The History of the World’s Coolest Rain Gauge Company
In 1999, we brought a unique and ingeniously designed rain gauge to a large wholesale trade show. During the show, Country Living Gardening Magazine named it “Best New Product,” and nearly every time we demonstrated it, buyers would smile and say the same thing:
“That’s really cool.”
By the end of that hectic week, the product had a name: the World’s Coolest Rain Gauge® — an award-winning floating rain gauge designed for gardeners, weather watchers, and anyone who simply enjoys watching the weather.
At the time, we were making the gauges almost entirely by hand in our small New York workshop. Copper pipe was cut one piece at a time. Rims were pressed manually. Caps were glued in place individually. Measurement tubes were driven to a local screen printer, then picked up and assembled by hand. Steel holders were bent in small batches and hauled to a powder coater before coming back for packing and assembly. We moved thousands of pounds of parts around New York in the back of a trusty Subaru Forester.
It was part workshop, part road trip, part exercise in unhinged stubbornness.
But gardeners loved it because it was useful. And gift shoppers loved it because it was unusual. Weather enthusiasts loved watching the floating blue measurement tube rise after a storm. Stores started carrying it. Orders grew. What started as a small garage operation slowly became a real business.
Over the years, the manufacturing process evolved too.
Today, the World’s Coolest Rain Gauge® is still a small independent business, but we now work with skilled manufacturing partners who help us maintain the quality, durability, and distinctive design that made the gauge stand out in the first place.
Our heavy-duty steel holders are made by a family-owned metal shop in Chicago. The solid copper containers are crafted by talented artisans in India, where copperworking traditions stretch back thousands of years. The floating measurement tubes are sourced through a longtime Ohio-based small business partner who works directly with an experienced factory in China specializing in precision manufacturing.
The process may look different today than it did in 1999, but the philosophy remains exactly the same:
Make something useful. Make it durable. Make it a little unexpected. And above all, make rain fun.
More than 25 years later, the World’s Coolest Rain Gauge® is still independently owned, still carefully assembled, and still proving that even a humble garden rain gauge can be something special.
About the Video
This video was filmed during the early years of the World’s Coolest Rain Gauge®, when many parts of the process were still done by hand in our small New York workshop. While the manufacturing process has evolved over the years, the goal has remained exactly the same: create a durable, distinctive rain gauge that makes rain fun.
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I ordered 1 repair of the foam insert and
was charged for 3 kit’s which I tried to correct
with no success! Charged $27 for 3 and only
need 1kit! Bad communication system!!!
Our old foam insert had worn out and I thought I would never be able to replace it but I found your site and it works great. I had even ordered what I thought was a rain guage from Walmart that was advertised as copper, but was plastic. I complained to Walmart. It was a 3rd party seller; Thank you for making it available;
