Customer Reviews

La Crosse Technology WS-2310 Professional Weather Center

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

As far as price goes, you won't find any unit with comparable features nearly as cheap. However, there are some inherent design problems which make the product troublesome for die-hard weather enthusiasts.

Good points: 1) The temperature readings are very accurate, almost dead-on with NWS observations. 2) Humidity and barometric pressure readings are also pretty close to NWS readings, though these can sometimes be a little off depending on certain conditions. 3) The computer interface works flawlessly with my old Compaq running on a Celeron processor. The HeavyWeather software is quite user-friendly, though lacking somewhat in the features department. 4) The price, obviously. If you're like me and can't afford a $500+ station, this unit will suffice until the boss gives you a big raise.

Bad points: 1) The anemometer is not 100% accurate. Even with a wired connection to the sensor, readings are taken only once per eight seconds. You will likely miss some peak wind gusts because of this. Also, the anemometer design is prone to clogging from wind-borne debris or freezing rain. 2) Though my unit has been pretty reliable so far, I've heard many horror stories about LaCrosse's support--or total lack of it, to be more precise! 3) The cable which connects the wind and rain sensors to the wireless transmitter is not shielded. If you are in an area subject to RF interference, forget about obtaining any useable data. 4) The wireless configuration only sends information to the base unit once every two minutes. You'll need to run the cable in order to get more frequent readings.

In summation: I really enjoy having this unit. It has allowed me to post live weather data from my location to the Internet 24/7. My only real complaint is with the wind readings. I live in a commercial district where nearby obstructions slightly degrade the accuracy of wind measurements, but LaCrosse's poor design of the anemometer aggravates this situation even further.

A good basic weather station for amateur enthusiasts. It's not too difficult to set up and the PC interface works well too, although it does consume 20-25% of your CPU at all times. Although it says "Wireless" - the station is not completely wireless. The rain and wind sensors have to be connected via the included phone cable to a junction box which then wirelessly transmits the data inside. Still, this isn't too bad. I used a 10' one inch PVC pipe to secure everything (wind, temp sensor) - so all of the wires can be kept neat in one location. I then strapped the PVC pipe to a small tree.

Other Pros:

- Reasonably priced ($200 at Best Buy)

- No wires to run inside the house

- PC interface

- Attractive Display

- Readings seem very accurate thus far

Cons:

- Low Temp and Wind-Chill Range of -21.8 degrees F (many far northern US locations can drop below this in the winter months) - have a backup for bitter cold mornings!

- Flimsy buttons - must be pressed really hard to go through the functions.

- No Snooze alarm, which sucks for me since this doubles as my alarm clock!

- Operation of the various functions should be easier and more intuitive. It's easy to mess something up if you aren't careful. Make sure you have the instructions handy!

Overall Im happy with this unit so far. It beats spending upwards of 800 - 1000 for something I'll probably move to a new location in a year anyway. For 200 bucks, you've got a mostly wireless outdoor thermometer, hydrometer, rain gauge, wind gauge, and barometer. Hopefully, it will last a few years!

First of all, for those who complain about the inaccuracy of the anemometer, at least two things need to be taken into consideration: 1) Maybe this is too obvious to state, but you need to make sure that you have it placed high enough to not be blocked by surrounding houses, structures, and trees. In some urban or even suburban locations, where buildings are close together this might be difficult, if not impossible to achieve. 2) If you go as wireless as this system can be, that is, not having the display console connected by wire to the central thermo-hygrometer unit, the wind speed will only be monitored every 128 seconds: i.e. if the windspeed is only monitored every two-plus minutes, a lot of "good gusts" are missed...therefore your best bet is to go ahead and connect the display unit to the thermo-hygrometer by wire, which allows the windspeed to be monitored every eight seconds, but thus reneders this unit not "wireless," at all. Even with an eight second interval, you can miss some good gusts, but at least I've found this unit to be more than adequate for measuring sustained winds, even if it's kind of hit-and-miss for catching the big gusts. Btw, those who point out that it isn't truly wireless, since the anemometer and rain meter have to be wired to the central thermo/hygrometer, are correct.

The biggest problem with this unit is that the buttons on the otherwise well-designed display unit tend to stick...in fact, just two days ago--unfortunately one month after the one year warranty expired--the display button, which is the most frequently used since it is used to scroll through most of the various readings, became hopelessly jammed. It turns out that my only viable option for trying to get some more use from the system is to purchase a new display console ($85.95 plus $6.50 shipping, on ambientweather.com is by far the best price I could find). If I can get one more year of use from this system I will be pretty satisfied...but now that I know how much I enjoy having a weather station I will be upgrading next year...definitely not with a La Crosse. This is my first unit, and I have learned a lot about what I want, and don't want, from a weather station. Considering the price, not a bad choice for a first timer.

I have had the WS-2310 for 3 months, and I must say that it has been a pleasure to use. For what you get, it's an excellent value - and I have found it reliable and a joy to use.

That said, I echo the comments about the wireless features, and installed my unit as a wired system. I wanted to avoid having to change batteries on sensors mounted in difficult to reach areas. I also found out that the system, particularly the rain sensor, is RF sensitive. As a Ham Radio operator, I found a 10 watt 2M transmitter 15 feet away caused errant readings. To solve this, I did two things, I moved the 2M antenna and I added several wraps on ferrite cores for the telephone cables that connect the sensors and the main unit.

After reading the documentation on the Heavy Weather software supplied with the unit, I decided I was looking for a more complete package and purchased Weather Display. This interfaced perfectly with my WS-2310, and has resulted in a reliable and accurate system. You can see my weather system online at http://bwusa.homeip.net:14501/info.html. I also feed data to WeatherUnderground and other systems.

In all, there is no doubt that there are more rugged systems available, but they are far more expensive, which would have made my project impossible.

For the price I paid I expected much more accuracy. The data it downloads from its external monitor to the PC is terrible. Even though the unit is synchronized with the atomic clock it still seems to get the dates wrong on the data it stores in its database. It also has a problem with the accumulated rainfall. The amount of rainfall according to the database is much higher that what the display shows for the accumulated amount. The hourly and 24 hour period also tend to behave eratically. You might see an inch of rain in the last hour but when you come back later, the last 24 hours shows only .2 inches of rain. Strange. How can you have more rain in the last hour than in the last 24? Seems backwards.

On the good side, the unit is easy to set up and connects to your PC with existing ports and a cable that is provided. On the bad side, besides being inaccurate, the analysis software is primitive and difficult to work with. You are better off downloading a text file and doing analysis in Excel.

This unit also gives eratic readings with the temperature swinging up and down up to six degrees within a twenty minute window. I wanted my son to see how the temps over a 24 hour period form a bell shaped curve. So much for that. This is probably OK for a first time weather station for my 8 year old but I would not recommend it for any one else since this unit is not cheap.

One other thing, it only takes a reading every 1-3 minutes so wind speed readings are hit and miss. You could be getting gusts much higher than what this unit happens to read. I am dissapointed and annoyed that I spent the money and it is not at least semi-accurate. I will tell you that I have it set up wireless. If you use the enclosed hard wire connection option then you will get more frequent readings and maybe even better accuracy. Good luck and do your homework first.

I got this Weather Station last Christmas and have had a few problems with it.

1. The Wind Gauge reads low. During Hurricane Katrina the maximum recorded reading was 28MPH versus gusts of 75MPH. The trees can be bent over from the wind and it reads 5MPH.

2. The unit will just stop transmitting from the outside unit to the base unit. We have changed the batteries in the outside unit 4 times in the past year but continue to have this problem. Better than 50% of the time now nothing works from the outside unit. The range is now down to less than 50ft from the base station. I don't want to move the station any closer to the house because the wind and rain sensors will be impacted.

3. The rain gauge does not update very often and it reads significantly lower than the local weather station. It rained heavy last night and the local news reported 1 inch of rain but we recorded 0.2 inches.

4. The barometric pressure appears to work well.

There are better buys out there like the Oregon Scientific WMR968 that have a real 330 ft range so save your money.

First of all, it is not reliable in that it records spurious data points. An Example is an actual wind speed of less than 2 mph and it records a 44 mph data point. You must use only specific run of the mill AA batteries, no Max or + types. Obviously made in China with very poor QC, if any. Tech support not knowledgeable about product and do not understand how products actually work.

I've had this unit for almost 3 years. It works great. I installed it per manufacturers recommendations. I was careful with it to not damage it. The software is great for communication via internet. I have found the measurements to be very accurate. I would buy this again. I'm sure the competition has nice units too. But I really like how this one works. The rain guage works great. What I'd really like is a snow guage!

I had the La Crosse WS-2310 "Professional" Weather Station for 2 years, and it was NEVER fully functional. I had to return the unit 3 times, as well as do a store replacement once, and I used the system for a year without the wind speed unit working - I simply didn't want the cost of returning the system yet again. The software is absolutely horrible, and during the 2 years I had the system, there was never any software upgrades at all. Given how deficient the software was, this was quite surprising. For example, there is no calculation of daily rain amounts or monthly rain amounts. The system is too stupid to differentiate between days. The date recorded to the simple spreadsheet database is always one day off (yesterday's date is recorded today). Overall, the software looks to be a high schooler's science project done the night before it was due. If you're going to purchase a La Crosse system, plan on spending money on 3rd party software, as well as allowing about 30% of your purchase price in product return costs. La Crosse tech support is non-existant: call & get a recorded message to leave your number & they will return the call - but they NEVER do... and I do mean NEVER! Send an email and the same response - NONE! It's a very frustrating joke. After 2 years, I gave up and purchased a truly professional system from a competitor. My only regret was having waited 2 years to throw in the towel with La Crosse. I give La Crosse 1 star only because there is no 0 star rating.

I have had this unit for 2 years. I had to replace the wind sensor under warrantee but other than that, I have been very happy with the unit. Wireless tranmission between the sensors and base unit doesn't happen quickly enough. A direct wire connection updates every 8 seconds. If you buy this unit, plan to run a wire from the sensor to the base.

If I had to do it again, I would buy this unit. For under $200, you can't get more data.

One note - Humidity range is only 20% - 95%. When it rains, humidity is really 100% but registers 95%