Will LCD Freeze

There is a pretty good discussion going on regarding this on Walleye Central. It got me curious, and I figured THIS would be the place to find the answer.

If I use or store and or use my LCD depth finders in my boat during a MN winter will the temp damage them?

I have never had a problem when fishing BUT I don’t have a garage so I always bring mine inside the house after fishing. I’d rather be safe than sorry and would rather spend money fishing than replacing something because I didn’t take care of it. Bill

I have never had a problem with units not working in cold weather. I do store the lcd’s inside when not in use. Most owners manual advise not to store in extreme cold or heat.

I am no expert-but here what I am thinking. Any liquid will freeze-so the answer is yes. I think that the liquid that is in LCD lights is probably good to at LEAST 40 below zero-probably much colder. Most car stereos use LCD, have you ever had a morning when they dont work? Sometimes you can almost see the display slowing down under extreme cold, almost like the liquid is becoming gel like-but I have never heard of weather making them cold enough to freeze.

I have never had a unit damaged by cold weather. As Dave said, I suppose at some point, like -40 they will freeze up…. I have stored LCR’s outdoors all winter – undamaged.

I have had units that slow down, or the screen gets “fluttery” in very, very cold weather. I have found that if you turn on the backlighting to it’s highest setting, the small amout of heat produced cures the problem.

J.

I KNEW this was the place to look for answers!

Thanks!

My opinion is more from a thermal expansion standpoint. Nothing in a resistor, capacitor, diode or integrated circuit will fail in the temp ranges we are talking about. The printed circuit board, if made from standard material called FR4, will expand and contract with temp variations, thereby stressing the solder joints on the components. Today many components are pinless and attached to these boards with methods called direct attach, better for thermal expansion. The biggest concern I have with my equipment (all Lowrance) is the case seal going out with wide temp swings. These units are supposedly purged of air and sealed at the factory in a controlled environment. That joint, and sealing compound (rubber gasket) are what I worry about failing. Sounds like some of the other guys have seen some failure in the displays as well, mine have not shown that (yet). Bottom line I guess I’m with taking the units inside over Winter as well.

I’ve fished in some incredibly cold conditions, both on the ice and on the water, with an LCD of some kind out there with me and I’ve never had a problem. Maybe this is one of those wive’s tale type things…. Anyway, I remove mine from the boat for the winter, more from a security point of view than anything.

By the way, LundgEYE, what would a Senior Project Engineer/Manager and with IBM know about electronics components anyway?!…lol Just kidding, of course. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us. If it doesn’t worry you, it probably should put our minds at ease a little.

Yes, LCD graphs will freeze…..some years back I was using a Eagle fish ID during the ice fishing season and had the screen freeze. What happened was I ended up with a permanent school of fish on the screen! I looked into the cost of a repair and it was’nt worth fixing.

YES THEY CAN FREEZE AND BE DAMAGED! LAST WINTER LEFT MINE ON THE BOAT IN THE GARAGE WELL COME SPRING TURNED IT ON AND NOTHING BUT A BLACK SCREEN!
CALLED HUMMINGBIRD AND THEY SAID IT DID FREEZE WHICH CAUSED PERMANENT DAMAGE!

Hmmmmm….. so then I guess the question is, at what temp does this become a concern? How cold was it when yours froze Bob? My guess is bass tracker wouldn’t know how cold it was when his froze since it happened during a time left unattended. I’ve never left mine outside for the duration of the winter so I’ve not had this happen to me. I have fished with lcd’s in temps below zero and had no problems so maybe this is only a concern at the extremes?

My experience on Mille Lacs has been 30-40 below zero with LCDs. At minus 30 the screens begin to scroll to black and below minus 40 the crystals may burst leaving black little pixel squares here and there on the screen.
The zercom inventors (Clearwater Classic) tested there sealed screens to minus 65 and that was one of their patents I think, a new LCD technology that handled the cold better, among other things.

That is the same unit I have the most experience with on the ice. Great product. I haven’t used it in quite some number of years and I’m not sure why I don’t just sell the thing. 40 below zero is serious-cold… I can honestly say I’ll never have to worry about my lcd’s freezing then as I’ll never be out in conditions like that. Yuk.

Thanks for the info Tim.

Your Welcome James!
We put our beer on a burning barbecue grill to keep it from freezing when its that cold. LOL
A very old story from years past, fishing perch on the flats in early february.
Nothing would stop us from fishing, unless the rigs wouldn’t start?

You guys are talking about temps that are almost not human to fish in…(-40???) . I did not know LCDs die at those temps but guess it makes sense they’d die somewhere down there. I have, however, on the flip side of this, had my LCD get fried by direct sun to the screen for extended periods (also turns black).

I think the answer is “It depends on what kind of LCD it is.” Different types and different vintages of LCD’s are composed of a variety of different compounds. All LCD’s are essentially thermo-electric and sensitive to temperature. LCDs employ several variations of liquid crystal technology, including super twisted nematics (STN), dual scan twisted nematics (DSTN), ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) and surface stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal (SSFLC). The ferroelectric substances allow for more rapid switching and are more commonly used in non-repetitive displays. Also, it depends if it is a common pane, passive matrix or active matrix display. They will behave differently at different temperatures and it is not necessarily evident from the manuals what kind of display a particular unit may have. I’ve got a Bottomline Fishin’Buddy that I bought for ice fishing that goes blank at about 28 degrees F (if I’d known then what I know now… ) and I’ve got a Garmin GPS 12 that seems to work below zero. There is sometimes a temperature rating in the specs of the GPS unit. I think the Garmin 240 is something like 5 degrees F to 158 degrees F. When I saw that, I just figured it would be safer to bring it in for the winter. But, the question of permanent damage due to low temperatures may be a warranty question that should be directed to the particular manufacturer.

Especially in Minnesota where we sometimes need to build a charcoal fire under the propane tank to get it to boil (-44 degrees F!)

Thanks for that info NatJoe, I have seen specs on them too but have not paid much attention. All this discussion will force me to remember that next time I am shopping for a new unit.