Barometer Needles

[Jammer Six]

What's the deal with barometer needles?

In a picture in another thread, I saw the needle lying at the bottom of the dial. Not registering really low, I mean the needle had fallen off, and was lying in the bottom of the glass.

Doesn't that make the barometer useless?

And I bring it up because it's like the third broken barometer I've seen this week.

So is this a thing? Do all barometer needles eventually jump for freedom, fail, and end up lying forlornly at the bottom of the glass? Is this like faded Carhartts, and a mark of long-term, loyal, hard core non-greenhorn service?

Enquiring Minds Want To Know!

[goboatingnow]

Doomed I tell you doomed , doomed......

[HappySeagull]

...I've always found barometers useless anyways. Maybe mine are just too cheap and have too much friction being aneroid types? (Tap-tap,tap) They follow the weather and don't forecast it. Fun to play with as altimeters, though.

[Bash]

A good precision barometer is going to cost upwards of $600 USD. Weems & Plath makes a few serviceable barometers in the $400 range, but it also makes junk. One thing to look for is where the barometer was built. The better Weems & Plath barometers were made in France. The junk, such as the $75 Weems & Plath "Bluewater" series, is made in Canada.

There's that pesky term again, "bluewater." The marketing guys love it.

[David M]

Quality barometers don't have that problem. I agee with Bash that there is a lot of junk out there that only belongs in the house as a decorative piece.

[donradcliffe]

The needles don't fall off on digital barometers, and they cost about one-tenth as much.

[roverhi]

Funny, as I look at my Weems & Plath expensive brass encased barometer, the needle is laying at the bottom of the gauge. Don't know whether to use some serious epoxy or a dab of 5200 to reinstall it.