WS-1090 Lifespan

[WoodburyMan]

Sensor / transmitter on my WS-1090 finally went. I think this may have been my source of faulty readouts and huge spikes I used to get every since I purchased it about 14 months ago. When I first set it up, and even when I changed the batteries in it once or twice or just took batteries out to reset it, 2 out of 3 times when it came back up it would read 99% humidity and never change. Resetting it by removing and putting batteries back in a couple times till it showed up correctly worked. However last week, it randomly started doing the 99% humdity thing, without a reset. It was also reporting only 0.7 and 1.4mph wind gusts. Changed batteries, doing same thing even after resetting it a dozen times. Left it running (which I had to later go back and reset records due to extreme heat index and dew point values), and about a day later, no data at all, and the thing won't turn on at all.

Just wondering if anyone else has had this problem with the WS-1090 or its closely related WS-1080? How long have these sensors held held out for you? (Mind you I am also running it through typical New England winters as well).

[ejay]

Sounds like your unit has a manufacturing defect and you were lucky to have it working up to now. There could be bad (dry) solar joints in the vicinity of the humidity sensor which were causing your intermittent 99% humidity readings. Maybe some other critical part has now given way, leading to total failure.

With fine Offset weather stations, it can be a hit-and-miss affair. It is not unheard of for these cheap weather stations to last a couple of years. By the same token, some others haven't lasted a year.

[Super-T]

My 1080 has been running since August 2008.
Minor solder problems repaired, and apart from the odd spike in temperature I have had my moneys worth.

[WoodburyMan]

I got my replacement sensor Monday night and got everything up and running again. $40 shipped, not to bad. I'll be tearing the old one apart and take a look for any broken solder points that I can visually see and see if I can repair them to have a extra sensor on hand just in case. I'll check around the humidity sensor as you stated first and see if I can trace down any other bad joints with a multimeter.

[bmak]

I got 4 years out of my 1080 before i had problems with external sensors so i got another complete unit for parts.
Last month the internal unit played up so i swapped that too