Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have a UC Berkeley B.A. in geography with meteorology emphasis, so even though I don't work in the field, I'm a serious avocational weather junkie. I decided a while back that weather patterns have become more interesting with climate change, and I wanted to be able to observe these in a more automated way than with my manual instruments (rain gauge, barometer, etc.). I also wanted to publish to Weather Underground (WUG) without using a clunky, energy wasting running computer - this was the biggie. WUG is my "cloud storage", organizer, and presenter for the data, and it can be accessed anywhere, even when I'm out of the country. The WS-1001 reliably publishes on a continuous basis and also itself stores the data with 4GB of internal memory. After lots of research I had initially chosen an early WS-1000 version which has now been replaced with the updated WS-1001, which has a lot more internal storage, some new features, and hardware updates. The Amazon product description is complete, plus other reviewers have made some good points already, so I'll just throw in a few of my own observations about the device. UPDATE - FAQ - The stock rechargeable alkaline batteries are reliable and good for 2-3 years, but I found that NiMH rechargeable AA batteries work fine as replacements. The stock battery type was favored as a wide temperature range product, but the latest NiMH cells have a very wide operating range that should be fine for most, if not all, installations. INSTALLATION - It is easy to install and set up. Personally, I wish it came with a slightly longer mounting pole since I worry (maybe unnecessarily) about having metal parts such as the clamps so close to the radiation shield (temperature). My concern is that on a very still hot day those parts could heat up in the sun and possibly convect heated air up into the temperature sensor. However, I've never actually noted any problem like this I can tell. I did mount mine so that the shield is as much isolated as possible from the metal parts. Also, any temperature anomalies would trip WUG's quality control monitor, but that never happens. It comes with a bubble level since the sensor array needs to be level for the rain gauge to work properly. However, it's on top where you can't ever see it if you've mounted the thing up and away from obstacles. So I just used an ordinary level against my 10' mounting pole, and that worked fine. Maybe there's some sort of level they could devise that would be visible from beneath the unit rather than above. ACCURACY - I kept all my manual measurement tools and compared them with the WS readings. They correlate closely, even the rainfall record. The WS counts occasional heavy drizzle as rain, even though that's technically not correct. But it is precipitation after all and not a significant measurement factor. RELIABILITY - I found that once connected, I never have to do an occasional "power off" reset with this thing as you often have to do with other devices. One concern with wireless devices is that the connection can be unreliable, but this one seems virtually as solid as if it were wired. UPS - I have friends and neighbors looking at my WUG page (KCASCOTT14), so it would be embarrassing to have power failures stop the updating, especially since that might happen under stormy conditions whose data I'd hate to miss. So I have the WS, my router, and my cable modem all on a UPS (along with other devices such as my computer). WS UPDATE - The most recent WS-1001 version includes a local sunrise/sunset time as well as the moon phase. I used to look that up online, but now it's right there. Also, there's a UV figure so we can be more aware of that. DISPLAY - I love the display. It's bright and clear plus tells you everything you want to know at a glance. I think this is my favorite household electronic doodad, and I'm proud I made this particular choice. I like the WS design, the large feature list, its performance, and its price point value.