Customer Reviews

La Crosse Technology Weather Direct WD-3308U-WAL 4 Day Internet Powered Wireless Forecaster

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

I like the way this unit gathers all the information from the internet without needing your computer running. All the important information is there. However the presentation is poor. The three day advance weather forecast is displayed in the middle, therefore there is no need to have it scroll across the bottom which is hard to read. It comes with an outside temp probe but you can not display the outside temp easily, you have to wait till it scrolls across the bottom. The daily forecast is broken up in AM PM Evening etc. However it would be nice if it changed with current time of day, but it doesn't you have to cycle through it manually. Too much scrolling and not a constant display of current conditions. It's a shame, it has all the information you would want, but just does a poor job of displaying it. I returned it.

Just purchased this item. Things that I like about it:
1.) It is the larger version measuring 7" square making it easier to read.
2.) The device is completely independent of the computer, unlike some other systems the require that your computer is on. It is a real internet gadget. Simply connect it to your ethernet system.
3.) Very easy setup.
4.) Although it only updates every 6 hours, you can force an update at any time. Since I got this item for it's forecasting ability, the 6 hour update is not unreasonable.
5.) I like the internet setup options, very helpful.
Things I would like to see improved:
1.) Full time display of outside temperature as at least an option. The outside temperature is not one of the permanent displays. You can press a button to see the outside temperature or you can wait for it to appear as part of the scrolling information on the bottom of the display.
2.) Adjustable update rate.
3.) Automatic Morning, Afternoon, Evening, and Night mode switch based upon the time of day. It appears that you can get them to cycle through, but I would prefer that they auto mode themselves to the time of day as well as permitting the current implementation of letting the user cycle through them if I want specific information about a time of day.

I purchased this product and had no difficulty setting it up and syncing it with the remote temperature sensor and with the router. It quickly downloaded the forecast and appears to be working properly. However, the main reason that I bought this was for the ability to monitor the outside temperature over the Internet. I intend to use it to monitor the indoor temperature at our vacation home so that I will know if there is any danger of freezing pipes. After much searching, I couldn't find any place on the web site where the outside temp from my weather station is posted, so I sent an email to La Crosse customer service and got this response:

"WeatherClub is a free optional benefit offered to Weather Direct customers. It is maintained and available solely at our discretion. Our first priority is the Weather Direct servers as the data there is a pre-requisite to WeatherClub postings.

At this time, the TX50U data transfer to WeatherClub is not connected. It will resume functioning when we have completed seasonal additions to the Weather Direct primary server system. We also anticipate some improvements with the return. Weather Club's return to availability will be noted on the [...] banner."

The description of this product lists as a feature:

* "Monitor Your Backyard Temperature From Anywhere In The World with the Included Weather Club Membership"

They never mention that this feature is maintained and available solely at their discretion. And, who ever heard of seasonal additions to the server system. This sounds like the server problems many other people have mentioned. I guess I shouldn't be surprised after reading other reviews, but I still am... and disappointed.

I bought this weather forecaster as a christmas gift for my technology-wary mother. It tooks some doing to get it to sync to Weather Direct's servers, but it was looking fine when I wrapped it up. By the time she opened it a week later, it didn't know anything about the weather to come--it apparently had not updated for several days before she opened it. Merry Christmas, Mom, I got you some more electronics to frustrate your life.

Four hours after starting my troubleshooting of the device (Practically every step in their guide tell you to unplug something or other for 30 minutes,) I threw up my hands and requested tech support using a form on Weather Direct's website. They sent me a stock email which made it clear they had not actually read my request. I responded to that email, answering their questions with much of the same text I originally offered up in my request for assistance. A week later I got a call from a technician.

It was a big mystery to both of us why the cursed thing starting working after much wrestling with the gateway and display. The tech speculated that it might be my fault for being so fancy as to have a switch in my network. When I explained to the tech that I didn't have much confidence in their technology, and did not really want to fight troubleshooting it every month, he replied that "he couldn't talk me out of how I felt about it." Taking a wild guess here, but I suspect I'm not the only one that's having problems with La Cross Technology/Weather Direct's products.

Since then, the device will sporadically cease updates for a few days, then will abruptly work again. My second attempt for tech support, requested by phone 8 days ago, has thus far gone unanswered. Today, it started working again. All in all, this has been a time-consuming and disappointing product, and I will be extremely wary of any La Crosse Technology/Weather Direct products in the future.

7-Feb-2011 Addenda: The device stopped working again, and I started the 1-week clock on its violent and public destruction. At the 11th hour, Milton called from La Crosse Technology and was very helpful. He had me download a gateway administration program that showed that the gateway was not working with my networks DHCP, for whatever reason, and we switched over to a fixed configuration. That seems to have straightened it out. (I still think it's lame that they want to blame my switches, but I'll get over that if the cruddy thing can work for a whole month straight.)

28-Mar-2011 Addenda: It looks as if this wonder of modern technology is going to work. I've upgraded the rating a couple of stars to reflect the hardware's capability. The data still seems a little loose, but that's hard to contest with meteorology. A note to La Crosse Technology: Promote Milton, and train the entry level techs to pass a caller up when they've exhausted their flowchart, rather than have them search for a reason why it's the customer's fault.

no problems with this one so far. Hooked it up, installed the batteries and did the registration process and bingo, up it came and has run flawlessly. I rather like it actually. Wouldn't pay 130 dollars for it but $40, its a deal.

Had a similar one, smaller, and it would get hung up once in awhile. It finally went whacko but they replaced it.
Customer service has apparently improved as I didn't have any problems. Now I've got this one and the old one running off of one transmitter.

Haven't quite figured out the best way to forecast the rain but it has some interesting options. just have to use the snooze button and scroll through for whatever it is you want and leave it. Here we are praying for rain all the time. So far its been accurate but I think it needs to update more frequently. You can force it otherwise its every 6 hours?

Not bad, worth the price. When these go bad... nightmare. Check the batteries first. Then check your blood pressure frequently. If it says "No Good" it means it! Send for a RMA and get a new one.

I've read all the reviews here, where some complained that you had to wait for minutes to see the outside temperature and about the difficult setup, but I didn't have any problems. The setup required a number of steps on user's web site, all well outlined, and things went just fine. I was able to even select a local town, closer to me than my actual mailing address, for more accurate readings. As to the outside temperature, sure, I wish there were an option to display it all the time without a touch (the selectable upper right area would be a prime candidate for this), but a single touch of the Sleep button brings it up (and changes other settings, admittedly). Something I can certainly live with, given the huge amount of information available on this unit.

I'm very pleased with my purchase. ;-)

The setup went very smooth, with no glitches at all. Only had one problem, had a power outage here. Which cause the gateway to freeze. I had to leave the gateway disconnected and powered off for two day before I could set it up again.

The display is very easy to see, even with my glasses off. The weather station is working as expected. I am very happy with my purchase.

I got this unit as a gift and love it. The servers were down when I got it but a quick call to tech support and I was online. I love the fact that the forecast data updates automatically. I have the unit in our kitchen so we see it as we are getting ready to leave in the morning. My wife even gave it her seal of approval. I love the line in the middle with the extra information, it is nice to see the forecasted wind/rain information. I would recommend this product to anyone.

I thought this was a miss print on the price or something would be wrong with it, but not so. Works great no issues. Don't know why everyone wants to complain about the outdoor sensor not on the main screen, just hit the "+" key and there it is. I have an older unit that has all the sensors (rain, in/out temp, wind, etc) and I think I like this one better and you sure can't beat the price.

I purchased this item as I was looking for a product that would show me the outside temperature and a little weather information when I awoke each morning.

For local temperature this product includes a wireless temperature sensor which is displayed on the unit for a few seconds when the snooze button is pressed. I was hoping the temp would just always be available so one could look across the room but this is not the case.

For local weather conditions this unit requires an Internet connection. Included with the unit is a small transmitter which is connected to an available port of your Ethernet router. Once connected you register your unit and select a local weather station (usually a local school or public place) then the weather for that location will periodically be pushed to the device. Across the top of the device it will cycle through morning, afternoon and evening weather summaries (high and low temp and an icon indicating sunshine, cloudy or rain). The middle will show the wind speed and direction, below that is a brief summary for the next 3 days followed by a scroll which tells you what location was selected or the local temp (if the snooze button is pressed).

Overall I liked the functionality of this unit with one exception. In my house we use a baby monitor which operates on the 900MHz frequency spectrum. When the transmitter broadcasts the weather updates to the unit we heard 4 loud bursts of static through the monitor which in the middle of the night is an unwelcome distrurbance. Unfortunately for this reason we had to return it.