Customer Reviews

La Crosse Technology WS-9119U Intelligent Weather Station

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

 

 

Some of the reviews of this weather station looked pretty poor, but I took a chance and bought it anyway. Overall I am very pleased and glad that I didn't take the reviews too seriously.

I found that the temperature accuracy seems to be fine; I put the base unit, external sensor, a second extra sensor, and my old Radio Shack digital thermometer all in the same location, and within a half hour they were all within 1 degree of each other, indicating to me that the temperature sensors are consistently acccurate. I also had no problem with the LCD viewing angle; it is adjustable and seems to have a wide viewing angle anyway so I haven't seen any need to adjust it.

One of my few complaints is that ALL external temperature sensors are shown on the display as "outside" temperature, where in reality I would think it's more likely that most users will place one sensor outside, and any extra sensors beyond that would be indoors (I could be wrong here). At first I was concerned that the forecasting function would be 'confused' by seeing several outside temperature/humidity readings that vary greatly, but eventually I found one sentence in the manual that indicates only the first external sensor is used for weather forecasting. So it's a little confusing but works fine as long as you make sure that external sensor #1 is truly outside temperature.

Another heads-up is that the base unit is larger than I imagined, and it looks pretty chunky sitting on my bathroom vanity. So be sure and read the dimensions!

I bought this as a Christmas gift for my mother, and as my parents were staying with us for the holidays, I had over a week to see this gadget in action after we set it up in our house. We were all very pleased with its performance. We found the display very easy to read, the readings (temperature, humidity, barometric pressure) accurate and easy to understand, and the "intelligent" weather icons right-on. Read the directions carefully and be patient -- it takes at least 15 minutes after setting up the station for the temperatures to sync properly. Our only possible criticism is that you must press the buttons VERY firmly to get them to respond, but other than that, we have no complaints, and my mother is very happy with this gift.

Seems to be a quality product, but as others have already mentioned, the instruction booklet is seriously lacking. For one thing, there is no Index, nor Table Of Contents. I have spent about an hour trying to figure out how to engage the alarms for outdoor High Temp, etc., to no avail. I guess I am just not hitting the right buttons, or leaving them depressed long enough. I WAS able to calibrate the barometer to match my wall-mounted barometer and I have to admit - it works VERY well. I enjoy too the barometric histogram, covering the last 36 hours.

Because the booklet doesn't explain, I am still trying to figure out what the percentage factor of the "Forecast Index" really means, and why it sometimes is presented as "12 hour forecast", and other times it is 24 hour forecast.

Because the outdoor sensor is not waterproof, it becomes a bit of a challenge in locating the device to where it will be protected from rain, and direct sun exposure, etc., and yet be out in the open for a true reading, so as to not be influenced by warmth radiating from the house. La Crosse ought to strive for a waterproof sensor someday.

Set up was easy. Just read the manual and follow the instructions. Don't take short cuts.

Forcasting is excellent after setting the barometer to match local conditions. We live over 1,000 feet above sea level. Adjusting for that was needed. Weather.com's zip code oriented barometric pressure info made that relatively easy.

The screen is easy to read and understand. The main unit has a solid feel and does not look cheap.

The external humidity and temperature sensor fits easily between a closed window and it's screen.

The manual could be more complete. It wasn't clear that the icon that depicts a connection with the national time service doesn't appear until after the first connection is made in the wee hours of the morning. When you manually set the clock make sure you do it in 24 hour mode. Then, switch to 12 hour mode if that is what you want displayed. Again, the manual should have pointed that out.

I've had this weather station for about a month now. It seems to get accurate readings - only if you can find a good spot for your remote sensor. A bit of sunshine will make your readings higher than normal (outside).

A couple complaints: as one reviewer said the buttons make the unit feel cheap, they feel clunky. But, I only used them to get it all setup so its no big deal. I've had some mixed results from the barometer. When the actual pressure is mid-range its right on (i've chcked some readings from local airports to see how acurate it is). But when a low or high pressure system moves in the readings are off more than I'd expect. However the important thing is that you can see the pressure changing in the right direction. Lastly, the forecasting model it uses hasn't worked for me...yet. I live west of Denver, close to the mountains. This probably creates a local weather pattern that the unit cannot predict. I did not expect it to, but we've had some rain, snow, and fog that the unit claims it can observe and did not. It's only been a month so I expect to see a prediction that is accurate at some time.

Overall, I am happy with this product and think it is worth the money. There were many other models I looked at and I think this gives the the most for the money.

I bought this weather station because it looked hi-tech. Now that I have held it in my hands, its really not that spectacular. It's a neat "toy", but its a bit larger then I think it needs to be. Its size sort of made it look out of place in just about every location I tried placing it.

When you push the buttons they have a plastic clunky feel to them. Not what I would expect from something that was over $100.

The LCD is indeed hard to read and it is a pain to have to move it around to get a good viewing angle. I mounted mine on the wall and discovered that in that position the lighting in the room made a huge impact on how easy it was to read the LCD. The backlight made things even worse. Setting the contrast isn't as simple as a dial so having to adjust it is a pain. At the very least there should have been 2 contrast settings. One for normal viewing and one for backlight viewing because the backlight pretty much washes out the LCD.

The setup was easy and the outdoor sensor seemed to be fairly accurate when compared to the online weather information for my area. The indoor sensor was nearly 5 degrees different from what my electronic thermostat said. Although I haven't verified which one is correct, I have my suspicions that the thermostat is the one that is actually off.

There are quite a few short comings on this device for the price. I don't really recommend it. I would point you to one of the cheaper models that offers the same features. The look and feel of this one doesn't justify spending the extra money.

The WS-9119U weather station monitors outside temp and humidity and inside temp and humidity. Further it monitors barometric pressure, and make a gross prediction of weather change via pictoral representations of weather. For the price, it serves a function, but it's not an all encompasing scientific weather station..... most of which cost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.

This unit is good to observe outside weather conditions, monitor inside conditions, and monitor gross weather change.... for this it a a reliable and relatively inexpensive instrument.

I am extreamly disappointed with this product. The icons do not give an indication of the type of weather you can expect. Instead, they provide an indication if the weather is getting worse or better. The fluff on the out side of the box states: "Forecast Icon Based on Changing Barometric Pressure." The way I read that is the Icons will provide a forecast, but they do not. I do not understand why you would have a rain Icon, a cloudy icon, a partly cloudy icon and a sunny icon if they are not a forecast. I was so surprised at reading this in the manual, I called La Crosses tech support. Tech support confirmed what I read was accurate. As stated, in on of the other reviews, the station is difficult to read when it is stand mounted. You will have to bendover or be in a seated position in order to see things clearly. Adjusting the contrast does not help. Wall mounting might be a better option. The buttons, as stated in another review, feel mushy when pushed. The outdoor sensor is not compleatly weather proof so you will need to mount it where it will not get wet from rain or snow. A potentially great product that is poorly executed.

The device shows a lot of info like it should. Nice design and accurate as well. It's just as good if not better than the television weather forecast and current conditions. The only thing I would improve upon is the readability of the face of the instrument. It has to be read from directly in front or it is not clear enough.

Accurate, easy to program and good to look at. Well worth the $ spent.