Oregon Scientific Multi-Room Indoor-Climate Monitor w/Atomic Clock plus Weather Forecaster - RMR500A

by Oregon Scientific

Product Features

• Multi-room indoor-climate monitor and clock with weather forecaster
• Weather forecast with graphical icons: sunny, partly cloudy, cloudy, rainy and snowy
• Displays indoor/outdoor temperature and humidity at up to 4 different locations
• Radio-controlled clock and calendar sets itself for perfect time and DST changes
• LED backlight; desktop and wall-mountable; mold alert icon

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.5 x 5.2 inches ; 12 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0013542IM
• Item model number: EARS7/RMR500
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #117,008 in Home & Kitchen (See Top 100 in Home & Kitchen)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Monitor temperature and humidity levels throughout the house and outside and receive mold alerts all from the convenience of one display with this multi-room climate monitor from Oregon Scientific. The display monitor shows temperature and humidity levels in the room where it sits, and also receives temperature and humidity data from up to 3 remote wireless sensors set up in key areas around the house: the baby's room, the wine cellar, music room, greenhouse, basement or wherever proper temperature and humidity levels are a must. Each room's temperature and humidity data is divided into easy-to-read segments on the large LCD display. The unit also displays the likelihood of dangerous mold growth with a built-in mold alert function.

More great features include outdoor temperature and humidity and weather forecasts for the next 12-24 hours. Weather Forecasts are presented with easy-to-read graphical icons: Sunny, Partly Cloudy, Cloudy, Rainy and Snowy. The radio-controlled atomic clock sets itself for precision time, reliable date and for automatic Daylight Savings Time adjustments where applicable. An LED backlight means easy viewing at night. Great for the desktop or easily mounted to any wall, the sleek design dresses up any room in the home or office.

Product Description

Keep your house in check! The Multi-Room Climate Monitor monitors the temperature and humidity in up to four rooms of your house with this weather and home environment station. Each room¿s temperature and humidity data is divided into easy-to-read segments on the large LCD display. Reduce the chance of mold using the built-in mold alert function and know the weather forecast for the next 12-24 hours. RMR500ESA/RMR500

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good for multiple location humidity & temp display., May 26, 2009

By 

J. Farrell (Warwick, RI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Oregon Scientific Multi-Room Indoor-Climate Monitor w/Atomic Clock plus Weather Forecaster - RMR500A (Kitchen)

We have an older home that had some mold issue we had to correct when we moved in. I have a weather stations and various temp/humidity sensors in the house but wanted a centralized unit that could display temp and humidty. The temp and humidty are very accurate (I used my high end Davis unit to compare data) from the base unit and remote sensors. I have been able to determine that having the bathroom exhaust fan for 10 min after a shower is inadequate. With this sensor, I know it needs to run for 20-30 minutes to bring the humidty below 60% again. Having this data was vital to prove to my wife that she needs to keep that fan on, which she hates doing otherwise.

I have had no issues with the display clarity and think there is adequate backlight when the button is depressed.

There are a few cons:

1) Unit lacks a max/min for temperature or humidity. I found this very surprising since Oregon Sc. has this on their other units that sell for much less. There's merit for keeping things simple but this was just being cheap on their part.

2) There is no trend indicator showing if temp & humidity are rising or falling. Again, this would have been very easy to program into the main display, but I'm getting picky.

3) Additional remote sensor prices are unreasonably inflated. This is just robbery. For the price of 2 additional sensors, you could buy a new unit with 2 remote sensors (unfortunetly, the outside doesn'ty let you change the transmission channel).

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Fine as long as you hold a flashlight to it, February 20, 2009

By 

Tog - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Oregon Scientific Multi-Room Indoor-Climate Monitor w/Atomic Clock plus Weather Forecaster - RMR500A (Kitchen)

Because this unit shows all five of its pairs simultaneously, the numbers are quite small, so this unit, instead of being readable across the room as were earlier models that showed their pairings sequentially, is only readable if you are within a couple of feet. That we knew going in. What we didn't know is that the RMR500A's screen is about one-third as reflective as the prior, discontinued models we own, so the numbers, under normal lighting, appear as little as 10% darker than the background (approximately Tungsten on Iron, instead of the Tungsten on Silver of the earlier model), making it impossible to read the display without significant light striking the screen. (The product photo is how the numbers would look were you to shine a high-intensity light directly on the display and in no way represents the contrast ratio you can expect in "real life.")

Not satisfied with an inferior display, they then released an industrial designer to create a huge, hulking piece of highly-reflective and rippled plastic that is permanently fused to the front of the display. This hunk of plastic features the thick bas-relief of a cutsey little two-story house, complete with rooms, to further distort the already difficult-to-see numbers.

The finishing touch are brightly-colored bars on which you can hand-write your labels (no labels other than "Main Unit" were supplied). These bars are many times brighter than the display background, thereby making the numbers almost impossible to read. (The current product illustration shows black bars with professionally printed labels. Neither those bars nor those labels were provided with my RMR500a, shipped in January, 2009.)

On the upside, this device can show five temperature/humidity combinations simultaneously, which is a real plus. As long as you are willing to accept the above limitations and have a good light source that will directly strike the display, it can get the job done.

BTW, even though both the Oregon Scientific website and their tech support people informed me that this unit is not compatible with the 433mhz remote senders for my old units, bought at various times over the years, they all work perfectly.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I sent it back, November 2, 2009

By 

Ted "Ted" (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Oregon Scientific Multi-Room Indoor-Climate Monitor w/Atomic Clock plus Weather Forecaster - RMR500A (Kitchen)

Not awful, but far from great. I sent it back pretty quickly. I really liked how all of the temperatures are displayed at the same time. But, I was grossly disappointed that it didn't store min/max temps. The display was pretty easy to read. The little plastic chips that come with it to label each section of the display were pretty weak (you're expected to write on the little plastic chip with a marker, then snap it in place.) Would have been nice to have some preprinted labels so it wouldn't look so cheap. It has a backlight for when it's dark, but you can't find the button to turn on the backlight in the dark, without pressing some other button you didn't mean to... Poor design in that area.