Home Weather Station

[Tim Bueler]

I have 2 different Accurite stations. Each has a little different information or displays the info a different way. I've not had connectivity issues with either. The base units both plug in and I change the batteries in the outdoor units once per year. Of the items they have in common they rarely read the same but never, what I would consider, too far off (however, I am not a weather nerd...YMMV). One annoying thing is the "forecast" on one machine always says it's going to rain and the barometer on the other machine always shows steady even when the best barometer I have, my sinuses, say otherwise. All in all, not being a weather nerd, they show trends well enough for me and high and low temps within a few degrees.

I have NOT had good luck with Oregon Scientific or LaCrosse.

When these start to fail I will likely upgrade to Davis or another higher grade system. Like good quality power tools I suspect it will be cheaper in the long run and more pleasant to operate.

[Daniel Smith]

I had an older LaCrosse station that was OK for temperature and rain, but the wireless communication rate (something like once every 128 seconds) made it completely useless for wind.

I've had a Davis Vantage Pro II for 10+ years and have been completely satisfied. It seems to be pretty accurate and gives much more information than the LaCrosse I had. Recently I've had to replace a couple of outside components due to age/environment, but I think that is to be expected. As mentioned earlier, it is pricey, but I'd buy it again in a heartbeat if I had to.

[Peter Christensen]

I'm curious about a few things and if someone can answer I would appreciate it.
Do the wind speed cups load up when heavy snow comes?
Does the transmitted single deteriorate with heavy snow? Satellite TV sometimes looses the signal.
How do they stand up to sustained -40C/F cold?
Are there any models that will show temps below -40C/F?
Are the wind chill measurements accurate?

Thanks

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

We had an Ambient WS-1400-IP and while it was easy to setup and seemed to be accurate, it lasted less then 2 years before it started giving us very inaccurate temperature readings while the wind and rain gauges were still working. It was fun while it lasted, but other people in our area have added weather stations, so we haven't bothered to replace it. If we decide to replace it, we will probably get a Davis.

[Lon Crosby]

Have a Davis Vantage Vue which has been running trouble free for over 3 years now. The remote monitor is a royal pain (to retrieve old data) so interfaced it to wunderground.com. Makes all of the difference in the world.

[Curt Harms]

I'm curious about a few things and if someone can answer I would appreciate it.
Do the wind speed cups load up when heavy snow comes?
Does the transmitted single deteriorate with heavy snow? Satellite TV sometimes looses the signal.
How do they stand up to sustained -40C/F cold?
Are there any models that will show temps below -40C/F?
Are the wind chill measurements accurate?

Thanks

The LaCrosse unit we had used sort of a little propeller to measure wind speed. It would freeze up in heavy wet snow. The Ambient Weather unit uses a typical 3 cup configuration which hasn't frozen up yet but it's only been through 1 winter. We've never had precipitation attenuate the radio signal from the outdoor units to the base station. The LaCrosse unit we had could be wired so no radio signals involved, it used common 4 conductor phone wire. As far as temperature, lithium AAs are supposed to be good to -40. Alkalines aren't reliable below +10 F according to Ambient Weather. Our Ambient weather outdoor units sometimes get intermittent in temps below about +10 F and and warmer than +90 F. It may just be the unit, I don't know. New outdoor temperature/humidity senders are only about $11 but shipping is something like $15.

[Peter Christensen]

Thanks Curt.

I prefer to be wireless in order to put the transmitter away from the house and to avoid poking holes through the walls we spent so much on to be energy efficient. Cold of -20C (-4F) temps in the winter with drops at night to and lower than -40C/F for weeks at a time made me wonder about the batteries. Does the temperature just stop at -40C/F or become erratic or quit? Snowfalls are generally light but drift back and forth until the snow has evaporated or the next snowfall occurs. Heavy ones only happen at either end of winter.

[Curt Harms]

Thanks Curt.

I prefer to be wireless in order to put the transmitter away from the house and to avoid poking holes through the walls we spent so much on to be energy efficient. Cold of -20C (-4F) temps in the winter with drops at night to and lower than -40C/F for weeks at a time made me wonder about the batteries. Does the temperature just stop at -40C/F or become erratic or quit? Snowfalls are generally light but drift back and forth until the snow has evaporated or the next snowfall occurs. Heavy ones only happen at either end of winter.

We get below 0F only rarely here so I don't know how Lithium battery powered devices behave near their lower temperature limits. I've had our temp sender become intermittent below +10F with lithium batteries but it has also infrequently been intermittent above 90F so I'm inclined to blame a weak device, not the temperature.

[John K Jordan]

...urge you to buy "Modern Marine Weather" by David Burch. This is geared towards offshore sailing, but is the best weather book I have read to date...
Attachment 391043

IF the cost is too much, get a good manual barometer, thermometer, and hygrometer.

Rats, another book recommendation from a knowledgeable source. You have to know how weak some of us are when it comes to books. There goes another $45.

For the budget minded: 35+ years ago I made a sling psychrometer for not much more than the cost of two thermometers. It worked well

JKJ

[Daniel Smith]

I'm curious about a few things and if someone can answer I would appreciate it.
Do the wind speed cups load up when heavy snow comes?
Does the transmitted single deteriorate with heavy snow? Satellite TV sometimes looses the signal.
How do they stand up to sustained -40C/F cold?
Are there any models that will show temps below -40C/F?
Are the wind chill measurements accurate?

Thanks

My Davis has seen temperatures down to around -18F without issue. Accuracy and transmission don't seem to be affected. Every now and then we'll get a stretch where the high will top out at about 0F for several days in a row and I haven't noticed any change in performance. I have no idea how it would perform at -40 - that's a whole 'nother level of BRRRRR. The outside unit uses a 3V lithium battery and has a small solar panel. I'm not sure what percentage comes from the battery vs solar, but I typically go a couple of years between battery changes.

I haven't had any real issues with snow caking in the wind cups, but we typically don't get too much snow at one time and until last year the wind gauge was relatively protected by trees. My experience might change now that we've moved and it is out in the open.

[Peter Christensen]

Thanks guys. Now I have to convince the Ministeress of Finance we need one.

[Wade Lippman]

Have a Davis Vantage Vue which has been running trouble free for over 3 years now. The remote monitor is a royal pain (to retrieve old data) so interfaced it to wunderground.com. Makes all of the difference in the world.

How do you interface it?

[Curt Harms]

Have a Davis Vantage Vue which has been running trouble free for over 3 years now. The remote monitor is a royal pain (to retrieve old data) so interfaced it to wunderground.com. Makes all of the difference in the world.

That's why I wanted a weather station with its own internet connection. Many require being hooked up to a PC that's on all the time and I didn't care for that idea. For those that would like a local source of temperature and rainfall you could check out wunderground.com/wundermap. Of course the information on that page is as good as the stations providing the data and their siting - temp sensors in a shaded spot, wind and rain in the open, that sort of thing.

[roger wiegand]

Do units like those from Davis offer a hard wire option? An hour fishing a wire seems like a good trade for solid connectivity and not having to get to a perhaps poorly accessible location to change batteries. I was thinking of putting mine on a pole over the roof to get more accurate wind readings. How high over a roof do you need to be to mitigate the effect of the building? I'm guessing that too close and you'll get high or low readings, depending on the geometry.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Do units like those from Davis offer a hard wire option? An hour fishing a wire seems like a good trade for solid connectivity and not having to get to a perhaps poorly accessible location to change batteries. I was thinking of putting mine on a pole over the roof to get more accurate wind readings. How high over a roof do you need to be to mitigate the effect of the building? I'm guessing that too close and you'll get high or low readings, depending on the geometry.

Yes- they have wired and wireless. https://www.weathershack.com/categor...3391217b4c9665