Customer Reviews

La Crosse Technology WS-7038UF Wireless Rain Monitor

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

For the price, this rain gauge is a good deal. It does what it says it will: measure rainfall and transmit the measurement to the display panel. You never have to empty the collector since it is actually a flow meter rather than a collector. Inside is an ingenious 'teeter-totter' mechanism that rocks back and forth when water falls onto it from the cone shaped collector.

Mounting the collector outside away from the neighborhood kids took some creativity. I ended up getting an adjustable flag pole holder, screwed it to an outside wall, and stuck a piece of pipe in the holder to create a horizontal place to mount the rain collector beyond the eaves of the house. The instruction booklet gives you no ideas on how to mount it other than 'tabletop mounting'. Pfffttt! The collector has two screw holes for mounting. It takes two AA batteries to operate the transimitter.

The display panel works well. It gives you a digital readout in easy to read numbers and also a bar graph. Press the "rain" button to give you a digital readout of the rainfall amount for the last 24 hours, the last hour, and the most recent storm activity. The bar graph, on the other hand, only displays in the following increments: 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, but then it skips all the way to 1.0, then 2.0, 3.0, etc. Which I guess is good enough if your concern is your lawn.

The only drawback of the display are the numbers beside the bar graph. They're really tiny which makes them hard to read, especially since the numbers are way on the left side of the display, and the bar chart for the rain amount currently being displayed is way on the right side of the display. Why they put them on the wrong side is beyond me. This unit requires two AAA batteries.

Despites its little negatives, it's still a good unit and I'm glad we have it. We've had ours up for a few days now and are happy with it. The first day it was up, it measured over an inch of rain.

**UPDATE**: Our unit died a few months ago for some unknown reason. Since then I've tried on several occassions to revive it. Only when the transmitter and receiver are within inches of each other does it work. New batteries and system resets did nothing to restore the range it once had. As it is now, the receiver and transmitter are only about 8 ft. apart and it still doesn't work. We're looking for a replacement. Pretty bad after less than a year. Now only 1 star. :-(

It is possible that the unit I received was defective, but the advertised range of 80 feet was not achievable. It could get a signal between the rain collector and the monitor within 10 feet, but at that distance you are standing outside and you can SEE it is raining. When you lose the signal the display reads "---" and the only way of re-setting it is by taking out the batteries and going through the set up again. I called the non-toll free "help" line and was on hold for 5 minutes after which the call was transferred to a mailbox that was full and could take no more messages so I returned it.

I like the 6 day or 6 week graph. I just hope it could be better constructed. Mine is about 6 months old. Not been dropped. All of a sudden it just stopped working.

This moniter failed to report the most significant rainfall ever recorded in my area. Tropical depression Gaston roared through on 8/30/04 and the monitor lost signal and failed to report the over 7 inches of rain that fell at my home. Luckily I had the trusty manual gage still outside. I have sent the product back and hope that I get a refund. Oh, by the way, now that it is the next morning it seems to be working fine. I can only conclude that the rain caused the receiver to be unable to receive from the transmitter. Very problamatic for an item that needs to be in the rain in order to do what it claims to do.

Very happy with this item. So far the only negative is when the batteries are removed or replaced you lose all history data. Other wise it is great to view the last six days, weeks, and months.

The specs look very good, so I bought my first of these on the recommendation of a friend who had one that had worked for several months. After a few months, mine began measuring intermittently - sometimes it was correct, sometimes it only registered 1/2 the actual rainfall.

Since my friend's unit was still working fine, I figured mine was a fluke and bought another one. This one worked for two months and then reported that it had lost the transmitter signal. I could not make it work reliably at any distance - and not at all if the receiver was more than 3 feet from the gauge.

I have since learned that my friend's unit quit working with the same symptoms. That's strike 3. I'd say that 0 for 3 is a really lousy record for LaCrosse QC.

I tried 2 of these. The first one jumped up to 40 inches on the display when it lightninged during a thunderstorm. So i sent it back and the 2nd one did the same thing. Also to change the batteries in the gauge you have to take the gauge off the mount. Not good if its mounted on your roof. So i sent it back and got the wired one. They said the wired one tipped at 1/100th of a inch. It tips at 2/100ths. Oh well. Thats better than Oregons that tips at 4/100ths.

I used the LaCrosse Model WS2010-16 for 5 years until a strong wind blew it off my deck and it then failed to function. The WS2010-16 is an excellent wireless, self-emptying, rainfall sensor, working in a similar vein to the WS7038UF, but the WS2010 has a lithium battery that is recharged by a built-in solar power cell. This power aspect is KEY, in that it makes the WS2010 device all-weather, even in freezing winter conditions. Amazingly, my WS2010 operated problem-free, without replacement of any batteries, for 5 years of service in all kinds of weather! By contrast, this WS7038 device uses conventional alkaline batteries, which LIMITS use of the collector/sensor to temperatures of 30 deg F and above. If you live in areas that do not get too frigid, then you would be OK with the WS7038. Otherwise, beware of this lack of general utility. Also, battery-induced damage to the WS7038 might occur from a lack of attention. Granted the pricing for the WS7038 is much more favorable than the pricing of the WS2010 system, which is no longer listed on the Lacrosse Technologies website (Apr 2007). In my opinion, the WS2010 system, as a whole, is an amazingly functional and highly durable product. If money is not an object, then I would strongly suggest that you go in the direction of the WS2010 system.

I've owned this for a couple of years. First problem happened within a few months. The display on the receiver became jibberish. I sent the unit to LaCrosse and got a new one. Again, it worked well for quite a while, but now parts of the LCD numbers are fading out. For example, 10:30 may come out as 17:11. And we had a few hundreds of an inch of rain, and the unit said we had 1.03 inches. This is very frustrating.

From the beginning, range was an issue. It has to be direct line of sight. When I was setting it up, I tried various locations, and the range wasn't very good. I ended up with the receiver on a window sill, and the sender about 50 feet away outdoors. I like the way this setup worked out, but be concerned if you don't have a clearing outdoors (so the collector is not under obstructions such as trees) in direct line of sight within 50 or 60 feet of the receiver.

I really liked this unit...when it worked. The reciever is attractive. I bought this when it was fairly new, for a fair amount more than you can here on Amazon now. I expect this kind of product to work at least for several years...not months. I think it's time to try Oregon Scientific!

Bought the rain gauge and within 9 months after working flawlessly it just plain stopped. Sent it back, received another unit and within 6 months totally inaccurate. As an example, yesterdays rainfall was 0.42 inches and this unit registered 0.04. The day before it recorded one half of the actual amount.