Topic: Davis Instruments

[kyle3309]

Hi all -

I know more people tend to post about the bad things more so than when things are going good with their set up. I am thinking about getting either a vantage pro or a vantage vue for a Christmas gift to myself, but I am concerned about spending that much money when a lot of people have posted about failures within the first year and a half to two years.  For those of you that have had good experiences, how long has your set up worked well with nothing more than standard maintenance?

[miraculon]

I bought my VP2 in January of 2012. I have since moved it from the original location and upgraded it with DFARS, Rain Gauge Heater, Temp/Hum station, etc. I have been pleased and impressed with the station. Other than a hiatus of a few weeks during the move process, it has been running roughly 2½ years now.

The only issue that I had was the humidity sensor would not indicate over 85% RH. Since I have the Temp/Hum station for a direct comparison, I was able to determine that the ISS humidity sensor was at fault. When I called Davis, after going through a few items I got the RMA for the sensor. What is nice about Davis is that they "fronted" the new sensor, with the understanding that you would have to pay if you did not return the defective one.

Since this was taken care of, there have been no further issues with any of the station components. I received the replacement T/H sensor in early October of 2012, so I have been running since then with no problems.

I have been favorably impressed the overall quality of construction. Are there a few quirks that I don't like, sure, but I would not hesitate to recommend Davis though.

Greg H.

[dalecoy]

I purchased my cabled VP2 in 2006, when I lived in New Mexico.  It has since been upgraded by installation of a heater, the solar and UV sensors, and a daytime FARS that is externally powered for 24-hour operation.

And it has been moved to the Kansas City area.

It has required no maintenance or repair except for infrequent cleaning, and is still working correctly.  It has been continuously uploading data to various sites, except while it was being relocated.

I gave my previous Vantage Pro to a friend, and I believe that is still working fine.

[VE3YF]

Hi:

I had and still have a Vantage Pro that I bought back in 1994 and it was working perfectly until I took it out of service this fall. I upgraded to a Vantage Pro 2 + and also a Vantage Vue which so far so good. I never had any problems with my Vantage Pro at all.

[Yfory]

The good side of Davis

What an excellent point...

I have a very old Vantage Pro  - one of the first - and it is still performing as if new. It has been in service for 10 or more years without a single fault. Even the humidity is reading well between 95 and 100% - much more difficult than most think. I replaced the Vantage Pro with a much newer Vue and the Vue has been flawless for 3 years. Even in a heavy redwood forest area where the solar cell is nearly ineffective, I still get about 9 months out of a battery. I did eventually lose the "super cap" on the old PRO and now have a hardwired 3.2 VDC as a power source.

They have perfected an extremely low current, all temperature, weather tight circuit, that can run on a 3 volt battery for more than 6 months. This is mush more difficult than it seems - just amazing design work and years of field experience. Of course you get what you pay for. Remember that Davis is competing against "imports" and cheap knock-offs and they still are the best - and - at a very low price. Actually I am amazed at the quality you get at $600 or whatever the current price might be.

Something very people have done...

I was a computer science major, in college, in my senior year in the San Francisco area and Davis contacted me about working for Davis. I visited their facility in the San Francisco Bay Area and I was given a grand tour by the head of Engineering. I have a lot of experience with high performance manufacturing in the medical electronics/software area including cyclotrons, MRI, CT, and linear accelerators. Medical manufacturers are kept to the highest standards possible and report monthly to the government. These medical manufactures are inspected and reviewed, in detail, as they should be.

My tour of Davis was my first time in a "standard product" manufacturing facility but they were working and manufacturing at a medical manufacturer or military level. Not because they had to but because they chose to be at that level. I was extremely impressed and to this day I wish I had made the choice to join them but I chose a different path for purely personal reasons.

We are all fortunate to have Davis and I sometimes worry about the low price for such a complex, well built, precision instrument.

I have absolutely no personal or professional connection with Davis - I am just another Davis customer.

If you opt for a cheaper weather instrument, you are opting for less quality. We each have budgets but I never regretted my purchase of a Davis instrument and I am pleased to know them from the inside and the outside.

Steve

[PaulMy]

Over six years for my VP2, changed the ISS battery once, that's all!  When you receive it and actually see and touch it you will be impressed.
 
Paul
Edit: also have had to clean out the rain bucket regularly to remove all the debris that it can collect which then block the rain from going onto the tipping bucket, and the original plastic strainer has blown away.

[SlowModem]

If you opt for a cheaper weather instrument, you are opting for less quality. We each have budgets but I never regretted my purchase of a Davis instrument and I am pleased to know them from the inside and the outside.

Steve

I can't top that!  What a glowing story.

I have had mine about 4.5 years and still on the original battery.

[ggsteve]

Just look at the number of topics and posts on this forum for all the different subforums.  See a trend?  In reality I'm sure there are a fair number of problems seen on Davis weather stations, but that is because so many are in service.

[moehoward4]

7½ years on my VP2 with 'regular' maintenance, hope it goes as long as my Weather Monitor II(18 years)

[Beaudog]

Mine has been up since june 2012 still has original batteries in it.

[Cutty Sark Sailor]

My Vue finished 4 years. At least once a year, clean it, especially the tipping bucket, and especially remove 'filming' from solar panel, with water, maybe a drop of very mild liquid dishwashing detergent in a quart of water... Replace the battery ( I do that in the spring) whether you think you need to or not... and get on with life. Date the batteries in the console, and replace them every 2-3 years, whether you think you need to or not.
Have purchased one complete system for a gift. 2 Years ago. That also is still working with no issues.
Enjoy. 

[kyle3309]

Thanks for all of the replies!  Davis it is then.  I am looking forward to getting it up.

[catdon]

Installed my Vantage Pro in Aug of 2003... over the years I had to replace the temp/humidity sensor and also the anemometer/wind vane... think I've replaced the battery twice... holds up well.

[archae86]

My VP2 went active in mid-May 2011, and I added solar and UV sensors early in 2012.  I'm still on the original ISS battery--but here in the sunny Southwest of the USA I should get longer battery life than most.
My only maintenance headache was a failure of the rain gauge to tip.  The cause was a twig which fell down into the rain gauge and got past the former, not very good Davis debris screen to jam the tipping bucket arm.  I installed an after-market screen, and subsequently Davis changed the standard screen to something with a better chance at working.
I had trouble right at the beginning which turned out to be that I was receiving a neighbor's station and mixed data from it and my own was confusing me.  It is a good idea to set your station not to the default channel.
I actually had not realized until I wrote this that my battery is around 40 months of operation.  With winter coming both the reduced sunlight and low temperature will challenge the battery.  Probably I should procure a replacement battery to allow fast response, and measure the one currently installed.  But I don't know how low a voltage is a good trigger for pre-emptive replacement.  I may just figure 3.5 years is enough and I don't want to have to do it in mid-winter.
Anecdotal evidence from single experiences is not much use in establishing reliability behavior, but it is definitely not true that they all break in the first year or two.

[W3DRM]

I put my wireless VP2 in service in December of 2005. Even though it has been returned to Davis several times for refurb, it has performed quite well. After a couple years of flawless operation, my VP2 began experiencing intermittent anemometer operation of both the wind-vane and the wind-speed. I sent it in to Davis for refurb and they found the reed-switch in the anemometer to be bad along with a bad cable. The entire anemometer assembly was replaced with a new one. I am now on my fourth anemometer in over eight years. Each time, it has been the reed-switch that caused the problem. I live in an area that has a lot of wind. Davis has now redesigned the anemometer so it uses an electronic hall-effect switch (no moving parts) rather than the reed-switch. That should eliminate any future anemometer failures other than when hawks land on them and break parts off... Due to the anemometer failures, I have sent my entire VP2 in for refurb three times now. On the first two refurbs, Davis replaced the super-cap and upgraded the ISS board, respectively. On the last refurb, no problems other than a defective anemometer were found.

So, perhaps I have had an inordinate number of failures on my VP2 but, I am still very happy with it. It just keeps plugging along day after day. I have had no failures in the last year or so which pretty much proves the anemometer reed-switch is no longer an issue. The good thing is that Davis continues to make small improvements over time making their equipment even better.

Based on my experience with Davis and their support team, I would not hesitate to buy another one. Davis equipment does cost a bit more but they stand-up to the harsh elements as well as, if not better than, most other weather stations.