a $2000 piece of marine equipment filling up with rainwater or condensation. Attachment 175121Attachment 175122Attachment 175123

From your description, it almost sounds like it was an installation screwup just neglecting to remove the paper sticker?

[Snowpetrel]

Originally Posted by Cadence

From your description, it almost sounds like it was an installation screwup just neglecting to remove the paper sticker?

The paper sticker is inside the radome, and one of the radome bolts had a sticker over it saying warranty void if broken. So I think the sticker was not intended for the user to remove. The base was free of obstructions and the vent holes were clear.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by Snowpetrel

The paper sticker is inside the radome, and one of the radome bolts had a sticker over it saying warranty void if broken. So I think the sticker was not intended for the user to remove. The base was free of obstructions and the vent holes were clear.

I did read there were vent holes. If they were clear how did the water build up?

Sorry for your misfortune.

[Snowpetrel]

Originally Posted by Neptune's Gear

The trouble is, with large temp changes, you have to allow for expansion/contraction of the air in the unit. The issue is how to do this cheaply, effectively, and moisture free. The original issue iirc, was only when the base was mounted directly on a large flat surface - in certain install situations, it could prevent proper drainage.

The temperature change thing is the only way I can see that that much water getting inside, possibly being wicked up the seal as the radome cooled down, and with no way to drain it would have just built up inside.

The unit was mounted on a flat base, but the "feet" on the bottom of the radome where it bolts on raise the base up by about 5mm, and that gap was clear. I guess in strong rain water may build up there but it should have drained away pretty quickly.

At any rate, our companies insurance seems like they will pay out. But I am still curious about how that much water got inside an apparently well-sealed unit, and what can be done to prevent a similar occurrence in the future. I think drilling a small hole in the bottom would fix it, but it may cause other issues. I'd like to know how those vents are supposed to work, and if they were installed incorrectly in the factory as has been suggested.

[Nicholson58]

We had our new 4G shipped to Trinidad. We are now in Antigua trying to wade through instructions. I compared the book for the new unit to the five year old 2G that failed last season. There is nothing much changed. I searched the entire manual and found no mention of drains, moisture, vents except the picture on page 24 without explanation.

Item D is supposed to be a breather. (New book). You can see from the photo that there is no breather. The round feature left of C is a molding detail. The small black item near the cable track in the photo is a tight fitting rubber plug. The plug is not shown on the book drawing. I’m trying to contact tech assistance but it’s Saturday.

I have the feeling these guys have totally dropped the ball. They apparently have new and old stock. It looks like they are clearing old stock and chancing that it might pass.

[myannievice]

We have replaced a perfectly functional 20 year old Furuno radar with this new Simrad 4G... the Simrad 4G just quit working today 6/29/2020, it is less than 5 years from the time of purchase!!! how is this possible? we ran all the troubleshooting guides from Simrad and everything checked fine in terms of connections and voltages. Then we started hearing about this radar from people in the commercial fishing community who came to see it and have seen failure due to water intrusion. What???? companies have been making marine radars for decades, how is this even possible?

Here are some pictures, we also took video of our new Simrad 4G radar dripping water. I wish I read this posting before running all the electrical testing efforts, what a waste of time! How frustrating, in the middle of our passage!

We’re calling Simrad tomorrow and will send them the pictures and video of their radar dripping water while it is still on the 15ft radar pole. I hope they have some level of honesty and decency about backing their defective products. I’ll follow up after talking with Simrad tomorrow.

[Franziska]

Seems like it's necessary to tape around the joint between radome and baseplate.

If you drill a drain hole, maybe glue in a short stand pipe on the outside pointing down or down and aft. So that no driving rain spray can get in while ensuring drainage.

Agree drilling holes might kill the warranty. Bit of a catch 22 situation, drill and keep the unit healthy but lose the warranty vs not to drill and lose the unit but keep the warranty.

Mind you, none of this should be necessary on such an expensive unit.
Wonder why they do not offer a drain pipe & tape kit for the units sold already, but than again it's like admitting to a design flaw.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by Snowpetrel

Just pulled our faulty radar off the workboat.

It had about 3 inches of water inside it with no obvious sources for the water. And we had to undo the unit to drain it. Dome nit cracked, base clear, seal good etc. Tech guy said condensation, but I find it hard to believe that quality of water got in just from condensation. The unit is about 4 years old, but has only been installed for a couple of years.

I see no obvious drain hole, just some weird bungs at the bottom of the unit that didn't let the water out.

So this is both a warning, and a question. If you have one it might be worth checking, and even drilling a small hole.

Seems they don't make radars like they used to.. Attachment 174749Attachment 174750

I could be wrong but condensation sounds like BS. It would seem if it were sealed only the water in the encapsulated air could condense out with temp. change.

[Circuit Breaker]

Originally Posted by myannievice

We have replaced a perfectly functional 20 year old Furuno radar with this new Simrad 4G... the Simrad 4G just quit working today 6/29/2020, it is less than 5 years from the time of purchase!!! how is this possible? we ran all the troubleshooting guides from Simrad and everything checked fine in terms of connections and voltages. Then we started hearing about this radar from people in the commercial fishing community who came to see it and have seen failure due to water intrusion. What???? companies have been making marine radars for decades, how is this even possible?

Here are some pictures, we also took video of our new Simrad 4G radar dripping water. I wish I read this posting before running all the electrical testing efforts, what a waste of time! How frustrating, in the middle of our passage!

We’re calling Simrad tomorrow and will send them the pictures and video of their radar dripping water while it is still on the 15ft radar pole. I hope they have some level of honesty and decency about backing their defective products. I’ll follow up after talking with Simrad tomorrow.

I would be very interested in what response you receive from Simrad. My 4G also stopped last week, and after all the troubleshooting and phone calls to tech support, it seems my only option is a new Halo Radar, however, it is not compatible with my NSE 8, so now I have to look at a full replacement of my electronics, as the other NSE compatible items will not work with the new chart plotters.

Simrad offered no help. It is outside of the 5 year warranty, and there are no service options available. Amazing.

I did take apart the dome and found some condensation and limited corrosion. The most troubling thing was finding one of the screws that holds the cover onto the electronics box had backed out and was in the bottom of the dome. Removing the cover did show some signs of corrosion inside the box. Of course, with no warranty on a 8 year old dome, and since I clearly broke the seals on the dome and the electronics box, it seems my options are limited.