User Findings on the Reliability of Netatmo Weather Station - Time Life was 3 years
Over three years ago, I purchased a Netatmo Weather Station, which failed after 3 months, when the Wind Anemometer started showing erroneous readings. It was replaced under warranty. Since then the Netatmo Weather had been installed in an open field in southern UK.
The Netatmo Weather Station failed after 3 years in use, due to physical corrosion.
The indoor unit was kept inside a 20ft container. Outside, I had the external temperature and wind anemometer installed on a pole.
After 3 years in the elements, the indoor unit was working but both of the external units failed (temperature and wind anemometer).
The unit was out of warranty and because this was the way it was made, and not a fault in manufacture, the retailer was unable to help.
I brought it all in to my workshop for inspection. I found ...
- the outdoor temperature monitor had a gasket that had decayed. It looked okay before removal, but when I opened up the battery compartment the gasket fell apart - it detached into two parts and some small bits also fell away
- The negative contact of the battery compartment in the outdoor temperature monitor showed signs of significant corrosion and the metal coil deep inside broke off when the battery was removed. A picture is attached.
- The wind gauge battery compartment was awash with rain water. It appears the unit is not weather-tight; probably the central fixing hole is not leakproof. The is a known fault, since the original Anemometer design was launched about 8 years ago, but has not been fixed since.
- There was significant erosion of the negative spiral wire contact in the wind gauge battery compartment.
Comments
5 comments
I have two outdoor unit (the most recent is from March 2021) and both has corrosion on negative contact, and now both are out
It's depressing that so many outdoor electronic components are not fit for purpose - especially depressing when it's literally weather monitoring equipment!
Identical issues here with both wind gage and temperature monitor. Worked around with temp monitor thanks to aluminium foil, which forces contact. For wi'd gauge.... Full of water in the battery compartment. Unimaginable. But here you go... Very very disappointing. Netatmo's OK for interior monitoring.
Forget about outside.
I just posted about this topic (https://helpcenter.netatmo.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/21524697550482-Smart-Anemometer-ultrasonic-sensor-waterproof-membranes-perishing-after-3-years), where the thin plastic membranes covering the 4 ultrasonic sensors, presumably for water-proofing, have perished after only 3 years :-(
Same here, the membranes disintegrated in the Australian UV, the plastics aren’t UV stable so the plastic case became very brittle and broke, plus the battery connections corroded to destroy the wind gauge completely. Really disappointing.
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