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Good Weather Station to buy?

Storm Clouds

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jdt

jdt

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If you can afford a little bit more go with the Davis Vantage Pro. A bit more sturdy and many more optional add-ons depending on your personal wants and needs! Ambient seems to always have the best prices though sometimes you have to have them email you a link to the sale prices. I just ordered the rain collector heater and Weather Link IP along with VWS Internet Edition from Ambient. Good Luck!

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Cold Miser

Cold Miser

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Anything DAVIS is excellent. Here is their budget friendly model

http://www.ambientwe...com/da6250.html

I clicked the link, but they won't give out the price as it's "Too Low to Advertise". What the hell does that mean? Who is stopping them from advertising it? If they have a price, what's the difference if I give an e-mail address or not? I'm guessing so I can get spammed to death as I see no other reason for giving the address.

Regardless, I like that system, and will search it out.

Thanks.

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RobbTC

RobbTC

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I clicked the link, but they won't give out the price as it's "Too Low to Advertise". What the hell does that mean? Who is stopping them from advertising it? If they have a price, what's the difference if I give an e-mail address or not? I'm guessing so I can get spammed to death as I see no other reason for giving the address.

Regardless, I like that system, and will search it out.

Thanks.

Many manufacturers have rules in place with their retailers to not advertise below MSRP. So websites will make you add it to your cart or provide an email address to get the "low" price. Otherwise the price will end up in Google Shopper and other sites and they can get their distributor license from the manufacturer revoked.

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Martin

Martin

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Many manufacturers have rules in place with their retailers to not advertise below MSRP. So websites will make you add it to your cart or provide an email address to get the "low" price. Otherwise the price will end up in Google Shopper and other sites and they can get their distributor license from the manufacturer revoked.

Exactly. I never have had any problems with Ambient Weather. When you enter your email you just get a link to this page

http://www.ambientweather.com/ddisc.html

I have the Davis Vantage Pro 2 Plus with Fan Aspirated Shield. LOVE IT!! Its MSRP is about $1100 but ambient has it on that page for $780 which is a good deal. I got mine for around that. Check out the deals on that page

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tornadojay

tornadojay

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I've had a Davis Vantage Pro 2 for several years.. It's awesome. Have never had a single issue with it. The battery lasts a while too... maybe I've had to change it every 12-18 months. I just wish I had a better place to put the wind guage. I have it on a mounting pole on the railing of my deck, so it's a good 20 feet in the air, but I guess all of the trees doesn't allow for great wind measurements. I think the highest wind gust I've ever gotten was maybe 35 mph or so.

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jdt

jdt

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I've had a Davis Vantage Pro 2 for several years.. It's awesome. Have never had a single issue with it. The battery lasts a while too... maybe I've had to change it every 12-18 months. I just wish I had a better place to put the wind guage. I have it on a mounting pole on the railing of my deck, so it's a good 20 feet in the air, but I guess all of the trees doesn't allow for great wind measurements. I think the highest wind gust I've ever gotten was maybe 35 mph or so.

I have similar issues. Just the luck of living in a bit of a low spot with lots of trees around also. I have the optional Anemometer wireless transmitter kit. The anemometer is mounted on a 25 foot mast on an unused chimmeny off the back of my house. In the summer the with normally lighter winds and the trees all green my winds general remain light but the winter fairs much better but still being in a low spot my winds usually only top ~35. The remainder of the station is mounted on a 5` post in the back yard. I have had my Vantage Pro 2 since May and it is working flawlessly. Prior to this I had a Peetbros Ultimeter 2000 for about 10 years. That also worked very well but finally gave up about a year ago . Went over to the Vantage Pro 2 wireless as I was tired of the cables.

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Cold Miser

Cold Miser

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Many manufacturers have rules in place with their retailers to not advertise below MSRP. So websites will make you add it to your cart or provide an email address to get the "low" price. Otherwise the price will end up in Google Shopper and other sites and they can get their distributor license from the manufacturer revoked.

Makes sense.

Did get a nice quote from them after I entered the address.

:guitar:

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Martin

Martin

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Do all the above have software that allows you to publish to the web?

I recieved a weatherwise pro for xmas last year and installed it last wwk and don't believe it supports online publishing.

They have zero customer support, would never buy one of their products again.

All Davis stations come with Weather Link. http://www.weatherlink.com/ It's a basic but good piece of software. If you are looking to send data to Wunderground, Weatherbug and more I personally suggest picking up Virtual Weather Station. http://www.ambientweather.com/virtualstation.html The great thing about Davis products is that there are multiple software options for you to choose from on the web. Search around and see whats right for you.

Oh don't forget if you do get any Davis station to purchase a data logger to connect it to your PC.

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DaculaWeather

DaculaWeather

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That's the piece everyone forgets. You MUST purchase the datalogger to get the data from the console to the pc, or in the case of the IP logger, to Davis's site.

For the money, you won't go wrong with any of the Davis equipment. The most affordable is the Vantage Vue (what I have). What I would like to have is a VP2+ with wireless anemometer, and 24hr FARS. Plus soil and leaf sensors. The last time I priced out a loaded system it was about $1800. The Vue can be had for $255 plus the datalogger/software for another $140 or so.

Here's some REAL good prices on Davis stations right now: http://www.convectiv...ns.php#ourchart

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Andyace

Andyace

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That's the piece everyone forgets. You MUST purchase the datalogger to get the data from the console to the pc, or in the case of the IP logger, to Davis's site.

For the money, you won't go wrong with any of the Davis equipment. The most affordable is the Vantage Vue (what I have). What I would like to have is a VP2+ with wireless anemometer, and 24hr FARS. Plus soil and leaf sensors. The last time I priced out a loaded system it was about $1800. The Vue can be had for $255 plus the datalogger/software for another $140 or so.

Here's some REAL good prices on Davis stations right now: http://www.convectiv...ns.php#ourchart

Thanks for the info.

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dendrite

dendrite

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So everyone agrees that I should by the DAVIS VP2 weather station? I am not making a mistake am I? Also, can it measure snowfall?

It can't measure snowfall. There's no home wx station equipment that I know of that does.

For the serious home wx observer I always recommend the Davis VP2 with FARS (fan aspirated radiation shield). The reason I am against the Vue is because you cannot separate the anemometer from the rest of the sensors.

I have the VP2+ w/ FARS. The plus version gives you UV and solar radiation. You can also add additional stations that can give you soil moisture, soil temp, and leaf wetness measuring capability.

I do most of my Davis business through provantage.com

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snowman21

snowman21

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So there are no home weather stations that can measure snowfall? Why not?

Because it can't be done well cheaply. I take that back -- it probably can if you value your time to be worth zero dollars per hour, but anyway the sensors are expensive. The Judd lists for about $600 and the CampbellSci (a bit more accurate) about $1200 I believe and that doesn't include any interface or data logging capabilities. The processing/algorithms cost money to develop as well. Without the algorithms to determine snowfall versus snow depth to match current manual snowfall measurement conventions, all you'll have is an expensive snow depth sensor. If you're interested in the intracacies of this sort of thing google the Brazenak CSU paper from 2008's confex. If you're a member of AMS you can get it there as well.

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