Cumulus Support

When I am thinking about the GW1003 I have some questions:

1. What is the difference between the station GW1003 and buying the components individually?
2. How does the ultrasonic windmeter compare to classic windmeter (speed & direction)?
3. How long does battery and plastic last in the outside world?
4. What is the criterium to choose for the large or the small birdspike?
5. What is the level of support to be expected: I wrote them a mail in the contact form but don't get an answer within 72 hrs?

1/ There's no difference in performance but appears to be about $20 cheaper separately for some reason.

2/ I have the Weatherflow SKY ultrasonic anemometer and it's comparable to my Vantage Vue and Ecowitt WH65 units in dry weather. In very rainy weather it is less accurate and in freezing temps it can produce wildly wrong readings . The GW1003 is capable of having an external power supply to heat the anemometer to prevent this problem - but it's $50 more and you have to provide a convenient power outlet.

3/ No idea !

4/ How big are the birds?! On my Weatherflow i used 6 * 15cm cable ties and used strong adhesive tape to attach them to the Sky unit - this has the haptic rain sensor and it did suffer from small birds landing on it. You will need to access the unit often as the light sensor is on the top I believe - and they do get dirty!

5/ That is my one concern with Ecowitt ! Happily I haven't needed to use their support yet. I have had one station for just about a year now (WH65) and I have a second one comprising the WS68 (CONVENTIONAL ANEMOMETER) and the WH40 Rain sensor with GW1000. This is for wind speed at 10m level.

Hope this helps

philpugh wrote: ↑Wed 29 Sep 2021 11:52 am 1/ There's no difference in performance but appears to be about $20 cheaper separately for some reason.

Yes, I came up to even $40 cheaper so I thought what am I missing? Is there something extra in the packaged thing?

philpugh wrote: ↑Wed 29 Sep 2021 11:52 am 2/ I have the Weatherflow SKY ultrasonic anemometer and it's comparable to my Vantage Vue and Ecowitt WH65 units in dry weather. In very rainy weather it is less accurate and in freezing temps it can produce wildly wrong readings . The GW1003 is capable of having an external power supply to heat the anemometer to prevent this problem - but it's $50 more and you have to provide a convenient power outlet.

OK. I'll wait with that in the very mild winters and warming over here

philpugh wrote: ↑Wed 29 Sep 2021 11:52 am 4/ How big are the birds?! On my Weatherflow i used 6 * 15cm cable ties and used strong adhesive tape to attach them to the Sky unit - this has the haptic rain sensor and it did suffer from small birds landing on it. You will need to access the unit often as the light sensor is on the top I believe - and they do get dirty!

Actually I asked because they offer the bird spikes in two sizes. So I was actually wondering what the size difference was.

Yes this helped... thanks.

Assume you've browsed the wealth of information on Wxforums.
There was pages of discussions the Ultrasonic wind sensor.

Will consider one here maybe, as I think my rain collector needs to come down from the 5m pole it's on.
Last night's Storms had rain on the EW at about 30% above my VP/2, & think that may be attributed to the pole moving about in the wind & causing early tips of the bucket.