Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

You will find that most of the positive, glowing reviews for these systems are written by people who have had the system up and running for a month or two, in a few cases maybe 2 years. It is after this point that major problems typically develop. This is second Davis System I purchased which failed after just a few years of use. The first was the Vantage Pro Wireless. The latest was the Vantage Vue Wireless. In each case, the battery would be instantly drained by the Davis unit. Unfortunately this is not an uncommon complaint with Davis systems, as you will see if you check weather enthusiast forums. Sometimes a replacement battery might work for a few days, sometimes it will only work for an hour or two. Then it simply gets drained to zero power. The system will continue to function during the day thanks to the solar panel, but you will have no readings once the sun sets. After the first unit died 2 years ago, I contacted Davis and was told the main board would have to be replaced. The cost of replacement was nearly as much as the unit itself. So I decided to roll the dice and purchase a Vue Wireless. Two years later, and I am in the same boat. Interestingly enough, Davis now claims they can't find my name or warranty information, even though I have now purchased two units from them, bought a repeater unit, and gone around with them on the Vantage Pro wireless battery issue. Something about them having no record of my repeat business with them simply rubs me the wrong way. As for accuracy - the temperature was pretty accurate except for very hot days in direct sunlight in light winds. In these cases, the temperature would spike by 1.5-2.0 degrees F very quickly, leading to a false high reading. You won't see this happen with a sheltered mercury thermometer. The option to make the sensor more accurate is to use a unit with a fan - which can get pretty expensive. Not recommended unless you absolutely, positively need that much accuracy. Dew point fluctuated as much as temperature in extreme conditions, but was accurate for the most part. Barometer was excellent. The tipping bucket is a lot more convenient than a conventional tube, but not nearly as accurate. Once snow falls, only a heated tipping bucket is feasible. The anemometer produced wind speeds which were too low on both units. I personally observed a Davis system set up w/o obstruction within 50 yards of an ASOS unit, and it too was often 30-40% too low on the wind speed. Direction seemed fine. Bottom line - I had two units fail relatively quickly in the last several years, both due to an instantaneous battery drain. Once the ability for a battery to hold a charge fails on a wireless unit, you are out of luck. There is no saving the Vue at that point. At $300-$500 a pop, this is unacceptable. Recommendation - If you decide to go with a Davis unit, go with the cabled version. The quality of the observations from the Davis are plenty good enough for most wx enthusiasts. Taking the transmitter/solar/battery out of the equation eliminates almost all of the observed headaches with the Davis wireless units. Running the cable into your house is a bit of a PITA, but you will have far fewer problems 3+ years out. Also, the cabled versions are significantly less expensive than the wireless versions.