Customer Reviews

La Crosse Technology WS-9035U Wireless Weather Station and Wind Sensor

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

This unit seems to be a good value for the money. Mine has been in operation for a month and has performed well. The distance from the sensor/transmitter to the weather station is approximately 75 feet and it maintains the signal at all times. The atomic clock locked in within a few minutes of operation. I mounted the sensor/transmitter high up under the eave of my workshop roof (the directions say to mount it out of direct rain), and do I have a problem with heat collecting under the eave during the day and giving me high readings. I plan to drop the sensor a little lower to see if this helps. The anemometer works well and appears to be accurate, it does seem a little flimsy and I wonder how well it will hold up in South Florida conditions. All in all I am very pleased with the unit and its features and feel this is a good value for the money.

I live in FL. Everything is perfect with the unit except the wind meter. The wind meter only works in slow breezes. Otherwise it tops out at about 20mph. This when the wind gusts are around 40mph. It says it's rated for much higher but tis not the case.
The reason? The bracket that holds the wind sensor is plastic and starts to vibrate at around 8mph and up. The loud vibration effectively acts like a brake on the sensor so it never gets past 20mph. It was very frustrating to not get accurate readings especially when the hurricanes were passing by. If the bracket was made of aluminum instead, it probably would work just fine.
I returned one unit only to have the same problem with another. I e-mailed LaCrosse and rather then admit they are selling a defective product, they told me I need to mount it higher. Since they chose to lie to me instead of admiting the defect, they only get 2 stars.
My solution: I multiply my reading by 2 as this is usually close to the actual wind strength.
It is ok to buy this unit but don't pay extra for the wind meter.

This is a great little weather station. The first one we bought broke in the first week, but the replacement has been going strong in all kinds of Oregon weather. The display is alot of fun - we especially like the smiley (and frowny) faces!

I bought this thermometer, as a gift for my partner, with some trepidation after reading some of the negative user reveiws here. But $60 was what I had to spend and it needed to have a wind meter, and all of the other wireless thermometers that measure wind were way out of my budget, so I took a chance on this one.

Turns out it's works great! The wind meter actually works very well. I can compare the gusts and average wind speed with the National Weather Forecast website and it's always spot on! We just set it up a couple of days ago and it's already registered wind gusts of 38 mph. (We mounted the wind measurer whirly-gig doo-dad securely on our roof top antannae rod using the little nuts and bolts provided- I wouldn't recommend using just a zip tie as the instructions give that as an option.)

We do wish it gave more barometric information than just an up or down arrow- but heck- for all of it's other nifty features and considering the bargain price, I certainly can't complain.

This relatively inexpensive system has 90% of the functionality of a mini-weather station at a fraction of the price. It includes average wind speed, wind gust speed, indoor and outdoor temperature and humidity, barometric-based forecast and official atomic clock time. It uses the same outdoor remote sensing units as the much more expensive stations. Does not include wind direction or software to record readings over time. If you can live without those things, this is all you need.

This is a good unit for indoor / outdoor temperature information.
Aside from the temperature the best feature is the accurate clock!
Unit can be moved to different places and still receives signal.
The temperature seems to be accurate with humidity in the ballpark.

On the negative side, the wind sensor dosen't seem that accurate and is made of low quality plastic. La Crosse makes a big deal out of this feature!
I'm disappointed with the weather prediction feature. You get no actual pressure measurements, only 3 icons! It would seem to me that storing values for pressure changes would a be a lot more useful than some of the other promoted features. Even the 'old fashioned' barometers had needles you could set to observe the pressure changes and trends!
I would also think for the money that you should be able to download weather information to you computer. Lastly La Crosse should have designed this unit to allow the addition of other sensors.

Overall I'm happy with the unit, having purchased it on sale. However, to pay anything near list price would be a rip-off! For the $$$ they are asking, the unit should be computer compatible, have more scientific features and at least allow for better sensor upgrades.

We like this product. The interface is clear with just the right amount of information and none of the cutesy icons found in some other models. Installation was easy and setup simple. No range issues in the 50' between transmitter and receiver. Note that if mounting the receiver on the wall, it needs to be mounted somewhat lower than you think since viewing angle is sharpest from level to about 20 degrees above.

Whatever you do, don't buy a La Crosse Technology WS9035U Weather Station - even if it's free. The so-called weather station typically displays both the indoor and outdoor humidity at ten to twenty humidity percentage points higher than the actual humidity. Obviously, this makes dew point calculations made and displayed by the indoor unit total trash. To be fair, the WS9035U does accurately display time, date, and the moon phases (a must-have feature for all werewolves).

I live directly in between 2 official U.S. weather reporting stations (Luke AFB and the Goodyear Airport are each 4 miles away). Both the WS9035U's outdoor unit as well as the indoor unit (temporally placed outside next to the outdoor unit) will consistently show humidity at a minimum of 10 percentage points and as much as 24 percentage points higher than what the two official weather stations are reporting! A e-mail from La Crosse tech support says that's within limits. (On the other hand, when both U.S. official weather stations are reporting 100% humidity (very dense fog), the WS9035U displays only 80% - go figure.)

And the unit is ridiculously flimsy - the anemometer and its support can both be easily broken during installation. And what if you need only 2 feet of RS232 cable (instead of the supplied 50 ft.) from the anemometer to the outdoor transmitter? La Crosse Tech Support says that if you reduce the cable length down and put a new plug on the cable (which is quite easy), you have broken the warranty. Doom on you.

I bought the WS9035U at a good price from Amazon and would have returned it except it took several weeks of charting data to prove that the unit does not accurately report humidity plus another week waiting for the really stupid reply from La Crosse tech support. All this put me outside the allowable 30-day window for returns. Plus, I cracked the base of the anemometer support arm when I attempted to install it. Doom on me.

It'd be nice if Amazon would change their return policy to allow a 60-day return on all La Crosse Technology products. I'd be first in line.

We recently received the La Crosse WS-9035U weather station, and are extremely pleased with it. The set-up was a breeze (press & hold Set button for 5 seconds, scroll through the functionsvia ALM/+ button, then Set again after adjustment). Read the concise instructions first to familiarize yourself with the features, and you're off and running.
The clock can be set manually, and with the radio-controlled feature ON, the clock and date will be adjusted automatically according to the atomic clock in Boulder, CO. A very useful feature.
After installing the remote temperature/humidity sensor and the wind speed sensor and allowing time for the units to adjust to outdoor conditions, we found that the readings were extremely accurate as compared to Weather Channel reading from the local airport 4 miles away. Temperature was within a few tenths, and humidity was within a few points of the WC. All in all, we're pleased with the accuracy and ease of use. We were very surprized at the size of the Indoor Weather Station: approximately 4 5/8" by 9" with large, easy-to-read digits.
The only real difficulties were determining where to mount the outdoor sensors, and what to do with the excess of the approximately 50' of phone cord that connect the wind speed sensor to the temperature/humidity sensor transmitter. I wish La Crosse had designed an RJ-11 receptacle into the wind speed meter instead of hardwiring same, to allow for use of a shorter cord. Since I mounted the two sensors within two feet of each other on our front porch (unobstructed by trees or buildings), I had roughly 48' of excess cord to deal with. Obviously, the cord can be cut to a shorter length and an PJ-11 installed, but as another reviewer mentioned, this will void the warranty. Once said warranty has lapsed, however, I plan to make the modifications to the cord!
As for the wind speed accuracy, the data is transmitted every 128 seconds reading the average wind speed as well as the highest gust during that 128 second period, so the readings aren't truly consistent with what's actually happening. This, obviously no genuinely accurate real-time information, but still we find these "averages" very useful in getting a ballpark wind chill estimate so we know how much to bundle up before heading out the door on cold mornings!
The wind speed sensor itself is, as has been mentioned, rather flimsy in its construction, so it's advisable to use care when mounting, and select a location where the sensor is unlikely to be bothered by plants or animals.

Overall, we're extremely pleased with the Weather Station. Particularly at Amazon's price, it's money well spent.

The unit arrived 5 days earlier than the predicted date. I followed the instructions and never had a single problem. I mounted the wind sensor above the roofline of my house,and the other sensor about 5 feet off the ground in a protected area. I installed the batteries and before I could finish securing the remaining cable between the sensors it was locked in and recording. All I had to do was set the time zone.

Pros: So far it seems accurate in all areas. Not having to climb up to the wind sensor and change batteries, just pop them in the lower unit and your all set.

Cons: No numerical barometric value, only a trending arrow. No wind direction indicator. Scrolling through the menues takes a bit of button pressing.

This unit was registering wind speeds as low as .2mph, the temp on the indoor unit and outdoor sensor matched within 1 degree, the humidity matched perfect. I bought mine when the price was at $60 and I'm more than pleased with it. As other reviews have said, the wind sensor mounting bracket is plastic, but as long as you dont over tighten things you should be fine.