Ambient Weather WS-2902 Wi-Fi Smart Weather Station

BardUnited States

Great weather station at a good price

I had been looking for a home weather station for years and finally decided to pull the trigger. Mainly because I had the perfect poll for it that had been sitting under out carport for years and my wife threated to get rid of it with the next bulk trash pickup. Use it or lose it, so I put it to use. If you are looking for a great weather station at great price this is the perfect unit. This station has all the basics you would want and more. Rain gage that measures not only the amount of rain but hourly rain fall as well as 24 hour rain fall, weekly, monthly and rain event totals. The unit has a wind vain and anemometer for wind direction and speed, of course. It also has temperature with heat index and wind chill. We have a pool so I love that the unit measures UV index and Solar Radiation. Assembly: Not too difficult. Everything goes together pretty easy if you have a basic knowledge of putting things together. If you don't then call your kids or grandkids to come do it for you. Directions are rather long and wordy and at times seem out of order. It also has a few steps for optional equipment that does not some with this particular unit. Dug through the box looking for those things before realizing they were optional. The wind vain and anemometer cups slip on and you just need a small screw driver to tighten them down. Rain gauge twist into place and the wire filter pushes right in. The unit runs on solar power but uses two AA batteries as a backup. Took me a minute to figure out how to get the cover to slide off, I never want to push too hard and break something. The biggest issue you will have is how and where to mount the unit. I have a large yard and a garden framed with rail road ties out around 100 feet away from the house. I also had an old pipe with tripod feet that use to be on our roof with our internet dish that I was able to mount the unit too. I was able to bold the stand to the railroad ties so it is not going anywhere. The u-joints that came with the unit securely mounted the unit to the pole I had and was fairly simple. The thing to remember is mouth it facing north, which I was easily able to do using the compass on my iPhone and the arrow on top of the unit. And do not forget to check the level of the unit. It has a level dot on top. I thought I was done, but then noticed that and spend another 30 minutes trying to adjust the base and the u-joint and pole screws to try and get it perfect… then just got mad and bent the pole and BAM… unit level. It took the unit a few minutes to find the indoor unit. I had to then move it around to find the best spot for reception. I have tried moving it all over the house and the base has a tough time reading the station if you move it too far away or there are too many walls between the station and the base. I have it setting on one of my wife’s tables by a back window within eyesight of the weather station. It gets five bars there and is working great, however my wife thinks it clashes with the aesthetic of the table… can’t win them all. Pros: Within a few hours of setting the unit up we had a big rain event. Unit worked great. We got over 3 inches of rain over night. With wind and rain unit held firmly in place. Display is easy to read. Also easy to setup and create accounts on Ambientweather.net and other weather apps that let me check out the weather conditions at my home wherever I am. Cons: Not many major ones. Set unit DST (Daylight savings time) thinking it would automatically spring forward and fall back with time change, but instead it would randomly spring forward an hour. Once I turned DST off the clock has kept the correct time. I could see if you have a small yard, or are in an area where the house are close together, or have a lot of trees, you may have a hard time finding a clear, unobstructed, spot to mount the unit. Also, if you do not have an existing pole to mount the unit to you could spend as much on the poll and hardware as you spend on the station itself. As for the unit itself the wind gauge does not look to read over 99.9 mph. I live on the Texas coast, took a direct hit from Hurricane Harvey in 2017, so that is a possibility where I live. While the unit might not display wind speed that high it may still read that and post it on the Ambientweather.net site. Lastly, If you are not computer or tech savvy then have your kids, grandkids, or someone under the age of 25 come over and help you with that part of the set up. I had an issue connecting it to our WiFi trying to follow the directions, and my son took it and without even looking at the directions had it connected in about 30 seconds. Overall great weather station for a great price.

LTSUnited States

Affordable, Accurate, Packed with Features & Excellent Customer Support

I had a La Crosse station and its accuracy, app, and customer support were subpar. So in Oct 2018 after serious research for a new mid-range weather station, there was good evidence pointing me toward the WS-2902a with Ambient Weather, so I got it! In a nutshell, it's fantastic and that's coming from a huge weather geek who's often critical of weather instruments. The item was well packaged and first impression right out of the box were positive - it has an actual owner's manual, felt durable, and had protective wrapping around everything. I had no issues connecting the sensor array to the console, and no issues using the "awnet" app to connect the console to the wifi router/internet (Ambient Weather Dashboard, Weather Underground, and PWS.com). Once that was all complete, I needed to mount the array outside. Now, I live in an urban area & in an apartment. After toiling around with where & how to situate the sensor array, I decided on what's indicated in the picture. While I find occasionally that the wind & solar measurements are curtailed due to nearby homes (which I knew before buying it), the temp and rain are always right in line with other nearby wx stations (including Davis ones). Plus, this setup is mobile, non-permanent, and easily accessible. Accuracy is hugely important to me. You can have a $500 station and have it report bad readings, so for 1 month after the array went "live", I recorded daily high & low temps of all nearby Weather Underground stations within 2 miles. Safe to say, my WS-2902a was right in line with all other stations - between 0-2°F difference, most times within 1°F. The rain, UV Index, Solar Radiation were also accurate, so much so that I stand by my WS-2902a's readings whenever I need to report to the NWS for storms. I was afraid the that temp sensor would be too warm in the sun and the warmth reflecting from my apartment building would get picked up from the temperature probe - I was wrong. The solar shield works fantastically! I doubt when summer comes with the heat & high sun angle that that will change. With all of it's measurement sensors (temp w/ dew point & humidity, wind speed, wind direction, rainfall, UV, Solar, Pressure, and indoor temp-dew-humidity) combined with their accuracy, it’s an extremely well-priced unit. All my data can be viewed on Ambient Weather Dashboard on online or in their app, and if you don't like that there's PWS.com and Weather Underground which record your data in 5min intervals, but display live readings quicker than that. You can even export your data to excel to make graphs. The mobile access is wonderful. Also, I can't say enough about the CEO Ed Edelman. He is countlessly answering my questions - he's super fast to respond and gives you honest & direct answers (no BS like other companies). And he's quick to release update fixes to the station's firmware and AWDashboard when customers report issues. There's even a FB group for Ambient Weather device owners, which serves as an additional tool to receive input from other owners in the group. Best customer experience I think I've ever had, and I know others can say the same. Sure, there are small things about the WS-2902a that I've noted that could be improved, but nothing drastic. I'd like increased customization of the AWDashboard (manually move tiles around, more computed data displayed like "Today's Max UV Reading"). I also wish the display cycled through other measurements (Dew Point, Wind Chill, Heat Index, Max Daily Gust), but you can view that online and/or you can buy the WS-2000 console for that and for better all-around viewing angles and you can even add up to 8 additional temp/humidity/dew point sensors. Would I buy this again? Absolutely YES! Just note that if you want more data on your console and better quality screen, buy the WS-2000 instead - their sensor arrays are the exact same, just different display.

Stuart BruceUnited States

Very nice weather station - super support - very easy

For years I wanted a weather station. At first, I did not want to deal with hard wiring the unit which is solved with these wireless models. Plus, they were expensive and now they are reasonable. This unit met my specifications and has exceeded my expectations. Now, after having the unit for 7 months, contacting support and adding another LCD display, I am ready to write a review. 1. The unit is nicely packed and easy to unpack and assemble. Total assembly time was under 10 minutes. 2. The instruction manual in really great. Some manuals have scant details, others are so long and detailed they confuse most. This manual is clearly written. Perfect length. Pictures match copy and language is easy to follow and understand. 3. From the time I opened the box until the unit was fully functional was under 1 hour. This includes mounting in backyard. 4. I bought this pole at Amazon and highly recommend: 5 Piece Feeder Pole Set with Twist-in Ground Socket by Erva Tool and Die. I actually put this pole into the ground at 9PM one summer night and it took about 10 minutes. 5. You need to download the Ambient app to connect/set-up the unit to your house WIFI and another app to actually enjoy the features (wind, temperature, rain, humidity) of the weather station. My unit did not connect first time to WIFI. Maybe I made a typo, but second time was fine. Again, easy to follow instructions in app. The weather station unit now for sale had a software upgrade about a year ago. So issues with connecting to 2.4 WIFI networks were resolved and I had no issues. So ignore folks who raised this as an issue. 6. You then connect the LCD display to the outside weather station unit and WIFI (as I recall) and it starts working right away. 7. I also created an account at the Ambient website so I can see remotely on both the Ambient web site via a web browser and via the Ambient iPhone app – I use an iPhone and it works great. 8. I also connected to Weather Underground and downloaded the Weather Underground and PWS Monitor iPhone apps so I can see my weather station. With PWS you can see other weather stations nearby. 9. I have contacted Ambient support twice. Both times I got an answer in hours! Really great support. In fact, I wanted to add a second LCD display in my house and had a question and a follow-up question. Again, both times Ambient responded in hours. And I think one time they added a page to their excellent support pages with a picture to help me further. Now this is awesome support! 10. You can also add alerts and get an e-mail/text if you get > xx rain in an hour (so I can check my sump pumps as an example), if it is really hot or cold inside or outside (if inside it would mean an issue with HVAC perhaps), so some nice 'security/peace of mind' type features. 11. I enjoy seeing the various displays and checking locally and remotely. I have recommended this unit to a few people who are also really happy. I would highly recommend this unit. It works. Seems nicely calibrated when I compare to other devices and units in area, clean display and like I said – excellent support and instruction manual. Super easy to install and set-up.

Amazon customerUnited States

Great weather station for a newbie

I spent considerable time researching products before making this purchase. I could spend more money for better accuracy. I could spend more money for a unit that separated the wind speed from the rain meter to better locate each one. I could spend more money for a unit with a better display. So why didn't I and what are the results? Accuracy: I wanted a unit that would match other weather data in my vicinity. This unit does just fine in that regard. The only way I would know if readings were off a little is if I had an expensive unit next to this one to compare. Accuracy is plenty good enough for a non-enthusiast like me. Wind and rain in one unit: This is an accuracy issue. I understand that more accurate wind speed readings require the sensor to be much higher. I have found no difference in the wind readings from my unit and other stations in my area. Wind speed reads plenty accurate for me. Display: There are complaints in reviews of the readability of the display. The display does quickly fade if you raise the display above you. It fades less if lower the display. It fades left to right only at extreme angles. I keep mine on a bar cabinet that is 3 feet high. In this location, the display is highly readable everywhere in the room. Given all of the complaining in some of the reviews I expected the display to present some problems. There are NO issues with the readability of the display in my setting. Weather Station: The unit comes almost completely assembled. All that you need to do is install batteries, twist in the rain collector and install the wind meter and wind direction arrow. All of these tasks only took a few minutes. Then just attach to your post and tighten the 4 nuts on the 2 u-clamps. Another 5 minutes and my weather station was up and running. Setup online was easy, just follow the prompts in the app. I was also easily able to set it up as a Weather underground Personal Weather Station so I can see my data on their site along with getting the details on the Ambient app. Overall I am very happy with the purchase. NO complaints yet. Update: Feb. 2, 2023 I've had this weather station for a few years now. We live on a large bay on Lake Michigan. This is a pretty rough environment for a device like this but the only problem I've had is the top of the rain cup has come off twice in some of our very high winds. It's very easy to reinstall so no big deal here. I've had to call customer service once to reset the wifi after I bought a new router. I missed a step in the directions, my fault, but they were extremely helpful. Still love the weather station and the company.