AcuRite Wireless Digital Rain Gauge with Self-Emptying Collector with Rainfall History, Alerts, and Current Date and Time (00899), Multicolor

I was a little skeptical at first when buying this rain gauge. My dad and I have been tracking rainfall for years with glass gauges (we farm) and I was drawn in by the "self-emptying" part, but also a little leery of how it emptied itself, whether it would freeze in the winter, and whether the design would hold up to years of abuse the way that our plain old tubes did.So, the first thing I did when I got it was take it apart. I have to say, I was really impressed by the design of this thing. Its simple and brilliant, and I think that understanding how it works really helps put you at ease with it.Setup:Two tabs on the side of the white plastic cover allow you to unsnap the white part from the gray part. Inside, you find the measuring unit, which snaps into the gray base. When you unsnap the measuring unit from the bottom of the base, you see the place for the batteries in the bottom of the measuring unit. Once you put the batteries in and snap it back into the base, it covers the batteries to keep them out of the elements. It has two screw holes in the base that will allow you to screw it down so it won't blow away, then you just snap the white part back into the base, and its ready to go. Batteries go into the indoor unit through a flap on the back, very standard. The unit connected right away when the batteries were installed in that order, and didn't lose connection even though there is about 100 yards of space between where the rain gauge is located and where the display is located, indoors.How it Works:Now onto the fun part. The white part of the gauge funnels the water down to a drip point where it drips into the inside of the gauge. The measuring unit is underneath the drip point, and it consists of a see-saw made with two spoons and a magnet on the bottom. The dripper funnels water into the highest spoon until it gets heavy. When it has enough water, it falls, swinging the magnet past the sensor, raising the other spoon to catch water, and dumping its own water out the side of the rain gauge, all in one motion. Then it repeats with the other side. The sensor just measures how many times the magnet swings past. So, there is really only one moving part - the double spoon with a magnetic bottom, on an axis. Nothing complex or easily breakable. It basically measures the rain one tiny measuring cup at a time. And, since the spoon has an open top, holds only a few drops of water, and empties out the side of the base, there is nothing to freeze and crack, so I can leave this gauge outside - no more bringing the gauges in like I have to with the glass tubes.Also, the accuracy of the rain gauge is completely adjustable. It has two set screws underneath the ends of the spoons that you adjust up and down to control how much rain it gathers in each spoon before tipping. So, you can run it next to your favorite rain gauge, and adjust the screws until the reading is dead-on accurate.The inside unit is very similar to other accu-rite weather products. It has a clear display that includes the time and date, and a few buttons. The mode button cycles between running totals. It keeps a total for the latest rain event, the last 24 hours, the last week, and two separate running totals (A and B) that you can use to track whatever you want. ( I use A for the monthly total, and B for the yearly total.) To reset a total, you hold the clear button while you're viewing it. History takes you back to previous readings. It has two alarm thresholds. You can set an alarm for rainfall if you want to be alerted when it starts to rain. You can set another alarm for a flood watch if you want to be alerted when high amounts of rain fall. The set and + butttons are just used to set up the unit.The Bottom Line:This rain gauge uses a simple, accurate, and adjustable method to measure rain. It won't freeze and crack like tube rain gauges, so you don't have to bring it in. It keeps 5 running totals so you can see how much rain you got without having to track it manually. Better yet, you don't have to go outside to empty it after each rainfall. All in all, if you're looking for a rain gauge, this one is a good one.

Two service requests handled pleasantly and quickly -- very happy customer!I bought this model 00899 rain gauge both as a curiousity, as well as to be lazy -- to know which weeks I could skip watering a bunch of new trees we planted. XDLong story short, at first it just didn't measure accurately (lol, acu-not-rite), but I was quite busy and I put it away and forgot about it for a four months. Then, I looked up online how to recalibrate it and attempted a calibration, and it just wouldn't calibrate properly. Something worse was wrong. I contacted support and they asked for my proof of purchase (Amazon receipt) and nearly immediately simply shipped me a completely new rain collector (the item on page 3 of the user manual at acurite dot com /media/manuals/00899-02445-instructions.pdf), completely free of charge! The replacement unit worked perfectly out of the box, no calibration required. (I'll interject here that in my communication with them, they insisted that every unit is calibrated during manufacture - so if yours isn't measuring right out-of-the-box, you may want to just go straight to contacting them and skip all the calibration mess!)Earlier this week, roughly 15 months after the warranty replacement, I went to remove the rain gauge from the stand outside before some freezing rain came through. When I pinched the side tabs holding the cover to the base in order to remove it, both tabs cracked and broke. Oh no! Maybe the cold weather? Maybe plastic degradation due to UV? Anyway, I opened a new support claim at the Acurite website giving them the full story, including my original receipt, the order number for the replacement rain gauge, as well as photos of the newly-cracked cover, and asked how much a new cover would cost (surely less than a new rain gauge). To my surprise, even though it is clearly outside of the warranty window, they replied today that they are sending me a new replacement plastic cover completely free! This was _really_ unexpected.Twice now they have provided service, once under warranty and once outside the warranty window. Both times communication was quite easy and pleasant. I would not hesitate to recommend this unit, or the company, in the future. Nor would I hesitate to buy from them again should I ever need a replacement, or upgraded model.

Why did you pick this product vs others?:I just picked this one because it provides the information I needed.

Fairly accurate to give me an idea of how much rain we received

I bought this in December 2024 but didn’t start using it until Spring 2025. The outside unit is less than 25’ from the inside sensor, which is in a room with a glass wall. It severely under reports how much rain has fallen. My old tube type rain gauge had frozen and cracked so I was looking forward to using this but, for me, it was a waste of money

Works great to keep up with rainfall amounts at the farm.

For years I've used all-in-one, some expensive, weather monitoring systems. My biggest gripe is the complicated layout on the monitor, placing the outdoor unit where it doesn't interfere with one of the functions, or one part of the system dies, which requires a new system.I decided to buy separate systems that are important to me… rain guage, temperature and wind speed, eliminating unnecessary information bloat on the monitor and to be able to clearly see what is important to me at a very reasonable cost.Anyhow, this rain guage works very well, seems accurate, can be placed anywhere in a clear area, making cleaning easy. The mechanism that actually measures the rain is two small cups. Each side pivots up to collect the rain draining from the cup and drops to empty, raising the other to do the same process. The number of times the cups "see-saw" is how it calculates the amount of rain. Genius!The monitor is clear, decent sized numbers, with options for daily, week or total rainfall. Both inside and outside units are battery powered. I would guess tbatteries will last a long time.