Portable Weather Station

Reviews

After about 6 years of daily use I am pleased with my unit. Over the years I had a couple problems which the Davis people worked to resolve on the phone. This involved the battery backup for cloudy days. Turned out I made some mistakes that caused the problems. Davis patiently helped me. Agree the time change can be a hassle but reference the manual helps even if I have to figure out the procedure all over again each time. Also have a faily complete La Crosse weather station with most of the same information except wind. Always compare both. Although there are small differences in barometer chart they match considering the display methods are different. Predictions for rain differ too but that is rather subjective. Looking out the windor is more objective, LOL. Been a long time so I do not remember the price paid but it was through Ebay and quite a bit lower than retail. One seller on EBay sells many Davis systems pretty much daily. Worth a search.

The reason that forecast is inaccurate in all weather stations is that symptoms like falling barometric pressure need to be coalesced with other pertinent data like season, humidity, wind direction, speed of pressure rise or fall and observation. Simply put, weather stations should not include forecasting and the more expensive stations like RainWise, Capricorn, Orion, et al do not have such. Weather stations should only supply accurate data. It is for humans to use all information to formulate a forecast. Only the Chinese manufactured, inexpensive stations and Davis include a forecast. I certainly concur that the Davis weather forecaster is inaccurate most of the time. The forecast is so unreliable that I don't even look at it anymore! While it's our observation, too, that La Crosse forecasts are more accurate even though solely based solely on barometric pressure rise and fall, its forecast is easily fooled by thermal lows. Storm alarms constantly ring in summer months when there's no rain in sight. The best weather forecaster is the Weems & Plath Stormglass. It interacts with clashing ions in the atmosphere as cold and warm fronts collide. I have never seen it fooled yet! The wind speed averages we have observed by all Chinese stations including La Crosse, Oregon Scientific, Honeywell and others appear to be so very, very low that wind speed data is useless to observe or archive from these cheaper stations in our opinion. After many years of observing 10-20 weather stations per day, we have 100% confidence in our opinion. Given that, wind chill data is meaningless in the cheaper stations. We have not observed wind speed inaccuracy in Davis units. We recommend 10ft/3m above the apex of a pitched roof. Add 5ft/1.5 if mounting on a flat roof. Our observations also tell us that humidity generally appears to be low in the Chinese manufactured units. In our opinion, therefore, if the cheaper Chinese units attempt to calculate heat index or dew point, this would be inaccurate, too. The variances do not appear to be linear. And at some points, it appears that the Chinese units are accurate. But at other points along the line, they present apparent huge discrepancies. Davis' humidity and dew point appear to be accurate. Some Davis units (6153 & 6163) have 24 hour fan systems to enhance the accuracy of temperature and humidity. The Davis Vantage Pro2 is a remarkable station for its very low price, on sale regularly at $535.50 for a 6152. Unless you want to spend a whole lot more, that is $2,000 - $6,000, Davis is a great alternative. And don't forget that at $2k-6k, there are no forecasts and no atomic clocks. But you can get ultra-sonic measurements of wind and rain (including an impact sensor), stainless steel anemometers, multiple levels of wind speed averages, increased resolution of all data and even some levels of redundancy at even higher prices. A Davis unit comes off the production line NIST traceable (National Institute of Standards & Technology). You can even have your specific Davis unit re-calibrated by Davis and have a Certificate of Conformity that's good enough for OSHA and other government agencies. No Chinese unit is NIST traceable nor can any be calibrated that we know of, other than their barometers. All units can stand improvements somewhere or another. But make no mistake about it. Davis is a tremendously good value, professional weather station. It is the least expensive station available that is a truly advanced station. Davis is one of the most reliable. We experience very few warranty issues. There are many others that may be better, but they start at 2x the cost of Davis and go up from there. We sell Davis side by side with the Chinese manufactured stations. And if you think we recommend Davis because it costs more, you'd be wrong. Our worst profit margin is Davis. Our best margin is on the Chinese manufactured stations. We sell Davis because we get happy customers and very few service related calls. Antonio Amadeo WeatherBuffs

The unit worked very well and I was satisfied for the first year. After 10 months, the 3v CR123 Lithium battery had to be replaced. OK, no problem. Then it happened again at 13 months. Since then, I have had to replace the battery every 3 months. I contacted Davis and they stated that the problem was likely a board which would have to be replaced at considerable cost. The capacitor is not being properly charged during daytime hours. Of course by the time I figured out that the unit was faulty, it was beyond the one-year warranty period. Instead, I have chosen to climb a ladder and replace the battery regularly. I have to rate the unit low because of this early-life component failure.

First: Davis ISS sensor suite with ProVantage 2 console: The biggest differences on the Davis unit (with the other ISS sensor) is that all the outdoor sensors are mounted in one reasonably sized very sturdy unit; that utilizes true solar with storage that only resorts to batteries if it hasn't seen light in 3-4 days The main display is built like a tank in comparison to other brands; the graph can be used to watch any data you choose over whatever time period you choose, such as: last 24 hours, 24 days, 24 minutes (rain) or even 24 years. Highs and lows can also be seen for ALL DATA for any time you choose: Daily, hourly, monthly or even yearly. Now you can see at a glance "What was the coldest day last year?" or "What was the highest wind gust last year?", etc. The Davis units update every 2-10 seconds depending on data; basically real time. Published accuracy is 0.6 of a degree!! I went with the Davis ISS (integrated sensors) with the ProVantage 2 console/display. These together cost $360. The quality of Davis products is fantastic and well worth the cost. For anyone comparing an Oregon Scientific WMR200a: Pro's: Nice looking display unit (at first glance, read further). Con's: Outdoor sensor quality chintzy, accuracy, customer service, limited history data without hooking up to a computer, set up time, no energy storage for solar, update frequency. I purchased the WMR200A weather station to replace 3 separate aging weather units to enable all weather data on a single unit. Upon unpacking the 200WMRa I noticed all of the outdoor sensor units feel like they could break just handling them. After setting everything up indoors to test connectivity, I could not get a reading from the outside temp/humidity. The first time I called customer service they had me run through a battery of tests and instead of sending me just the one sensor (none available), I had to pack up the entire unit and send it back. Two weeks later, I again have everything set up indoors as a test; again no outdoor temp or humidity. This time I order a second unit online so that I can have it quicker and the third sensor was bad as well. Second call to customer service "please send back the entire unit...". I waited an hour and called again and luckily got someone on the phone who let me know that they did have a problem with the sensor (now discontinued) and that they could send me the redesigned sensor. This replacement sensor worked fine, but didn't have solar hookup which defeats one of the advantages of this system. A note on the solar power on this system; it doesn't have any means of storage, so any time it's cloudy or at night you are running on batteries. The main console unit looks nice at first glance, but really gives very little data without hooking to a computer via some VERY outdated and glitchy software. The unit's graph is only usable for pressure, rain and wind history. For instance, you cannot see the temp trend for the last few days, only highs or lows from when you first powered up the unit. Accuracy: At one point I had purchased two systems and had them both set up indoors at the same time trying to work the bugs out of the sensors. Every bit of data was different from both units and not by just 1 degree or 1 percent, it was off by as much as 5 degrees/percent in each field. Sure enough if you read the published specifications, it states about that much as far as accuracy. To me, if you are going to spend this much money on knowing whats happening outside, you might as well have REAL DATA to go by. Update frequency: If you hear a really big wind gust outside, you may be standing there a minute or two before seeing how high it actually was. Save the time & frustration and buy any one of the Davis units the first time, it is money well spent.

This station, while perhaps not the professional-grade equipment (reference: R M Young Instruments) most certainly would fall into the category of prosumer. It is definitely a step above the ~$100 stations offered from LaCrosse and Oregon Scientific. Here are perhaps the main reasons it's better: - Update interval of every 2.5 seconds (versus 10 - 60 seconds) - 900MHz Digital spread spectrum radio link. This means less interference from other wireless devices and significantly more range. - Versatility. You can add additional stations, put in repeaters or change antennas for even additional transmission range (think in terms of several miles). And there are optional computer/ethernet interfaces. The console itself can act as a repeater, if desired. - Instruments can be ordered NIST traceable, if desired. Need a more detailed list of reasons? Check this comparison out: [...] Setup will likely require additional hardware, such as a mounting mast. The anemometer/wind vane assembly comes with 40 feet of cable, allowing it to be mounted separately from the rain collector/temperature/transmitter unit. In my installation, the wind instruments are at the top of a 20 foot steel pole with the rain gauge portion mounted six feet up on the pole. Each sensor group features a cable terminated with a RJ-12 (think telephone style) connector inside the transmitter (ISS) unit. This allows for additional customization as needed. The rain gauge features a built-in bubble level to help ensure proper installation. Unlike my LaCrosse station, which required careful placement of the transmitter and receiving display to get consistent readings, the Davis console pretty much works flawlessly anywhere in the house. There is also two comprehensive signal diagnostic screens that will provide you more information than you might care to know about your signal link performance (geeks will love this feature). The instructions are clear and detailed and offer a fair amount of helpful information. The transmitter unit (ISS) is solar powered, along with an ultracapacitor, which the solar panel charges during the day. If this becomes depleted, there is also a replaceable lithium battery backup that will allow the ISS to continue transmitting. The "ticker tape" on the display console will let you know if this battery gets low. If I had a disappointment with this unit, it would be that the console clock does not have a WWVB (atomic clock) receiver. While this is not an important feature, given the proliferation of the receiver chipsets it would be a minimal cost to add to the console. All in all, I'm quite happy with this station and looking at potentially adding a second receiver console soon (in fact, the range on this station is far enough that you can share the transmission with your neighbors if they get their own console). One final note: This station is manufactured in the U.S.A. (with the exception of some electronic components contained within). Most other brands are from China.

Reviews

The Davis VP2 is regarded by weatherbuffs as the defacto standard in the industry. It provides the best feature/performance and price ratio on the market today. I purchased the version right below this one back in January of 2009 because at the time I couldn't afford the price of the PLUS series. Mine has everything this one does except for the 24 hour FARS. I now regret that I didn't spend the extra money for this one cause you can not add the 24 FARS to the other VP2 models later. Within a month after I set up my station, it became clear that I was going to need to have the FARS system to get accurate daytime temps. The standard radiation shield just isn't good enough to prevent solar heating in the summer. My only choice was to purchase the Daytime FARS Kit which runs on solar power but does not have the battery option for nighttime operation. This works 75% as well as the 24 hour version, but when you add the $150.00 cost of this FARS to what I spent on my VP2, I was less than $200.00 away from the price of this model! Ambient Weather is a great dealer and I suggest visiting their web site for the lowest price they offer. I am not sure if the price listed here is the best you can do from them. In terms of the VP2 itself... I could not be happier with the unit's accuracy, durability and performance. People who choose something cheaper very often end up with a VP2 later, and then you have ended up spending more than buying the best from the start! It is no wonder why the Davis Vantage Pro 2 is the #1 choice of amateur weather buffs all over the world! :)

Reviews

THIS IS AN EXCELLENT PRODUCT. IT'S MY SECOND ONE AS I BOUGHT THEIR ORIGINAL ONE YEARS AGO.

I wouldn't touch this. In about three years I've had to replace the outdoor temperature/humidity sensor twice. And they charge US$60 to ship it to Canada plus they need the old one back. You have immense difficulty getting them to answer the phone (dial their number before you buy and see if you tire of their prerecorded messages). And their email is just as slow. I searched Google and found many people had this sensor problem - they should be replacing it free. I wouldn't be fooled by the "professional" quality tag!

Item worked fine - I bought the wired version with the data logger in September 2006. I switched to a Mac computer in 2007 rendering much of the software unusable and there is very little out there for Mac for CWOP or Wunderground. In October 2008, we had a bad rain storm and the rain and wind sensors stopped working. I climbed up on the roof to check out the connections, make sure things were draining etc and it all looked fine. I checked the sensor suite and the other seals and everything was dry with no evidence of water infiltration. During winter 2008 the system begain working only intermittently and the wind direction sensor locked on north but the speed sensor worked. Then the rain sensor failed. Then it worked again = then it failed for good in March 09. Now, NONE of the exterior sensors are working any longer. I called Davis and got the 'we're sorry you are out of warranty' story - but was told it was common in severe weather areas [like New England where I live] for the system sensors to require replacement after 2-3 years. So - be careful - this is an expensive system with crappy software, and sensors that they promise years of service but when they fail tell you they only expect 2 years out of them in severe climates. Replacement sensor suite is $260-275 . . .

Just Purcased last week and setup in about an hour. Works great. Shop around prices vary. You can get it for less than $400 (Wireless Version)if you do your homework.

Bought as a gift for a weather expert. Functions great, easy to instal and use. Additinal features (not included in original package) allow for creating your own weather web page. For me, it is enough to look out the window and see what the weather is like... but if you are interested in more than that - this is the right choice!