Weather Stations, Digital Indoor/Outdoor Thermometers

[tjwalters]

I'm not very happy with my current indoor/outdoor digital thermometer. It displays the temperature in 0.1 degree increments, but only records min/max in 0.5 degree increments. I didn't realize this until I noticed the pattern when posting those temperatures to my web site. It also has some commonly used controls relegated to the back of the display (i.e. the button to switch channels), and when the batteries go bad in one unit I need to remove them from all units to reset the entire system.

Periodically I see threads on this board regarding weather stations or indoor/outdoor digital thermometers and I know at least a few folks here use them. Since the technology is constantly changing, I thought I'd solicit opinions from those in the know. I wasn't really looking to spend hundreds of dollars - just want something fairly simple, reliable, accurate and well-designed. Then I saw this Oregon Scientific Anywhere Weather Kit that seems to put your data in the cloud. Also seems to have no console, with access solely through the web or mobile phone. It says "new," so it may be too new for anyone to have any experience with it. I've owned Oregon Scientific in the past and was quite happy with it. Any thoughts or recommendations?

[NApalm]

Ive been thinking about getting a weather station for a while. Ill be watching this space

[Hammer]

Ive been thinking about getting a weather station for a while. Ill be watching this space

Me too. Right now I have a real cheapo from the orange store.

[Eric F]

I have a "Fine Offset WH3081", which was relatively cheap but is decent for the price. It has PC data logging, and as long as you don't try to use it with an OS other than windows it seems to be stable. I'm running it under FreeBSD using buggy weather software, which does not help the situation much.

The remote unit does lose connection sometimes after extended periods of rain, which has been attributed by some to moisture in the cable connections between the rain gauge and the transmitter, and I have heard that it is possible to use silicone sealant to stop that problem.

For about 6x the price I could get something better, but I have not gotten budgetary approval for that. $100 wasn't too big of a deal.

[Hammer]

Bump...thought I would try to get some discussion going avain on this topic since there has been a lot of hand wringing over the upcoming forecast for Southern California. Perhaps some renewed attention to the topic?

[Stevetoad]

I have a Oregon scientific wmr80a. Has rain gauge,wind/direction,barometer and came with 3 wireless sensors plus a built in sensor inside the main display. Seems to be very accurate. I can put all 3 sensors together and they read within 0.5 from each other. I've been very happy with its performance. I may not like what it says right now but it's accurate.

[Xerarch]

I have an Oregon Scientific 200a, it's good, has all the data readings you would want but does not give accurate temperature readings during the day if it is in sunlight, the radiation shielding is not sufficient and does not have a fan aspirator, oh ya, and the software it came with was total garbage. I have researched weather stations and it seems that if you want the most accurate readings for the money, get something in the Davis Vantage Pro series. Make sure to get the radiation shield and fan aspirator if you want accuracy. The vantage pro might run more than many people want to spend, last I looked I think it want $400-$500. But the real expensive stations are more like $4,000. So, by that measure they are pretty reasonable. I, as I'm sure many of you do, use the weather underground site quite a bit. You can see what kind of hardware people are using on their personal weather stations when you click on them on the wundermap. This can give you some idea of what is out there. Hope this helps.

[Moose]

I have a Oregon scientific wmr80a. Has rain gauge,wind/direction,barometer and came with 3 wireless sensors plus a built in sensor inside the main display. Seems to be very accurate. I can put all 3 sensors together and they read within 0.5 from each other. I've been very happy with its performance. I may not like what it says right now but it's accurate.

Steve - how much was your station if you don't mind me asking?

[Jastin]

I have a Oregon scientific wmr80a. Has rain gauge,wind/direction,barometer and came with 3 wireless sensors plus a built in sensor inside the main display. Seems to be very accurate. I can put all 3 sensors together and they read within 0.5 from each other. I've been very happy with its performance. I may not like what it says right now but it's accurate.

Steve - how much was your station if you don't mind me asking?

Steve was always raving about his - how accurate it was, how cheap it was, and how it came with 3 sensors. I finally got the same one as Steve. Had a great experience with Oregon Scientific. I put all three sensors together to see the accuracy and they were all within .5 degrees except for one that was .8 off. I called OS about it and they sent me a new sensor for free. my rain gauge also wasn't connecting so they sent me one of those for free too. The website said it was $169.00 Which was great for everything it came with. I called OS directly ( this is very important because some of their numbers go to 3rd party sellers, you want OS). Since I called them directly they gave me a 20% discount ( not sure if he was just being nice or why I got it ). I've had it for almost a year and love it!

EDIT: I forgot to mention that the downside to it is you cant hook it up to your computer and record your numbers.

Edited January 10, 2013 by Jastin

[Hammer]

Bummer of a downside Jastin. That is one feature I am really hoping to get. Three sensors sound really awesome. I could use that here.

[NApalm]

[Xerarch]

Bummer of a downside Jastin. That is one feature I am really hoping to get. Three sensors sound really awesome. I could use that here.

My Oregon Scientific WMR200A can connect to the computer and Internet, as can the Davis Vantage Pro that I mentioned earlier.