A new place in NZ to purchase weather stations/equipment

[Manukau heads obs]

http://www.scientificsales.co.nz/catalog/

prices look reasonable

[Gary Roberts]

http://www.scientificsales.co.nz/catalog/

prices look reasonable

Those are reasonable prices! Well, for over-priced Davis stuff, that is! But seriously, it's good to see sensible pricing here in NZ at last. They've added very little mark-up by the looks of it. These are almost US prices (exchange-rate adjusted of course).

We approached a local dealer ages ago and were flabbergasted at the prices they were asking, and ended up importing one direct from the US. I might be in for a new station from them myself.

We got a call from the local Oregon Scientific distributor last week. He's based in Christchurch, and seems like a reasonable guy. He's going to be pushing their new models shortly. Should be interesting.

[Manukau heads obs]

yes, the official davis retailer adds another 500$ on
but davis are good products
(there are a number of people in NZ now who have OS Wm918's that are starting to fail (temperature sensors mainly)

[Michael]

The more competition the better the prices

[Gary Roberts]

yes, the official davis retailer adds another 500$ on
but davis are good products
(there are a number of people in NZ now who have OS Wm918's that are starting to fail (temperature sensors mainly)

A friend of mine (http://mission-bay.sig.net.nz/) has just had his WM-918 temp sensor fail. This issue might be related to the builders dropping a concrete wall on it, but we aren't sure.

I've installed six WM-918's since approx 1997, and they are all going strong, without a single failure. We have the Davis Vantage Pro Plus, and it is a good station, but I don't see it outlasting our WM-918's significantly, if at all.

[Gary Roberts]

The more competition the better the prices

Yup. The new OS stations sound like they might be very good indeed, and significantly less expensive than the Davis models, so that could be a very good thing for us all.

[Manukau heads obs]

but you live in a dry climate zone gary, and you are well away from the ocean
and so you are not liekly to get failures so much (caused by corrision)

the fact is there are numerous reports of wm918 failures now.
yeah, davis has had problems with corrosion and have released a fix/replacement

OS also have problems of their own, but often its to do with batteries, etc
the OS wmr918/68 windpeed is not very responsive....next to useless for serisous windspeed recording

[Gary Roberts]

but you live in a dry climate zone gary, and you are well away from the ocean
and so you are not liekly to get failures so much (caused by corrision)

the fact is there are numerous reports of wm918 failures now.
yeah, davis has had problems with corrosion and have released a fix/replacement

OS also have problems of their own, but often its to do with batteries, etc
the OS wmr918/68 windpeed is not very responsive....next to useless for serisous windspeed recording

I used to live in Auckland for a while. None of the stations installed there have had corrosion problems. The recently crushed temperature sensor on my friend's weather station in Mission Bay/Orakei showed no signs of corrosion on the PCB, even though he lives literally a stones-throw away from the harbor.

The Davis is a good station, but I believe the additional cost is difficult to justify for the average user, especially when the WM-918 will do the job effectively for almost a fifth of the price.

And the new OS range sounds very interesting. Their rep called us after I e-mailed a question regarding the WM-918's data-sampling rate, and after answering that we had an interesting discussion about the new OS product range. It seems like it could be just the thing for people who want Davis accuracy and features without the Davis price.

As Michael said, competition is a good thing.

[Manukau heads obs]

if you want 2.5 second update rates, go with davis, even though way more expensive, but if you can live with only every 15 seconds update rates, then by all means the OS
my brother has a OS wmr968, and it its going strong (in auckland)

[Gary Roberts]

if you want 2.5 second update rates, go with davis, even though way more expensive, but if you can live with only every 15 seconds update rates, then by all means the OS
my brother has a OS wmr968, and it its going strong (in auckland)

Hmmm...update rate is faster than that. I think it's actually 5-10 seconds from memory (depending on which sensor we are talking about...the wind speed samples every 5 seconds and the temp every 10...just from memory). Will have to dig out the manual for that one!

But even so, unless you're doing research or are a wealthy fanatic, most will find the WM-918 more than adequate, I believe. It's a good little general purpose weather station.

If the new OS gear is as good or better, and still inexpensive, then I see little reason for the majority to go to the Davis (unless they have plenty of spending money handy).

Competition is a good and healthy thing. Without it we'd all be forced to buy hideously expensive junk!

[Manukau heads obs]

actauly i was a bit wrong there, i remember now, its 10 seconds for windspeed/dir, 15 seconds for all other

[craiglove]

Hi Gary, yes i have to agree with Brian about the pricing structure of the Davis gear in NZ, i have contacted the distributor directly and feel that they are too well over priced for your buck!!

However I keep my prices as low as possiable on my site.
Stay tuned to http://www.scientificsales.co.nz as we have something very exciting coming up to which we are working on....

Craig