Davis Vantage Vue Anemometer Sticking

William Grimsley · Post by **William Grimsley** » Wed 21 Aug 2013 8:56 am

Hi there,

My Davis Vantage Vue anemometer is sticking (not turning) in gusts of less than 5 mph sometimes 10 mph. This mainly happens after long periods of calm winds. Is this normal? Or, do I need to take it down and fix something?

Thoughts?

Thanks,

William

Post by **steve** » Wed 21 Aug 2013 9:32 am

I think the first thing to do would be to take the cups off and give it all a clean with a damp cloth; there may just be debris, insects, or whatever in there. While the cups are off, try turning the shaft by hand to see if it is stiff; if it is you will need to get it serviced. Do not be tempted to lubricate the anemometer.

William Grimsley · Post by **William Grimsley** » Wed 21 Aug 2013 11:58 am

steve wrote:I think the first thing to do would be to take the cups off and give it all a clean with a damp cloth; there may just be debris, insects, or whatever in there. While the cups are off, try turning the shaft by hand to see if it is stiff; if it is you will need to get it serviced. Do not be tempted to lubricate the anemometer.

Ok, thanks Steve. Will get my dad to do this, I'm only good at the weather side, not the physical work side.

It took a 8 mph gust to move the anemometer properly, at 11:41. That's definitely not right.

Intheswamp · Post by **Intheswamp** » Thu 22 Aug 2013 2:34 pm

William Grimsley wrote:
steve wrote:I think the first thing to do would be to take the cups off and give it all a clean with a damp cloth; there may just be debris, insects, or whatever in there. While the cups are off, try turning the shaft by hand to see if it is stiff; if it is you will need to get it serviced. Do not be tempted to lubricate the anemometer.
Ok, thanks Steve. Will get my dad to do this, I'm only good at the weather side, not the physical work side.

It took a 8 mph gust to move the anemometer properly, at 11:41. That's definitely not right.

I'm curious about the design of the Vue's anemometer. With the VP2 the cups are installed while the anemometer is held upside down...when it is turned right-side up the cup assembly "drops" down a small fraction of an inch giving the spinning cups a bit of clearance from the anemometer housing. Being as the Vue's cups are engineered to be on top of the ISS then the weight of the cups would be pressing down against the spindle and this tiny gap isn't realized thus the cup assembly's mounting hole has to "shallower" to allow for a gap to remain.

Steve's got lots more experience than me with these things and all I can add is what I've read and my thoughts. Basic cleaning, bench testing for smoothness of spin, and don't use any lubricant is what the manual says to do. The manual states that if the anemometer feels "gritty or stiff" to contact Davis.

With the anemometer apparently getting "sticky" after a period of calm it kind of makes you think an industrious small spider is in there...when a strong breeze comes along it tears it's web loose and the cups spin freely...when the cups stop spinning for a while the web weaver repairs the damage until the next strong breeze comes along and tears the web apart again....rinse, repeat.

Ed

prodata · Post by **prodata** » Thu 22 Aug 2013 3:18 pm

Spider webs or some other sort of physical accretion around the spindle is a good idea and well worth checking. But otherwise the bearing might be playing up and it might need a new wind speed cartridge.

William Grimsley · Post by **William Grimsley** » Sat 21 Sep 2013 6:47 am

Intheswamp wrote:With the anemometer apparently getting "sticky" after a period of calm it kind of makes you think an industrious small spider is in there...when a strong breeze comes along it tears it's web loose and the cups spin freely...when the cups stop spinning for a while the web weaver repairs the damage until the next strong breeze comes along and tears the web apart again....rinse, repeat.

Ed

Hi Ed,

I think you are probably correct. The anemometer on the Davis Vantage Vue is stuck again, today. I honestly think it's when there is a dry period and the cob webs or spiders have managed to stay in there and not be washed away or flung away. Wind: SSE 5 - 10 mph. But, still the Davis Vantage Vue console keeps showing SE 0 mph, S 0 mph, SSE 0 mph, SSW 0 mph. So, the wind vane is working but not the anemometer.

If this problem persists I'll think about taking the Davis Vantage Vue down and cleaning the anemometer shaft.

Thanks,

William

EDIT: Wind: 1 mph Gust: 9 mph. It took a wind gust of 9 mph to turn the anemometer, there is definitely something wrong, here.

William Grimsley · Post by **William Grimsley** » Sun 22 Sep 2013 12:25 pm

The anemometer is stuck again, today. I have put a note on Newton Poppleford Weather: "Note: The anemometer is currently experiencing problems. This will be fixed soon. Sorry for any inconvenience.".

EDIT: The anemometer is still stuck.

William Grimsley · Post by **William Grimsley** » Sun 22 Sep 2013 5:58 pm

Finally. I just went outside and used some 1 m high steps and a fishing rod. I stood on top of the 1 m high steps and extended the fishing rod as high as I could and I hit the anemometer on the Davis Vantage Vue making it spin. The anemometer on the Davis Vantage Vue is now working again.

BigOkie · Post by **BigOkie** » Sun 22 Sep 2013 8:36 pm

this is the exact reason I put a 20 foot flagpole in the ground for this...so I wouldn't have to scurry up on my roof like I did with the old Honeywell. The flagpole is telescoping and if I have a problem..a visit with a short two step stepladder (otherwise I'd have to take the ISS off the mount I devised for it) and run the anemometer back down to me to clean webs or whatever. I have had to do that now once. Pretty easy stuff. Took me about five minutes.

William Grimsley · Post by **William Grimsley** » Sun 22 Sep 2013 8:53 pm

BigOkie wrote:this is the exact reason I put a 20 foot flagpole in the ground for this...so I wouldn't have to scurry up on my roof like I did with the old Honeywell. The flagpole is telescoping and if I have a problem..a visit with a short two step stepladder (otherwise I'd have to take the ISS off the mount I devised for it) and run the anemometer back down to me to clean webs or whatever. I have had to do that now once. Pretty easy stuff. Took me about five minutes.

Good idea, BigOkie!

BigOkie · Post by **BigOkie** » Sun 22 Sep 2013 10:46 pm

William Grimsley wrote:
BigOkie wrote:this is the exact reason I put a 20 foot flagpole in the ground for this...so I wouldn't have to scurry up on my roof like I did with the old Honeywell. The flagpole is telescoping and if I have a problem..a visit with a short two step stepladder (otherwise I'd have to take the ISS off the mount I devised for it) and run the anemometer back down to me to clean webs or whatever. I have had to do that now once. Pretty easy stuff. Took me about five minutes.
Good idea, BigOkie!

However, setting it up was a bit of a pain.

http://flic.kr/s/aHsjFrgVU3

Involved digging a 3.5 feet (1m) hole with a post-hole digger. Not easy when you live in an area of America where topsoil is only about 12 inches and after that it's red clay. Gads.

William Grimsley · Post by **William Grimsley** » Mon 23 Sep 2013 8:19 pm

BigOkie wrote:However, setting it up was a bit of a pain.

http://flic.kr/s/aHsjFrgVU3

Involved digging a 3.5 feet (1m) hole with a post-hole digger. Not easy when you live in an area of America where topsoil is only about 12 inches and after that it's red clay. Gads.

Nice pics, BigOkie! It certainly looks like a painful set up.

Paragon · Post by **Paragon** » Tue 24 Sep 2013 5:36 am

I clean mine out every couple of months. Spiders lock the tipping bucket, which also fills with dust. The spiders also colonize the screen. One even prevented the battery from charging once. So now I clean it out regularly and spray a surface insecticide on it.

Graham

William Grimsley · Post by **William Grimsley** » Tue 24 Sep 2013 7:08 am

Paragon wrote:I clean mine out every couple of months. Spiders lock the tipping bucket, which also fills with dust. The spiders also colonize the screen. One even prevented the battery from charging once. So now I clean it out regularly and spray a surface insecticide on it.

Graham

Interesting. I've never had the tipping mechanism locked up. Only the anemometer. I'm going to clean it soon.

Touchtone · Post by **Touchtone** » Tue 24 Sep 2013 10:03 am

I have posted this before, but to refresh those who are new to Cumulus, putting a dog flea collar around the pole below the unit, be it the anemometer or the whole outdoor unit will almost stop the spider problem. I have used them for over 6 months & have had no spider problems at all, but I did have before Davis Australia mentioned dog flee collars to me.
They are fairly cheap & easy to fit, but may need replacing every 6 months, depending on the weather.

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