FUAUFAS KEXMY Rg202 Stratus Long Term Professional Rain and Snow Gauge

It started raining an hour after receiving the rain gauge. It collected just a bit over 0.20". My Accurite weather-station about 10' away registered 0.22".It works well up to 1" of rain but I had wondered in advance how it measures rain over 1". Water flows from the top funnel into the center tube which has a raised 10" scale with increments of 0.01" (hundredth) on the side. So each 0.1" on the scale is 0.01" of rain. It is marked for up to 1". If more than 1" of rain is collected it overflows from the inner measuring tube into the larger outer tube.So how is the additional rain over 1" measured? Well there is no scale for the additional rain on the outer tube. Why not? According to the instructions, you pour the water out of the inner measuring tube and then pour water from the outer tube into the inner measuring tube and add that amount to the initial 1".However, there is a problem in this regard as can be seen in my second photo. There is a slit in the top of the measuring tube that allows water to flow out and not over the top which is about 0.25" above the top of the scale. As can be seen in the second photo, when water flows out, the surface is about the equivalent of 0.02" above the top of the scale. So measurements over 1" will actually be about 1.02". I find this strange for a measuring instrument that says on the side: "The Professional Rain Gauge". Why was the slit not made deeper so that the surface of the water would be exactly 1" and not about 1.02"? Of course it wouldn't be difficult to make the slit a bit deeper with a file but why isn't a $42 piece of plastic manufactured accurately?The total capacity of the gauge is 11" of rain. It would definitely not be convenient to measure multiple inches of rain by carefully filling the measuring tube multiple times. The outer diameter of the gauge is 4.25". My fingers reach exactly halfway around it. I can just barely hold it securely - especially if there is quite a bit of water in it. The large tube doesn't have a spout and the diameter of the measuring tube is just 1.25". When trying to pour water from the large tube into the small measuring tube it's easy to miss it. If you pour too fast, it will go past the opening. If you pour too slowly, the water will dribble down the side of the large tube. If either of those happen, the measurement will be inaccurate.This didn't need to be an issue. As can be seen in my third photo, the amount of overflow water can also be measured on the scale. In the photo there are 2" of overflow water. Since the large tube holds more water, each increment could represent 0.1" instead of 0.01". Sure, that would be less accurate but it would definitely simplify the measurement. But alas - each inch isn't 10 increments. For the photo I added the equivalent of 2" of rain but unfortunately the water level is at about 22.5. Why wasn't it designed to show 10, 20 or 30... for an additional 1", 2" or 3"?This rain gauge comes with a list of the individual pieces including part numbers in case one needs to be replaced. That is good. But they also offer another measuring tube in milimeters (mm). Why don't they manufacture a measuring tube with both scales on it? That would be very convenient if a person wants to collect rain water and store it in a cistern. 1mm of rain per square meter equals 1 liter of water. So for example, if a roof is 100 square meters and 6mm of rain falls, 600 liters of rain would be collected. That can be easily calculated in your head. In contrast, try that calculation with 0.25" of rain, square footage of roof area and gallons of storage.This rain gauge is very accurate and easy to use for up to 1" of rain. Over 1" of rain the gauge could be 2% less accurate and definitely less convenient. It is currently rainy season and I will be testing and comparing this rain gauge with my Accurite weather station to determine how much less accurate my weather station is.Another easier method to measure the rain would be to put a container on a digital scale, reset it to zero and then pour the rain water in. On my cheap kitchen scale 1" of rain is 202g. For example, divide 32g by 2 and the result is 0.16".

I love this. I have a great time checking the accuracy of my weather station against this. only downside is the birds seem to like pooping in it

This is a replacement...we loved the first one so much we got another!

I know this gauge is accurate since its design is based on the one recommended by the National Weather Service. More importantly, the price is quite a bit cheaper than the brass ones typically used by NWS employees. The Stratus is composed of a hard, clear butyrate polymer. It can be used for rain and snow, but it will crack if water is allowed to freeze inside of it. This same type of gauge is used by the CoCoRaHS organization (CoCoRaHS is an acronym for the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network).The gauge consists of four parts:1) A 4" diameter outer cylinder,2) A bracket for mounting the cylinder to a post,3) A 1" inner tube,4) A cap/funnel that stabilizes the inner tube and channels all precipitation to the inner tube. (The funnel and inner tube must be removed for collecting sleet and snow.)The outer cylinder has no markings, but the inner tube has markings graduated to one hundredth of an inch, and has a total capacity of 1". When precipitation exceeds 1", the excess flows from the inner tube and is captured in the outer cylinder. The complete gauge assembly is capable of measuring a total of 11" of liquid (snow/sleet must be melted after collecting).Now for the tricky part: If you want to get an accurate measurement of precipitation in excess of 1" you have to remove the inner tube, dump it, remove the outer cylinder from the mounting bracket, and pour the water from the outer cylinder into the inner tube. This process must be repeated for each inch of precipitation contained in the outer cylinder. Add the measurements together and you get your total rainfall.I found this process somewhat tedious and limiting, however, so I used a permanent marker to designate 2", 2.5", 3", 3.5", 4". 4.5" etc. on the outer cylinder. I accomplished this by filling the inner tube with water to the 1" mark, dumping the water in a cup, refilling the inner tube once again, dumping that water into a different cup, and repeating the process until I had 10 separate cups all containing 1" of water as measured by the inner tube. I then assembled the rain gauge and poured the contents of 2 cups into the cap/funnel. The inner tube filled with the contents of the first cup; water overflowed into the outer cylinder when I emptied the second cup into the gauge. I then took a marker and made a mark on the outer cylinder at the water line -- this represents 2" of precipitation. Next, I dumped the third cup of water into the gauge and made a mark on the outer cylinder at the new water line -- this represents 3" of precipitation. I kept repeating the process until I had marks representing 2" to 10". I then used a ruler to divide the difference between each marking and made new marks to represent the 1/2" gradients. Now I can get a rough estimate of how much it rained without having to go through the process of dumping the inner tube and re-filling it with the water collected in the outer cylinder. This is especially useful when checking the gauge while it is still raining. (If I get more ambitious I'll make markings to represent 1/4" gradients.)The aforementioned process brings me to the only con I can find for this rain gauge -- the lack of any markings on the outer cylinder. If I were producing this product I would have markings imposed onto the outer cylinder similar to the inner tube. I realize that the markings couldn't be graduated to one hundredth of an inch -- like on the inner tube -- but inch, half-inch, and quarter-inch markings could easily be made. Regardless of this 'flaw' I am more than pleased with my purchase and look forward to using the gauge for years to come.

Great rain gauge lasted 8 years in all day sun.Sill works but went to dull to read. Will buy again.