On 2014-01-30 10:16:48 +0000, General said:

"yttiw" wrote in message news:2014013010055416658-cuddles@britpostcom...

If I poured in enough water for 10 tips, quite
often the display total would be 8, but there were a number of times
when it was as low as 6.
===================

Let's hope that by 'poured' you mean dripped. If you did indeed just
empty a given volume of water into the funnel then it's not impossible
that individual tips might be missed (because of the unrealistically
high rainfall rate that would be simulated and which the gauge is not
designed to cope with). That's not to say that the reed switch might
not be getting old and less reliable and so also contributing to the
apparent under-recording, but it's essential to test correctly. And
something around 100 tips-worth as a total volume to drip through is
recommended for a good test.

John Dann
www.weatherstations.co.uk

Thanks for that advice John. I did try and add the water at various
rates in order to simulate varying rainfall conditions, but I admit
that the 1-2mm an hour levels would be almost impossible to produce
manually.

Apologies for double posting, but some of my posts take so long to
appear, that I give up on them and try again. Very tiresome, I know,
and rather embarrassing.

If we ever get a dry spell, I will attempt the 100 tips test and see
how it goes.