La Crosse Technology

KD3PC · Jul 8, 2014

pretty much junk, does not last more than a year or so, on land....none of the sensors are weather protected. The plastic sensor cups and bowls are not UV stable and crack in a short time. They eat batteries and require an odd sequence to restart after the batteries are replaced.

spend the money on Davis or Peet Brothers

hewebb · Jul 8, 2014

I have not had a good experience with La Crosse products. In my experience if you get much more than a year out of them you are very lucky-I no longer consider buying their products. KD3PC is correct they are junk.

Jackdaw · Jul 8, 2014

Kind of useless, as it only can measure apparent wind. Rather quickly, most sailors get very good at reading approximate apparent wind speed, as well as true wind speed by looking at the water. Save your money for a marine system than can accurately measure true wind and direction.

KD3PC · Jul 8, 2014

Chasemixon said:
KD3PC, Can you recommend a model number? I'm just looking for basic stuff, time, temp, and of course wind info... speed and direction?

I don't recall the model number, but this was across 4 or 5 different sets of their gear. The simple one was a desk station with a wind sensor, outdoor temp and rain sensor. Never got the rain sensor to work more than once. The wind sensor died in less than 6 months and when I took it apart it had simple dissolved away on the inside, electronics is exposed to the elements, plastic pivots are gone, hinges gone, etc. The desk unit was unreliable and ate batteries.

A second model (this one was on sale at over $200) was purchased for the F-i-L to watch the wind and the weather. It lasted just under a year, and it too - had all of the outdoor sensors simple dissolve away. The wind cups just became dust and all of the plastic pivot points for wind speed and direction as well as the rain cup dissolved and became one with the widget that pivoted on them.

I had a small unit in my car trailer for drag racing and although it was installed and removed each race, it did not last a year.

The other two that I was involved with were installed to remotely report weather to some ham radio gear. They too failed or dissolved within the year.

dziedzicmj · Jul 9, 2014

The first question is what you want to use it for. If it is for use on-board, you probably don't want a personal weather station (probably, a wind instrument).

Contrary to many opinions here, I was using a LaCrosse PWS for several years (4, if I recall) and then switched to a National Geographic 265N. That one is even cheaper (sells for about $100 at Costco). I have it now for about 4 years and it still works fine. One may argue how accurate is the anemometer (it has a tendency to windmill) or the rain gauge (in heavy rain, it can spill some of the water), but CWOP analysis shows that the weather data is quite accurate.

No question, anything you buy from Davis is higher quality, but it would run you around $500 (you need the weather station and then the connector to read the data on a computer than another piece to be able to publish to the Internet). For that amount I can have 5 of the 265N w/s to last me about 20 years.

You might want to be aware that the latest LaCrosse PWSs don't work well with many mainstream PWS s/w (Weather Underground, Cumulus), but this might be a secondary issue.

YMMV

dziedzicmj · Jul 10, 2014

If all you need is a basic PWS, you don't even need a computer connection. So the cost may be even lower. Your biggest problem might be where to install the anemometer. If top of the mast, then look for one that does it wirelessly (wind sensor to main outdoor unit - most PWS use wireless to connect the main outdoor unit to the main panel, but the sensors attach with telephone style cables). Or you would have to run a long wire down the mast.

Since you are on the lake (even if it is a big one), you don't care so much about having a marine grade instrument - there is no sea water (salt) involved.

Btw. a very similar unit (I don't remember the model number) was (and apparently regularly is) available from Costco (only in the US) for around $70. As far as I know, you have to wait until the fall for having it available again (a seasonal thing?).