Thanks for the Alcohol suggestion. Unfortunately, I had already sprayed the inside of the cone with NeverWet (more below) but I hadn't done anything to the outside of the cone. I cleaned one side thoroughly with 99% IPA and left the other as was and they both seemed to bead equally when lightly sprayed with water so I think it's a symptom of the very good finish on the cones rather than remants of release agent.
Photo’s added to the end of the previous ones.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/SMyu3CunoA1ezfFT8
As promised in a previous post I have been doing some tests now I have two cones.
The attachment shows two tables, the first:
NeverWet Coated bucket on Davis weather station with tipping spoon
Compared to
New style untreated cone with manual rain(pot) collection
This showed much lower rain collection from the untreated cone with manual collection. The amount seemed to equate to about 0.2mm per shower though when the rain was very heavy there was a suggestion that the station tipping spoon showed a slightly lower number.
As a check I then treated the new cone with NeverWet and got the results in the second table.
The numbers look much better and are an extremely good correlation between the weather station and manual collection. Full marks to the tipping spoon and coating does seem to make a big difference.
The coating on the cone is however difficult to apply, especially to the new one as the sides are much steeper and as Mark C suggested earlier, I don’t think it will last that long.
So my conclusion is the coating has improved performance and was the best stuff I tried but dont think it's the full answer. A less beading surface out of the box would be much better.
Next project is to add the old tipping bucket and use Moteino’s (low power Adruino) to automate rain measurement and compare the two systems. I use Moteino’s to monitor garden and greenhouse stuff so should be fairly easy to add the rain gauge.
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