Wireless Rain Gauge with Self-Emptying Rain Collector with Rainfall History, Alerts, and Current Date and Time (02446M)

I received this "used/mint" vertical rain gauge last night. Just finished setting up, testing, and installing it. Looks very good, though not quite "mint" condition. I started by testing to confirm that this "used" unit would register a small amount of water. I did this by slowly dribbling about 7 teaspoons of water into the rain gauge collector funnel. After a few seconds the display registered 0.25" (~6.35 mm). This would suggest that the area of the elliptical collector opening is about 5.5 cm².

I was a little skeptical at first when buying this rain gauge. My dad and I have been tracking rainfall for years with glass gauges (we farm) and I was drawn in by the "self-emptying" part, but also a little leery of how it emptied itself, whether it would freeze in the winter, and whether the design would hold up to years of abuse the way that our plain old tubes did. So, the first thing I did when I got it was take it apart. I have to say, I was really impressed by the design of this thing. Its simple and brilliant, and I think that understanding how it works really helps put you at ease with it. Setup: Two tabs on the side of the white plastic cover allow you to unsnap the white part from the gray part. Inside, you find the measuring unit, which snaps into the gray base. When you unsnap the measuring unit from the bottom of the base, you see the place for the batteries in the bottom of the measuring unit. Once you put the batteries in and snap it back into the base, it covers the batteries to keep them out of the elements. It has two screw holes in the base that will allow you to screw it down so it won't blow away, then you just snap the white part back into the base, and its ready to go. Batteries go into the indoor unit through a flap on the back, very standard. The unit connected right away when the batteries were installed in that order, and didn't lose connection even though there is about 100 yards of space between where the rain gauge is located and where the display is located, indoors. How it Works: Now onto the fun part. The white part of the gauge funnels the water down to a drip point where it drips into the inside of the gauge. The measuring unit is underneath the drip point, and it consists of a see-saw made with two spoons and a magnet on the bottom. The dripper funnels water into the highest spoon until it gets heavy. When it has enough water, it falls, swinging the magnet past the sensor, raising the other spoon to catch water, and dumping its own water out the side of the rain gauge, all in one motion. Then it repeats with the other side. The sensor just measures how many times the magnet swings past. So, there is really only one moving part - the double spoon with a magnetic bottom, on an axis. Nothing complex or easily breakable. It basically measures the rain one tiny measuring cup at a time. And, since the spoon has an open top, holds only a few drops of water, and empties out the side of the base, there is nothing to freeze and crack, so I can leave this gauge outside - no more bringing the gauges in like I have to with the glass tubes. Also, the accuracy of the rain gauge is completely adjustable. It has two set screws underneath the ends of the spoons that you adjust up and down to control how much rain it gathers in each spoon before tipping. So, you can run it next to your favorite rain gauge, and adjust the screws until the reading is dead-on accurate. The inside unit is very similar to other accu-rite weather products. It has a clear display that includes the time and date, and a few buttons. The mode button cycles between running totals. It keeps a total for the latest rain event, the last 24 hours, the last week, and two separate running totals (A and B) that you can use to track whatever you want. ( I use A for the monthly total, and B for the yearly total.) To reset a total, you hold the clear button while you're viewing it. History takes you back to previous readings. It has two alarm thresholds. You can set an alarm for rainfall if you want to be alerted when it starts to rain. You can set another alarm for a flood watch if you want to be alerted when high amounts of rain fall. The set and + butttons are just used to set up the unit. The Bottom Line: This rain gauge uses a simple, accurate, and adjustable method to measure rain. It won't freeze and crack like tube rain gauges, so you don't have to bring it in. It keeps 5 running totals so you can see how much rain you got without having to track it manually. Better yet, you don't have to go outside to empty it after each rainfall. All in all, if you're looking for a rain gauge, this one is a good one.

I can't even comment on durability or accuracy in the real world, I let this sit on my desk for over a month because I knew from other reviews that the calibration process would be difficult and I assumed it was mandatory. They should just include a cup with a hole in it, even though it sounds like a common thing to have laying around. Here's why- My first few attempts involved a generic red party cup with a thumb tack hole punched in the lowest point. It'd drip consistently for a while, then slow down and eventually stop dripping with 10% of the water left. Not enough water weight to force more water through the small hole, surface tension, who knows. Attempts to ever so slightly enlarge the hole didn't solve this, or resulted in the cup draining too quickly. This was all precarious anyway - 1) my pyrex measuring cup is hard to nail 1 cup exactly. I resorted to using a graduated cylinder to fill it with exactly 1 cup / 237ml. It was below the line on my measuring cup. Then I'd transfer to my hole cup 2) I had to balance my hole-punched cup across the top of the unit using pencils. I disliked everything about this after the third attempt, with cups stalling out or draining too fast. Finally saw a video of someone doing it a different way and I put another spin on it. I set a grease-spatter screen across my sink and put a sandwich-type plastic storage container beneath it. I set the rain gauge on the screen and set my faucet at the slowest drip possible. I decided for more accuracy that I would let it drip until the gauge read 3.36", or double what the instruction manual states (1.68"). The water drained through the gauge, through the screen, and collected in the storage container. This took almost an hour. When the screen showed 3.36" (very lucky, I wouldn't expect to nail that perfectly in any calibration setup with 1-minute updates) I WEIGHED the contents of the bin on an accurate food scale. 448 grams. I then asked an AI chat bot thing the following question: "if 1.68 inches (1 cup) = 226.796 grams, and 3.36 inches (2 cups) = 453.592 grams, how many inches is 448 grams?" and the result was 3.32", or 98.8% accurate. I'm not going to even bother twisting the dials and running the test again, that's close enough for me. On my analog rain gauge I wouldn't even be able to make a 1.2% distinction. I'm terrible at math so I guess this is right. Whatever.

Works well and is easily adjusted so it agrees with a regular rain gauge. I have it about 30' from the inside base and have no connection issues. Wish it were cold tolerant but understand plastic can't handle freezing water.

Alright, so I purchased this unit in Sept of 2020. I let it sit in the box due to not being able to install it in an unrestricted area of our yard. We have lots of trees and it wasn't until we put a cover over our patio that an excellent location came up. So - I installed it in fall of 2021. It worked fantastic for a few months. Then draught of 2022 hit and little did I know it was on the blink. Display in the home continued to be just fine. Then we get this small amount of rain and - readout still said, .00 inches - fine, we prob didn't get enough to register. Nope. Next time we got enough rain I KNEW it should reflect something - now I knew there was a problem. I climb the ladder, pull unit down and check batteries - full charge. Not surprising. I did a reset of the unit - no go. Finally I give up and email support and that's when the things got even more "fun". I'm told, "You must put alkaline batteries in our devices". Well, I use Energize Li-Ion batteries due to leakage I've had with Duracell, Energizer, Sony and a myriad of other standard alkaline batteries so I no longer trust them. I've lost too many devices to these sorry excuses for batteries. But - she INSISTED this is what is REQUIRED to work (note: It had been just fine for almost a year). Also, let's switch the channels. Okay, that one made sense. So - okay, I buy some alkaline batteries...and switch both units from channel "A" to "B" and put it back up. We get HEAVY rain - no response. Frustrated, I emailed the same person ("Selene") at support. Try channel "C" and take pictures of what happens. I'm a little hopeful - maybe they're going to make this right despite the fact it's over a year old (technically, even though it's less than a year of usage). So I take it a step further. I take pictures of both units on "C". I take pictures of the receiver at .00. I then take a short video of me manually tapping the cradle back and forth about 6 or 7 times, then on same vid show that the receiver still says, .00in So - I send all to Selene. Her response? Sorry it doesn't work, it's not under warranty - buy another unit. Here's her exact words from the email: "Thank you for the pictures and video, I am sorry to hear this did not correct the issue. Since it is past the 1 year warranty we offer from the purchase date we would be unable to replace." H U H ? ? What was this exercise of taking/sending pictures about, if they had no intention of doing anything more than "go buy another one of our units"?? Absolutely pathetic.

I have wanted one of these for a long time. I am not sure of longevity; keeping fingers crossed it makes it thru the winter but it was easy to install & pair. So much nicer than the old plastic tube we still have but are not using. Have been in a bit of droughty conditions lately but have had a couple of rains and like that it is so precise and keeps the info gathered from the day and week . The readout inside is easy to read and using the button on the front to scroll. If I had a suggestion, would be to put the "buttons on the back" in a different location; since my husband keeps picking the device up and hitting those buttons (for programming) these buttons should not be so easy to push by accident. A small suggestion but would be nice to see either slide buttons or push buttons (under a cap) like the battery housing. That way when you pick up the device to scroll thru the readings, it doesn't get messed up.

Update: This little rain gauge survived 120+mph radar indicated winds from the eye wall of hurricane Milton. Recorded 9" of rainfall during the storm as well. Picked up this rain gauge to replace my old sight glass style gauge that cracked. This one is easy to set up and use (no more moving it for the mower or algae growth from sitting with water). Did the calibration procedure described in the manual, out of the box it was within 0.01" of spec so I left it alone. Rain alert feature is nice if you need a warning at a particular amount of rainfall. Overall solid purchase for $30. The rain cup is mounted to the fence with a 3d printed shelf I designed for it. The file is free on Thingiverse if you wish to do the same.

Well! The display that you get is hard to read. The face of the display is dark! I like the rain gauge The gauge is accurate just hard to read.