Outdoor Living : La Crosse Technology WS-2317 Professional Weather Station

Rating: - I'm satisfied
I have had the WS-2317 running for a couple months now. My first problem was the barometer. I wasn't getting any readings using the AC adapter. The manual doesn't specify it, but after an email off to Lacrosse, and their next day reply, it was a power problem. I installed some fresh alkaline batteries in the console, (I didn't have any installed) and voila!, problem solved. 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 will install lithium batteries before winter.

Let me add that 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. This took all day for me to get done, I have uploaded photo's of the unit mounted.

I'm using the WUHU weather software (freeware),to upload weather data to the Weather Underground. I'm using Tincam for my webcam (trial version) at the moment. There is a freeware FTP Webcam program called Fwink. I haven't tried it, but I plan to soon. My webcam is a Logitech Communicate STX. I can't recommend it as a weather camera.... I'm looking for something better. The auto exposure is poor; I have an old pair of sunglasses on it to make it work in the daylight.

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.

---

Rating: - Excellent weather station
After looking at the different weather stations and reading reviews, I had to decide how much money to spend. Since this was going to be used for my knowledge and sometimes for NOAA (as a weather spotter), I wanted something dependable and reasonable in price. So I checked out this unit and compared it to others and read the reviews and decided on this model.
After we got it, we had to decide where we wanted to put it and we had the temperature gauge in a temp position to see how it all works together..Well..let me tell you. I works just fine! (we will be moving the temperature gauge as it is getting radiational heat from the roof below where it is set)I downloaded the CD information and got that set up and bought up the screen and there all my information was! The weather station was already "talking" to my computer! I was amazed! It is easy to set up and the information given was right on target. The atomic clock etc sets itself..don't even have to worry about that. You can also manually change some of the settings. I haven't delved into too much of it yet but from what I am seeing everything is right on target! For the money, I am glad that I went with this unit instead of the more expensive ones. I think this will work just fine for what I want it for. Amazon.com came thru for me again!

---

Rating: - Weather Flexibility
This product offers a very comprehensive list of features and delivers all.
It is accurate, fairly easy to set up and provides the localized weather data that we wanted.
The wireless transmission works well and once set up, leave it and forget it.
Two drawbacks or changes I would like to see: it can be difficult to see unless it is mounted at a precise angle or set on the table stand. You can adjust the contrast and that does help somewhat. The #2 item is the backlight or 'what light'? Its very dim and emits a high pitch squeal [very low volume] when you turn it on, which is by touching one of the 6 buttons.
However, regardless of my peeves, it delivers the weather information we wanted.

---

Rating: - Great Product For The Money!
This weather station is an excellent deal from Amazon & a great way to get started in personal weather stations (PWS). I wish it weren't made in China and as such would have preferred one of the high end US made units from Davis but couldn't justify the expense at this time. I did have to call La Crosse as after installing the anemometer it lost contact with the base station, I believe due to a broken wire, they were very friendly & helpful & sent out a new anemometer with no hassle at all. I read several reports here & in other forums about La Crosse service being sub-par but my experience was GREAT! The user manual needs some help but it is FAR better then the Oregon Scientific manuals which are cryptic at best! I have the unit set-up on a mast on my shed & its "talking" to my computer which is currently uploading data to several PWS websites (such as Weather Underground) 24/7. All in all its worth taking a look at this PWS:-)

---

Rating: - company is a sham
I bought this and installed in early May with brand new energizer batteries. Rain gauge quit working about 60 days into service. Contact with the manufacture was not friendly. Claims the customers batteries are probably the issue, but if I must/ take apart other parts that are operating properly and send them along with the rain gauge so they can fix. This is of course at customers expense. Needless to say I will never buy another Lacrosse technology product.