The AeroCone cannot be heated. If you need a heated rain collector, Davis will supply the old rain cone.
I should think it can be using my light bulb method, very little space needed
I noticed the difference in price from what Davis says they will sell it for vs. what the rest of the planet will sell it for. Quite a difference.
I have it and it looks a bit different out there.
I would recommend that if you have a heater now and wind isn’t a problem , keep the old cone and forget this new one. Just because it is new, it isn’t always the best.
I thought the idea was to heat the cone to melt the snow? A bulb by the tipper isn’t going to heat it above the “waist”.
the new cone can’t be internally heated. externally, would interfere with the wind. might as well keep the time and tested old cone
I can’t see why not, heat rises, the only place for the heat to go is through the hole into the come and melt it that way, albeit slower but I can see it working…
Two questions:
First, how much more ‘accurate’ is this device vs. the old one? Remember pictures of the 50s and 60s era 8" or larger Weather Bureau installations with a 4 or 5 foot circle of what looked like a giant Tarzan loin cloth around it to help dissipate the wind effect? I wonder if the effect is minuscule or large?
Second, how many folks are heating their rain gauges? Is this a wide spread practice? Mine isn’t, I don’t log the water received, but looks interesting, especially if I can keep from putting 120v line on the tower or roof, always a danger in my mind even with a GFI on the circuit.
I have a R M Young non-tipping one that runs on capacitance and has a 24 v. heater on it but I haven’t put that into my setup yet.
Some people are running 120 (or even 240) out to a DIY gauge heater (usually using pipe or reptile heating “tape”), but many others are using a 12 or 24 volt heater and only running the low voltage out to the gauge. I certainly wouldn’t run line voltage out there, but I don’t recall that we’ve heard of any unfortunate events.
12v bulbs here, 12v has to be safer than the 120/240v
More so with my bodge jobs 
Just buy a good rain gauge and be done with it. 
Mine is heated with 24v and resistors.
Crikey, all i have is a 12v bulb via a temp switch :lol:
It will not work. It starts to build up snow/ice at the freezing point of the gauge “wall” what will end in a totally blocked gauge at the end (been there, seen that, even with the old style gauge). Its the gauge “wall” what need the heating, not the “air” inside it.
I run 12V out to the gauge for my heating. The 12V are taken from same PSU what the wx-puter use as it have a lots of spare 
I would never run 240/120/whatever high V out to the gauge. 12V are much safer to play with.
My 12v worked fine a couple of weeks back, ok it wasnt heavy snow fall, but it did melt the snow
where as the second bucket that wasnt heated at the time stay in the bucket until the temp rose
If i was stick with the areo type i would try the bulb and to be honest, with the snow we get here
it would probably suffice enough to use for snow melt, last few winters we havent had enough snow
to fill the bucket lol
Mine is run off a PC PSU too but it also runs the fans in both shields, 2 x 4000rpm and 1 at about
1500rpm, plus the 2 bucket heaters, cant fault PC PSU’s
I agree with weatherc, there’s no way you’ll get enough heat up that tiny hole without using a blowtorch 
heres a thought then, if the hole is still as tiny as they are in the original bucket then there must be some sort of gap
i would be surprised if it was all solid, would love to see the cone when removed
Thats true it depends a lot on the need too how to do it. I use 2 x of theese together with a thermostat (+5C on, +15C off). But due to the winters do i run it only if needed. The real need are maybe 10-20 times
ooo, they look much better than my bulb idea, thanks
i think these would melt the plastic 
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Polyimide-Flexible-Thermo-Heater-Heating/dp/B00XBFYA0W
“However, if you currently have a rain collector heater, you won’t want to order the new cone. The rain collector heater is compatible only with the classic style cone. (What about future AeroCone owners who want a rain collector heater, you ask? Never fear. They’ll be able to get a classic shape cone with the heater. )” Maybe if someone would wrap one of those water pipe or roof cables around the upper cone they could get water into the lower pan, wouldhave to be a thin wrap and not to heat damage the plasti.
Here is the item with the information you wanted:
