Warning about Davis Vantage Pro/Pro Plus Stations

Hello to all;

This is my first post at this site so this subject may have been discusssed before. I have been a weather watcher and volunteer skywarn member for over 20 years. During this time I have owned many weather stations both wired and wireless. Living in Southwest Florida means putting up with high humidity and being near the coast, salt air corrosion problems. I can tell you from experience that the Davis stations do not hold up well under these conditions. This is one of the better budget priced weather stations but if you are looking for long term trouble free readings from your sensors you won’t get it here. Davis had to replace my Pro Plus 2 sensor suite twice in less than two years. I finally got tired of erroneous readings and changed to the Rainwise MKIII. Guess what? The sensors failed due to corrosion in just over 1 year. Keep in mind that I spent many hours speaking with their so called “experts” about these issues. I also kept the sensors free of dirt, spider webs etc. The bottom line is this: If you in an area that experiences salt air intrusion, you won’t get good long term results from Davis, Oregon Scientific, Lacrosse or Honeywell. I realize the cost of industrial grade instruments can run into the thousands of dollars. But here’s the difference: I got 10+ years out of my Nimbus/Sensor Instruments weather sensors. They cost me around $3,000.00 but they were worth it (and they were accurate). I’m going to invest in Maximum instruments next year (5 year warranty on sensors). For now I too am using budget equipment and hoping it will hold out until I can afford the better sensors. Happy weather watching!

Fred

I know about salt from the sea here as I am only about 800 metres from the English Channel. I have had aluminium outside light fittings corrode because of it. However I have had my Davis VP1 now for nearly 3 years and so far my only problem was corrosion on the ISS circuit board whilst under guarantee. This I think was caused because I had not ensured my ISS cover was properly seated/sealed against the elements. So its not all doom & gloom, but as with all this YMMV :wink:

Stuart

i think its salt air and warm humid conditions combined
you dont get those last 2 ingredients Stuart!

I think if you live on the coast you have to accept that there are many products which will not perform as well for you as they will inland, that’s just a fact of life. I’m half a mile from the Pacific and a VP owner since the product was introduced. I’ve been very satisfied with how the station has held up in this location. Yes, I have replaced some sensors, even had to pay for a couple of them 8O but I don’t find that unreasonable in an environment where hardware store stainless steel fasteners can rot in a few years. I’m glad you’ve had good experience with a $ 3000.00 weather station, but it’s hardly fair to judge a Vantage Pro by the same standards IMHO.

Perhaps not as warm as some but in the summer we do often have warm temps and quite high humidity. Actually judging by the corrosion we get on both steel and aluminium we do have quite a corrosive climate here, we may not have the high temps of many but its a combination of water and salt which can be very troublesome.

Agreed…

Stuart