Who's got the oldest working Fine Offset station?

[brassing]

I am trying to get an idea how long I can expect the Fine Offset weather station we use at our sailing club to last. I think the most likely things to fail are the bearings on the anemometer and wind vane. Also the plastic bodies and parts of the external sensors may suffer uv degradation and get brittle. The PCBs and connectors also may well corrode since the units are not sealed.

Who has got the oldest one and what failures have people experienced?

Am I right in assuming that spares are not available and that the only option, in the case of a failure which I can't repair, is to get a replacement unit?

[jim-easterbrook]

Got mine in May 2008 and have had no problems (apart from spiders in the rain gauge) until a couple of months ago when the pressure sensor (in the indoor unit, so not subject to weather) failed. The plastic on the exterior bits seems in quite good nick - maybe they actually got that bit right.

[apenwith]

Hi
I have had mine since June 2009 and had the bearing in the direction head seized up twice (once free-able - the second time a write off at about 18 months - see elsewhere 'RJ Connectors etc'). I have thought about dunking both wind heads upside down in some oil but haven't tried it. I would not recommend pulling the moveable parts off the bearings to lubricate as they are a very tight press fit and the effort could well damage the bearing anyway.
I have also had connector problems - both the RJ connectors and battery terminals. The former are now all re-soldered directly from the wires to the PCB's in part because I bought spare anemometer head only to find it was the connector at fault. Both things to think about at a coastal location. The humidity sensor seems not very reliable (particularly by the coast I imagine) and I would be inclined to seal the whole transmitter in something waterproof and forget the humidity. We get quite high UV counts but the plastic has survived that.
If everything lasts 2 years it's less than £1 per week which is cheap enough.

Regards
Alan

[Super-T]

First data is July, 2008.
Only had a frozen anemometer, broken/bad soldering on the Console USB connector and changed the batteries once a year.
I seal around the battery compartment with Vaseline....just for some sort of protection.
Parts are available in New Zealand.

[nking]

I've had mine since Dec 2009 and the only problem has been with seized anemometer bearing which failed just within warranty. I had already purchased a second unit from Maplin for less than £65 (they often have special deals) so I swapped out the anemometer and Maplin replaced it no problem. So far no other problems (other than spiders) and I still have a complete unit for spares.

[philpugh]

Got mine in Dec 2009.

Had no problems except for the spider in the rain collector (seems a common problem) which gave me 1.5 metres of rain in one day! Must have been one busy spider.

It is prone to giving higher than actual temps in direct sun but you can split the sensors and arrange for the temp/humidity to be placed in a shaded area if available.

Batteries replaced every 12 months (just in case). Generally a nice piece of kit. Have just (yesterday) taken delivery of a Davis Vantage Vue which is up and running - but waiting for the USB / logger - so it's not connected to Cumulus yet.

The difference is chalk and cheese - the Vue is a much better made piece of kit - so I am expecting it to work for a long time.

[neil]

Mines been running since 1-1-2009
Only had minor problems
Spiders in the rain gauge
The anemometer had to be stripped down and cleaned due to sticking in very low winds
Most recently spiders building webs around the anemometer again stopping it in low winds (see topic https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=6140 )
Other than that just an annual battery change
Sorry amended the post some spares are available check http://www.wsplc.com/acatalog/Weather_S ... ories.html
Neil

[geoffw]

June 2009, though Maplin did replace it when a fault developed April 2010!

[DaveI]

Replacement parts for Fine Offset here...

http://www.ambientweather.com/wswestrepaan4.html

http://www.beezwaxproducts.com/index.ph ... abfddef13a