Customer Reviews

La Crosse Technology WS-2317 Professional Weather Station

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

After many years of using the Davis Weather Monitor II the data link connection to the PC finally gave out and there appeared to be no replacement part available. I decided to try a much lower cost weather station that would allow direct wiring (giving fairly acceptable updates) as well as wireless. The La Crosse 2317 fit the bill perfectly. Ordered it 10/20/07 and it was delivered 10/25/07. The 42 page (English) instruction manual was complete enough to get me through the installation of the weather station and the set up of the various functions on the station. After going to the Shack to buy a USB to DB9 adapter plug, I installed the included software on my PC and had no trouble getting the weather station talking to the computer and running the HeavyWeather station software. Before the night was over I had added the station to the Weather Underground network of live stations (KVAABING2).

I'm running this station directly beside the Davis and I'm happy to report (and surprised) that the 2317 anemometer out performs the Davis in sensitivity to both direction and speed.

The La Crosse WS-2317 is definitely a good bargain, and running wired performs right up there with the big (expensive) boys.

La Crosse Technology WS-2317 Professional Weather Station
The day after receiving the WS 2317, it powered off and would not come back on. I sent an email to LaCross support as per instructions if there were any problems. In the email I stated the model number, when it was received, how many hours it was on before failure and what was happening when it powered down, voltage from the ac adapter and location of the sensors.. No answer so I sent another email and the followed up with a phone call. The phone call wastes several minutes and then dumps you into voice mail. The email and phone calls were attempted several more times before returning the weather station to amazon. The return to amazon went flawlessly and fast. A week after my first email, I received an insulting form letter asking basic questions that were all answered in my first email. I probably would have been satisfied with amazons superb handling of a bad situation if LaCross hadn't of sent me the condescending, insulting email that made it clear that I had no chance of getting any help.

I have had a LaCrosse WS2317 for almost 3 years now. I installed it in 2005 and it has performed flawlessly the entire time. I keep my batteries changed twice a year and clean the connections at that time. It gives very accurate temperature, humidity and dew point readings as evidenced by the fact that my CWOP analysis is always 2 thumbs up for all the readings. My rain gauge is as accurate as my CocoRahs gauge which is touted to be more accurate than the National Weather Service rain gauges. . .A neighbor has a Davis and my WS2317 is as accurate as his. . which doesn't make him a happy camper since his station cost 8 times what the 2317 cost. I recommend the LaCrosse WS2317 and it will be my replacement when and if I need one.

The sales literature tells you 330' of wireless. That is if you keep your computer outside or put the outdoor sensors in the house. Going thru one wall my reception was a maximum 15 feet.

I talked to the customer service twice; both times they were extremely rude. One lady told me when comparing this product to a cordless phone she told me that my 900MHz cordless phone uses satellites so it is not a fair comparison. Another lady told me not to user regular phone cables to extend the sensors. The manual specifically states to use regular phone cables. Still haven't got the wind sensor to work because of this issue. When I questioned her about the discrepancy between the manual and what she was telling me she was rude and insistent that I was stupid. I finally gave up looking for help from them.

I believe I will get this working and it will work the way I want it to, but no thanks to the company's customer service as it sucks!

Short version: buy it, download WUHU, upload to your favorite site in record time.

I won't spend a ton of time reaffirming what other reviews have said about the hardware. I've been very impressed in the 2 months I've owned it. So long as you site the sensors properly you will get great results. Having only one set of batteries to replace (2 AA that last about 12 months) was a welcome surprise. Updates every 8 seconds in wired mode is outstanding.

I bought this so I could post data to Weather Underground and was a little confused by the software that came in the box. It's actually very nice, but I'd recommend skipping it and just download WUHU for FREE. I'd provide the URL to get WUHU but that's against guidelines. Not too hard to find though.

WUHU used to require that you install the software that came in the box first. Now it doesn't, it can pull directly from the base station through the serial port. It truly was plug and play for me. No drivers to load, just WUHU. WUHU supports rapid fire updates (for wired mode) and uploads to most/all the other popular online weather sites too.

I was a little worried by reports of inaccurate sensors (anemometer etc.) on other review sites for similar models (WS-2315 etc.), but mine have been bang on and remarkably sensitive.

Full disclosure of negatives:
-The temp sensor is not shielded. If the only location you can place the temp sensor is in sunlight buy a different system. Or either buy (for about 35) or build a shield.
-I couldn't get the wires to extend with my old phone line coupler, I had to buy a new one for a few bucks. Well maybe that's a positive since RJ-11 wires are so easily found.
-If you don't have an older box with a serial port lying around you'll need to buy either a usb serial adapter or a serial card.
-My wife and friends look at me really weird when I want to talk about why weather stations are so cool. Several will be getting this for Christmas...

La Crosse has a terrible attitude toward it's customers, so I recommend looking for another company. My weather station worked well enough initially, though the set up is not great for outdoor mounting. Then, the wires connecting the wind vane to the transmitter were chewed by a pack rat. No problem, I thought, I'll just call and pay for a new wire from La Crosse. Unfortunately, La Crosse does not help with problems and says you are on your own if it is not a warranty issue. Further, the system is designed so that the wire cannot be replaced, which seems really dumb, since it will obviously be exposed to birds and other creatures in the outdoors. And it is even dumber since the other end of the cord has a simple plug. When the customer service people said they were not interested in helping, I wrote to the company president, but I just got the same customer service reply. I recommend doing business with a company that cares about it's customers and I plan to avoid this outfit.

I have had the WS-2317 running for about six months. My first problem was the barometer. I wasn't getting any readings using the AC adapter. The manual doesn't specify it, but batteries are required in the console whether you use the AC adapter or not. Supposedly you can remove the batteries, after starting with the AC adapter, but I left them installed.

The console/receiver is on the second floor, of our den, on the street side of the house. The weather station is mounted on my shed near the rear lot line. It is working fine wirelessly approx 150' away, through two walls, using alkaline batteries in the transmitter. I installed lithium batteries before winter, and it worked just fine through our extended cold snap(-20's).

Mounting the sensors is the biggest challenge. I bought a 5' antenna mount, and a sidewall mount, for about $15 at my local Men*rds. I ran all the cables under the siding, and gathered all the excess wiring at the corner. I taped it up to stiffen it and shoved it into the vinyl corner. I made a mount for rain sensor from a couple pieces of scrap wood held together with two deck screws. I used zip ties to mount it to the mast.

This took all Saturday for me to get done, I have uploaded photo's of the unit mounted to my shed.

I'm using the WUHU weather software (freeware), to upload weather data to the Weather Underground.

I've tried various webcams and software to upload weather views, but none of them worked satisfactory in my case. The webcams just can't adjust to various exposures during the day. It could have something to do with my computer, but I think you need real shade, or straight northern exposure to make it work.

I bought my unit from Amazon, using free shipping, and it arrived in 4 days. If you want an economical Personal Weather Station, this is a good choice.

The weather station is just what the doctor ordered. Especially if you want to have the data on your PC. One item on the display is all you need to tell what is on the way weather-wise. There is an arrow that either points up or down - up good weather - down - bad weather.

With the data link to your PC and a membership to the weather underground - you can share your stats with the world.

This product was easy to set up, does everything that it says it is going to do and is a joy to work with. The only problem I have found may be me but I can not get the graphing program to work correctly. I need to spend more time with it but everything else has been nice to work with. I have owned numerous wireless thermometers and rain guages. This is the most professional and accurate one that I have found.

The device works well enough, but I am disappointed it is not a continual feed, and some of the info must be dug out from several menu layers.
The primary disappointment for me is that the units requires a SERIAL port to communicate with a PC. A SERIAL PORT? What is this 1985? Come on guys - get to the age of USB - or even better - wireless. Serial port? You must be joking.

Even worse - the directions specifically say that it WILL NOT WORK WITH A SERIAL TO USB ADAPTER - and I have found that to be correct.

The software leaves much to be desired as well.

If I were to do it again... I wouldn't