Author Topic: Acurite 5 in 1 Humidity sensor never drops below 98%  (Read 11813 times)

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Offline DogBytes

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Acurite 5 in 1 Humidity sensor never drops below 98%
« on: June 26, 2013, 05:30:40 PM »
I've had this weather station for a year now and the outdoor RH never drops below 98%. The local farmers in my area use my station a lot, and I'm starting to get complaints. Any ideas? Is there a better PWS out there that won't break the bank?

Additional information:

This 1025 is going down hill fast. Now I'm not getting any barometer reading via the USB port. I see an error stating I have a "floating point overflow" Acurite support leaves a lot to be desired in terms of responding to these problems. I'm thinking about replacing it with something more dependable. I'm leaning towards Davis Vantage Vue. Any other advice?
« Last Edit: July 14, 2013, 02:35:09 PM by DogBytes »


Offline vreihen

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Re: Acurite 5 in 1 Humidity sensor never drops below 98%
« Reply #2 on: June 26, 2013, 07:33:32 PM »
It is a known problem with a batch of 5-in-1 sensors manufactured in 2011.  Check out the AcuRite customer support web site for details.  They have extended the warranty, and will make it right if you have one of the bad units like I do.....
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Offline nincehelser

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Re: Acurite 5 in 1 Humidity sensor never drops below 98%
« Reply #3 on: June 26, 2013, 10:35:12 PM »
Yep.  Check for a warranty replacement.

If you can't do that for some reason, you might be able to work around the problem with one of their $8 tower temp/humidity sensors.  I know you can do that if you're using the AcuLink Bridge.  I'm not sure if you can with the console.

Offline ctccbc

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Re: Acurite 5 in 1 Humidity sensor never drops below 98%
« Reply #4 on: July 28, 2013, 08:22:48 AM »
Can the inside console read the small Acurite tower sensor? That would make it possible to get accurate readings into Weather Display and onto my web site. My 5-in-1 worked great over several months, but now the humidity is messed up, remaining at 98 percent for alot of the time,  and the issue with having just one solar panel on the 5-in-1 makes the temperature inaccurate (several degrees too warm) for several hours a day.
I am a big Acurite fan, and the 5-in-1 has great potential, but the development seems to have slowed to a crawl in the last year.


Offline nincehelser

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Re: Acurite 5 in 1 Humidity sensor never drops below 98%
« Reply #5 on: July 28, 2013, 10:33:50 AM »
Can the inside console read the small Acurite tower sensor? That would make it possible to get accurate readings into Weather Display and onto my web site. My 5-in-1 worked great over several months, but now the humidity is messed up, remaining at 98 percent for alot of the time,  and the issue with having just one solar panel on the 5-in-1 makes the temperature inaccurate (several degrees too warm) for several hours a day.
I am a big Acurite fan, and the 5-in-1 has great potential, but the development seems to have slowed to a crawl in the last year.

I don't think the 5-in-1 console(s) have the ability to read a tower sensor...at least I can't find that ability on the two console models I have (01010 and 01525).

As to development slowing, I get the impression that they don't have as much technical staff as they used to.  A while back it seemed that they had two engineers, and they made product videos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0I0ot-99J4).  Now I only hear references made to one.


Offline ctccbc

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Re: Acurite 5 in 1 Humidity sensor never drops below 98%
« Reply #6 on: July 28, 2013, 12:33:04 PM »
That would make sense. When I first got my Acurite 01035, I was so impressed that I used it to drive my website moreheadcityweather.com . It worked well for several months, but has seen constant problems ever since. The humidity has stuck at 98 percent, inaccurate temperatures due to poorly designed solar panels and bad pressure readings from the indoor unit. I have contacted Ryan and have called the Support line and yet to receive any replacements.  I have switched back to using my old Oregon Scientific WMR100N since the data from it is better.

I still like the Acurite unit, think it has great potential, and hope that all of the bugs can get worked out in later releases, such as better solar panels to power the aspirator and a way to get rid of that pesky 98 percent humidity error. The wind and rain gauge works great, so just a few tweaks would make a much better product.

Chris
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Offline vreihen

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Re: Acurite 5 in 1 Humidity sensor never drops below 98%
« Reply #7 on: July 28, 2013, 03:53:56 PM »
My $0.02 is to be careful with the tower sensors, as I have one that came with a thermometer-only package that doesn't have the humidity function in it despite having the same exact P/N as the tower sensor that claims to support this.  It works great with the bridge for sending temperature readings to MBW, but the weather station consoles can't see it.....
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Offline Weather Display

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Re: Acurite 5 in 1 Humidity sensor never drops below 98%
« Reply #8 on: July 28, 2013, 03:58:42 PM »
the problem with the humidity sensor is the design...with the fan drawing up droplets of water, etc
i.e it gets over saturated and then struggles to dry out again
I think they have address some of the problems in later designs are were sending out replacements...at one stage...
Brian
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Offline nincehelser

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Re: Acurite 5 in 1 Humidity sensor never drops below 98%
« Reply #9 on: July 28, 2013, 04:03:06 PM »
I still like the Acurite unit, think it has great potential, and hope that all of the bugs can get worked out in later releases, such as better solar panels to power the aspirator and a way to get rid of that pesky 98 percent humidity error. The wind and rain gauge works great, so just a few tweaks would make a much better product.

Rumor has it that they're about to beta test a solution to the solar panel issue.


Offline TreeTreeTree

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Re: Acurite 5 in 1 Humidity sensor never drops below 98%
« Reply #10 on: October 07, 2013, 10:53:14 PM »
Mine too.
I started out at Christmas 2010 with a 1500 5-in-1.
Within 6 weeks the humidity sensor was reading 1%. I notified AcuRite, who arranged a replacement unit to be sent. Six months later, humidity 1%. I notified AcuRite again, who arranged another replacement unit be sent. This second replacement (unit #3) did not arrive until late November 2011. With this trend, I asked how much warranty coverage I had.
Reply: "until one year from the original purchase".
January 2012: humidity 98% steady. Has not changed since then.
No more warranty?
Now, by this thread, I see some got a warranty extension.
Very disappointed.




Offline Weather Display

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Re: Acurite 5 in 1 Humidity sensor never drops below 98%
« Reply #11 on: October 07, 2013, 11:53:26 PM »
my acu-rite 5 in 1 has now stopped transmitting after 6 months use
Brian
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Offline ctccbc

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Re: Acurite 5 in 1 Humidity sensor never drops below 98%
« Reply #12 on: October 08, 2013, 05:41:53 PM »
They are supposedly about to release a new 5-in-1 that addresses the issue with the solar-powered aspirator. The aspirator in mine has stopped working altogether and I have a new 5-in-1 is in route. This 5-in-1 has some sort of new coating that is supposed to get rid of the issue of humidity being stuck at 98 percent as well.  I really like the Acurite weather stations and I hope these fixes will address the issues that many are having and are becoming discouraged with.

Offline Weather Display

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Re: Acurite 5 in 1 Humidity sensor never drops below 98%
« Reply #13 on: October 08, 2013, 07:15:03 PM »
the batteries in my unit might have gone flat
(I was also getting extreme rain totals..might be related to low battery)
Brian
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