Customer Reviews

La Crosse Technology Combo11-IT Wireless Weather Station Combo Pack

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I've had this weather station up and running for over a week, and it is doing well. My previous one was a sophisticated (and much more expensive) Oregon Scientific that died, with no chance of resurrection, a little over a year along. This evidently made me wary of the brand, so I decided to go for the La Crosse this time around, and keep it simpler.

The Combo11-IT is actually two weather stations -- one complete and one basic -- in one package, plus an external temperature and humidity sensor. The more complete station is the WS-9037U-IT and the basic one is the WS-9080UR-JT. There is no way you can apprehend this from reading the skimpy info in the product page, and I only found out when I received it. This two-in-one scheme is very handy because, for instance, you can have one station in the living room and the other one in the bedroom, and both are fed the same data from the external transmitter.

The more complete panel is very similar to other La Crosse models, and gives you:
* Time, in 12 or 24 hrs, and date (set by atomic clock if you live in the US, or manually if you don't)
* Moon phase
* Indoor temperature and humidity (celsius or fahrenheit and %, respectively), plus a comfort indicator icon that states the obvious
* Forecast, which is dependent on barometric pressure changes. Another set of icons, composed of an arrow and an image. Arrow can point upwards or downwards, and the icon can indicate "sunny", "cloudy with sunny intervals" or "rainy"
* Barometric pressure, in Hg or hPa
* Barometric pressure 24-hour history
* Outdoor temperature and humidity (C /F and %), plus the comfort indicator

You can also set the station to alarm clock mode with or without snooze, and customize several parameters, such as measuring units, forecast icon sensitivity, back-light intensity, etc., and see the maximum and minimum indoor and outdoor temps and humidity for the last 24 hours.

The basic panel gives you only time (12/24 hrs), indoor and outdoor temperatures (C or F) and minimum and maximum temperatures in the last 24 hours. It comes with its own little manual. You can set the time by the atomic clock or manually, and adjust the LCD display's contrast.

The weather-resistant outdoor transmitter only displays the current temperature reading in fahrenheit, which I found very odd. My stations are set to celsius (I am metric) and there is no way to set the transmitter to it. I emailed La Crosse about this -- the package contains helpful info about contacting them for support, including an email address -- but more than a week has passed and still no reply. I no longer expect one...

I advise you to read the manual, as there is a procedure to set up the main units and the transmitter, and all the configuring is done with 5 buttons on the right side. However, I found it easy and quick and got it right the first time around in a few minutes.

The readings from both units appear to be accurate enough. I put them in different rooms, in places with no direct sunlight, and the temperature variation between them is just 0.3 celsius (roughly 0.6F). The external transmitter reaches both units equally well.

Both units have a nice, discreet design and appear well built. The complete one has a very firm detachable stand or can be wall-mounted. The basic unit has a fold-in stand and can also be wall-hung.

The one thing that really daunted me was getting all the components out of their horrendous packaging. It was one of those impossible-to-cut-open plastic and cardboard setups that nearly made me send the whole thing back. But once I overcame this first hurdle (with a brand-new cut on my finger), the rest was easy.

I like the Combo11-IT pack and think that it is good value for the money. I just hope it lasts for a long time.

Pros:
* Practical information without overload... time, temperature (in/out), and humidity (in/out). Some of the other models show indoor humidity but are strangely missing outdoor humidity!
* Look very nice on the wall... simple, clean, yet still aesthetic. (Although, the larger station would look a bit better if the button labels were on the side instead of the being so highly visible on the front.)
* The new 915 MHz sensor seems to synch up more quickly and reliably than the old 433 MHz sensors.
* Secondary station (display) is a nice little bonus.

I would easily give this product a 5 star rating, except...

Cons:
* The "Pressure History" display flashes! It's quite distracting. This is a perfect example of the all to common phenomenon where an engineer adds a "cool" feature without really thinking about the user experience.
* I've seen a lot of over packaged products before, but this one takes the cake. You practically need a hacksaw to cut through the plastic packaging.

I'm very happy with my purchase, but I do hope La Crosse adds an option to un-flash the "Pressure History" display. I also purchased the WS-8035U-IT-SAL model and run all three weather stations off a single sensor. Works great.

The product comes wrapped in a heavy molded-plastic insert with a cardboard overlay that contains information about the product. La Crosse has taken great care in making sure that the product inside the wrapper will arrive safely as it is practically hermetically sealed. That being said, THIS PRODUCT IS CONTAINED IN THE ABSOLUTE WORST PACKAGING I'VE EVER ATTEMPTED TO OPEN! Knives & scissors don't work...seriously.

After receiving a small cut on my thumb, breaking 3 fingernails, and then getting sliced across the hand by the hard plastic insert, I finally resorted to TIN SNIPS to get the packaging open. Even with tin snips, it was a real exercise in patience to extract each piece. Had the tin snips not worked, I would have sent the mangled semi-opened product right back to Amazon. I'm not sure what LaCrosse is trying to keep out, but I'm fairly certain it's the customer. Zero (0) stars for the packaging.

Once the bleeding stopped, and the urge to hurt the insidious person that devised the wrapper had passed, I was ready to perform the setup. I laid the parts out, face down, and opened the battery cases on the 2 indoor receivers and the single outdoor sensor included in the kit. Having read other reviews, I inserted the 2 AA Lithium batteries I purchased in the outdoor sensor first. I followed this with the insertion of regular AA & AAA batteries into the 2 indoor receivers within the 3 minute time period recommended in the manual. (The sensor is security coded, hence the need for speed on setting up the batteries in the sensor, then both receivers.) If you fail to do this correctly, the sensor information will not be captured by the indoor receiver units. Then you have to remove the batteries from all three devices and start over again.

Setting up the display was a breeze, no manual required. The display intensity is adjustable and the larger unit can also be backlit for viewing in a darkened room. As others have mentioned, the blinking pressure reading is a bit annoying, but otherwise works well and seems to be fairly accurate. Four (4) stars for the product.

Overall I'd recommend the product, but wrestling with the packaging makes for a miserable experience!

1/3/2010 UPDATE:

I've had this weather station set up for about 3 weeks now and I've noticed a few things:

1. The outdoor sensor falls out of the clip holster when it's slightly windy. We purposely placed it on the leeward side of the fence post to avoid this issue, without success.
2. The forecast pictures are very limited. Only 3 icons are available and they are "sunny", "sunny.cloudy" and "cloudy with rain", although this was not mentioned in their product description.
3. The picture in the forecast area ALWAYS shows "cloudy with rain" any time the barometric pressure falls...whether or not it is actually raining.

I was hoping this system would be smart enough to take into consideration the humidity and temperature as well as the barometric pressure to make this forecast picture much more accurate...like "snow" when the temperature is 32 degrees fahrenheit or below, or "cloudy without rain" when the humidity is around 60%.

For more product specific information, you can view the COMBO11 owners manual by clicking the Product Manual button on the Support page at:[...]

Handy and accurate,with easy to see numbers.As the instructions say, if you are having problems;batteries,batteries,batteries! I threw away the batteries that came with the unit and now it works fine.

I have mixed feelings on this unit as it does not accurately give the inside temperatures. I have tried several locations in the house and now have it placed right on top of my home thermostat where it still shows 1 - 1 1/2 degrees off. I benchmarked it as well against the unit I replaced which struggled to keep the outside temp due to poor signal strength but the inside temp was right on. This is primarily why I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. The outside temp is right on with the new unit and signal strength is not an issue with several interior walls and a couple exterior walls in its path. So high marks there. The weather predictor seems to work well and predicts poorer or better weather fairly accurately. The display while large has too much information on it. I have 20/20 vision and need to be right in front of the unit to clearly see everything so keep this in mind before purchasing.

A few comments on the notations made by other reviewers. Packaging: I would agree your patience needs to be at an all time high when you are ready to unpack this unit as the only way I could determine to unpack the unit without scratching or destroying it was with a new utility knife cutting at the clear plastic and at that, it was a good challenge. The packaging is over the top. Forget scissors and spend the 2 bucks on a new utility knife.

Directions: Follow the directions for set up to a T. If you do, it literally will be communicating with the transmitter within 30-60 seconds. If not, you will have to start all over again and the directions are right on. So read them.


Overall this unit is satisfactory but I do not rate it a good buy simply because of the cost. $20 less and I would of said you get what you pay for and the unit is performing as expected. The unit I replaced which had accurate inside and outside temps but poor signal strength was $40.00 less. It did not have a weather predictor, however my old unit is much smaller with a display that is easier to read (bigger numbers with less info). If you plan to place this unit on a desk that you work at, the display probably won't be an issue however if it will be mounted on a wall or setting in a room to be viewed by people passing by, they will have to stop, get close and focus. I hope this helps.

I bought this for my husband for his birthday in July. We have a small weather station here with other units by LaCrosse as well.

A week after purchase, the smaller unit quit working. It was reset multiple times, batteries changed, etc., and was finally deemed defective.

I contacted LaCrosse on their website by email a total of 4 times in the next two months. To this date I have still not received a reply from them at all as to their warranty.

It's still sitting here...blank. The other units work just fine, but for this reason I will never buy their products again. I will be contacting the Better Business Bureau as well. Customer Service is sorely lacking from this company.

Larger (main) Display unit died after less than 2 months. Lacrosse technical support is awful. I had to leave a message for the person who was to take my message for support. No wonder no one called back! After 3 days I submitted a written request and am still waiting. The poor support is worse than the fact the unit died.

I purchased two sets of these, one for myself and another for a family member. Installation is very simple, as long as you remember to put the batteries in the remote unit FIRST (which is clearly stated in the instructions). Like most of the other similar models, these display inside/outside temps, and the "main" inside display also has humidity, baro, and trends. Both inside display units have an atomic clock receiver to keep their time set properly, which is a plus.

One of our units came with some bad batteries; I don't know if it was just one bad battery, or more, but it was obvious when we tried to use them -- the display backlight was really dim, and the "low batt" symbol was an even better clue. I just tossed the included cheap batteries and put in some new ones, and everything was peachy. The second unit had batteries that seemed to be good, so I'm using them for now. (I expect that they won't last as long as "good" ones, but I can easily change them when needed.)

I was most impressed with the range of the wireless remote/display units. I live in a steel-frame house, and most such devices simply can't "get past" the first exterior wall; most cellphones don't work in our house at all, and you're going to lose a couple of bars of service once you step inside. But this unit is able to get the signal through, with no problems, even from over 100ft away and through several (steel-framed) walls. That's the biggest pro of this model for me, as I've tried another brand with less success.

I'm planning on buying at least one more set, just so I can put another display in my home office, tied to the original remote. (And as a bonus feature, this model actually lets you tie the main display to two different outside remotes if you want, and toggle between the displays. Not sure why'd you'd want to know if one side of your yard has a different temp than the other side, but... you can if you'd like. So maybe I'll try that.)

Very useful dual weather stations that work off a single wireless remote sensor. Range seems good. I have the sensor outside on the first floor, and the stations on the second and fourth floors receive it well (both stations are within ten feet of the outside wall, and roughly directly above the sensor). Setup was straightforward, as long as you move quickly within the time limits in the instructions.

Biggest headache is the packaging. I reviewed technology gadgets and toys for several years and never ran into more consumer-hostile packaging than what La Crosse uses -- heavy corrugated cardboard and thick plastic that seals tightly to the weather stations. There may be no way to avoid scratching the stations even when carefully cutting through the plastic (I couldn't avoid it).

I suspect the stations and sensors were delighted to be set free.

Main display died after one week of use. Also, found two tiny hairline cracks on right side of LCD display during initial inspection of unit but unit still worked for one week until the display suddenly went dead.