Topic: Anemometer Maxing Out

[Jumpin Joe]

I have noticed that my anemometer will not register higher than 46mph.  I’m thinking I may have bad bearings. Has anyone else experienced this?

Thanks,
Joe

[miraculon]

Years ago, I had the Dallas Semiconductor One-Wire Weather Station. The mechanicals are the same as Texas Weather's WRL series.
The bearings went bad on that, and I replaced it with a similar AAG clone. I eventually found bearings that would fit and rebuilt the stations before giving one to a relative. It worked like new with the new bearings.

For the Davis, check this out: http://www.lexingtonwx.com/anemometer/ The bearings are listed there under #4 Replacement Parts.

Greg H.

[Jumpin Joe]

Thanks, Greg!

[SnowHiker]

I have noticed that my anemometer will not register higher than 46mph.  I’m thinking I may have bad bearings. Has anyone else experienced this?

Thanks,
Joe

Your website was just showing a 48 mph gust, and a 50.1 mph gust for the day.  The wind advisory for your area predicts gusts up to 50 mph. 

50 mph gusts are pretty strong, and fortunately not all that common in most areas.  So, at least for someone not familiar with your station or your area, I see no reason to suspect anything wrong with your anny.

Plus, even the Davis may miss max gusts by a few mph just due to the nature of the system.

[Jumpin Joe]

I noticed that.... quite surprising. Over the last few years it has registered 46.0 many, many times, never more. So, this has me confused. It is about 9 years old. Think I’ll replace it as preventative maintenance.

[SnowHiker]

I noticed that.... quite surprising. Over the last few years it has registered 46.0 many, many times, never more. So, this has me confused. It is about 9 years old. Think I’ll replace it as preventative maintenance.

Wouldn't hurt, sounds like it has a lot of miles on it.  But personally I would still save the old one for a spare.

[ValentineWeather]

Bearing do eventually go bad I've replayed 2 units now.

[Jumpin Joe]

I will keep the old as a spare. You never know when you or a friend will need it.

[lddaly]

In just over 9 years, I am on a my 4th Davis anemometer. 1 failed due to bearings, 2 were destroyed by large hail.

[miraculon]

A few years back, I noticed that the local airport wind speed would show zero when I had a reasonable reading during light winds. Even when winds were wide-spread in the area, it would show zero, with an occasional gust up to a few MPH.

I drove by the site and I could see that the anemometer would start and stop periodically. It was if once there was enough wind speed, it would break loose and spin a bit.

I contacted the airport manager (of KPZQ) and he emailed the state Aeronautical people. They flew a guy out from Lansing and they replaced the entire wind set. I believe that it is a Vaisala. I have no idea about how old it was and what the total wind run might have been.

Even the pro stuff eventually wears out.

Greg H.

[92merc]

I just replaced mine last year.  I like to compare my wind run values on Cumulus.  I noticed from January to February a significant drop.  I then looked at wind gusts.  Big drop there too.  I did the math and I was at about 750,000 miles of wind run on that unit.

So I bought a whole new unit because of the design change Davis made that supposedly is better for icing.  When I bought the old unit down, I could just tell the resistance in spinning the cups.  On the old design, I think it was one bushing and one bearing.  New one I think is 2 bearings.  Another reason I switched.

If it is reasonably possible, you may want to see how freely they spin.

[Jumpin Joe]

Thanks

I will compare them before I install the new one to see if I can tell any difference.