Topic: 2813 Rain Sensor reading WAY high

[weathernut679]

I have had my 2813 since Christmas. Up until this week all was fine with it. Then the wind information stopped showing. We moved the main sensor to a location closer to the wind gauge and it reacquired a signal and that seems to be working.

However, at the same time the rain display, as mentioned by others above, began reading way too high. Both on the wall console and on the computer. The readings for last month and last week are accurate, but it's displaying about 2-3" per hour on both the total rain and the 24-hour rain. I keep zeroing out the total. We've had no rain at all during this time.

We did re-level the rain gauge yesterday since we knew it wasn't quite level. The problem with the over-readings occurred both before and after messing with the gauge. We didn't try a tip test at the time, though.

I keep thinking the "last 24 hours" will eventually scroll off the display. But with the total increasing virutally constantly, it seems that this might not happen.

What to do?

[SlowModem]

I keep thinking the "last 24 hours" will eventually scroll off the display. But with the total increasing virutally constantly, it seems that this might not happen.

What to do?

Maybe take all power and batteries off/out of all sensors/console for 24 hours and let everything reset?

[DanS]

I've seen where the console can be initially started up (battery change, etc.) and the rain count start higher than it should. You could try stopping the station program on the computer to avoid recording any wrong amounts then take the batteries out of the console for a minute or two. When you re-insert the batteries, watch the hourly rain amount on the console to be sure it comes up as all zero's. If it comes up anything other than zero's then pull the batteries and re-insert again.
While the batteries are out it would be a good time to check their voltage with a meter to be sure they are at least 1.5 volts each (and Alkaline type).
Hope this helps.

[weathernut679]

I keep thinking the "last 24 hours" will eventually scroll off the display. But with the total increasing virutally constantly, it seems that this might not happen.

What to do?

Maybe take all power and batteries off/out of all sensors/console for 24 hours and let everything reset?

Okay, did that. Everything seemed to work for a day or two (although in fact the 24-hour and last hour didn't lose their totals), but then it started right up again. Giving numbers of 2-3" per hour. And that's with no data in the "data" section either.

What can I do to get it to forget any past numbers? Also, is there a way to disable and then reenable the computer display?

This is pretty frustrating. I haven't tried contacting the company yet. Anyone have any suggestions on how to get a replacement (if possible)? Also, I bought this at Costco at Christmas (about 6 months ago). Does anyone know if Costco would accept a return after that long?

[weathernut679]

Here's an update from me. I finally called the company this morning. (Note: despite the fact that they proudly announce on their website that they listen to every voice mail and read every email, there is nowhere on the site that lists a phone number. I had to do an internet search to find them. They also have no email address, but the rep this morning told me they do have a form to fill out somewhere. However, that's really not obvious even on the "support" page.)

Anyway, when I finally reached someone, she was adversarial from the beginning, bordering on argumentative. Decidedly unhelpful in "feel" even though naturally her job is to weed out issues before people send in the units. Or maybe she was just having a bad day.

At any rate, it seems the only way it can be dealt with under warranty is to send the units back. I suppose if we did that we might get a replacement - but as the rep pointed out, to have this issue arise only after 5 months is fairly unusual.

So we've decided to keep everything as is, save our postage, and ignore the rain gauge.

I won't ever be buying a La Crosse product again, though.

Kathy

[weathernut679]

And here's another update. The customer rep at La Crosse told me that I would "be surprised" at how sensitive the rain gauge tipper is, and that it could respond to slight wind, the movement of wooden structures, or other stimuli, thus racking up those large numbers in an hour.

So I decided to run an experiment. Today, with no rain in sight, I went outside and removed the guard shield from the rain gauge unit. It's mounted on a wooden deck bench. There was a small amount of water in it when I first exposed the tipper, and a stiff kick to the bench did cause it to tip. Once it was empty, I kicked the bench again. I stomped around on the deck near the unit. I smacked the unit itself. Nothing I did caused any movement whatsoever of the tipper.

As she intimated, I would be definitely "very surprised" if anything but water caused it to tip. At least in my unit, I don't believe for a minute that a mechanical force is causing the totally incorrect readings.

[weathernut679]

And yet another update. I was so disgusted with the hundreds of inches of rain my display was reporting that we dismantled the rain gauge and took out the batteries, but my online display is STILL racking up inches!

It's so annoying. Resetting the total to zero doesn't stop it, it just starts up again from zero. The graphics are going off their chart.

How can I get this to stop?!!