Author Topic: VP2 tipping spoon raingauge?  (Read 33240 times)

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Offline BrianLehan

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Re: VP2 tipping spoon raingauge?
« Reply #375 on: July 22, 2020, 06:02:44 PM »
So the old style see-saw tipping bucket used two outlet wells to distribute water out the bottom, whereas the spoon only uses one of them. I find that my maintenance routine had to be adjusted to monthly look at the well being used and remove debris as necessary. I have a ton of pines in my area and the rice sized needles collect often.

Is it possible yours became full or partially clogged and with that much rain in an hour, they backed up into the bottom of the unit?
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Offline Dj1225

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Re: VP2 tipping spoon raingauge?
« Reply #376 on: July 22, 2020, 07:50:42 PM »
Is it possible yours became full or partially clogged and with that much rain in an hour, they backed up into the bottom of the unit?

No it was clear nothing was clogging the drain holes.

Offline miraculon

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Re: VP2 tipping spoon raingauge?
« Reply #377 on: July 23, 2020, 09:07:46 AM »
Perhaps that high rain rate just overwhelmed the drainage port?

Quote
high rain rate was 7.38"

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Offline mcrossley

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Re: VP2 tipping spoon raingauge?
« Reply #378 on: July 23, 2020, 10:31:17 AM »
As there is a blob of water on the side of the spoon assembly, it may have overwhelmed the spoon as well - or at least been splashing out?
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Offline Dj1225

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Re: VP2 tipping spoon raingauge?
« Reply #379 on: July 23, 2020, 11:02:37 AM »
Perhaps that high rain rate just overwhelmed the drainage port?

Quote
high rain rate was 7.38"

Greg H.

As there is a blob of water on the side of the spoon assembly, it may have overwhelmed the spoon as well - or at least been splashing out?

Hmmm #-o well since it seems like it can't handle the high rain rates along the gulf coast I guess I'll switch back to the old style tipper  ](*,)

Offline Dj1225

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Re: VP2 tipping spoon raingauge?
« Reply #380 on: July 27, 2020, 01:18:52 AM »
Update...I guess installing the tipping spoon I made the base unlevel and that might have been the problem with the puddle on the side. I leveled the base and haven't seen any water puddling since, even with a rain rate on the 25th of 9.00"/hr. As most noted in here last year there is a slight positive bias comparing it with the cocorahs gauge. I've had rain everyday since Wednesday the 22nd we've been on the wet side of Hurricane Hannah here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast here are my comparisons.....

7/22 VP2 0.83" (with water puddled on the base) Coco 0.81"

7/23 VP2 0.20"   Coco 0.18"

7/24 VP2 1.51"   Coco 1.48"

7/25 VP2 2.22"   Coco 2.16"

7/26 VP2 0.71"   Coco 0.68"
« Last Edit: July 27, 2020, 01:21:02 AM by Dj1225 »

Offline johnd

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Re: VP2 tipping spoon raingauge?
« Reply #381 on: July 27, 2020, 03:31:09 AM »
TBH that looks like as good agreement as you're likely to get when comparing any two rain gauges.
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Offline Dj1225

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Re: VP2 tipping spoon raingauge?
« Reply #382 on: July 27, 2020, 07:38:44 AM »
TBH that looks like as good agreement as you're likely to get when comparing any two rain gauges.

Yeah I agree and I'm definitely happy with the results. Much better than the original tipper.

Offline Mapantz

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Re: VP2 tipping spoon raingauge?
« Reply #383 on: August 28, 2020, 08:38:46 AM »
I just wanted to make a quick post regarding my spoon tipper.. I'm over the moon with it!

Yesterday saw an absolute biblical amount of rain in a short space of time, I certainly have never seen anything like it! I recorded a rain rate of 411 mm/hr - the radar reflectivity dBz showed rainfall rates off of the scale.

The rain gauge is always recording the same amount of rain as my manual gauge at the same height, just two feet apart. It's very consistent and copes with the extreme downpours we're having at the moment. Best decision I made was to replace the old see-saw tipper.


Well, that post made me look stupid!
« Last Edit: December 15, 2020, 06:57:17 PM by Mapantz »


Offline ConligWX

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Re: VP2 tipping spoon raingauge?
« Reply #384 on: August 28, 2020, 08:44:04 AM »
That's some rain! Have to agree the tipping spoon upgrade was a no brainer for me.

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Offline Jasiu

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Re: VP2 tipping spoon raingauge?
« Reply #385 on: August 28, 2020, 03:21:48 PM »
I put in a tipping spoon a few weeks ago and my only complaint is that it hasn't done anything to end our drought.  :-|

But when it has rained, it's always been within .01" of the CoCo gauge, which is as good as it gets and wasn't the case with the see-saw.
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Offline WheatonRon

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Re: VP2 tipping spoon raingauge?
« Reply #386 on: September 28, 2020, 04:43:43 PM »
It has been a month since anybody posted anything in this thread so I decided to post some additional observations regarding the Davis spoon tipper. I have 3 VP2s—2 with the spoon tipper the other with the see saw tipper. Over time I have found the spoon tipper more accurate than the see-saw tipper AS LONG as the spoon is kept clean of debris. Awhile back, one of my spoon tippers started grossly over reporting rainfall. I ventured out to the ISS and found “gunk” from birds and God knows what else in the spoon that remained there even after dropping accumulated rainfall. This had a dramatic effect of over reporting rain. Once I removed the gunk, the spoon tipper started reporting rainfall accurately again. For whatever reason, the see saw tipper doesn’t have this issue—its gunk gets eliminated when tipping rain. In short? Like most things in life, you have to maintain it, or it loses its purpose—correctly measuring and measuring rainfall!
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Offline ConligWX

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Re: VP2 tipping spoon raingauge?
« Reply #387 on: September 28, 2020, 05:15:43 PM »
yep just cleaned my ISS on sunday.  the spoon and the shoot that the spoon dumps water into had dirt build up on the surfaces. The AeroCone however was very clean.  Maybe the birds in my area are not very good shots at the cone  :lol:

My FARS Shield was pretty black inside too, though its like new now.
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Offline Mapantz

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Re: VP2 tipping spoon raingauge?
« Reply #388 on: December 05, 2020, 07:00:30 AM »
I've started to notice an issue with the newer Davis spoon tipper after 6 months of keeping an eye on it..

It doesn't do well in when there's a lot of rainfall in a short space of time.

In the 6 months I  have been using it, we've had unusual rain events here where a lot of rain falls in the space of 6 - 10 hours.

I've got 2 manual gauges, the Davis one and another self tipping one. The Davis gauge, a manual gauge and the other self tipper are all at the same height. The self tipper is 12ft away, from the Davis. The manual gauge is 2ft away. The 4th manual gauge is on the ground.

If around 15mm falls in a 12 - 24 hours period - steady rain - they are evenly matched. If we get big downpours of 15mm+ in the space of 1 or 2 hours, or even 25mm+ in 6 hours, the Davis gauge is regularly 3mm or more, higher than the rest of the gauges.

I know someone will post something along the lines of "rainfall can vary within short spaces" but I have had a lot of days with downpours to be able to monitor it. There's a clear sign that it overreads in heavy/very heavy rain. It seems to not be able to cope and tips extra times in downpours.

Back in August, we had a thunderstorm which produced some of the heaviest rainfall I have ever seen, which produced a rain rate of 411 mm/hr. I'm doubting that figure now based on what keeps happening. It's overread rainfall by at least 3mm on 9 occasions in the last 6 months, and it has again today.

I've checked the gauge thoroughly every single week. The spoon is clean, no cobwebs and nothing I can see to cause it to produce these spurious amounts. As I said above, the problems arise during very heavy rain. It's like it can't cope with the influx of water and the spoon tips multiple times before it has a chance to reset.

It's all good in steady dynamic rainfall events. Anything convective / downpours, it goes off on one.

There is a clear signal  that it has issues in heavy rain events and it doesn't leave me with any confidence now, as you cannot really adjust it in this situation. If you did, you'd get lower rainfall readings during the steady rain episodes.



Offline Mapantz

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Re: VP2 tipping spoon raingauge?
« Reply #389 on: December 15, 2020, 06:50:00 PM »
I have been in contact with Davis and they cannot help - basically said it's likely I have a dodgy rain tipper and I will have to contact the supplier to use the warranty on it.

I'm starting to think it was a bad idea now... it was simple to calibrate the old see-saw tipper. With this one, you're stuffed!
« Last Edit: December 15, 2020, 06:54:43 PM by Mapantz »


Offline CW2274

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Re: VP2 tipping spoon raingauge?
« Reply #390 on: December 15, 2020, 06:52:36 PM »
I'm starting to think it was a bad idea now... it was simple to calibrate the old see-saw tipper. With this one, you're stuffed!
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Offline BrianLehan

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Re: VP2 tipping spoon raingauge?
« Reply #391 on: December 21, 2020, 08:34:47 PM »
Mapantz Back in October and November a neighboring station and I began a little close comparisons of his Davis see-saw and his manual gauge and my spoon and manual gauge and the conclusion is that the spoon and the see-saw were just as accurate the manual gauges in those yards were. So I think Davis must be right, your was a factory defect and replacing it would fix your issue. Or you could ask the place you bought it from to maybe send the warranty replacement in the form of a see-saw if that is your desire but I think the spoons are a lot better than the see-saws were mechanically IMHO. 
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Offline Mapantz

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Re: VP2 tipping spoon raingauge?
« Reply #392 on: December 22, 2020, 06:17:28 AM »
I sent it back on Friday. They received it yesterday and did some testing on it..

Quote
Having received the tipping spoon this morning, we agree that the calibration is slightly off compared to our reference model from Davis. It gives 36 tips compared to 40 of the reference model we have. The sealed calibration screw can also be seen to be a little higher on yours reducing the tip rate.

Their findings suggest that it was under-reading rainfall?!

There's absolutely no way it was under-reading! There are numerous days where it was as much as 8mm higher than my manual gauges and other mechanical tipper. If it was under-reading, it would put that in excess of 10mm.

I put my see-saw tipper back in on Saturday, and yesterday, another inch of rain fell. The Davis was at 25.8mm. The other mechanical tipper recorded 25.7mm, and the two manual gauges were circa 26mm. If the spoon tipper had been kept, it would have registered in excess of 30mm.

It's pretty conclusive over the past 5 / 6 months that the newer spoon tipper is completely wide of the mark. I find it weird that in the shops testing, they found it to be under-reading..