La Crosse Technology Weather Station with Customizable Alerts, Weather Forecast, Temperature, Dew Point, Humidity, Time, Heat Index, Large Display, Adjustable Brightness, Wireless, Black, C85845-INT

BostonianUnited States

Hopefully a glitch in QC at factory - updated: replacement works great!

Seems like a good product, lots of information for the $$ spent. However, the QC at the factory missed - at least this one. 10-digit of indoor humidity level has dead and weak segments. They are 8-segment numbers and several are either dead or weak on the 10-digit. Giving it 4-stars for now... Returning for a replacement. If the replacement works, then I will be happy. I will add information to how it works at that point... If the replacement shows the same or other defects, my review will be edited/appended and the stars "will plummet". NOTE: Amazon made the return process painless - they get 5 stars for that! ================= Update, 02/16/2023 - now 5 stars! Have owned and used the replacement for ~6 days now. => Display on replacement unit has ALL segments for all digits and information visible! What I like: ------------------- *Easy to program. I set the clock deliberately "off" enough to check the WWV/NIST receiver. By next morning when it had found the transmitter, the clock was set! *Very bright display, even in a fully lit room. It can be read from across the kitchen. One small gripe, if they had auto-dimming feature, that would be fantastic. Like I said... VERY bright display... *Accurate as far as I can tell - indoor seems very accurate (see pics), the outdoor within +/- 2 degrees more or less (see pics). I have to say that outdoor, I am happy with that - I use it to get a general idea of if it is "sweater/fleece or T-shirt" weather anyway, not for precision measurements! ------------------- I used a Fluke 179 multimeter with a "type K" thermocouple, Fluke 80BK-A to measure against the LaCrosse. The meter is "good for" 0.1 degree resolution with a 1% accuracy between -40F and +752F (!), however the thermocouple is listed as "Accuracy: +/- 2.2 °C or 2% whichever is greater ((0 to 260 °C)". All measurements were taken before sunrise, to avoid any solar "influence" on the outdoor readings. => I will NOT say that my Fluke is more accurate than the LaCrosse station - I have no evidence to support that! And I will not go through the rigmarole of calibrating the thermocouple... *Outdoor sensor: placed it in the ribbed weather housing (LaCrosse 925-1418) they recommend and attached it to the north side of a 4"x4" post. One gripe there: the screwheads (Phillips) require a very "sharp" (read: new) screwdriver if you don't want to slip and round out the screw heads' "+" grooves. ...and predrill the holes for the screws! Not so fond of: ------------------- *The "landscape" weather forecast. Yes, it has trend arrows, etc. But being "old school" I would like the barometer reading in numbers presented. The WX-station I replaced (Ac*rite) had a 12 hour barometer graph with numbers readings, that was nice! *Minor gripe: the buttons on top are labeled on the backside and since I have my station wall-mounted I need to take it down to read the button labels so I know which one to push (do YOU remember all buttons on all equipment you have?) Will print a label strip and attach on the front for my benefit... *Minor gripe 2: If they had made the major numbers a little smaller, they could have fit max/min reading numbers in w.o. you having to push the temp button to cycle through and view them... Summary: ------------------- *Comes with AC adapter, and uses three AA-batteries for backup *Has all the information available that I want (except the barometer numbers...) *Shows trends (with arrows) *Shows min/max (requires button push) *Automatic time adjustment through the WWV/NIST receiver *Very bright and clear display. VERY bright... *Display is a bit "busy", and they seem to not knowing when to mix graphics, bars, and numbers. *I believe it to be a "good investment". Time will tell. I will recommend this, but do buy the outdoor housing for the sending unit! ------------------- The Ac*rite it replaces has served us well, but started to give trouble with the remote sending units, one dying all together and the replacement not staying connected. Whether the connection issue is with the sending or receiving unit I have not figured out. Also, the Ac*rite display was getting very dim (yes, all new batteries and AC adapter connected) and the brightness is set to 100%... Perfect for a completely dark room, however, my kitchen is not. Can't complain - had it for MANY years...

spartanEMTUnited States

Pretty cool....but be warned, HAS to be plugged in for continuous viewing

We previously had a similar setup, something that hung on the wall and had a sensor outside. The old one was fine, but I developed a need for indoor/outdoor temperature indication in my detached garage, so I moved the old one out there and bought this to replace it. The old one was hung on the wall, near the door. It was nice, worked great, but was very plain and not easy to see from a distance. The idea of this was awesome! Full color display with weather indications and alerts. I had read some reviews that mentioned the need for being plugged, but wrote them off because the description clearly states battery operated. Now, yes, it does work on batteries.....but it won't stay on. You have to hit the button, which then lights up the screen for 5-10 seconds, then it goes blank again. SUPER ANNOYING at first. I considered sending it back, but my wife and I tried to commit. We hate wires hanging down walls, so the old spot by the door was a hard pass. We tried placing it in different spots (plugged in) and had a hard time finding the RIGHT spot. Then, we stumbled across the kitchen. Our counters have a vertical ledge in the back that goes up the wall about 4 inches. And there is about 1/4 in gap between the ledge and the wall. We mounted the display under the cabinets, plugged it into a nearby receptacle, then tucked the wire behind the counter. And BOOM, heaven. With the perfect placement, we absolutely love this thing! The display brightness can be adjusted, but we have ours on full bright and it looks great. At at glance, you can see the temps outside and forecasted weather. And the display itself looks nice, the colors are pleasing, and the overall appearance is spot on. For the reviews that state it's not accurate....well, when is weather guessing ever accurate. Weather is crazy, always will be. We plugged ours in, gave it a day or two, then started really looking at it. And we've found it to be pretty spot on. Some people say the temperature is off by a few degrees. Well, spoiler alert, the temp that pops up on your weather app for your area is a general temp for that area. It is every possible for your exact location to be warmer or colder by a few degrees, which we have noticed with ours. After about a week of using it, the outside portion of the display was just a bunch of dashes. We went to bed, and the next morning it was fine. Even better, I had checked the weather for the week, straight suns across the board. Thinking nothing more of it, I continued about my business. Later in the week, the display showed clouds and snow. At this point, it was a beautiful sunny day, 50 degrees. My wife and I joked about the display being wrong....until a few hours later some clouds rolled in and snow started falling! I jumped on my weather app to confirm....and it was still showing suns across the board. Bottom line, this thing is great for situational awareness, as long as you can find a place to keep it plugged in that won't look dumb.

J. SearsUnited States

You get what you pay for

What a difference. I tried another brand that failed in a spectacular fashion. So I ordered this one and...it just worked. Better display, better sensors, just better everything. The manuals were also better and described exactly, step by step, how to set up the monitors. If I had to come up with one thing that I would have changed, they could make it so that a single remote sensor could feed multiple main units rather than having each main unit paired with its own remote. As it is, in order to have one monitor in the living room and one in the bedroom, I have to have two remote sensors along with their batteries. Not a huge deal but still, now I have to deal with more remotes rather than a single transmitter. I'll be interested in seeing how the forecasting feature works but I have to wait about a week to learn. Maybe I'll update later.

FrogLadyUnited States

Attractive display with plenty of data

The display includes all the features I want, including day/date, time, and Indoor and outdoor temperatures and humidity. It is colorful and bright, with large digits that are easy to see at a distance. It is consistent with the readings on my Apple Watch or the wall thermostat. I wish it were battery-operated for daily use instead of electric, but battery operation is possible during power outages. I had an old La Crosse that I got rid of because the outdoor sensor stopped working, and I like this update better because the readings are much larger.