Aquapel rain treatment for rain gauges???

[elagache]

Dear WeatherCat "slick" rain gauge owners,

It is definitely going deluxe, but if you want to make sure to get as accurate a measure of rainfall, you might try coating your rain gauge collector cone with a product like Rain-X:

http://www.rainx.com/product/glass-and-cleaners/rainx-original-glass-treatment/#.VCh6s-flf2E

I've been doing this for years and while it doesn't make the drought go away, at least what rain does fall will gets counted.

I had been using Rain-X on the car glass for much longer than I've had a weather station, but recently I discovered a new product for automobile glass: Aquapel:

http://www.aquapel.com/

This product was developed by the automobile glass manufacturer PPG Industries and in tests it does appear to last a lot longer on car windshields:

http://www.autoblog.com/2006/04/17/rain-x-versus-ppg-aquapel-grudge-match+/

I put it on all our cars last year, but with the drought, I can hardly say if Aquapel really works better or not.  I did again this year, we'll see!

My question is whether or not anybody knows of an attempt to use Aquapel on a rain gauge collector cone?  Some of you folks hang out on other weather forums so you might have heard something.  Since Aquapel appears to be designed specifically for application to automobile glass, my instinct is that Aquapel isn't a good choice for plastic parts and might even do damage.  I was curious if anybody had found the answer da' hard way!!!   

Cheers, Edouard 

[Steve]

My question is whether or not anybody knows of an attempt to use Aquapel on a rain gauge collector cone?  Some of you folks hang out on other weather forums so you might have heard something.  Since Aquapel appears to be designed specifically for application to automobile glass, my instinct is that Aquapel isn't a good choice for plastic parts and might even do damage.  I was curious if anybody had found the answer da' hard way!!!

A search for Aquapel on the WX forum only came up with one post from a couple of years ago about a member putting it on the inside and outside of his gauge, but no comments on the effects on the collector or if it helped. Just a like item in a list of all the things he's done on his station. Coincidentally, it was a fellow that used to come here named scwab.

Steve

[elagache]

Hi Steve and WeatherCat "slick" rain gauge owners,

A search for Aquapel on the WX forum only came up with one post from a couple of years ago about a member putting it on the inside and outside of his gauge, but no comments on the effects on the collector or if it helped.

Thanks Steve for making the search! 

Well, I suppose that means it didn't disfigure the plastic since that would have definitely discouraged any repeat applicatons!!    Still, that is hardly an endorsement.  Aquapel is much more expensive than Rain-X and is a hassle to apply.  It isn't horrible on auto glass, but I would expect it to be extremely difficult to get it into the tight spaces at the bottom of a collector cone.

So that's good enough for me, I'll stick to Rain-X!

Thanks again!

Cheers, Edouard