Dear Bob, Blick, and WeatherCat station caregivers,
. . . .
I have purchased two Davis Vantage Pros - one for our home and a 2nd home we sold - with the 2nd Davis included in the sale. I never been really happy with the Vantage Pro finickiness.
Sorry to hear that you have had problems with Davis equipment. Most of us have had trouble free service from Davis equipment until something breaks.
This one is about 12 years old and the plastic parts have aged and are brittle for being in the elements for so long.
12 years is actually a fairly decent lifespan for weather instruments. My station is only 11 years old and I have had to replace the anemometer and temperature/humidity probe. Obviously, it depends on the conditions, but here in California the heat and strong sunshine appears to really damage even UV protected plastic.
Any suggestions for another system to look at if I just decide to replace this one. All the reviews say Davis is the best systems. Thanks again. If I find anything new I'll let you know.
Unfortunately, I don't know of any system that is supported by WeatherCat that is tougher or more durable. The list of WeatherCat supported stations can be found on this page:
https://trixology.com/weathercat/Most of the stations besides Davis are less expensive and therefore less likely to last. The one exception you might want to look into is Columbia Weather Systems:
https://columbiaweather.com/products/weather-stations/fixed-base/WeatherCat will work with these stations if you provide a weather micro server:
https://columbiaweather.com/products/weather-monitoring/microserver/I don't know of anyone on the WeatherCat forum using this station but they are clearly of an advanced design.
I hope this is some help.
Cheers, Edouard