Weathertightness of rural letterboxes

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raytaylor

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#2284826 28-Jul-2019 15:00

jonherries: Does anyone have a sensor in the mailbox to let them know their mail has been delivered?

Jon

I had an elderly customer tell me how i should develop this because its an awesome business idea. He spent 20 minutes lecturing me that I should do it and he would be happy for me to test it.

Im sitting there thinking sure thats a good idea, why dont you just put a PIR gate sensor inside it. There are already products that can do it, as i politely tried to get my job done and out asap.

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neb

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#2284849 28-Jul-2019 15:38

jonherries: Does anyone have a sensor in the mailbox to let them know their mail has been delivered?

I look into these from time to time, but most are meant for the US-style flip-open letterboxes and built around either a reed switch or tilt switch. So far I haven't found anything that works for NZ letterboxes, although this would have done the job if it had got funded.

The fact that only a non-US-style alert system would work in NZ means that there's not much chance of it getting funded, since there's no market for one in the US.

neb

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#2284850 28-Jul-2019 15:40

nakedmolerat: we have that exact same letterbox. it rain heaps here.

no issue for us. never get wet.

Is that comment for the rural one at the start of the thread, or the later security letterboxes?

neb

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#2284851 28-Jul-2019 15:42

raytaylor:
Im sitting there thinking sure thats a good idea, why dont you just put a PIR gate sensor inside it.

On the one hand I can see your frustration with someone telling you to productise their random idea, but OTOH how is a PIR sensor going to do anything unless the postie puts your letter in a toaster oven before they put it in the mailbox?

Geektastic

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#2286067 30-Jul-2019 21:36

No letter boxes in front doors is one reason we use a PO Box rather than rural delivery.

I do not want my mail sat at the end of the drive for anyone to help themselves to if I happen not to be at home for the day or whatever.

kiwigander

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#2286118 30-Jul-2019 22:58

I've got one of the rural letterboxes shown in your picture. I no longer use it. Because it is remote from the house, and there is no easy way of securing it, we've agreed with our postie that all letters go into our (locking) parcel box.

It is not weathertight. Probably nothing in our setting would be fully weathertight, but it's got two notable flaws:

The door gets blown open by the prevailing winds;
The flag leaks water into the interior of the box when it rains (and afterwards, too).

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neb

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#2286696 31-Jul-2019 16:48

Ugh, thanks. I was going to seal up the flag part since it's not needed in a residential area, but had some doubts about the weathertightness of the door. I was more worried about rain ingress, didn't realise it could also blow open. Looks like the best option will be to DIY from a sheet of H3.2 ply, where I can control the level of rain protection myself.

Hmm, does anyone sell anything above CD grade? I think it'd look nice stained and varnished rather than just CD with paint slapped over it to cover up the ugly, but I think Bunnings/M10's assessment of C as "high grade" is a bit optimistic. Guess I can go in-store and pick out a presentable piece...

Next thing will be designing a box that works for both letters and parcels, probably the traditional slot with a door/flap beneath it for larger items.

kiwigander

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#2286767 31-Jul-2019 18:22

"Hmm, does anyone sell anything above CD grade?"

A very quick DuckDuckGo search turned up two Auckland suppliers and one in Wanganui, and we've dealt with a firm in Nelson.

neb

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#2286770 31-Jul-2019 18:27

It was mostly a rhetorical question, I was wondering why the conveniently-available usual suspects all sold lower-grade stuff. Placemakers at least advertises BD grade, and there's one not too far from here.

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