Many readers of WUWT have an interest in weather, and specifically temperature. This being “Black Friday”, I thought I’d spend a few minutes talking about some of the home weather stations that are available and being promoted as “deals” this year. I’m going to provide you with some details that might help you avoid purchasing a piece of poorly manufactured equipment that might look pretty, but won’t last and won’t be accurate.
One of the most promoted weather stations out there this year is one by a company called “LaCrosse”. You’ll see this snazzy looking “5 in 1” weather station at Costco, Amazon, and many other places.
They like to bill themselves as a company based in Wisconsin, but make no mistake, everything they sell is manufactured in China, as is this unit. I’ve had a fair amount of personal experience with this company, and the products are generally low-end when it comes to reliability, quality, and accuracy.
Pros:
- Great price
- Lots of features
- Color LCD display
- Cell phone interface/app
Cons:
- Rain gauge with lower surface collection area than is standard means lower accuracy on rainfall measurements
- No wind direction measurement – only speed
- Small cup size on Anemometer means low wind readings are not captured
- No specs given on accuracy of temperature, humidity, pressure, rainfall – only ranges given in their published specs
- Company’s products have history of short durability
My experience with Chinese made products like this is that they have a temperature accuracy that is often only ±2 or 3 degrees Fahrenheit, don’t read winds accurately, nor report rainfall measurements accurately due to non-standard sizes of wind cups and rain collectors. Even worse, in my experience, they often don’t last very long. The plastic components don’t handle weather and sun exposure well, and the housing darkens with age, increasing the bias to the temperature. While this product “looks” great, it’s really little more than a toy.
Another similar Chinese-made weather station is one from a company called AcuRite, also available in many places, such as Target, Amazon, Kohl’s, Home Depot, and many other online stores. Like the LaCrosse, it has a snappy display and lots of features, but like any Chinese-made product, it suffers from accuracy and reliability issues.
Pros:
- Good price
- Lots of features
- Color LCD display
- Cell phone interface/app
- Computer logging program
- Solar powered fan for aspirated temperature readings
Cons:
- Oddly shaped rain gauge aperture with lower surface collection area than is standard means lower accuracy on rainfall measurements
- Small cup size and odd shape on Anemometer means low wind readings are not captured
- Accuracy of temperature is listed as ±2 degrees F
- Users report fan stops working after a few months, resulting in higher than normal temperature readings
- Slow – wind speed reported every 18 seconds and direction every 30
- Users report short useful product lifetime
The above examples are just two of the many Chinese-made consumer grade weather stations being foisted on consumers this Christmas. While these might be fine for “entertainment value”, anybody who is serious about getting accurate weather and climate information really needs to look elsewhere. These weather stations have even worse problems than we have uncovered in the NOAA surface temperature network.
There is one company, Davis Instruments, of Hayward California that makes quality weather stations that have accuracy and quality, and I highly recommend them if you plan to purchase a weather station. Sure, they may cost more, but they do in fact last, have standard sized rain and wind collection that meet WMO specs, and have sensors that are NIST traceable. Plus, they are wholly American-made.
The caveat “you get what you pay for” holds true in the weather station market.
Pros:
- Standard sized and shape rain gauge comes meet WMO standards for size and collection area
- Rain gauge has integrated bird spikes to prevent roosting and clogging
- Rain gauge has new wind-tunnel tested cone to ensure better collection at high wind speed
- NIST traceability with sensors
- Temperature accurate to within ±1 degreeF (0.5C) Full specs here
- NOAA, Naval Observaory, WMO, algorithms built into firmware for calculated data
- Durable construction won’t darken or fail – users report stations lasting 10 years or more
- Parts are available from the U.S. manufacturer – unlike from China manufacturers
Cons:
- No color display
- Higher price (lower cost Vantage Vue seen below, is available)
- Cell phone/website interface is an optional add-on
Full disclosure: my company has the first and oldest online weather instrument store ( weathershop.com 1995) and we sell these. If you’d like to take a look, we have a sale on, and you can take my word for it: these stations will last, and give you accurate readings, as well as log data, send data to places like Weather Underground, and works with Android/iOS apps if you get the WeatherLink IP to connect to your home router.
SALE ENDED- final clearance fire sale here
I have seen so many people buy these cheap Chinese instruments, then become frustrated with them either right out of the box (DOA) or having them fail in a few months, that I thought I’d take a moment to tell people about what I’ve learned through experience. Even if you don’t buy a Davis weather station through my weathershop.com store, at least don’t buy one of these cheap Chinese alternatives if you value greater accuracy and reliability.
Thanks for your consideration.
In this era, and esp in my area in Mich, I don’t even try to measure wind or rain, what with living amongst the oak trees.. So wind direction and speed is what the computer says; rain is how full the wheel barrel got last night.
But temp is important because we go outside in every season, from summer to winter, and it’s nice to know how to dress, asp in the winter. I have played with a number of things thru the years, including mercury in glass thermometers and big dial thermometers, and what I like now is a cheap battery operated indoor outdoor thermo, checked for accuracy in ice water, and the sensor put under the soffit/gutter on the north side of the house, protruding about 4 inches into open space. It never sees direct sun.
In the AM it’s about 1C below the airport temp and in the evening, about 1 C above. Good enuf.
Good points. But not really fair to the Chinese offerings. Going just a little off on a tangent, I have three digital calipers, all Chinese. Why, because the American or Japanese versions cost ten to thirty times as much. And if you want software to go with that, add a few hundred dollars more.
More importantly (MUCH), I wonder in frustration what happened to the promise of detailed home monitoring and recording of data via a PC analog-digital interface? All I can find is stupid little one or two function sensors and/or alarms that record nothing except min/max temperature and humidity or voltage/current, and maybe electrical usage for a given device. They’re hard to read, hard to set up, and provide no useable record unless you log all the readings manually.
Can you tell me where I can find an array of sensors that can send their data to a PC and record it automatically in a database that will allow me to review and analyse what’s happening and when in my attic, my basement, my water heater, my fridge and freezer?
Surely that’s not rocket science… I bought my first multimeter with an RS232 connection at Radio Shack probably thirty years ago. Ten years or so later, they offered a dumbed-down model, and now you can’t find one at all on the consumer market in Canada.
So if the Chinese ever come up with a PC-connectible home monitoring kit, I’ll jump on it and take a chance on the quality. I don’t think I’ll live long enough to afford an American or European version.
I use a RS232 – USB converter, which of course allows me to plug in my RS232 inputs to any USB connection. As long as your software still runs on your newer computer, or even a DOS shell etc, it should work if you have the original drivers. But I did keep all my old computers, back to my Win 3.11 486/DOS, until a few years ago, just so as stuff would be certain to work. The RS232/USB seems to work for most stuff.
I’ve got a desktop PC with an RS232 port. I’ve also got two or three devices that I could connect to that port, since there are also USB – RS232 adapters. But that’s the smaller part of the problem. The main issue is being able to stream information 24/7 through that connection and into one database that can accept a variety of data and can also let you know when sensors malfunction or when a critical threshhold has been reached .
Twenty years ago, I got the impression we were within a few years of getting this kind of information gathering capability, and now there’s no sign of it.
I did a brief search on PC based home automation just now, and all I see is arrangements for turning things on and off, preferably remotely. Monitoring for review and analysis doesn’t seem to come into it.
Seems you can buy a motorized wind turbine for your attic and set it to go on an off at certain temperature and humidity levels, but you can’t buy a device that will measure and record these data 24/7 for a month or two so you can determine whether you actually need the turbine or at what levels it should be set to turn on and off.
Hi Anthony
Like many, I chose a unit from a local retailer which was simply a repackaged Chinese unit – the DreamLink WH1080.
I am now on my 3rd unit replaced under warranty in less than 6 months. Living in a high-wind area, it is not unusual to get 150Kph winds here – approaching 100Mph. The unit flexes so terribly in teh wind that it eventually breaks.
After discussion with the shop, I eventually glued the main component comprising the transmission and solar collector directly onto the support pole and it has survived through some very significant winds since.
However I now have other problems in that the Wireless connectivity between the external unit and the inside head unit will drop out – this happened on the last unit which was why it was replaced.
Despite all this, I do find the station compelling and have set up a website using WEEWX so I can constantly see the local weather at home from anywhere – pretty cool.
If it dows come to a replacement I will have to look at something far more substantial, but for now I have the bug and will continue to pursue it.
My station https://www.wunderground.com/weather/nz/wellington/IWELLING358 – and it has disconnected from outside station since late last night !!
Andi
I would be very happy with a cheap bluetooth thermometer that I could hang from a tree branch. Let my phone display temperature and history.
I can barely read the one outside my window, and it’s affected by escaping heat.
I installed a Vantage Vue in my back yard, about 4 miles W of Rapid City, SD in July 2010. I ordered mine directly from Davis, shortly after the Vantage Vue became available. Its operation has been flawless, except for a need to replace the anemometer cups and wind direction vane due to hailstorm damage about a year after I put it in. I now have “spares” I bought from Davis as hailstorms are a way of life hereabouts in summer, and I echo the comments about great customer service at Davis. Other than that, I clean my sensor unit occasionally and replace lithium batteries when the console advises me to do so. My next door neighbor even bought a console to see weather conditions sent from my sensor unit! My Vantage Vue stood up quite well to “Winter Storm Atlas” in October 2013, when we had a blizzard that delivered about 3 ft of snow. From my perspective, I have to agree with comments about Davis quality.
I’m still running a Oregon Scientific WMR-968 that I bought well over 10 years ago and dragged through two moves. Have had to replace the wind vane and anemometer because they became fragile from UV damage and broke during moves but all-in-all everything still works fine. Periodically find units being parted out so I have plenty of backup parts for another 10 years. Accuracy and consistency seem find compared to other instruments I have collected and measurements in the neighborhood.
I agree with Anthony. I have used Davis equipment (currently Vantage Pro 2) for many years. It is practical and reliable. I have always had an alternative to the tipping bucket – a standard British Met Office copper manual gauge 18 inches above ground level compared with the four to five feet of the Davis tipping bucket. There can inevitably be differences, but easy to iron out. Incidentally, my temperature records over the past 18 years show no discernible warming.