Author Topic: Barani: too good to be true...  (Read 2235 times)

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Offline gvdb1111

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Barani: too good to be true...
« on: March 08, 2024, 05:28:38 PM »
I serve on the board of the Belgian Meteo Club. Belgium, a small country in Europe with Brussels as its capital. Total area only 30,000 km2
Our network counts 98 Barani Meteohelix stations since its creation in 2020, more than 20 MeteoWind Iot stations and 85 MeteoRain rain gauges. In short, for Barani we were a good customer: lots of revenue and good advertising because all stations were publicly accessible (also on their allMeteo website).
After 3 years of using Barani, we can present the following figures:
- of the 98 stations, 55 have been defective: 80% of the problems are problems related to the measuring sensor, wires breaking off from the solar panel due to corrosion and the solar panel itself breaking down
- of the 20 wind stations, 6 have malfunctioned: software crashing, very fast freeze-up and cups breaking off
- of the rain gauges almost every one measures too little with some specimens up to 40% deviation.
Barani's customer service is limited to replacing the defective items, unfortunately the replacements also continue to show the same problems. In other words, solving the problem is not happening.
Most problems have started to occur after 12 to 18 months, but as the lifespan increases the problems increase even faster. So for our network a real disaster....
After reporting on the club's website that we no longer wanted to offer these devices because of what we consider to be questionable/bad quality, the manufacturer Barani closed the door completely.
Emails from us with the CEO Jan Barani simply admit that the problems are "challenging" in our Belgian climate. However, we only have a maritime climate, nothing extreme....
They also try to make us believe that we are apparently the only ones experiencing the problems mentioned above. With 98 weather stations operational (or better: were operational) we can - in our opinion - paint a representative picture of the Barani quality.
Much is promised, but unfortunately few of those promises are translated into reality.
The only product that works well is the Meteoshield. However, when electronics or software are involved, things go wrong.
Barani advertises on their website: "14 years of research, 12 years of field experience", but they forgot to add: ".... and still a failure rate exceeding 50%...". When one has 12 years of field experience and still 50% failure rate, there is something thoroughly wrong with the design and/or engineers developing these products.
For us: never again Barani, it was a real waste of money.
More info: https://meteo-be.net/en/measuring-equipment
« Last Edit: March 20, 2024, 07:43:21 AM by gvdb1111 »

Offline mauro63

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Re: Barani: too good to be true...
« Reply #1 on: March 22, 2024, 08:08:54 AM »
I serve on the board of the Belgian Meteo Club. Belgium, a small country in Europe with Brussels as its capital. Total area only 30,000 km2
Our network counts 98 Barani Meteohelix stations since its creation in 2020, more than 20 MeteoWind Iot stations and 85 MeteoRain rain gauges. In short, for Barani we were a good customer: lots of revenue and good advertising because all stations were publicly accessible (also on their allMeteo website).
After 3 years of using Barani, we can present the following figures:
- of the 98 stations, 55 have been defective: 80% of the problems are problems related to the measuring sensor, wires breaking off from the solar panel due to corrosion and the solar panel itself breaking down
- of the 20 wind stations, 6 have malfunctioned: software crashing, very fast freeze-up and cups breaking off
- of the rain gauges almost every one measures too little with some specimens up to 40% deviation.
Barani's customer service is limited to replacing the defective items, unfortunately the replacements also continue to show the same problems. In other words, solving the problem is not happening.
Most problems have started to occur after 12 to 18 months, but as the lifespan increases the problems increase even faster. So for our network a real disaster....
After reporting on the club's website that we no longer wanted to offer these devices because of what we consider to be questionable/bad quality, the manufacturer Barani closed the door completely.
Emails from us with the CEO Jan Barani simply admit that the problems are "challenging" in our Belgian climate. However, we only have a maritime climate, nothing extreme....
They also try to make us believe that we are apparently the only ones experiencing the problems mentioned above. With 98 weather stations operational (or better: were operational) we can - in our opinion - paint a representative picture of the Barani quality.
Much is promised, but unfortunately few of those promises are translated into reality.
The only product that works well is the Meteoshield. However, when electronics or software are involved, things go wrong.
Barani advertises on their website: "14 years of research, 12 years of field experience", but they forgot to add: ".... and still a failure rate exceeding 50%...". When one has 12 years of field experience and still 50% failure rate, there is something thoroughly wrong with the design and/or engineers developing these products.
For us: never again Barani, it was a real waste of money.
More info: https://meteo-be.net/en/measuring-equipment

I'm surprised, both I and many other users in my country have been using Meteohelix, Metwowind, Meteorain and Pro for several years without having had any technical problems other than slight and brief interruptions in data transmission due to software

Thanks anyway for your valuable input and sorry for my bad English

M.

Offline baranij

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Re: Barani: too good to be true...
« Reply #2 on: March 27, 2024, 02:57:01 PM »
Hello Luc and Geert,
I am very sad to see you go to all these lengths to badmouth BARANI products so that you can promote your "MeteoWise, the new weather station developed by BMCB." To keep things neutral, please be clear with the community that your BMCB club is split into users who want to continue using BARANI weather station products (bmcb.club) and others who want to try your MeteoWise weather station (meteo-be.net). 

In my email to you both, I stated that I am very much OK with you making your own weather station. Please reread my email. In fact, I am very happy that you will have hardware that exactly meets your needs. As I made clear when we started cooperation with BMCB, you had a very substantial price discount that we granted you for this cooperation; you had early releases of our products and a promise to replace any hardware as necessary in this very close cooperation. We kept our promise.

In conclusion, I would like to thank you for your cooperation and wish you all the best in your endeavors. We will continue to work with the rest of the BMCB members, who actively want to keep our cooperation going.

Cheers,
Jan Barani
(CEO of BARANI DESIGN Technologies)

Offline gvdb1111

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Re: Barani: too good to be true...
« Reply #3 on: March 27, 2024, 04:29:45 PM »
Jan,
- The station we have now developed is NO commercial product. It has been developed as replacement for the continuously failing stations in our BMCB network and is sold against cost, that's it. If you have read my email, this was already mentioned. It is no advertising to sell "as many as possible", we only want to keep up our network.
- Yes, I will be 'very clear': the club is split: one group of 3 persons (and some friends of them) and the rest no longer believing in your products, mainly the Meteohelix. Weather stations ratio of the two groups is 1:7. Draw your own conclusion... I wish you all the best with the cooperation.
- Regarding early releases: the Meteohelix stations we bought in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 are all having the same diseases and failure rate. You can no longer say a product sold in 2023 is an "early release".
- The numbers I have mentioned are the real numbers. I can provide a full listing of all the devices that have failed. We are already end of March and this month you can add few more having reached premature end of life. Maybe good to know: these are the number of devices that failed; some of them have failed multiple times.
- You mentioned in one of your emails that the products should have a lifetime of 10+ years but we are now 2024... only 3-4 years after the first installed devices and more than 50% is/was down. Please explain possible customers how you will anticipate these defects.
- High accuracy, high precision, "set and forget" are nice words on your website and in advertising, but if the device is not working and there's no data sent, what is the meaning of 'high accuracy and high precision' ?
- Badmouth Barani products? No, just saying how it is... If you do not agree, please tell me what's wrong.
- By the way: in my last email I was asking what to do with the failing devices from our members (not mine)? After weeks, no answer at all. Customer service?

 
« Last Edit: March 27, 2024, 05:41:20 PM by gvdb1111 »

Offline Jasper3012

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Re: Barani: too good to be true...
« Reply #4 on: April 01, 2024, 07:06:56 AM »
I serve on the board of the Belgian Meteo Club. Belgium, a small country in Europe with Brussels as its capital. Total area only 30,000 km2
Our network counts 98 Barani Meteohelix stations since its creation in 2020, more than 20 MeteoWind Iot stations and 85 MeteoRain rain gauges. In short, for Barani we were a good customer: lots of revenue and good advertising because all stations were publicly accessible (also on their allMeteo website).
After 3 years of using Barani, we can present the following figures:
- of the 98 stations, 55 have been defective: 80% of the problems are problems related to the measuring sensor, wires breaking off from the solar panel due to corrosion and the solar panel itself breaking down
- of the 20 wind stations, 6 have malfunctioned: software crashing, very fast freeze-up and cups breaking off
- of the rain gauges almost every one measures too little with some specimens up to 40% deviation.
Barani's customer service is limited to replacing the defective items, unfortunately the replacements also continue to show the same problems. In other words, solving the problem is not happening.
Most problems have started to occur after 12 to 18 months, but as the lifespan increases the problems increase even faster. So for our network a real disaster....
After reporting on the club's website that we no longer wanted to offer these devices because of what we consider to be questionable/bad quality, the manufacturer Barani closed the door completely.
Emails from us with the CEO Jan Barani simply admit that the problems are "challenging" in our Belgian climate. However, we only have a maritime climate, nothing extreme....
They also try to make us believe that we are apparently the only ones experiencing the problems mentioned above. With 98 weather stations operational (or better: were operational) we can - in our opinion - paint a representative picture of the Barani quality.
Much is promised, but unfortunately few of those promises are translated into reality.
The only product that works well is the Meteoshield. However, when electronics or software are involved, things go wrong.
Barani advertises on their website: "14 years of research, 12 years of field experience", but they forgot to add: ".... and still a failure rate exceeding 50%...". When one has 12 years of field experience and still 50% failure rate, there is something thoroughly wrong with the design and/or engineers developing these products.
For us: never again Barani, it was a real waste of money.
More info: https://meteo-be.net/en/measuring-equipment

I'm surprised, both I and many other users in my country have been using Meteohelix, Metwowind, Meteorain and Pro for several years without having had any technical problems other than slight and brief interruptions in data transmission due to software

Thanks anyway for your valuable input and sorry for my bad English

M.

Hi Mauro. I'm no expert like @gvdb1111 but we've had conversations about this, it seems that a lot of the failures are caused by water. The issue with the sensor head is caused by water getting into the sensor head (correct me if I'm wrong @gvdb1111), due to the coating being insufficient. The wiring of the solar panel breaking apart due to corrosion is also from water leaking into the space between the panel and the shield. So therefore, it seems normal that in Italy, which has a dry Mediterranean climate, there will be less of these issues, as it's not as humid and damp compared to Belgium. It's definitely not just a "Belgian issue" though, I know of multiple failures with MeteoHelixes in England aswell, which has a similar climate to Belgium.

Offline Jasper3012

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Re: Barani: too good to be true...
« Reply #5 on: April 01, 2024, 07:18:23 AM »
In terms of my own experience, it's mixed, to say the least... On one hand, I think the MeteoShield Pro is an excellent product and deserves praise. I've also always had great customer service, so no complaints there at all. On the other hand, I've had my fair share of failures aswell: 1 sensor head has had to be replaced, the solar panel wires on one of the two MH's I own has broken down (due to corrosion) and the MeteoWind Compact I bought a few months ago is showing some very weird behaviour. I think Barani is a good company, it's just that there's seemingly a lack of progress in fixing the issues, it's been a number of years since the failures first started popping up and they're still occurring now. I wish Barani all the best, anyway.

Offline mauro63

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Re: Barani: too good to be true...
« Reply #6 on: April 01, 2024, 08:49:46 AM »
I serve on the board of the Belgian Meteo Club. Belgium, a small country in Europe with Brussels as its capital. Total area only 30,000 km2
Our network counts 98 Barani Meteohelix stations since its creation in 2020, more than 20 MeteoWind Iot stations and 85 MeteoRain rain gauges. In short, for Barani we were a good customer: lots of revenue and good advertising because all stations were publicly accessible (also on their allMeteo website).
After 3 years of using Barani, we can present the following figures:
- of the 98 stations, 55 have been defective: 80% of the problems are problems related to the measuring sensor, wires breaking off from the solar panel due to corrosion and the solar panel itself breaking down
- of the 20 wind stations, 6 have malfunctioned: software crashing, very fast freeze-up and cups breaking off
- of the rain gauges almost every one measures too little with some specimens up to 40% deviation.
Barani's customer service is limited to replacing the defective items, unfortunately the replacements also continue to show the same problems. In other words, solving the problem is not happening.
Most problems have started to occur after 12 to 18 months, but as the lifespan increases the problems increase even faster. So for our network a real disaster....
After reporting on the club's website that we no longer wanted to offer these devices because of what we consider to be questionable/bad quality, the manufacturer Barani closed the door completely.
Emails from us with the CEO Jan Barani simply admit that the problems are "challenging" in our Belgian climate. However, we only have a maritime climate, nothing extreme....
They also try to make us believe that we are apparently the only ones experiencing the problems mentioned above. With 98 weather stations operational (or better: were operational) we can - in our opinion - paint a representative picture of the Barani quality.
Much is promised, but unfortunately few of those promises are translated into reality.
The only product that works well is the Meteoshield. However, when electronics or software are involved, things go wrong.
Barani advertises on their website: "14 years of research, 12 years of field experience", but they forgot to add: ".... and still a failure rate exceeding 50%...". When one has 12 years of field experience and still 50% failure rate, there is something thoroughly wrong with the design and/or engineers developing these products.
For us: never again Barani, it was a real waste of money.
More info: https://meteo-be.net/en/measuring-equipment

I'm surprised, both I and many other users in my country have been using Meteohelix, Metwowind, Meteorain and Pro for several years without having had any technical problems other than slight and brief interruptions in data transmission due to software

Thanks anyway for your valuable input and sorry for my bad English

M.

Hi Mauro. I'm no expert like @gvdb1111 but we've had conversations about this, it seems that a lot of the failures are caused by water. The issue with the sensor head is caused by water getting into the sensor head (correct me if I'm wrong @gvdb1111), due to the coating being insufficient. The wiring of the solar panel breaking apart due to corrosion is also from water leaking into the space between the panel and the shield. So therefore, it seems normal that in Italy, which has a dry Mediterranean climate, there will be less of these issues, as it's not as humid and damp compared to Belgium. It's definitely not just a "Belgian issue" though, I know of multiple failures with MeteoHelixes in England aswell, which has a similar climate to Belgium.

Hello and thanks to you too,
you are certainly right, my opinion was only regarding the installations, I have followed most of them, in our country and, as you say, the type of climate could have a heavy influence on reliability.
It is certain that, at times, it is easier to manage extreme climates, I am speaking in terms of temperature and wind, than high levels of humidity, perhaps prolonged over time and accompanied by a high saline component.

Excuse me for my poor English :(

M.

Offline Jasper3012

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Re: Barani: too good to be true...
« Reply #7 on: April 04, 2024, 01:45:11 PM »
I serve on the board of the Belgian Meteo Club. Belgium, a small country in Europe with Brussels as its capital. Total area only 30,000 km2
Our network counts 98 Barani Meteohelix stations since its creation in 2020, more than 20 MeteoWind Iot stations and 85 MeteoRain rain gauges. In short, for Barani we were a good customer: lots of revenue and good advertising because all stations were publicly accessible (also on their allMeteo website).
After 3 years of using Barani, we can present the following figures:
- of the 98 stations, 55 have been defective: 80% of the problems are problems related to the measuring sensor, wires breaking off from the solar panel due to corrosion and the solar panel itself breaking down
- of the 20 wind stations, 6 have malfunctioned: software crashing, very fast freeze-up and cups breaking off
- of the rain gauges almost every one measures too little with some specimens up to 40% deviation.
Barani's customer service is limited to replacing the defective items, unfortunately the replacements also continue to show the same problems. In other words, solving the problem is not happening.
Most problems have started to occur after 12 to 18 months, but as the lifespan increases the problems increase even faster. So for our network a real disaster....
After reporting on the club's website that we no longer wanted to offer these devices because of what we consider to be questionable/bad quality, the manufacturer Barani closed the door completely.
Emails from us with the CEO Jan Barani simply admit that the problems are "challenging" in our Belgian climate. However, we only have a maritime climate, nothing extreme....
They also try to make us believe that we are apparently the only ones experiencing the problems mentioned above. With 98 weather stations operational (or better: were operational) we can - in our opinion - paint a representative picture of the Barani quality.
Much is promised, but unfortunately few of those promises are translated into reality.
The only product that works well is the Meteoshield. However, when electronics or software are involved, things go wrong.
Barani advertises on their website: "14 years of research, 12 years of field experience", but they forgot to add: ".... and still a failure rate exceeding 50%...". When one has 12 years of field experience and still 50% failure rate, there is something thoroughly wrong with the design and/or engineers developing these products.
For us: never again Barani, it was a real waste of money.
More info: https://meteo-be.net/en/measuring-equipment

I'm surprised, both I and many other users in my country have been using Meteohelix, Metwowind, Meteorain and Pro for several years without having had any technical problems other than slight and brief interruptions in data transmission due to software

Thanks anyway for your valuable input and sorry for my bad English

M.

Hi Mauro. I'm no expert like @gvdb1111 but we've had conversations about this, it seems that a lot of the failures are caused by water. The issue with the sensor head is caused by water getting into the sensor head (correct me if I'm wrong @gvdb1111), due to the coating being insufficient. The wiring of the solar panel breaking apart due to corrosion is also from water leaking into the space between the panel and the shield. So therefore, it seems normal that in Italy, which has a dry Mediterranean climate, there will be less of these issues, as it's not as humid and damp compared to Belgium. It's definitely not just a "Belgian issue" though, I know of multiple failures with MeteoHelixes in England aswell, which has a similar climate to Belgium.

Hello and thanks to you too,
you are certainly right, my opinion was only regarding the installations, I have followed most of them, in our country and, as you say, the type of climate could have a heavy influence on reliability.
It is certain that, at times, it is easier to manage extreme climates, I am speaking in terms of temperature and wind, than high levels of humidity, perhaps prolonged over time and accompanied by a high saline component.

Excuse me for my poor English :(

M.

That could be true, but you'd expect a company like Barani to be able to learn from its experiences and adjust their design accordingly. So far, this hasn't happened.

Offline gvdb1111

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Re: Barani: too good to be true...
« Reply #8 on: April 30, 2024, 06:38:49 AM »
We are two months later. The winter season is over.
Since the first post, we can add five more weather stations to our list of problems (Meteohelixes being completely down or continuously having problems with the sensor). The total number of faulty weather stations is now 60! Damn Belgian climate...  :-(

Offline Arkadiusz_w

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Re: Barani: too good to be true...
« Reply #9 on: April 30, 2024, 09:04:35 AM »
We are using dozens of Barani Gen III shields in Poland in various locations. We have spent thousands of euros on their product.  In some time we will show charts here on the forum that will shed light, because this shield is not perfect and has a lot of flaws that the Barani company does not talk about. We did compilations and comparisons throughout the year, the Slovaks advertised this as a replacement for the excellent Stevenson replacement, which we do not agree with and are entitled to this opinion.

There were comparisons with Apogee TS100 and Davis FARS24H, as well as Stevenson's WMO-compliant cage and SHT35 and PT1000 sensors. Comparisons were also made by a colleague who had several years of experience at state weather and hydrology service stations and saw quickly where the Barani Gen III was poor.

I myself had a Barani MeteoWind and it failed after 6 months of operation. The Barani company refunded the money and paid shipping both ways. I will not buy any more wind gauge from Barani company. I think their company uses too much marketing in their products.

Ecowitt WS90 1.3.8, WS80 1.2.5, Ecowitt WS68, Ecowitt WH31EP/WH32EP, WH40, WH57, WN34L, WH51, WN34D, HP2560_C, HP2550_C, GW1100, GW2000. Davis Vantage Pro 2, Davis Vue, Davis 6313, Hongyuv WDS2E

Barani Meteoshield Pro II, III, Davis FARS 24H

Offline giusCB

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Re: Barani: too good to be true...
« Reply #10 on: May 02, 2024, 02:45:44 PM »
We are two months later. The winter season is over.
Since the first post, we can add five more weather stations to our list of problems (Meteohelixes being completely down or continuously having problems with the sensor). The total number of faulty weather stations is now 60! Damn Belgian climate...  :-(

 :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:
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Offline giusCB

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Re: Barani: too good to be true...
« Reply #11 on: May 02, 2024, 02:48:52 PM »
Damn Belgian climate...  :-(

In Italy, there isn't a dry climate everywhere. I also manage a weather network, and I have stations where wind speeds exceed 200 km/h or temperature variations of over 30°C between day and night... So, it's not just a problem in Belgium because it's even worse here.





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Offline Arkadiusz_w

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Re: Barani: too good to be true...
« Reply #12 on: May 02, 2024, 03:02:52 PM »
Weather conditions in Poland also did not serve Barani's products.  The solar panels from MeteoWind began to disintegrate as shown on the following page after 3 months in my location. It looked similar to what happened here: https://meteo-be.net/en/barani-equipment-what-goes-wrong

In addition, corrosion began to appear on the elements of the anemometer. After 6 months there was a failure of MeteoWind ioT Pro. Barani support detected it themselves and wrote me an email. They wanted to replace only the box for me, but I was able to return the entire Meteowind communicating over Lorawan and get my money back. In general, for a premium brand, the number of shortcomings was frightening. Interestingly, the Ecowitt WS68 set up at the same time has been working for more than 2 years, while the Barani Wind failed after 6 months. The $80 product outlived the European product, which costs in the neighborhood of 700 euros, by several times. Although it must be admitted that the direction and accuracy of the aileron in the Barani Wind was at a professional level, while the WS68 is poor. The tripping threshold was better than in the WS68.

I have heard from other Barani users that such failures of the MeteoWind iOt from Barani are not uncommon. They also pointed out that the anemometer freezes quickly in the winter (faster than the competitors), earlier versions of MeteoWind also suffered from breaking elliptical anemometer blades. Often the max windgust is not reported on some devices.... because of measurement errors due to the reedswitch. There were, and reportedly are, more of these flaws in MeteoWind.
« Last Edit: May 02, 2024, 03:35:55 PM by Arkadiusz_w »
Ecowitt WS90 1.3.8, WS80 1.2.5, Ecowitt WS68, Ecowitt WH31EP/WH32EP, WH40, WH57, WN34L, WH51, WN34D, HP2560_C, HP2550_C, GW1100, GW2000. Davis Vantage Pro 2, Davis Vue, Davis 6313, Hongyuv WDS2E

Barani Meteoshield Pro II, III, Davis FARS 24H

Offline gvdb1111

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Re: Barani: too good to be true...
« Reply #13 on: May 02, 2024, 03:37:12 PM »
@giusCB: the statement of the 'belgian climate' came from Jan Barani, not me. If I had to believe him, it's only happening in our country. But as I can read here, the problems are everywhere. Our national weather service (RMI) also has 50-60 devices in the field and they have the same failure rate.

And worst of all: Barani shows no sign of life when it comes to fixing the problems. That's the easiest (and especially cheapest) way to get rid of the problems.


Offline Arkadiusz_w

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Re: Barani: too good to be true...
« Reply #14 on: May 02, 2024, 03:54:52 PM »
I have several Barani Meteoshield Pro II and III passive shields. Dozens of people in Poland have their shields and often more than one Gen III. Significant defects after a year of their shields are known and will soon be written about on many forums. Some copies are more than 2 years old, and the condition of the plastics is good, as is the disc assembly. Worse is what sometimes happens in this shield during temperature and humidity measurements, and the manufacturer would prefer that no one show certain data more widely to the public, as enthusiasm could diminish.


We were briefed on the potential advantages and disadvantages by a colleague who worked at WMO weather stations for many years, and he showed us where to test the Barani Gen III shield and under what conditions when it might not be effective.

At one point in our Barani purchase path, we considered buying an Barani Meteohelix, but stayed with our own solutions with the PT100/PT1000 4-wire with loggers and the SHT35 from Ecowitt, modifying the tips. At least we didn't expose ourselves to Barani's failing electronics. As I mentioned the malfunctions and problems with my MeteoWind, the enthusiasm to buy more electronic products from Barani Design was gone. Although the electronics in its passive cover won't break anything, because it's not there. I wonder how about the durability of the Barani FARS, which recently came out, whether its electronics and windmill will also prove to be highly fail-safe like other products from this company. It would be good if users of the Barani FARS would comment on this, although I know that use is short and not all flaws may have come to light.

The most eye-catching thing is the colorized marketing slogan on the below page: Don't live with temperature error.

We will find out whether we are not living with a significant temperature measurement error in Barani Gen III under certain conditions based on independent tests, comparing different covers from reputable and well-known companies.

https://www.baranidesign.com/
« Last Edit: May 02, 2024, 04:31:10 PM by Arkadiusz_w »
Ecowitt WS90 1.3.8, WS80 1.2.5, Ecowitt WS68, Ecowitt WH31EP/WH32EP, WH40, WH57, WN34L, WH51, WN34D, HP2560_C, HP2550_C, GW1100, GW2000. Davis Vantage Pro 2, Davis Vue, Davis 6313, Hongyuv WDS2E

Barani Meteoshield Pro II, III, Davis FARS 24H

Offline tobyportugal

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Re: Barani: too good to be true...
« Reply #15 on: May 03, 2024, 05:28:42 AM »
I have several Barani Meteoshield Pro II and III passive shields. Dozens of people in Poland have their shields and often more than one Gen III. Significant defects after a year of their shields are known and will soon be written about on many forums. Some copies are more than 2 years old, and the condition of the plastics is good, as is the disc assembly. Worse is what sometimes happens in this shield during temperature and humidity measurements, and the manufacturer would prefer that no one show certain data more widely to the public, as enthusiasm could diminish.


We were briefed on the potential advantages and disadvantages by a colleague who worked at WMO weather stations for many years, and he showed us where to test the Barani Gen III shield and under what conditions when it might not be effective.

At one point in our Barani purchase path, we considered buying an Barani Meteohelix, but stayed with our own solutions with the PT100/PT1000 4-wire with loggers and the SHT35 from Ecowitt, modifying the tips. At least we didn't expose ourselves to Barani's failing electronics. As I mentioned the malfunctions and problems with my MeteoWind, the enthusiasm to buy more electronic products from Barani Design was gone. Although the electronics in its passive cover won't break anything, because it's not there. I wonder how about the durability of the Barani FARS, which recently came out, whether its electronics and windmill will also prove to be highly fail-safe like other products from this company. It would be good if users of the Barani FARS would comment on this, although I know that use is short and not all flaws may have come to light.

The most eye-catching thing is the colorized marketing slogan on the below page: Don't live with temperature error.

We will find out whether we are not living with a significant temperature measurement error in Barani Gen III under certain conditions based on independent tests, comparing different covers from reputable and well-known companies.

https://www.baranidesign.com/

Good morning,
I'm laughing out loud at your comments.
Please be serious!
To say that a Pro3 is crap, do you have a certified probe? 
Probably not, because no-one here knows how to pay for one and operate it electronically!
What is your reference standard (shelter and probe)? 
Your PT100/1000 are hilarious... are your PTs from a certified source (100€) with the right cables or bought on Alixxxxx? You probably have a 10 or 20€ power supply ....
Your SHT35 Ecowitt, now I'm laughing even harder.... the data is sent every 61sec (EP31) or 64sec (EP32) and the worst thing is that there is no date stamp in the data!!!!! 
The 61sec counter starts when the batteries are inserted.
So each time the GWxxxx are sent on the net, there can be up to 2 minutes difference between 2 EPs... but in the Ecowitt APIs, they ALL have the same time.
At our level, the only thing we can assert is the behaviour at time X of a shelter Z compared with a shelter Y during a phenomenon X.
I can't stand assertions based on a haphazard methodology that are supposed to be high-level, almost professional! And without any tangible proof, just words...
I'm Belgian and I've been living (and working) in Portugal for 14 years, where the climate is very humid and unstable. I'm 15km from the ocean in central Portugal, which is notorious for excessive humidity.
I have at home Pro3, Comet F8004, Rad14 (soon Rad02) ALL with SHT45s without filters mounted on PTFE tubes (+Davis VP2, Sonic, Lambrecht rain gauge, MeteoWind, MeteoRain, MeteoHelix, etc.).
This allows me to say that the blue line shelter is rubbish? No, it's just that during the phenomenon it's slower to react to a sudden very hot night wind from the east (early April 2024).
PS: I've deliberately hidden the type of shelter because I'm not interested in sterile discussions.



About the SHT35 (dual-probe SHT35/SHT45 sensors in the same shelter): 


Offline Arkadiusz_w

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Re: Barani: too good to be true...
« Reply #16 on: May 03, 2024, 06:04:50 AM »
@tobyportugal - Yes, you can laugh, but you are ranting and unnecessarily defending a cover that is not as good as the creator writes about. We use calibrated PT100 4-wire and PT1000 with certification from the national accreditation center PCA and recording on loggers at the same time. The tests were carried out by a colleague who worked at weather service stations for several years. SHT35 show from the whole day similar results. We use SHT35 without filters for fast response time. We know under what conditions the Barani shield is poor, and this was outlined by a colleague who has many years of experience working at WMO-compliant stations.

We use calibrated recorders from this company and thermometers. Mainly in Barani shields and derivatives. We performed tests using Barani Meteoshield Pro III, Apogee TS100, Davis FARS24H and a full-size Stevenson Screnn built according to the scheme of the Polish meteorological service.

https://termoprodukt.co.uk/current-pharmacy-lcd-data-logger-termio-2

https://termoprodukt.co.uk/fridge-or-freezer-alarm-thermometer-dt-3

https://termoprodukt.co.uk/soft

https://termoprodukt.co.uk/industrial-fridge-temperature-external-sensor-data-recorder-termio-1

https://termoprodukt.com.pl/calibration-certificate-pca

WH31EP/WH32EP are as a backup. We have removed the factory filters:

https://shop.ecowitt.com/collections/thermometer-probe-sensor
« Last Edit: May 03, 2024, 06:09:51 AM by Arkadiusz_w »
Ecowitt WS90 1.3.8, WS80 1.2.5, Ecowitt WS68, Ecowitt WH31EP/WH32EP, WH40, WH57, WN34L, WH51, WN34D, HP2560_C, HP2550_C, GW1100, GW2000. Davis Vantage Pro 2, Davis Vue, Davis 6313, Hongyuv WDS2E

Barani Meteoshield Pro II, III, Davis FARS 24H

Offline Dador

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Re: Barani: too good to be true...
« Reply #17 on: May 03, 2024, 06:11:25 AM »
I have been using the Barani gen 2 radiation shield for 4 years (01.06.2020). I think I am one of its first non-commercial users in Poland. Over the years, I have already formed an opinion about her. I have seen its operation in various external conditions. In summer, winter, during downpours and storms. And I will write one thing. This is a very good passive shield, and the helix effect that Barani boasts about is a fact, not a marketing trick. The cover is made of very good quality plastics. After these 4 years on the outside, there are no signs of aging. This is phenomenal! I have no opinion about other Barani products because I have never seen them in person. However, the Barani MeteoShield radiation shield is worth the price and I will continue to consider it a very good product.
« Last Edit: May 03, 2024, 06:26:07 AM by Dador »

Offline mauro63

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Re: Barani: too good to be true...
« Reply #18 on: May 03, 2024, 07:52:50 AM »
I agree with one of the last posts, a sterile and useless discussion.
Barani is crap, Ecowitt is crap etc, please don't buy anything from these manufacturers
professional sensors? from 70 euros? certificates issued by the manufacturer for 15 euros? if I want to have just one temperature sensor certified, which has already been done, in a non-private laboratory but at an accredited metrological institute, I spend a minimum of 70/80 euros for each point chosen, and in the meteorological field you must provide at least 6/8 points .

Good continuation, for me it ends here, as a happy owner of Barani Meteoshield Pro second and third generation, Meteohelix, 2 Meteorain and various ecowitt products

M.

Offline Arkadiusz_w

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Re: Barani: too good to be true...
« Reply #19 on: May 03, 2024, 11:01:08 AM »
@mauro63 oddly you rate the company Termoprodukt? Have you had anything from them, do you know who uses their sensors and not only in Poland?

PT1000 and PT100 are from the Polish company Jumo. Among other things, Termoprodukt uses PT1000 4-wire and in some PT100 4-wire Class A and B versions from them. All of them are calibrated by the manufacturer, but in Poland we have some Barani shield recorders, many Apogee TS100, Davis FARS24H with PCA calibration and certificate. What is PCA, you can see below, because the calibration certificate from PCA for its PT100 and other temperature measuring instruments also has a Polish meteorological service:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59F2PtFpOg8

We used the option of PCA calibration and purchase of such certificates for specific units here. For a single unit such a certificate at 5 points cost us in the region of 50-60 euros and these are instruments calibrated at several points: https://termoprodukt.com.pl/calibration-certificate-pca

About the accuracy from the specifications of Termio 2, DT3 you can see below. I don't know how you can question the accuracy of PT100/PT1000 and PT500 resistance sensors from Termoprodukt, where this is practically the highest accuracy available on the market. Even the Polish meteorological service has a requirement that the PT100 has a maximum temperature measurement error of about 0.1°C over the entire measurement range. I know because I have friends who work there in several positions and I have also seen the provisions of the ToR in meteorological tenders. These were also, among other things, requirements under the AWOS system.

A video of how Termoprodukt loggers work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-WTmhS4NsA

https://termoprodukt.co.uk/current-pharmacy-lcd-data-logger-termio-2?search=termio%202

https://termoprodukt.com.pl/termometr-lodowkowy-dt-3-z-alarmem

Polish pharmaceutical, refrigeration industry uses these products from Termoprodukt, where instruments must be calibrated and accurate, also with PCA certificates. Do you think that such serious areas of the economy would use instruments that are inaccurate and cast doubt on an accredited, state-owned center?

In Poland, Termio recorders from Termoprodukt are also being used in frost heights, mountain frost surveys and other places where high accuracy and fast response times are required.

PCA this is a national accreditation body authorized to accredit conformity assessment bodies under the Law of April 13, 2016 on conformity assessment and market surveillance systems. The above-mentioned company Termoprodukt also calibrates its measuring instruments there.

Well, be a happy owner of Barani Meteoshield Pro. I have three copies of this shields. Both Gen II and Gen III. I have no doubts about the quality of workmanship, but the measurement results from this shield already do. Most of the time you won't see differences in maximum and minimum temperatures. We live in Poland, we have a different climate than you. The Barani company was just unlucky, because their shield was also purchased by a man who worked for several years at weather stations in my country. He gave us on a closed group of meteorology enthusiasts tips on what to check in the Barani shield and when the results on PT100/PT1000 calibrated thermometers and Sensiron SHT35 good grade sensors can be questioned, because the Barani Meteoshield Pro III shield will overheat. Contrary to appearances, this is not such an uncommon phenomenon and occurs frequently in low flow conditions. We notice a large measurement error especially in the morning and afternoon and evening. The smallest at the zenith. Much depends on the strength of the wind on solar days. We have confirmed this on Termio 2 loggers and SHT35 sensors. We have side-by-side comparisons of the same conditions against Davis FARS24H, WMO-compliant frame and Apogee TS100 in different areas of our country.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not pushing for the elimination of passive shielding from temperature and humidity measurements. This is about comparison with active ones, because there are sometimes such conditions depending on the location and climate that the temperature in the shield will not be in equilibrium with the outside temperature. My opinion is that it is the best passive shield on the market, it has a fast response time, but the disadvantages under certain conditions are strongly highlighted and I can't imagine it as the primary measurement shield at WMO-compliant weather stations. After tests by myself, colleagues and a friend who worked for several years on weather stations, we came to this conclusion. However, there will be a detailed comparison about it on this forum, among others.

@mauro63 don't get me wrong, you probably got most of the products for free from Jan Barani therefore you can't say a bad word about the defects of his products. To make you understand what the Barani shield can suffer from you should look at the following materials. Every passive shield suffers from this to varying degrees. Even the professional ones like Barani Meteoshield Pro III and this error can sometimes be surprisingly large:

https://youtu.be/G9xdVQii_YY?si=jNg2a5ZSLf7NK4Xc

I don't think all Ecowitt products are bad, because there is potential in several of their sensors, but many are underdeveloped. About their ultrasound sensors, this is already a sign not only of the savings made, but also of the lack of knowledge on the part of the engineers.

For my part, I can say that in addition to the Barani Gen III, I concurrently use Davis FARS24H as a comparison with SHT35 and PT1000 in each of the covers.
Colleagues in Poland similarly have Apogee TS100, Davis FARS24H, Barani Gen III and WMO cages.  Most of them have more than a year of Barani. I acquired my first Barani cage in 2022, so I have had it for more than 2 years. However, a closed group of meteo enthusiasts in Poland has allowed us to discover many flaws, which the Barani Gen III shield hides and which Jan Barani will certainly not tell you about, or even admit when you show him the evidence. Instead, he prefers to disparage ventilated shields, where he himself created the Barani FARS of questionable effectiveness most likely against the Apogee TS100 and Davis FARS24H.

I am independent, I have contacts with people working at professional stations and at a state research institute. Therefore, marketing in Barani products will not blind me to the truth and reality.

Just so you understand, I'm not punishing here the abandonment of the company's Barani Gen II and III shields, because they are maintenance-free shields, but under certain conditions inaccurate as any passive shield or even Stevenson cage. Hence, it is worth comparing as far as possible and willing to such aspiration shields as Apogee TS100, Met One aspiration shield with code 076B and the good Davis FARS24H shield. The latter was even taken by the Polish meteorological service along with several Davis extended sets. Temperature measurement is complicated and the Barani shield does not always sufficiently protect the sensor from distortion from material overheating on solar days. Maybe in Italy this happens less often, but in Poland it is not so uncommon. In autumn and winter, when there was sunshine, the readings were incredibly inaccurate when operating the sun low above the horizon. Instead of a negative temperature, for example, it showed a slightly positive one, which was confirmed to us by independent sensors in parallel with the PT1000 and SHT35.

On the other hand, there will be another thread on the forum about the detailed disadvantages of the Barani Meteoshield Pro III, so that anyone interested will later find it and draw conclusions for themselves.  Jan Barani himself says to compare with other shelters, radiation shields, so we compare and check its promises from product sheets and marketing brochures.
« Last Edit: May 03, 2024, 11:08:46 AM by Arkadiusz_w »
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Barani Meteoshield Pro II, III, Davis FARS 24H

Offline mauro63

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Re: Barani: too good to be true...
« Reply #20 on: May 03, 2024, 12:12:11 PM »
Don'tget me wrong, you probably got most of the products for free from Jan Barani therefore you can't say a bad word about

I only answer for the part that interests me, this is offensive and a lack of respect that I invite you to correct
I don't boast of anything but I am the quality manager of one of the largest amateur networks in Italy, I collaborate with various companies but I have never received any forcing or compensation to hide product problems
rather, when I deal with new products, which these companies ask me to test, I highlight any problems or possible improvements before these products go on the market

I therefore invite you to correct the post, otherwise no problem but I was pleased to clarify my position

good continuation
m.

Offline Arkadiusz_w

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Re: Barani: too good to be true...
« Reply #21 on: May 03, 2024, 12:40:28 PM »
@mauro63 - This was just my suggestion. Many testers, e.g. automotive testers, know the significant defects of a particular car, but won't admit it publicly because they won't get paid or won't get more cars to test. On the other hand, you criticized the Polish company Termoprodukt, which produces professional PT100/PT500 and PT1000 recorders with high accuracy, probably not having contact with this product, you questioned their accuracy, not noticing that their products can also have PCA calibration from a state institution, which proves the highest quality of the product. These loggers are used by serious entities like pharmacy, food industry, pharmacies, but also by weather enthusiasts in frostbites and universities in mountain cauldrons, where high precision and fast response time are required.

Check this out: https://termoprodukt.co.uk/about_us

I don't work with companies, I test and evaluate various products with my money, I find advantages and disadvantages of equipment. Like colleagues in Poland on a closed group. I have my own money to do this, because I have several sources of income and I can buy any WMO equipment for measurements.


I understand that you work with companies and perhaps you have not seen such defects in the Barani shield, because, for example, it did not happen in your conditions.
Here are some charts, we have dozens of them in different weather conditions, confirmed with PT100/PT1000 and SHT35 recorders in parallel in each shield. This is something few people know about, and something that the Barani Meteoshield Pro III suffers from, as does every other passive shield to varying degrees.

This was discovered thanks to a colleague with several years of experience at WMO stations in the country.
We already know under what conditions the Barani shield is unreliable and compare readings to active aspiration shields.  I will not give it up anyway, because I need to have a comparison, as colleagues in Poland against ventilated, when, for example, the windmill would fail, etc.

Ecowitt WS90 1.3.8, WS80 1.2.5, Ecowitt WS68, Ecowitt WH31EP/WH32EP, WH40, WH57, WN34L, WH51, WN34D, HP2560_C, HP2550_C, GW1100, GW2000. Davis Vantage Pro 2, Davis Vue, Davis 6313, Hongyuv WDS2E

Barani Meteoshield Pro II, III, Davis FARS 24H

Offline Jasper3012

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Re: Barani: too good to be true...
« Reply #22 on: May 03, 2024, 12:44:43 PM »
@mauro63 - This was just my suggestion. Many testers, e.g. automotive testers, know the significant defects of a particular car, but won't admit it publicly because they won't get paid or won't get more cars to test. On the other hand, you criticized the Polish company Termoprodukt, which produces professional PT100/PT500 and PT1000 recorders with high accuracy, probably not having contact with this product, you questioned their accuracy, not noticing that their products can also have PCA calibration from a state institution, which proves the highest quality of the product. These loggers are used by serious entities like pharmacy, food industry, pharmacies, but also by weather enthusiasts in frostbites and universities in mountain cauldrons, where high precision and fast response time are required.

Check this out: https://termoprodukt.co.uk/about_us

I don't work with companies, I test and evaluate various products with my money, I find advantages and disadvantages of equipment. Like colleagues in Poland on a closed group. I have my own money to do this, because I have several sources of income and I can buy any WMO equipment for measurements.


I understand that you work with companies and perhaps you have not seen such defects in the Barani shield, because, for example, it did not happen in your conditions.
Here are some charts, we have dozens of them in different weather conditions, confirmed with PT100/PT1000 and SHT35 recorders in parallel in each shield. This is something few people know about, and something that the Barani Meteoshield Pro III suffers from, as does every other passive shield to varying degrees.

This was discovered thanks to a colleague with several years of experience at WMO stations in the country.
We already know under what conditions the Barani shield is unreliable and compare readings to active aspiration shields.  I will not give it up anyway, because I need to have a comparison, as colleagues in Poland against ventilated, when, for example, the windmill would fail, etc.

How did you seal off the bottom of the MeteoShield with the Ecowitt probe, where it enters the shield? Did you make sure no solar radiation can enter the shield from the bottom? Have you got a picture of that? I’d also like a picture of your setup in the field, with the MeteoShield.

Offline gvdb1111

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Re: Barani: too good to be true...
« Reply #23 on: May 03, 2024, 12:50:49 PM »
And I thought Barani still sells 1 well-functioning product... I'll just keep dreaming and assume that the Meteoshield isn't all that bad after all.

Regarding the other products I complained about:

It seems that Barani may have found a solution for their MeteoRain regarding why it measured too little precipitation. After we raised this issue in 2022, they continued to claim that others were not complaining about it. Are we finally proven right?

Their software for the MeteoWind IoT, promised for years, also seems to have finally been updated. Have the bugs disappeared? Hopefully, no new bugs?
there also seems to be some changes with the solar panel, unfortunately, no details.

No news/updates on the biggest problem: the sensor of their MeteoHelix.

But Barani doesn't inform us at all... That's quite a service! You only get it when it benefits them. In other words, when it brings in money for them.

Offline Arkadiusz_w

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Re: Barani: too good to be true...
« Reply #24 on: May 03, 2024, 01:09:24 PM »
@Jasper3012 With that said, we then unscrewed the filters from Sensirion and used bare SHT35s alongside PT1000s in Poland. Photo of one of the installations below next to an Apogee TS100 and Davis FARS24H. These are pictures from the early days of testing last year
« Last Edit: May 03, 2024, 01:12:03 PM by Arkadiusz_w »
Ecowitt WS90 1.3.8, WS80 1.2.5, Ecowitt WS68, Ecowitt WH31EP/WH32EP, WH40, WH57, WN34L, WH51, WN34D, HP2560_C, HP2550_C, GW1100, GW2000. Davis Vantage Pro 2, Davis Vue, Davis 6313, Hongyuv WDS2E

Barani Meteoshield Pro II, III, Davis FARS 24H

 

anything