Customer Reviews

La Crosse Technology Weather Direct WD-3209U 4 Day Internet Powered Wireless Forecaster with Forecast Alerts and E.L. Backlight

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I have looked far and wide for a decent & usable weather station and unfortunately this one was not it. From the list of features it seemed like it would do the 3 simple seemingly simple tasks I needed it to do:

1. Display the current Indoor & Outdoor Temperature at the same time.
2. Quickly give me a preview of the day's weather so I can dress accordingly.
3. Have a self-setting alarm clock that can be read at night.

Honestly for $120, I was amazed at how badly this unit failed at all three.

It does display the indoor temperature in the upper right hand corner, but the outdoor temperature is only displayed every 20 seconds or so. There is a button that you can press to briefly display the outdoor temperature, but you have to press fairly hard and since the unit is light weight, you normally have to pick it up to avoid pushing it across the table. The main display (where the weather is forecast) cycles through several different screens; telling you the temperature for the morning, the middle of the day and the evening. Then the unit cycles through the wind speed & directions, wind gusts, etc. You have to spend about a minute or so watching the thing hoping to catch the information you are interested in. Unfortunately there is no way to set it to display only the information you want to see and skip all the rest.

Finally I spent the extra money for this model because it has a backlight so that it can be read at night. You have to press a button for it to come on, but it is oddly placed so you have to fumble around in the dark, knock the thing over, pick it up, fumble & find the button to see what time it is. And on top of all that, the contrast on the LCD screen is not adjustable. This unit is meant to be placed on a countertop and read from a standing position. It is not visible from across the room or if you are at the same level as the display. So if you plan on sitting this on your night-stand, you won't be able to read it. (I have perfect 20-20 vision by the way.)

Bottom line: It takes so much time to find out the information you want from this thing, you might as well turn on the TV. What is supposed to be a wealth of information at a glance, is just frustrating to use.

I sent mine back after a week.

Before purchasing this Weather Station, I read as many reviews as I could find on the different weather station products. They helped me find this one...and it is well worth the money. One of the main reasons I selected this product was how close we could actually get to our town for the forecasts. Most of the other weather stations only gave a selection of a major city in the general area. The closest major to city to my location is 30 miles away, and the weather conditions are usually significantly different. I would have had to double check to be sure the forecast was accurate (which would have defeated the purpose of buying this product!) The biggest negative that I read about the La Crosse weather stations, was the fact that the current temperature was not displayed at all times. HOWEVER, it is only a button away, you just press the "Snooze" button and it shows you the current temperature. There were other brands of weather stations that had the outside temperature on the display at all times, however I would have had to settle for the forecasts being 30 miles away which would not have worked for me.

The forecasts have been as accurate as forecasts can be. The information that is on the display useful, there are a couple things I'd change...but I'd buy this product again despite that. The only advice I would give, is to remove the batteries from the weather station if the outdoor temperature does not register for you right away. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what the problem was...once I removed the batteries, it registered immediately. When in doubt, reboot.

This has to be the worst product ever bought by me. I can not see the display at all, as it is the light only stays on for3 seconds. You can not run the display off of AC. It updates every 6 hours which is insane. The outside temperature is not a continuos display. There is no humidity.
The product itself is made very poorly and feels like it is going to fall apart if you touch it. Take my word for it. This is a stinker of a product and a total waste of money. You have been warned.

Stay away from this product, it was totally useless to me. I set it up over and over several times and could keep it connected for about two days at the longest. It would drop the connection all the time and when it did work (rarely) it was not accurate. Service was totally useless, all they would do is tell me the same thing that was in the manual. Buying this is like throwing money out the window!

I think this is a great weather station. It is very easy to use and was very easy to set up. I love that it is wireless and that it has detailed weather forecasts for my town. So far it has been pretty accurate. I don't live in a big city, so Weather Direct is the only line of weather stations I've found(at least that is affordable)that has information for me.

I know people have been complaining that the display is hard to see, but I have had no problems reading it. I think it is very easy to see. Maybe they were trying to read it from far across the room??? This model does have a light you can turn on if you're trying to see it in the dark.

The only thing I wish was different is that it would say Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday; instead of Tomorrow, Day 3, Day 4. But I knew about that before I purchased it.

I love it and it is one of my favorite things that I own. I would highly recommend it if you want a quick, easy way to keep track of the forecasts in your hometown. Plus there are expansion options available, and they are not near as expensive as I thought they'd be.

A couple of additional things that I've found: There is a button you can hold down that will instantly update the weather information whenever you want instead of waiting for the next 6-hour period. You can also adjust the darkness of the text. I made it a little darker so now it's even easier to see.

One of the main reasons I chose this item was that it provided forcasts for my town, which is certainly not a metropolitan area.. I've only had this item for about a week, but so far it's been great.. I compare it with other instruments I own as well as local personal weather stations broadcasting on the internet and find the forcasts to be as accurate as any around.. There are no sensors to install or set up other than the outside temperture sensor which was as simple as mounting the bracket with the 2 screws provided.. The internet setup was as simple as could be with straight forward instructions as well. As far as LaCrosse customer service goes, I couldn't have been happier with my experiences with them on this and other products from them. They are very knowledgable and helpful with the products they sell. I wish all customer service organizations could be as pleasant and helpful as they are.. Kudos to LaCrosse for a great product..

I WOULD HAVE GIVEN THIS ZERO STARS IF I COULD. I HAD A COUPLE OF PROBLEMS AND E-MAILED CUSTOMER SERVICE AND I GOT BACK RETURN RECEIPT E-MAILS THAT MY ORIGINAL E-MAILS HAD BEEN DELETED WITHOUT BEING READ AND THEN I TRIED TO CALL 3 TIMES AND GOT VOICEMAIL AND NEVER GOT A RETURN CALL. DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND DO NOT BUY ANY LA CROSSE PRODUCTS BECUASE IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM YOU ARE STUCK WITH A USELESS PIECE OF JUNK !!!! JUST READ THE OTHER REVIEWS AND DO NOT TAKE A CHANCE !!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a short review because the device was very easy to setup and no problems with range in my house (which already has a ton of RF). Note you need a continuously active internet connection and a router for this to work. The simple display is very easy to read and although the keys are not immediately intuitive, you really get used to it quickly. The external temp sensor is accurate (checked with a traceable thermometer) and the forecasts are more reliable than the weather channel. Lots of Canadian city forecasts are available for Canucks like myself. The backlit display is great and the two lines of info are worth the premium for this model compared to other Weather Direct models.

I've had this unit for about a year now. The outdoor temperature display is annoying as you have to wait around for it to show up. Indoor temperature is useless information. The product has a good idea, but the display was not thought out properly. However, my biggest issue with this (and I assume all products using the same weather data source) is that the forecasts are all wrong. Here is a typical scenario - I go to the National Weather Service online website, it says it is going to be 89 Degrees today. The readout on the weather station says it will be 75 degrees, not even close. The actual temp for the day is 91. I would not mind if this was occasional, but it has been consistently wrong about 90% of the time, temperatures off by 15 to 20 degrees, winter or summer. I'm going to shop for something else for myself this Christmas.

La Crosse Weather Direct WD-3209 is a display for an internet weather data feed. Using your internet connection, an included small transmitter is setup with your home computer, then this transmitter automatically begins feeding data from Weather Direct Servers to your display.

Pros: You can setup the data feed for almost any location that has any remote weather sensors. With this product you can choose any one of thousands of station across the country. In our area we found many such stations. You can change stations whenever you want in the event you plan on any travel. The Display gives current day predictions, plus the next 3 days worth of predictions.

Cons: The display is rather small, does not have very good contrast, and the dull blue back light helps very little. You cannot read the outside air temperature, (sensor is provided with this unit), unless you wait for the scrolling message on bottom to end... the outside air temperature is tagged onto the end of the message. You have to manually push the mode button to rotate through all the data available for the day. You can monitor more than one station... for a subscription price. You can get weather alerts.... for a subscription price. It would be much better if you could tell the display what combination of data you would like display.

Summary: The idea of real time weather data from the internet is a good one, especially since you can select the source of the data from anywhere in the country. I think they have a ways to go to get the display to show the data that you want to see.