Garmin Transducers

What to Look for When Buying a Garmin Fishfinder Transducer

The transducer is the most overlooked part of a fishfinder with beginners, but did you know the transducer is one of the most important parts of a fishfinder? The transducer is considered the mouth and ears of your fishfinder. Garmin makes units that can be used with many types of fishfinders over the stock unit; here's everything you need to know when it comes to purchasing a Garmin transducer for your fishfinder.

Transducers are the ears of your fishfinder's sonar system. They use piezoceramic elements, commonly referred to as crystals, that create and detect vibrations. You can have a transducer with the same output and receiver quality, but if you add a crystal element twice the size in diameter, it will be like you quadrupled the power of your fishfinder.

There are three mount types for most boats: shoot-throughs, transom mounts, and through-hulls. If your Garmin fishfinder has a specific mount-type requirement, your transducer upgrade will have to be mounted this way; otherwise, you can mount it using one of the following methods:

• Through-hull: Through-hull gives you the least turbulence, but you will likely have to create a custom hole in your boat to mount this way.
• Shoot-through: Shoot-through gives you considerably less power but more depth gauge.
• Transom mounts: Transom mounts work very well when mounted properly, particularly at slow speeds when there is less turbulence on the hull, transom, and strakes.
• Kayak in-hull mounts: Kayak in-hull mounts go on the inside of a kayak and push the signal through the bottom hull.
• Trolling motor mounts: Trolling motor mounts attach to the shaft or on the bottom of your trolling motor.

Garmin's CHIRP transducers continuously send sweeping frequencies and read each one individually when it comes back. This provides the fishfinder with a wider range of data and gives you a much more accurate image with greater separation and contrast. Standard transducers send one frequency at a time and receive only that one frequency back before sending another.

The Garmin transducer you choose depends on which mount type you need for your specific boat. There are a handful of variations for each type of fishfinder depending on your specific Garmin fishfinder unit. For more detailed information, you can check your fishfinder user guide to find out which transducers or splitters are compatible with it.