AcuRite Wireless Rain Gauge with Self-Emptying Rain Collector with Rainfall History, Alerts, and Current Date and Time (02446M)

This is a very nice, easy to use and very informative rain gauge. The way it works is so cool and you don’t have to mess with it once it’s set up. Take your time and read the instructions so you get the best benefit from it. This is so much better than a plastic or glass tube that you have to squint or hold your head ‘just so’ to read the lines. I highly recommend this!!!

Two service requests handled pleasantly and quickly -- very happy customer! I bought this model 00899 rain gauge both as a curiousity, as well as to be lazy -- to know which weeks I could skip watering a bunch of new trees we planted. XD Long story short, at first it just didn't measure accurately (lol, acu-not-rite), but I was quite busy and I put it away and forgot about it for a four months. Then, I looked up online how to recalibrate it and attempted a calibration, and it just wouldn't calibrate properly. Something worse was wrong. I contacted support and they asked for my proof of purchase (Amazon receipt) and nearly immediately simply shipped me a completely new rain collector (the item on page 3 of the user manual at acurite dot com /media/manuals/00899-02445-instructions.pdf), completely free of charge! The replacement unit worked perfectly out of the box, no calibration required. (I'll interject here that in my communication with them, they insisted that every unit is calibrated during manufacture - so if yours isn't measuring right out-of-the-box, you may want to just go straight to contacting them and skip all the calibration mess!) Earlier this week, roughly 15 months after the warranty replacement, I went to remove the rain gauge from the stand outside before some freezing rain came through. When I pinched the side tabs holding the cover to the base in order to remove it, both tabs cracked and broke. Oh no! Maybe the cold weather? Maybe plastic degradation due to UV? Anyway, I opened a new support claim at the Acurite website giving them the full story, including my original receipt, the order number for the replacement rain gauge, as well as photos of the newly-cracked cover, and asked how much a new cover would cost (surely less than a new rain gauge). To my surprise, even though it is clearly outside of the warranty window, they replied today that they are sending me a new replacement plastic cover completely free! This was _really_ unexpected. Twice now they have provided service, once under warranty and once outside the warranty window. Both times communication was quite easy and pleasant. I would not hesitate to recommend this unit, or the company, in the future. Nor would I hesitate to buy from them again should I ever need a replacement, or upgraded model.

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.

I like everything about it except it doesn’t have a backlight.

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.

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.

I just ordered my second one. The first one lasted over 5 years. That said, I live in Southern California and take it down for 9 months. The only problem I find with it is the calibration. It takes a lot of patience. I wish there were a better way but I think this is well worth its money and like I said I just ordered my second one.

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.

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.

Excellent product...

Gostei do medidor de chuva AcuRitte. é simples e funciona bem. Único ponto que para mim seria interessante e que disponibilizasse o histórico das medições mais detalhado (dia a dia e mes). Mas é perfeito!

Delivered on time . Easy to use . Hopefully will last many years

Does a great job works very well