Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

2014 Bennington RCW
I had moisture problems in my gauges 2 years ago and Bennington replaced them. Now my problem is back and the dealer states this is normal and to turn your lights on to clear up the problem. I tried this and it still takes over an hour to clear up the moisture. Does anyone have a cure for this problem? Does Bennington have a new design to eliminate this issue?

i get the same issues on my gauges as well. Never really heard of a fix. Normally the sun/heat/lamp clears them up after a bit.

Curious if anyone has a fix!

Not a true cure but... Check to make sure that the bulbs are NOT LED bulbs and if they are switch back to incandescents then rewire the dash lights to their own switch and turn them anytime you use the boat. The heat from the bulbs burning will quickly burn out the moisture...

I found that is how some boat manf try to beat this issue by turning the dash lights ON/OFF with the ignition switch; otherwise it takes special and costly hermetic sealing methods to seal up these gauges...

Additional information - The gauge is a vented design - see small holes at the 3 and 6 o'clock position.

The gauge has 4 incandescent bulbs and these lights are on a separate switch, but it still takes over an hour to clear up the moisture.

More or Less wrote:The gauge has 4 incandescent bulbs and these lights are on a separate switch, but it still takes over an hour to clear up the moisture.

Like I said it is not a cure, it only treats the symptoms...

Only true solution would be for the boat manf to install much higher cost hermetically sealed gauges.

One other treatment while is sounds backwards would be to enlarge the vent holes so that the moisture is "less" likely to become trapped behind the lenses....

I've just accepted the fogged gauges as "it's just the way it is."

My boat never gets any rain or moisture and the gauges fog up every time the boats's used.

I guess the only way to avoid fogged gauges is to upgrade to an electronic gauge package.

You would think that electronic gauges/controls would solve the problem, but even these are not immune to the problem. My Sony radio control has moisture problems.

Yep my Milennia Waterproof Stereo is the worst of all my gauges... lol

i had a similar problem with my fish finder, the screen cracked and lost the seal, and when i got a new case i had to flood it with nitrogen gas to fix it, that was 6 years ago and no problems since

Live with it....I can easily see your volts are fine, trim is almost all the way down, and it is time for some gas.

My Bennington gauges all fog up a bit on leaving a dock late at night and cruising back across the lake. Usually, by the time I'm at the ramp, they have cleared up. Yours looks much worse than mine ever gets even though my helm sometimes gets rained on. If I had your issue, I might try completely sealing it or just the reverse - opening it up more under the helm. Under our helm is always much warmer than the ambient temperature due to audio and amp equipment stashed there.

BobL wrote:Live with it....I can easily see your volts are fine, trim is almost all the way down, and it is time for some gas.