Best Wireless Rain Gauges

If you are interested in gardening, you’ll want to keep track of the amount of rainfall that your plants are receiving. Also, keeping track of the temperature will also be useful, in order to know how much of the rainfall can be evaporating and not getting properly absorbed by your plants. A number of companies have made wireless rain gauges, that help you monitor rainfall--and they send you the information to a computer or other wireless device. Some can send the data for 80 or even 100 meters away. You’ll also find rain gauges with data logging, so that they can give you information about rainfall over a range of dates--even for weeks or months. There are also rain gauges that can tell you how much water has collected in a cistern or rain barrel.

We've put together this guide to help you select the wireless rain gauge that answers to your needs. It'll help you:

• Choose the right type of wireless rain gauge,

• See useful tips about that type of wireless rain gauge,    

• Read reviews of different brands of wireless rain gauge, and what customers are saying,

• Select the right brand of wireless rain gauge, and

• Compare prices and find the best deals.

• Three-part rain gauge: These are rain gauges that measure the rainfall, approximating what the rainfall should be over a garden or field. Most follow the scheme of the La Crosse Technology and Oregon Scientific rain gauges--both have three main components:

  • An exterior temperature sensor (which must be mounted in the shade, so as to give a proper temperature reading),
  • An exterior rain gauge. This is a rectangular box with holes in the top, to collect water. Two small cups collect water, when they fill, they empty the water out. As the water passes out of the device, it marks off the amount of rainfall
  • A digital display that stays indoors, telling you the time, date, and temperature inside and outside. The display shows a bar graph of how much water has fallen, in quarter inch increments (you can switch it to metric if you like).

• Water tank gauge: There is also a rain gauge that is designed to measure the rain collected in a tank. The Rain Harvesting Wireless Rain Water Tank Gauge uses a submersible probe that tells you how much water has collected in your water tank. There is a dial that tells you how full the tank is.

Based on all the consumers' reviews we've scanned, these are the top things they mentioned about their new stuff:

• Multilingual: The General Tools RGR150 Wireless Rain Gauge displays the calendar in a number of languages: English, Spanish, German, French, or Italian. It is also programmable for your particular time zone. That can be important when logging data over an entire year.

• How to measure light rainfall: One purchaser of the Taylor Wireless Rainfall Gauge suggested that people lightly coat the rain catcher with detergent. This will break up large water droplets, so that they will drain out of the device properly. Otherwise, a light rainfall may just evaporate after depositing into the device, without getting recorded.

• Data Logging: A big advantage that some rain gauges have is data  logging: they can store the rainfall amounts over a time span. That is particularly useful if there are several consecutive days of rain. The Oregon Scientific RGR126N Wireless Rain Gauge stores rainfall amounts for 9 days at a time. The La Crosse Technology 724-1710 will log for the year, the month, the week, and the last 24 hours.

• Self-emptying gauge: The Oregon Scientific Rain Gauge and the La Crosse Technology 724-1710 Wireless Rain Gauge Weather Station both have a self-emptying feature--it empties out the rainfall collected after making a reading at the end of the day. The collecting cup tilts over or drains out, emptying out the water collected.

• Temperature sensor as well as rainfall: Most electronic rain gauges will record the temperature as well as the rainfall.

• Precipitation alarm: The La Crosse Technology 724-1710 will alert you when there is precipitation. You can define what type of alert the monitor will give you. This is handy if you have furniture outside or laundry hanging out to dry, and you don’t want it to get wet.

• How to test your device: A novel way of testing your rain gauge’s accuracy and its signal strength is by putting it in the shower, away from the main stream of water, but in the vicinity where it can collect some drops. You will have an indicator on the display of the signal strength, telling you if the detector is within range.

Stratus--are makers of products for the kitchen and home. Besides making snow and rain gauges, they also make bedroom furniture, stoves, remote control devices, knives, sinks, automobile accessories, and more.

General Tools--was founded by Abe and Lillian Rosenberg in New York City in 1922. They originally made hardware and specialty hand tools, but they rapidly expanded into die-cast tools, and digital test and measurement tools. One of their products is rain gauges. They were acquired by High Road Capital Partners in 2014.

Oregon Scientific--was founded in Portland, Oregon in 1989. They make clocks and timers, home and professional weather station equipment such as thermometers and rain gauges, air monitors, and more.

LaCrosse Technology—was started in 1983 by Allan McCormick, and are located in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. They deal in time and weather technology, clocks, mobile alert technology, thermometers and rain gauges. They make both traditional thermometers and thermometers that work with smartphone applications.