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Rain cone holding water

Discussion specific to Davis weather stations
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rogerthn
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Re: Rain cone holding water

Post by rogerthn »

BrianGUK wrote: Thu 30 Jul 2020 7:18 pm I work in the plastics industry, the beading is probably caused by the mould release agent used in the manufacture of the cone.

You can remove it by wiping the cone with 99% IPA.

Hope that helps!
Something like https://www.kjell.com/se/produkter/hem- ... -ml-p18270
Isopropanol with a purity of 99.5%
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BrianGUK
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu 30 Jul 2020 7:15 pm
Weather Station: Davis
Operating System: Win10

Re: Rain cone holding water

Post by BrianGUK »

rogerthn wrote: Thu 30 Jul 2020 8:00 pm
BrianGUK wrote: Thu 30 Jul 2020 7:18 pm I work in the plastics industry, the beading is probably caused by the mould release agent used in the manufacture of the cone.

You can remove it by wiping the cone with 99% IPA.

Hope that helps!
Something like https://www.kjell.com/se/produkter/hem- ... -ml-p18270
Isopropanol with a purity of 99.5%
Yes, that will do fine!
stewartwlewis
Posts: 38
Joined: Sat 29 Jan 2011 7:08 pm
Weather Station: Davis VP2 Plus
Operating System: Rasbian on RPI
Location: Durham, Co Durham
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Re: Rain cone holding water

Post by stewartwlewis »

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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ConligWX
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Re: Rain cone holding water

Post by ConligWX »

An interesting thread.

Has me thinking should I stick some Softcoat Fusso 99 - my wax coat of choice for my cars paintwork - which lasts upto a year (of constant washing) and gives a great hydrophobic coating, or use something like Gyeon wetcoat which I also use every other wash of the car. never thought of using this stuff for a Weather Device though.
Regards Simon

https://www.conligwx.org - @conligwx
Davis Vantage Pro2 Plus with Daytime FARS • WeatherLink Live • Davis AirLink • PurpleAir •

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stewartwlewis
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Weather Station: Davis VP2 Plus
Operating System: Rasbian on RPI
Location: Durham, Co Durham
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Re: Rain cone holding water

Post by stewartwlewis »

I also use Gyeon on my car, it makes the water bead but the question is whether it will then run off or stay as a bead? When the car gets wet the water is blown off but that doesn’t happen on the inside of the cone. Will have a go on the outside of my new cone and take a few more photos.
stewartwlewis
Posts: 38
Joined: Sat 29 Jan 2011 7:08 pm
Weather Station: Davis VP2 Plus
Operating System: Rasbian on RPI
Location: Durham, Co Durham
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Re: Rain cone holding water

Post by stewartwlewis »

Added two new photos, one with the outside of the cone treated with Gyeon then sprayed with water, one of the untreated outside sprayed. The Gyeon treated side seems to have smaller beads and they ran off faster so may give some improvement.

I decided to remove NeverWet from the inside of the new cone. The coating wasn’t that even I guess because I didn’t follow the instructions to lightly sand shiny surfaces. Anyway, now added a photo of the cleaned inside of the cone after being sanded with 1200 wet & dry as suggested at the beginning of this stream. Still beads but not as bad as when shiny.

Full re-coat with NeverWet proceeding as it still seems to give the best result.
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