I’m looking for a home weather station, $100-$200 range. I want to be able to connect to weather underground.

Looking for tips on mounting, experiences. From on line searching it appears that Davis is highly recommended, but more than I want to spend to step into.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Vanwall,

We had a cheaper Oregon Scientific system. It was solar and worked well...while it worked. I tried replacing the batteries one time and it would not power on. The system lasted about three years. My next system will be a Davis.

I have an Oregon Scientific. It's on it's last legs. However, it's also over 10 years old. If I climb up on the roof and replace the batteries I'd expect I'd get several more years out of it.
However, I have the Weather Bug App. This gives me even more information.

We've had an accurite for about a year now that's been working fine.

quote:

Originally posted by mark60:
We've had an accurite for about a year now that's been working fine.

Son gave me an Accurite station for Christmas 2 years ago, no problems, mine is a lot of fun!

Ending up installing a wind sock, and rain gauge also on the post the Accurite is on !

However, I had to discontinue the remote website transponder, because it was over the 5 device limit my wireless internet would support.

quote:

Originally posted by mark60:
We've had an accurite for about a year now that's been working fine.

Had the Accurate 5-in-1 station for a few years, works great. Can check weather from different states and cities. They currently have the Memorial day sales going on.

I have an Ambient weather station hooked up to Wunderground. Works well and not too expensive - KFLBOCAR153.

Davis is one of the industry leaders. We picked up one of their cheaper models about 10 years ago but even that one was around three bills. Worth every penny as far as I am concerned. It has worked perfectly all this time with only minimal maintenance. One thing you want is for the outside unit to send a timely signal to your base station. Ours is around 4 seconds I believe.

I’ve got a Davis VP2. Not in your price range but it’s been running flawlessly for over a year. I can’t think that one of the models close to what your looking for wouldn’t do the same

quote:

Originally posted by petr:
We had a cheaper Oregon Scientific system. It was solar and worked well...while it worked. I tried replacing the batteries one time and it would not power on. The system lasted about three years.

I think that's about as far as mine got before outdoor sensors started dying. Oddly enough: The first to go was the outside temperature/humidity. Then I think the rain gauge. Last: The wind direction/speed sensors. I think those lasted 5-6 years.

It was never terribly accurate. Particularly the wind speed gauge, which was wildly inaccurate. The wind direction and rain gage were pretty much dead nuts, because I could, and did, carefully calibrate them. The temperature was pretty good. Humidity was not terribly accurate at extremes and was very slow to react.

IIRC, the thing reported wind chill and heat index, both of which were inaccurate. I corrected those in my own reporting software before sending them on to Weather Underground.

quote:

Originally posted by petr:
My next system will be a Davis.

That's the way to go if you want something that's going to be accurate and last more than a few years. I don't care enough about having my own weather station to spend that kind of coin on it.

I've had an Ambient Weather WS-2902 on my "kind of wish list," thinking that might do, but have been unable to pull the trigger, given my experience with the Oregon Scientific one.

My feeling is something that measures inaccurately or inconsistently is worse than no measurement at all.

Thanks for all the replies.

The Ambient 2902 is the model I hav3 been looking at.

I have a Lacrosse S84060. It seems accurate when I place the outdoor temperature/humidity sensor properly. For example, not inside my garage near the metal roof. It was reading 104° on an 80° day.

I can't seem to get it to connect to WU though. It just doesn't seem to work for that but I get my super-local rain reading so I can adjust my lawn watering schedule.

I mounted to the garage with plumbing supplies.

I have had a Davis vantage pro for about 12-14 years. Accurate and reliable. No issues

quote:

Originally posted by blusmoke:
I have had a Davis vantage pro for about 12-14 years. Accurate and reliable. No issues

Mine is 15 years and going strong. Wireless data transmission to a receiver in the house next to the computer. That plugs into the computer and there are several excellent software packages that can take that data and make all kinds of fancy charts, graphs, and keep archives. It is out of your stated price range, but if there's a way to swing it, the Davis unit cannot be beat. Here's what the outside unit looks like:
 

 

I look out the window.

Does that count?

I got an earlier version of this about 10-15 years ago.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ac...ter-01118M/303731125

I hang the sensor in a tree about 50 yards away from the house and change the batteries about every three or so years when it stops working. Gives me temp, pressure, and humidity, and seems to do fine.

I wouldn't mind having one of the fancy-dancy Davis models, but what exactly does it do for $500 that my cheapo Accurite doesn't do for $30 besides a rain gauge, wind speed? Neither of which I really care too much about. It would be nice to know, I suppose, but is it worth $470?

Not trying to be a smartass, I'm genuinely curious.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
I hang the sensor in a tree about 50 yards away from the house and ...

That's sub-optimal if you want accurate weather data. This is going to sound funny, but trees sweat. That'll throw everything off.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
I wouldn't mind having one of the fancy-dancy Davis models, but what exactly does it do for $500 that my cheapo Accurite doesn't do for $30 besides a rain gauge, wind speed?

Probably more accurate and probably last for more than a few years. See my comments re: Oregon Scientific. I would expect the same to apply to any of these sub-$200 weather stations.

I'd say you need to be something of a weather geek, have a real need for accurate weather information, or have money to burn to justify spending $500 on a weather station. JMHO, tho.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
Probably more accurate and probably last for more than a few years.

I actually went out and tested it with my Thermapen last summer. It was right on the money temperature wise. And, like I said, this thing has been going strong for better than ten years.

:shrug:

https://www.cabelas.com/produc.../719557.uts?slotId=1

This is the model I was looking into. If you have a Cabelas gift card or points to use it could help bring the price to your target.

Basspro has this one on sale right now.

https://www.basspro.com/shop/e...play-model-01602bpdi


My mistake, it doesn't go on sale until Tuesday.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: olfuzzy,