Best wireless rain gauge on the market
The Oregon Scientific Wireless Rain Gauge (RGR126) is easy to assemble and use, reliable and extremely accurate.
We've enjoyed it so much that we've bought them as gifts, much to the delight of the recipients.
My husband has tracked the rain where we live (Durban, South Africa) for 30 years and how amazing it was for him not to have to traipse out in the rain to empty our old manual rain catcher. The Oregon Scientific is self emptying! Now he can monitor the rain and temperature in comfort. This is a great product.
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Very disappointing product
I received the Oregon Scientific RGR126 wireless rain gauge as part of a weather watchers program at my local TV station. I was looking forward to having a fairly low-fuss, easy to use station to collect weather data, considering that I don't have a lot of time to commit to tweaking it every day.
I opened the package and read through the very meager user manual. I'd like to think that as a scientist, I could get a consumer-level station up and running easily. So I went about unscrewing the many tiny, unnecessary screws and inserted the batteries. The base station turned on, and received absolutely no signal from the rain gauge, even though they were right next to each other on the table. The temperature sensor was communicating, but it showed that the inside and outside temperatures were exactly the same-- a highly unlikely situation since the A/C was on. I came to Amazon, which is coincidentally the only place to get good info online. I tried the simultaneous reset multiple times, and cursed the fact that the thermo sensor reset was UNDERNEATH the screwed-down back panel. After at least five hours of effort, I was only unable to reliably get the indoor temperature correct. The rain gauge was nowhere to be seen, and the outdoor temperature had blanked out into "---".
The following afternoon I decided to give it another go. After another simultaneous reset, the outdoor and indoor temperature were different values. However, I had to open the window and place the unit in the sill to get it to work. I left it there and went to work on the rain gauge. After pressing the signal search key on the base station, it finally located the signal about 10 minutes later. To test the sensor function, I got a cup full of water, a paper towel, and dribbled water into the unit. The manual states that the rain gauge sends data every 98 seconds; my unit, I guess, was not aware of this requirement. I kept dribbling water in, becoming more irritated and impatient. Finally the level inside tipped, and a minute later a reading appeared. Of course, by this point I have no trust in the unit, so I repeat the process. I realized that it only gave a reading after the balance tipped. I picked it up, rocked it slowly from left to right. Sure enough, the reading goes up. The rain gauge only transmitted a change when the balance in the unit tipped from the weight of the water collected. I'm not sure how it would work in the field, but how does it measure very small amounts of rainfall? There's no way to zero the rainfall completely, short of resetting the machine, so how would I be sure that the total on the base station isn't over the course of a few days?
Right now I've had it for just over 24 hours, and I can't wait to buy my own and send this one back. I think this product is very well priced for the consumer who wants to know more about weather than just what's on the newscast. But it's been a fairly frustration experience with a poorly designed product, and it has the potential of putting novices off the idea of weather watching completely.
If you want a weather station, don't get this one. Spend a bit more money if you can, and be sure to do extensive research. I give this unit a D-. It at least gets the indoor temperature right.
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