AcuRite Wireless Digital Rain Gauge with Self-Emptying Collector with Rainfall History, Alerts, and Current Date and Time (00899), Multicolor

This rain gauge was easy to set up and has been working perfectly. Sometimes setting up the data on the receiver is difficult but this one was very simple. Very happy with this purchase!

I was a little skeptical at first when buying this rain gauge. My dad and I have been tracking rainfall for years with glass gauges (we farm) and I was drawn in by the "self-emptying" part, but also a little leery of how it emptied itself, whether it would freeze in the winter, and whether the design would hold up to years of abuse the way that our plain old tubes did. So, the first thing I did when I got it was take it apart. I have to say, I was really impressed by the design of this thing. Its simple and brilliant, and I think that understanding how it works really helps put you at ease with it. Setup: Two tabs on the side of the white plastic cover allow you to unsnap the white part from the gray part. Inside, you find the measuring unit, which snaps into the gray base. When you unsnap the measuring unit from the bottom of the base, you see the place for the batteries in the bottom of the measuring unit. Once you put the batteries in and snap it back into the base, it covers the batteries to keep them out of the elements. It has two screw holes in the base that will allow you to screw it down so it won't blow away, then you just snap the white part back into the base, and its ready to go. Batteries go into the indoor unit through a flap on the back, very standard. The unit connected right away when the batteries were installed in that order, and didn't lose connection even though there is about 100 yards of space between where the rain gauge is located and where the display is located, indoors. How it Works: Now onto the fun part. The white part of the gauge funnels the water down to a drip point where it drips into the inside of the gauge. The measuring unit is underneath the drip point, and it consists of a see-saw made with two spoons and a magnet on the bottom. The dripper funnels water into the highest spoon until it gets heavy. When it has enough water, it falls, swinging the magnet past the sensor, raising the other spoon to catch water, and dumping its own water out the side of the rain gauge, all in one motion. Then it repeats with the other side. The sensor just measures how many times the magnet swings past. So, there is really only one moving part - the double spoon with a magnetic bottom, on an axis. Nothing complex or easily breakable. It basically measures the rain one tiny measuring cup at a time. And, since the spoon has an open top, holds only a few drops of water, and empties out the side of the base, there is nothing to freeze and crack, so I can leave this gauge outside - no more bringing the gauges in like I have to with the glass tubes. Also, the accuracy of the rain gauge is completely adjustable. It has two set screws underneath the ends of the spoons that you adjust up and down to control how much rain it gathers in each spoon before tipping. So, you can run it next to your favorite rain gauge, and adjust the screws until the reading is dead-on accurate. The inside unit is very similar to other accu-rite weather products. It has a clear display that includes the time and date, and a few buttons. The mode button cycles between running totals. It keeps a total for the latest rain event, the last 24 hours, the last week, and two separate running totals (A and B) that you can use to track whatever you want. ( I use A for the monthly total, and B for the yearly total.) To reset a total, you hold the clear button while you're viewing it. History takes you back to previous readings. It has two alarm thresholds. You can set an alarm for rainfall if you want to be alerted when it starts to rain. You can set another alarm for a flood watch if you want to be alerted when high amounts of rain fall. The set and + butttons are just used to set up the unit. The Bottom Line: This rain gauge uses a simple, accurate, and adjustable method to measure rain. It won't freeze and crack like tube rain gauges, so you don't have to bring it in. It keeps 5 running totals so you can see how much rain you got without having to track it manually. Better yet, you don't have to go outside to empty it after each rainfall. All in all, if you're looking for a rain gauge, this one is a good one.

If you use the correct force and removal procedure the plastic tabs on the outside unit will tend to not break. Ham-fisted or sloppy operation will likely break them. The batteries that are in that outside are very well protected if the installation procedures and suggestions are followed. Wireless Connection is easy, fast, and automatic if you follow directions. The display is easy to read and very clear. The unit auto-empties reliably. The measurement of rainfall, compared to other methods, is accurate and reliable. Mine stopped working and I removed the outer cup to get to the auto-emptying paddles within the outside unit. I had two spiders with webs that had taken up occupancy on the curved paddles. I cleaned them (the paddles, not the spiders) and used double-sided tape to attach a small piece of insect repellent plastic, harvested and repurposed from the Hot Shot 100046114 No-Pest Strip, on the inside of the cup to prevent re-infestation. I used a tiny bit of dry lubricant on the pivot point of the paddles at the beginning of the season to enhance the movement of the paddles. If the collection cup is left outside during freezing temperature, it will more than likely be ok, except that it won't work. There isn't any standing water left in the cup at any time due to the auto-emptying feature. The ports in the bottom of the cup need to be cleaned 2 or 3 times a season by running a pipe cleaner through them. I moisten the pipe cleaners with bleach to help keep the ports clean. It is an outside device, after all, and it is subject to getting clogged based on your installation point. With reasonable and easy care, ours has lasted three seasons with zero problems. Highly recommended except for one detail that, for me, is really annoying: the unit cannot be manually cleared. Daily rainfall from midnight to midnight is great. Rainfall from yesterday added to today is great. Weekly rainfall is ok. But what if you have a 4 day rain period that you'd like to know about? It would be great if there was a "clear" button that would manually reset the unit whenever desired. The cheaper version of this receiver has a clear button, but not this one. A very minor point, but, still a bit irritating. Remove the batteries to clear the unit works fine, but then the time and date and units, etc. have to be reset.

Worked right when I plugged it in and gave an accurate reading without an adjustment. I purchased the warranty because I owned the identical unit before and it worked great for two years but would not work when I hooked it up for the third year.

I can't even comment on durability or accuracy in the real world, I let this sit on my desk for over a month because I knew from other reviews that the calibration process would be difficult and I assumed it was mandatory. They should just include a cup with a hole in it, even though it sounds like a common thing to have laying around. Here's why- My first few attempts involved a generic red party cup with a thumb tack hole punched in the lowest point. It'd drip consistently for a while, then slow down and eventually stop dripping with 10% of the water left. Not enough water weight to force more water through the small hole, surface tension, who knows. Attempts to ever so slightly enlarge the hole didn't solve this, or resulted in the cup draining too quickly. This was all precarious anyway - 1) my pyrex measuring cup is hard to nail 1 cup exactly. I resorted to using a graduated cylinder to fill it with exactly 1 cup / 237ml. It was below the line on my measuring cup. Then I'd transfer to my hole cup 2) I had to balance my hole-punched cup across the top of the unit using pencils. I disliked everything about this after the third attempt, with cups stalling out or draining too fast. Finally saw a video of someone doing it a different way and I put another spin on it. I set a grease-spatter screen across my sink and put a sandwich-type plastic storage container beneath it. I set the rain gauge on the screen and set my faucet at the slowest drip possible. I decided for more accuracy that I would let it drip until the gauge read 3.36", or double what the instruction manual states (1.68"). The water drained through the gauge, through the screen, and collected in the storage container. This took almost an hour. When the screen showed 3.36" (very lucky, I wouldn't expect to nail that perfectly in any calibration setup with 1-minute updates) I WEIGHED the contents of the bin on an accurate food scale. 448 grams. I then asked an AI chat bot thing the following question: "if 1.68 inches (1 cup) = 226.796 grams, and 3.36 inches (2 cups) = 453.592 grams, how many inches is 448 grams?" and the result was 3.32", or 98.8% accurate. I'm not going to even bother twisting the dials and running the test again, that's close enough for me. On my analog rain gauge I wouldn't even be able to make a 1.2% distinction. I'm terrible at math so I guess this is right. Whatever. Update: Yeah whatever, this thing is awful and ranks as my worst purchase of all time. I spent so much effort calibrating it and it never once worked outside, even 10 feet from the indoor unit which always shows solid signal (full bars). If I walk the outdoor unit a few feet and it "clicks" (tipping cups inside) it will register a small change on the indoor unit. But outside during actual rain, even downpours, it never reflects any accumulation. Inches of rain fall and are measured just a foot away by my analog gauge. The cups are not stuck. There is no pairing issue (I've re-paired it anyway, and again I show full signal). I've tried different channels. Nothing makes a difference. It's not blocked above or from the side or anything, the unit gets drenched and water comes out of the bottom when I bring it inside and debate smashing it to pieces. What an impossibly frustrating, waste-of-money situation. I've had a few AcuRite devices over the years, mainly thermometers. I'll never buy anything from them again.

Gotta admit, I did not expect this thing to be that accurate, but so far it is surprisingly nuts on. I purchased the Tropo CoCoRaHS gauge at the same time to compare this rain gauge against and calibrate it if / when needed, but so far after two rain events of .17 of an inch and .23 of an inch the measurements have been exactly the same. Actually the .23 was a hair shy on both. I added three drops of water to the AcuRite collection bucket, which caused it to dump and click up to .23 and I added three drops of water to the Tropo gauge, which caused that one to be dead on at .23 of an inch. I'm sure there are variables that will cause some sensors to be accurate right out of the gate vs others, but I can absolutely tell you that this one is so far ridiculously spot on. Who knows if time tells a different story, or if a major rain event produces different results, but I figured I'd let people like me know that this gauge is absolutely capable of reading accurately despite my belief that it was unlikely. I installed it (put in the two screws) before removing the paper piece that releases the bucket tipper, and I also made sure that it was level. Just letting you know what I did in case that produces positive results for anyone else. I purchased the gauge with the vertical display because I preferred the simultaneous readout options over the horizontal display. Anyway, this is one positive experience for this rain gauge after one week of ownership. I attempted to capture the results for your enjoyment, but I realize the darkness didn't help. You can kind of make out the .20 and the three notchess above where the water line sits on the Tropo, which matches the .23 on the AcuRite.

High winds blew it off the table once. I put some pebbles (for weight) in a small flower pot and put the gauge in the pot. Very secure now. It was easy to set up. Mostly just required installing batteries. Works very well. It’s rather ingenious. There is a cup at the top with a hole in the bottom. Underneath the hole is a little teeter totter mechanism with a small bucket on each end. The bucket in the up position is under the hole. In the down position it’s tilted to empty the bucket. So rain water is collected in the cup and runs through the hole into the bucket. When the bucket is full, the water weight tips the teeter and then that water is dumped out the bottom. It knows how much water has passed through by how many times the teeter has tipped. It reports the rain data to the display in the house. You never need to empty it. It reports rain data by the event or by the day. It retains a history of the data. To explain the difference between event and day, let’s say it starts raining at 9PM one evening. If you display data by the day, it switches to zero at midnight. Let’s say you got .8 inches up to midnight and .4 inches more before the rain stops at 2AM. The next morning you come to check out how much rain you got. If you select event, it says 1.2 inches. If you select day, it says .4 today. Press the history button and see you got .8 yesterday. It also has an optional alarm to tell you a rain event has started in case you want to close your car windows. I imagine you will need to clean it once in a while. The batteries last a long time, but you will need to change them occasionally. Much less maintenance than a manually dumped tube and it still works if you forget to dump the tube. Easy to see how much rain for the week or month by going through history. Better than trying to keep written records of readings on a tube. Update - I just bought my second AcuRite rain gauge. I didn't read the manual closely enough or forgot what I read and left the rain gauge out all winter. It says to not leave it out in freezing weather. So it was working earlier this spring, but stopped about a month ago. I figured it must be the batteries. So I opened up the outside unit and replaced the batteries. It wouldn't sync with the inside unit. So I opened up the outside unit again to see if maybe I put a battery in backwards. I noticed a little crack underneath the teeter mechanism. Well guess where the electronics are. With the spring rains, some moisture must have got through the crack and toasted it. I won't make that mistake again. This is a really great little machine. I never have to empty it or keep a manual log to see the history. Just have to remember to bring it in, like hoses before the first freeze. I did turn off the rain alarm. It's kinda loud at 2AM.

Very accurate. Love that you don’t have to go outside during a pouring rain to track the rain totals

Like all Acurite products it was simple to install and worked perfectly out of the box. As it connects to Acurite Access we configured our Rachio watering system to read direct from it (via wunderground). Meaning that we are getting accurate water readings right at our location. It also shows up on the Accurite App as a seperate sensor. Plus the LCD display can be placed in a convenient location for quick information without having to open the App. The main benefit is we've found it to be far more accurate than our Acurite 5 in 1 rain gauge. Awesome product at a super cheap price.

Very happy with this item. Just what I needed.

Works well 😁

Excellent product...

I had a bit of a trial trying to fine tune the gauge (entirely down to my incompetence), but with hindsight wish I had left it's factory defaults, as my calibrations were a bit amateur. The gauge itself is very easy to use, and easy to adjust if you wish to, I just can't leave well alone. Ever.