Depth Meter

[sailorboy1]

My depth meter likes to go to a shollow reading (0-2') every once in while. O f course it only happens when in a harbor it seems; making me go into a panic of grounding. Happened yesterday while pulling to the dock for water. Had a good reading of 7-9' (need 2.3' on the meter) whern suddenly had 1.5' meaning I went into hard reverse etc.

My feeling has been that the problem is seaweeds etc passing under the boat, but it could be the meter itself. Is it common for depth meter to have this problem?

[mesquaukee]

My depthsounders do the opposite.
When I have a few feet under the keel all of a sudden I get readings of much deeper water.
I finally figured out the signal was bouncing from the bottom to the hull back to the bottom then back to the transducer. 4 feet (1 foot under the keel) would become 8 feet, drives me nuts that is why I installed the 2nd sounder which does the same. I hate being told I am in deep water when I'am not.

[Vasco]

It might be weeds or bubbles but if it's a relatively new problem it might be the depth sounder. Years ago I had a Signet depth sounder that did this. Worked fine in deep water but under 10 feet it used to go crazy and show 2 feet or so. Sent it back a couple of times and they fixed it but the problem re-occurred, told me a condenser or something had gone in it. Hope yours isn't a Signet.

[Starboat]

I have a new (one year old) Raymarine ST60 depth sounder that will suddenly go to 2-3 feet....especially in deep water. In shallower water, it usually gives accurate readers (based on chartplotter depths). I have tried re-calibrating the unit; it helped but did not solve the problem. Anyone else have this problem with the ST60 unit?

Sea-STAR

[idpnd]

I've seen depth-sounders perform erratically before..