Crazy ideas for keeping the rain gauge clean

[jpp]

I have been bashing my brains out to where to mount my WS-2355 rain sensor. My whole yard is covered with trees, so the only place I really have left, that is also reasonable clear of nearby trees, is my roof. This is also the place where I'll have to mount my wind sensor for the same reasons.

Now, I'm getting on a bit and I don't really want to go up on the roof to clean the rain sensor out once in a while. It WILL get filled full of pine needles and leaves as I have witnessed doing a test using a small plastic bucket over a few days.

I've been playing around with a couple of ideas. One is to mount the rain bucket/container on a tilting platform with a remote controlled motor so that I can use a timer to once a day invert the whole sensor to clear the debris.

The other, which I now favour, is to use a small centrigugal fan that is positioned at the short edge at the top of the sensor, just above and far enough to the side to avoid shadowing the rain.

So far, this has  been successful on tests done on the ground in blowing out all the leaves and needles (needles are the hardest to move because they are so small in surface area). Some needles though, still find their way into the little holes at the bottom of the trough and pass through. Some might also actually stick to the tilt buckets. Even if they slip off, I guess that eventually I'll see a pile of them inside the case which could impede the bucket swing, so that problem is still to be solved atm.

Now, before I spend much more time and energy on this, have I missed another (and maybe simpler) solution. Googling for any other ideas has so far been unsuccessfull.

[DanS]

Perhaps a fine mesh window screen placed over the rain sensor? Folded in the shape of a pyramid so any thing that lands on it will roll off? Just a thought.

Dan

[jpp]

Hi Dan,

Yeah, I've thought of that. Interesting too is that one of the rain sensors that La Crosse sell now has a coarse plastic hole pattern across the top - hole size looks to be about 4-6mm square.

Problem with introducing a mesh cover is that you effectively decrease the collecting surface area as surface tension will result in a lot of water simply sliding down the sides of the pyramid. You could of course have the base of the pyramid inside the lip, but then you run the risk (it will happen actually) of debris collecting there. The holes would also have to be very small to preclude the small pine needles from passing through. Another problem with any sort of pyramid style of cover/filter is that you create rain collection shadows.

If I simply forgot about the inaccuracy that any of the covering methods would yield, mesh might be the simplest answer. Still cogitating......You'd think that this problem would have been well and truly solved by now, wouldn't you.

[ALITTLEweird1]

If you use that tipping method, remember your also going to record rainfall in the proccess.

[DanS]

I see what you're up against and can't see an easy solution either. Given the circumstances, I believe possibly a fine mesh cut rectangular to lay flat inside the top edge of the funnel. Some water will still splash causing inaccuracy due to this but none will roll off. Some leaves and debris will still collect but laying up near the top of the funnel thus have a chance for wind to clear it a little and you'll still have to check/clear it occasionally. No cover will mean more frequent visits to open it to clear it out. Those pine trees sure make it interesting.

Dan

[jpp]

If you use that tipping method, remember your also going to record rainfall in the proccess.

Good point. I had overlooked that!

[jpp]

It's beginning to look like a fine mesh, fitted inside the lip. Hopefully it won't have too much surface tension to prevent low rainfall from getting through it. I might even slightly concave the surface of the mesh so that there is some capacity to  cope with heavy rainfall. Looks like some experimenting over the next couple of days.

If that works, i.e. it stops the needles getting through and it copes with heavy rainfall and doesn't hold light rain (surface tension), the addition of a blower fan to clear it of needles and leaves should make it all a goer. The roof is some 3 stories of the ground, so a long way to fall  and getting to the sensor isn't that easy either, even though I can reach it from the 2nd story. So I really do want this "fix" to work and make the rain sensor maintenance free.

[Monsoon Mike]

Same problem here, except I'm surround by 90' fir trees that shower inch long needles year round. I bought some fine-mesh brass screen at a craft shop and cut out a rectangle that depresses into the top of the 23xx rain gauge. That did the trick. Good luck!