Kestrel weather meter accuracy???

[247sniper]

Hi guys,

I have a Kestrel 4000 and from the beginning when I got it I doubted it was accurate. Comparing it to my Skywatchers 4 at the time it always seemed to under read the wind but quite a bit. I thought at the time it mush have been the cheaper skywatchers at fault....I believe I was wrong.

 

Like I said I have suspecte this for a while now as nearly all my misses on windy days are always down wind too.

 

Last night really got me thinking, I was out shooting steel and as normal measured the wind, Kestrel said it was between 8 and 12 mph, I thought then it seemed a bit slow as it felt more like 15 mph from experience. The results on steel resulted in twice they wind speed adjustments needed, i ended up dialing for a 16mph wind!

 

One thing I have noticed again since new, is the impeller on the Kestrel is noisey it seem like it rattles when picking up speed, it can really only rattle on the outer side walls of the impeller casing, this obviously would slow the impeller down.

 

Is anyone else's Kestrel noisy when operating (spinning)?

 

Cheers guys,

 

Steve.

[camo304]

Get it sent back or get a new impeller, it should be silent.

[247sniper]

Get it sent back or get a new impeller, it should be silent.

Yeh I thought it should be silent, where is best to get them from?

[Gandy]

Drive your at with it out the window and compare it to the speedo?

[Scotch_egg]

You didnt buy it from LGA supplies by chance?

[247sniper]

You didnt buy it from LGA supplies by chance?

I can remember now, why ?

[247sniper]

Just an update and thank you guys. I ended up getting a new impeller from http://www.r-p-r.co.uk, all seems good now.

 

Cheers guys,

 

Steve

[gunner]

Drive your at with it out the window and compare it to the speedo?

Hmm - i wouldn't if i were you

[DaveT]

You didnt buy it from LGA supplies by chance?

Pretty sure that's where I got mine....are they sub-standard?

[Lucror]

You didnt buy it from LGA supplies by chance?

I had to return mine to LGA for a replacement. You had a problem as well?

[gunner]

tryin to upload pics - please wait lol ! ( kestral vs caldwell ) ok still cant upload pics cause im a dumass , well after thinking my kestrel screen was broken ( after a year and replacing it with a Caldwell wind wizard ) i picked it up yesterday wondering if the batteries were dead ? I took em out then popped em back in and hey presto the screen was ok again ! As i was cheaking zero yesterday i thought ill take em both out and do a little field sbs test after reading 247s post .

 

Probably not the most accurate way but it seemed that the kestrel was allways at least 1mph slower , the pics i took yesterday - on one extreme kestrel showed 8.9 Caldwell ww showed 11.9 ! AND the kestrel was allways slower to spool down as when the wind dropped the wind wizard / Caldwell showed the slower wind speed quicker . AND the kestrel was and allways made that slight rattling noise when its spinning fast ! Soo all in all im chuffed the kestrel is working ok again but not sure its entirely accurate and also not sure if its working fine either with the rattling ! I bought it from york guns 2-3 year back ! I did phone them a year or so but conveniently had no record of sale and had stopped supplying them . Soo im just not sure if the cost of a kestrel compared to1/4 the price alternative is entirely worth it . Yes the kestrel 4000 i have has a few more features but im thinking really all you need is wind speed , temperature , and practice in the field is more important than knowing your altitude and humidity, dew point etc ...