Cumulus Support

I've just noticed that the anemometer on my WH 1080 wasn't spinning round. I went up to try and free it and ended up snapping one of the arms off. I'm going to try and do a short term repair with some Bostik, and even if I can free what was jamming, I don't suppose this is going to be a long term fix.

I've had the weather station for about 10 years now - can I expect other bits to start failing? If I get a replacement anemometer which appear to be about £15-20, will it be a worthwhile investment or should I look at a new weather station totally?

Hi
I would buy a new anemometer and then if you can manage to glue the old one with super glue (Bostik won’t work) you will need to replace the bearing, the bearings I use are: part number MR105.2Z from simplybearings.co.uk
These anemometers are very difficult to glue and very brittle when old.

Bostik worked slightly better than superglue but neither held. A match worked much better until clumsy old me knocked the joint.

I tried to lubricate the bearing - it runs for a while but then grates.

In my ten years of using a Fine Offset, I am onto my third anemometer (and that excludes twice doing a repair to keep an old one going), but only second transmitter/console. The anemometers do seem rather too flimsy for the range in air speeds they have to measure (and mine is about 10m above ground level to minimise effects of buildings and trees). I am speaking about both the plastic "melted" over the bearing, and the stalks to the cups.

In terms of the bearing, the 10 year old design had that more exposed as the centre of the moving part had a 30mm diameter; in the redesign a few years later, that became a 40mm diameter so it could overlap the stator (non moving part). I thought I had a photo showing the two designs, but I cannot find it.

All the other parts I am still using are from original set, although I got a complete new set, when the hydro-thermometer that failed. Apparently the codes used for communicating between transmitter and console changed, so it is not just a question of matching frequency, so I needed a console as well as the transmitter, and knowing I had already had anemometer problems I wanted a spare of that, so that is why I went for full new station.

I can't tell you whether to buy new, or just replace, that is your decision, but if you want to minimise expenditure just replace the anemometer. I mentioned above, you will find the replacement moving part hangs down over more of the stator part than the original design.

What you will find elsewhere (I think it may be in the photos of inside topic) is that the bearing is 5 mm ID and 10 mm OD so it can be found from other suppliers. It is the same bearing in the vane.

If you want something that lasts longer, you might buy a more expensive station, but recent comments elsewhere on this forum suggests their anemometers don't last well, naming no names of course, but you don't need to search that far back.

I had the same issues with my old Maplin N96Y which I think is a rebadged WH1080, or similar, although the new versions on Amazon seem to have a different instrument design these days. I went through a few anenometers, particularly when we moved to a new house in open farmland and the bearings were continually seizing up with all the dust.

In the end I took the plunge and bought a new complete station. As sfws says, have a look at other recent posts, particularly in this section viewforum.php?f=32 to see what people are looking at. As always, lots of varying comments but I am happy with mine......so far