Davis question

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OK, I made a flip remark recently about the cost of Davis kit in the UK, and Budgie agrees it’s expensive but you get what you pay for. Do you?

In January 2019 I priced a wireless VP2+ with DFARS, wifi logger, anemo transmitter and tripod from a well-known UK supplier’s website at £1698. I presume it has gone up since then.* I discussed this with niko at the time, who said jokingly that he would buy one in the US and deliver it to me personally in Edinburgh for that amount of cash.

And for what? A bit of kit that is totally unsuitable for a suburban garden surrounded by trees and other houses, IMHO.

Currently my OS anemo and UV sensor are up 5 metres on a pole on an extension to the S of the house, but anemo is still blocked from N to NE. My rain gauge is on the garage roof - as far from my house and the next as possible - and the temp/hum sensor is on the other, N side of the house, altogether unaffected by rain or radiation.

If I put the wireless Davis ISS in a place where it might measure rain/temp fairly accurately, the UV and solar sensors are useless (even though they are well to the S of the house) because of the trees. To site them elsewhere is difficult, as Chris has realised. (I think you could use an Envoy, if they still make one, but that’s overkill.) If I put the ISS where solar and UV work, the temp sensor is 4 metres above the ground.

I think I read that Brian has managed to put his temp/hum sensor in a Stevenson screen - with a wire to the ISS?

I could put the anemo up a pole on the chimney, at 10 metres, like a neighbour. But I need a transmitter because I don’t want a wire running down the house and across the grass to the ISS, which is connected to the house by wifi. (BTW, neighbour is only half a mile away but his wind readings are more than twice mine.)

And I can’t add extra sensors as easily as the OS: only one ISS allowed, remember?

Anyway, back to the original question: why does Davis kit cost so much in the UK?

  • price actually £1712 now! (VP2+ up £80, DFARS down £20, anemo TX down £30 and tripod down £16.)
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You’ve got to be canny. :smiley:

I got the basic VP2 in the UK so I had the legal transmitter, but in 2008 they were a bit cheaper then they are now.

I bought my daytime FARS, UV & Solar sensors + mounting bracket and anemometer from the US (not all at the same time, mind), although I had to pay VAT & import duty on top, but it was still cheaper than buying in the UK.

The soil station I had to buy here for the transmitter frequency.

My first replacement temp/hum sensor was a free warranty replacement from McMurdo, the others I had to pay full price as I needed them ASAP.

My temp station I got second hand from another member on here, that’s now stopped working but I managed to get my old ISS working again and that’s now acting as a temp station reporting the greenhouse temp.

Ebay is your friend!
I got a spare VP2 console in good condition for £100 and about three weeks ago I got a brand new but old-stock VP2 6328OV, minus the console but with UV & Solar and 24 hour FARS, from McMurdo for £400 delivered. I was well chuffed with that find, around £1600 worth of spares in that box!! :D/

So the new station will go into the garden and the old one will be carefully packed away and used for spares. :wink:

As for site location, you’ve got to go with what you’ve got.
When I was in the Western Isles I had a perfect site. Open field that I set the station in and put the anemometer on a pole on the chimney at 10m. The area around me was flat and open with the sea on three sides.
Now I have an nice open garden with the station in the middle, so it’s as open as it can be. The anemometer is on top of the same 8 foot pole, now screwed to the top of an old telephone pole just over the fence. The main issue is I’m surrounded by tall trees and have a 1500ft hill to my immediate East. As a result, my wind data isn’t what it used to be but it’s reporting the direction and speed at my location, so that’s all I can ask of it. :wink:

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Thanks, Budgie. An ex-pat Englishman, I’ve only lived in Scotland for 50 years but I think I have almost attained the state of cannydom :slight_smile:

I had no real intention of actually paying the list price described, but I had to start somewhere so I put that up as the worst-case scenario. Like you, I would certainly have a good look round on the web first. But I’ve just installed a new WMR200 anemo and rain gauge, and I have a few spare temp/hum and UV sensors, so I’ll stick with it for a while yet! Would like solar, though. . . and it would be nice if I could use the console logger history data with WD.

I was interested in the fact that you could buy from the US, pay freight, VAT and duty and still be cheaper than buying in the UK. Which takes me back to the main question: how is that possible?

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[quote author=bitsostring
I was interested in the fact that you could buy from the US, pay freight, VAT and duty and still be cheaper than buying in the UK. Which takes me back to the main question: how is that possible?
[/quote]
Maybe, guessing, 'cause Davis don’t offer much dealer discount outside the US, and the dealers have additional overheads of maintaining stock, paying for premises, paying staff, and have to pay those same duties and charge VAT?

I don’t like it either but if they could do it vastly cheaper I’m sure market forces within the EU (ah we are no longer members) would bring them to prices down.

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I’m also guessing, but maybe the dealer discount varies with quantity and the dealers here don’t sell very many?

Let’s face it, it is really a device for commercial enterprises, not hobbyists, and it is priced accordingly. I wish OS had been more successful with their clone. . .

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Taxes? tarif? UK. I bought my a Davis Instruments Vantage Pro2 Plus Weather Station daytime aspirated, wired probably close to 20 years ago. Parts replace, ice storm broke the anemometer cup, needed new wire because I moved and was several years before I put it back up and could not find it. Updated to the new rain cone with bird wires at that time and sent the console in to be nist certified as cwop was always complaining the barometer was drifting. Probably need a new solar panel (hazed, cracked) for the daytime aspiration and the fan rattles but i have not noticed a day time solar heating problem.

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I don’t deny they’re well built. And plenty of posts on this Forum about hazed/cracked solar panels lasting for years :slight_smile:

BTW I’ve got a Frister+Rossmann model 45, a wedding present from 48 years ago. . . how do you rate them?

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sewing machine? I googled it. I have not seen that brand, though I have seen other branded machines that look like that. It is common in the sewing machine industry to sell other manufactures low end machines as their own. Viking has Emeralds, h class, jades; Bernina, Bernetts; Pfaff, Hobbies; and Singer sells anything as singer. The similar ones I’ve seen for the most part seem to be pretty solid machines with little to go wrong, belts, bobbin rings are probably available but nothing else.

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I love my Bernina’s. I have a 1630(tank that never gives up), a 200 w/embroidery and get to use my sisters new 830 w/ embroidery once in a while.

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We had one exactly like the picture here when I was a kid. . .

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They must have reused that model number, to me 830 was Berninas most successful machine, made from 1970-1980, mechanical, long before computer embroidery machines have become popular. Not real familar with recent Berninas, I don’t know any of the new dealers around here.

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Yes, they are re-using some of the numbers. It is actually a B880. The B830 was a couple of years ago. I wish I could afford one. It retails for over $15,000.00. On sale it’s only $12,999.(LOL) Sews at a max of 1200 SPM. and embroiders at a max of 1000SPM. And it has a HUGE bobbin. Will embroider 400mm x 260mm.