Topic: poor 5 in 1 signal in cold weather

[Altair]

So I bought an Acurite 5 in 1 in March. Installed it and it worked perfect up until a few days ago when the weather got colder.
Seems whenever it gets below 32 degrees or so I can't get a wind reading and I don't have any reception bars on the indicator.

Also the station is not far at all from the readout display, I'd say around 10-15 feet. Was thinking it could be the batteries, but the low battery indicator hasn't come on.

I tried contacting Acurite directly but haven't gotten a response yet.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks

[worachj]

I would suggest using lithium batteries in the 5-N-1 if you're not already using them. They perform better in cold weather.

[Altair]

Yeah I'm not using lithium batteries currently so I'll give that a try.

[DoctorKnow]

I doubt it's batteries, unless you are using cheap generic non alkaline... ?

[Altair]

I doubt it's batteries, unless you are using cheap generic non alkaline... ?

Actually I just looked and they're Panasonic Carbon-Zinc...maybe that's the problem? I just grabbed whatever I had available at the time.

[DoctorKnow]

Duracell, and Eveready/Energizer are the best to install. The others can have voltage spikes. I would try swapping them and see if this helps.

[BeaverMeadow]

From wikipedia:

Durability

Zinc carbon cells have a short shelf life as the zinc is attacked by ammonium chloride. The zinc container becomes thinner as the cell is used, because zinc metal is oxidized to zinc ions. When the zinc case thins enough, zinc chloride begins to leak out of the battery. The old dry cell is not leak proof and becomes very sticky as the paste leaks through the holes in the zinc case. The zinc casing in the dry cell gets thinner even when the cell is not being used, because the ammonium chloride inside the battery reacts with the zinc. An "inside-out" form with a carbon cup and zinc vanes on the interior, while more leak resistant, has not been made since the 1960s.[1]

This picture shows the zinc container of fresh batteries at (a), and discharged batteries at (b) and (c). The battery shown at (c) had a polyethylene protection film (mostly removed in the photo) to keep the zinc oxide inside the casing.

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[daman]

It has to be interference or some other issue it's not cold we have two that's been flying for 3 winters now never a issue with cold weather, matter of fact we do NOT even use lithium's but regular Duracell's.

Sometimes the display will get a glitch and not read a signal but in time will re lock on, check your weather under ground when this happens. 

[Bushman]

Same here - no issues with Duracells to -35C

[Altair]

Just an update, it was the cheap batteries.

I put some fresh Duracell Procells in and it's working fine now. I'll probably pick up some lithium batteries for the winter seeing as I'm in Wisconsin.

[daman]

Glad it was a easy fix!