Bizarre problem with rain collector on Vantage Pro II

[vk2him]

Over the last few days we have had record rainfalls ... all good except my rain gauge was reading .2mm every hour or so even though the rain was falling at over 10mm per hour.

 As I couldn't get up onto the roof to see what was happening I tried resetting the consol without luck, so I had to wait till the rain stopped. While i waited I looked through these forums looking for clues - I thought the ISS either needed resetting, the tippers were obstructed somehow, or the ISS was faulty and needed replacing .... I also wondered if the hole in the rain collector had been blocked somehow  but doubted that could happen..

Well today the rain stopped so I got onto the roof ... the hole in the collector was blocked and the collector was almost full to the top with water, just like a bucket ... I would never have thought this hole could be blocked ... it had some sort of black tar like goo in it that was so thick that it was letting a very small amount through every hour ... probably bird droppings I guess as I live in a country town ...

Anyone else had their collector hole block before?
Cheers

[jgillett]

Anyone else had their collector hole block before?

Oh, yea - frequently. Birds love to perch on the edge of the collector and just dump right into it. I'm up there every few weeks or so - longer with the drought we've been in - cleaning out the hole.

[vk2him]

Oh, yea - frequently. Birds love to perch on the edge of the collector and just dump right into it. I'm up there every few weeks or so - longer with the drought we've been in - cleaning out the hole.

Interesting ... I might try crumpling up a small square of wire screen into a ball and putting it into the collector funnel ... hopefully this will at least stop the hole from blocking ...

[KeithBC]

I was out there this afternoon, cleaning the hole in my Rainwise gauge.  The screen that covers the hole helps out leaves and pine needles, but doesn't keep out the black gunk.  It happens often enough that I modified the cotter pin that holds the screen so that I can remove and insert the screen without having to open up the rain gauge.

Slow rainfall is a sign of a possible clog.  Today's slow rainfall was a false alarm - it really was just slow rainfall.  The sure sign is when it continues counting after the rain has stopped.

[Budgie]

Yep, happend here a few times as well and it's all down to the birds. 
I sorted it by getting a row of zip-ties anround the top with one large one to hold them all in place. This stops the birds from landing on the rain gauge in the first place.


It also works for the leaf wetness sensor. 

[jgillett]

Yep, happend here a few times as well and it's all down to the birds. 
I sorted it by getting a row of zip-ties anround the top with one large one to hold them all in place. This stops the birds from landing on the rain gauge in the first place.

That's a great idea. Well done. Going to give it a try.

Thanks.

[drobbins]

I did the zip-tie thing also with good results.