Wm918 rain guage

Hi,

I have the wm918 station & have enlarged the collector on the rain guage to give a more detailed reading.

I now get a reading approx every .2mm instead of the previous 1mm.

One thing I have now thought of is that this of course means much more tipping action than before & with an av rainfall of about 650mm that means over 3000 cycles of the tipper compared to 650 before in one year.

My main concern is that it is generally known that the wm918 is not the most reliable or accurate station about (although I have had no problems so far) & by increasing the tipping cycles I may be prematurely reducing the life of the rain guage since I assume like anything mechanical, it has a finite life.

maybe I should buy another rain guage now for when or if this one gives up.

what do other reckon?? or am I worried about nothing.

thanks

Been using a modified rain gauge for the WM918 which tips for 0.1mm this is tipping at 10x design rate 8O :roll:
Been that way for 2 1/2 yrs no probems yet
:lol: :lol:
annual rainfall approx 1200mm

i think you are safe ian, as the tipping brigde is light weith plastic, and even though the hinge is all plastic, there will be only very small wear and tear
the biggest problem is less accuracy…but you can fine tune that

Thanks Brian & Leo,

BTW Leo you must have a dirty great big collector hanging off your guage, mine is big enough with only 5x increase. What did you use , I couldnt find a plastic funnell any bigger than 210cm when I was modding mine.

cheers