Customer Reviews

Oregon Scientific Weather Forecaster with Cable-Free Thermo-Hygrometer and Clock, Silver

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is a very nice weather station. I looked at a variety of basic weather stations which had exact time set, temp, humidity and a remote with temp and humidity. This one caught my eye as one of the best values and best quality.

Pros:
1. Very accurate, when placed next to each other the base and remote temp reading is within 1 degree and the humidity readings match up. They also match up temperature and humidity-wise with my other stand alone digital temp/humidity sensor. The weather forecaster is fun to check out. So far it has been about as accurate as the weather man and much more animated.
2. Oregon Scientific name and quality.
3. Remote unit mounts easily, is good quality and displays temp and humidity on its own LCD.

Cons:
1. When used as a display, the base unit sits on a stand at a 90 degree angle making it difficult to read unless you view it from a level position. (Lacrosse Technology model 7078U sits at a nice angle for viewing)
2. You can view either indoor or outdoor temps and humidity, but not both at once. You push a button to navigate through the base and 3 remote temp readings. (The Lacrosse Tech 7078U allows you to see base and one remote on the base display without pressing a button, however the remote sensor has no LCD display.)
3. Unit is kind of big for wall mounting, but not unattractive. It mounts easily on a single screw (which allows it to move slightly when pressing the display buttoms.)

If you don't need the weather forecaster function you might want to consider the RMR136HG which looks virtually the same and is less expensive. There are other brands of basic temp/hygrometer units with remote sensors such as Lacrosse, Taylor, Acurite and GE. A GE temp/hygrometer unit (stand alone) was off by 6 or 7 degrees relative humidity so I returned it. The Lacrosse unit is nice looking, shows both base and remote data, and is less expensive, but I went with the Oregon Scientific because of the perception of better quality. I have had no problems with the clock or base unit receiving signals from the remote sensor or atomic clock. I am very satisfied with the unit and recommend it highly. I bought this from one of the Amazon Z-shops and it shipped the next business day. (UPS ground shipping was slow from Oregon where it was shipped from - took 7 days to arrive, but it arrived in good condition.)

It has awesome features and a very good value for the price. I wish it were better designed. Read the cons!! Forecasting is only an approximate and at this price I don't expect it to be accurate.

Pros:
1) OK accuracy for daily purposes! When kept side by side both the main unit and remote show the temperature within a degree but the humidities were off by about 10%. Another reviewer had mentioned both units showing different temperatures when kept side by side. I think he did not give enough time for temp reading to stabilize or he was holding them in his hand(body temp makes a difference)
2) Looks good.
3) Both units have their own display

Cons:
1) Design issues: The LCD is of vintage quality with very small viewing angle and no backlight. The stand puts the main unit vertically upright... at an angle would have been a big help.
2) Simultaneous indoor and outdoor temp display on the main unit would have been a big plus. You have to click on the channels 4 times to get back to the indoor display as it goes from indoor to remote channel-1 to remote channel-2 to remote channel-3 to remote channel-4 and then back to indoor. And I have only one remote unit.
3) The buttons are not labeled smartly. I had to read the manual several times.
4) Agreed Only the remote unit has a C - F display switch. Not a big deal for me.
5) I took really long for the clock to get synced up U.S. Atomic Clock. I had given up on it thinking it was a defect but it synced by next morning.

I couldn't find a better unit at this price.

I had tired of having to go outside to view the temperature especially during winter months. (There is no outside location at my home where an ordinary outdoor thermo would not be effected by the sun. The remote capability allows mounting under my deck out of the sun yet open to enough air flow so no temp buildup occurs.)

When I saw this product advertised...especially for the price, I opted to order it. I could not be happier. My basic desire was to have a product which would record temp AND humidity at several locations. While design and display viewing issues stated by other reviewers may be accurate, they are no big deal. I have found the unit to be +/- a degree of two and the same with humidity levels. "Predictions" of coming weather are reasonable as long as one understands that they are not immediate to what is happening out of doors..ie: when the unit predicts sunny, it will be sunny within 24 hours or so.

If you are not looking for a sophisticated forecast but want basic weather information, this is an excellent unit for the money.

I have paid this much ($29) separately for WWVB time-sync clock, thermometer/hygrometer and a remote temperature sensor. Here are all of these items in one package manufactured (well, imported) by a name brand company, Oregon Scientific. YMMV, but I laid the remote and indoor units on the table together and found a difference of 0.4° in temperature and 1% in humidity. I am considering buying two more units so that I can have all three remote channels populated and be able to view all three channels from multiple locations in my house. The only reason I witheld the 5th star in the rating, is that it would have been nice to view indoor and outdoor simultaneously, OR when in the scan mode if it would skip the "dead" channels instead of pausing on them for equal display time of "---°" and "--%".

For the money (30 clams) this unit is exceptional. Read the other reviews for any feature limitations that might affect your situation (IMHO most are minor!) and then run (yes run!!) and purchase this unit. You'll enjoy it!!! This is not a toy; it's a scientific measurement device. Although it's not calibrated for lab environments it is more than accurate/stable enough for home use (1-2%). BTW - I recommend the use of lithium batteries in the remote unit. Lithiums function at greater temperature extremes than other batteries (e.g. alkalines are good only down to ~20 degree F.).

This item is very reliable as long as you shield the unit from any rain. The manual says the remote should be shielded from direct rainfall, which I didn't do adequately, so it stopped sending data. After drying it out overnight it worked again (so no harm was done).

It does a good job of predicting trends after about a week of operation. This is the most amazing feature of this unit. One thing I don't understand, however, is how it can predict trends when humidity is always 80-95% at dawn and at dusk--surely it must make arrangements for these outliers, or are these data points also part of the overall trending algorithm? I'm not sure.

As for the clock: it took three days to finally synchronize. I'm unsure which frequency it is using but I get WWV on shortwave in varying levels of signal quality depending on what the time of the day it is.

Overall, a good quality unit even if it's not on sale.

***EDIT*** After 5 years the outside unit finally stopped functioning. I think that's a great run and I'm looking for a new one!!

I bought this Thermo-Hygrometer as I needed to moitor my basement humidity from my first floor. Well, everything about this 'gadget' is okay .. but I was a bit disappointed with the accuracy. I would never have noticed it ... but this thing itself comes with a two sensing devices (main + remote). To my surprise, the readings do not match even between these two. There's usually a +-2 F difference in temprature and +-3 % in humidity. If the item is "listed" at 99 bucks, at least some accuracy is expected. To put salt on the wound, I bought a couple of cheap radio shack digital temprature gauges on sale ... and they did seem to match with each other. Also, they would show the reading which was the average of the two sensers of this instrument.

Another thing that I observed was that this instrument is quite slow in responding to the changes in temperature and humidity (and even atomic clock calibration). So if I put on the AC, it takes a while for it to change its readings versus the simple mercury or radioshack ones.

Well, ... so it's up to you. If you think you can live with this difference .. then go ahead .. or else don't waste your money, and get a mercury thermometer from a dollar store! .. or grab something from radioshack if you need to measure humidity as well ..

Decent little unit, it does what it says it will. The main unit's thermometer took a few days to settle down and agree with the side-by-side remote sensor, but now it seems to work fine.

If you're looking for a good way to tell how hot/cold it is outside, this is a nice unit.

This is a great product, very happy with it.

Very accurate, predicts fairly well.

Just a reminder, don't put it in the sun. I was a little confused when it read 91 on a cold day. Keep it in a dry place, out of the sun, and you will get a great reading!

A+

This is a very nice unit for home use. My unit works very well and is accurate. The only recommendation I have is in giving consideration to placement of the remote module outside. I thought my unit was off by 10-15 F degrees (high). I checked it against a different electronic thermometer. It was correct, only giving higher readings because of the concrete patio.

I was lucky and paid only half what is presently listed, but the unit is a good value for what it is selling for now!