USGS has experienced both issue 1 and 2 that James mentions above. We have also seen the issues listed below. We have communicated them to SonTek and they have addressed the issues.
- Handheld issues that are related to damage caused from the old handheld mount. SonTek redesigned the mount to increase the surface area better distributing the pressure reducing the damage (Image Attached).
- The eight screws on the probe (Image Attached) become loose over time and fall out. SonTek has increased their torque specs to prevent the issue in the future. A local fix would be to apply blue LockTight to the threads to help them stay in place.
- The Probe mounting stem falls off. SonTek fixed the issue by increase the weld strength to withstand 712 lbs of force from 265 lbs of force before breaking.
In the USGS we received many concerns from our field staff thinking the failure rate was high. When we pulled reports on HIF repairs we saw an increase in repairs over time, but it corresponded with an increase in the number of registered FlowTracker2 ADVs as FlowTracker1 ADVs were being replaced. When we compared the failure rate to FlowTracker1 ADVs in the past, it was similar.