Customer Reviews

La Crosse Technology WS-1612CH-IT Professional Weather Station, Cherry

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

This product includes three weather instrument packages: anemometer/wind direction vane, temperature/humidity, and rainfall, all wirelessly linked to a large LCD display. It shows those data on the display roughly in real time (seems to update every five/seven seconds or so) and keeps track not only of maxima and minima on most of those statistics but also when they occurred... very nice. Fairly easy to set up, see my review on the National Geographic weather station on how to get their similar wind and temperature packages set up. That's the good news.

The bad news is that the system is grossly inaccurate. The wind speed data always reports wind speeds thirty to fifty percent below their actual values (when compared to a NOAA instrument package very near my house), and temperatures that vary wildly as the day goes on.

I gathered enough data on wind and temperature readings several times/day for several days to see that while the AVERAGE value of the temperature reported over the day is fairly close to the NOAA data, the standard deviation is about 250 percent that of the NOAA data, despite my locating the thermometer off the ground and in the shade. The wind speed data's always significantly under actual wind speed -- the cheaper National Geographic unit with its anemometer sitting within a few feet of the Lacrosse anemometer tracked with the NOAA data very well -- despite the fact that I actually purchased a replacement anemometer unit from Lacrosse. (Both units showed the same biases -- wind direction was correct, wind speed under-reported.) Atmospheric pressure was, however, dead on... once calibrated. So, I thought, maybe there's a calibration procedure for the wind speed?

The true insult, however, was when I contacted Lacrosse looking for some guidance... could they recommend better infrared shielding for the temperature gauge? Was there a way to calibrate and adjust the package's interpretation of the wind speed information? Their Web site warned that they were very busy this time of year so I thought I'd be a nice guy and use their email. No answer for two weeks, so I politely asked a second time; no answer. It's been four weeks and I'm still waiting.

This unit seems basically well-thought-out, save for the lack of calibration opportunities. Without that calibration, though, it's completely worthless. Save your money.

I like to know what the conditions are outside and this is my second LaCrosse. The wind or rain sensor died on my first one and it was cheaper to buy the whole package. It is a nice looking display which you can put anywhere without looking geeky. It gives you all kinds of information, my concerns are rainfall amounts, temperature and barometeric pressure changes. It also maintains a history that you can look back on and a min/max function that is useful. In the winter I am especially mindful of the windchill which it also displays. My first one lasted 5 years and worked flawlessly all that time. This is a good buy.

This unit is fairly easy to install and get working. I have several La Crosse weather products and have been very pleased with them. The Aerometer has to be mounted on a mast, I used an eight foot (2.5 M) length of dowel and it works well enough. It should really be on a 10 meter pole but I like the lower one as it gives the windspeed on the deck at the back of the house. The rain guage works well and I have it measuring in mm. It recordes every half mm of rainfall and is easy to reset to zero. Some of the functions settings are a bit complex and the manual should be kept on hand as the procedures are easily forgotten, especially if not used that often. The outdoor temp and humidity work well. The cords attached to the rain guage and aerometer plug into the temp and humidity units and that is where the batteries live as well. The cords are quite long and I have stuffed the left over cords into a tube attached to the deck rail. I would suggest using only one screw to attach that temp and humidity unit as it will be necessary to rotate it to replace the batteries.

A good well made unit that does what is supposed to.

Bad cable out of the box. They sent a new one after about 4 weeks.
After 6 months, rain sensor went out. Asked for new cable, after 48 days customer service
sent a 16 page troubleshooting questionnaire. No cable.
Now the console is dead.
Buy this unit for a life of 1 year or less in mild climates.

After doing a lot of research, I decided to purchase the WS-1612CT-IT Professional Weather Station for my home and I'm thrilled. The installation and setup was easy, once I found a good, unencumbered location for the wind and rain sensors as well as a somewhat protected and accessible location for the hygrometer and battery pack. The wires which connect the three sensors are long enough to make this work and the wireless connection to the display unit is a big plus.

The display shows a lot of information. Although it took awhile to "sort it out" (I'd have to look for a few seconds before finding outside temp, the thing I used most often), I'm now used to it and can glance and find what I am looking for quickly.

There are more expensive alternatives out there but none will provide the same value as this for those who want comprehensive weather information at an affordable price.

Pros:
Fewer batteries, 5 - AA's
Battery only, no wall wart required
Long Battery Life, ~2 Years
Detailed, illustrated manual
Altitude adjustment for the barometer

Cons:
Mixed reviews
No radio receiver for WWV's Atomic Clock
Temp sensor not weather proof, duh
No inside temp reading
No PC Connection

This is less a review and more of a market analysis. I did a lot of reading prior to ordering the functionally identical 1611 in Dec. 2008. Read its review in early Jan. 2009.

In researching the triple sensor (temp, wind, rain) market I considered Oregon Scientific, better reviews, more features, but it needed 10 batteries and a wall wart. Also Zephyr and Davis, the first had no reviews or downloadable manual and the latter was out of my price range. I read many positive and negative reviews for the 1611/1612 and I downloaded several manuals. In the end, I decided on the "devil I knew", my $20 La Cross wireless thermometer, 9013, had been reliable for many years. I'll keep it around for its atomic clock.

Like all La Crosse weather instruments, the top line of the display is the time and date, on a weather station? The single most important reading, the outdoor temp, is buried in the fourth group, duh. Since you can get an atomic clock on $15 units, one has to wonder why its not included on the 1611? Having all that in mind, I was price driven, so the 1611 is it.

A clever feature of the 1611/1612 is one pair of AA's inside the temp sensor powers it and both the rain and wind sensors, all wired together. Now it gets strange, if all these sensors are outside and wirelessly connected to the base station, why is the temp sensor not weather proof? It has to be protected from rain and sun, Duh?

Hope this helps someone.

This weather station was an easy setup but failed after about a week. After reading the warranty the odds of getting a replacement for the thermo/hydro sensor was poor. I called the place where the unit came from (WeatherBuffs), they were very helpful and got La Crosse to send me a replacement part the same day I spoke to them. If you buy a weather station buy it from Weather Buffs its like having a friend in the business.

The LaCrosse wireless weather station has insufficint range to put the weather station sending unit very far from the receiving station. I placed the weather station sending unit on a pergola about 60' from by glassed in sun porch and only got intermittant readings, and hardly ever got all of the readings at any one time. So unless you are going to place your sending unit very close to the receiver, this is not the appropriate unit for you. I have since replaced it with an Oregon Scientific Unit with much better results.

Don't waste your money on this weather station. The old saying "You get what you pay for" rings true on this product. The unit went together great. The problem started just two days after I finished up the installation. The main unit quit displaying the pressure reading. I contacted La Crosse tech support. It took me four phone calls and got no where with them and decided to return to Amazon. I wish La Crosse were as responsive as Amazon was to my problem. I reordered a REAL weather station. Davis Instruments Vantage Pro 2. Granted it was three times the price of the La Crosse but it WORKS and works flawlessly. Learn from my mistake. Spend the money and you'll be much happier.

Save yourself some money, time and a lot of aggravation by looking for another brand. I have had three of their products over the years and none of them worked correctly out of the box and took a lot of tinkering to get them to work at all. Once they were finally up and running they were innaccurate and undependable. Very disappointing for all the fanfare they get on The Weather Channel. Either they get theirs for free or have actually never used one. The only reason this product got a "one" in my review was because it wouldn't allow me to put in a "zero".