I've had this weather station up and running for over a week, and it is doing well. My previous one was a sophisticated (and much more expensive) Oregon Scientific that died, with no chance of resurrection, a little over a year along. This evidently made me wary of the brand, so I decided to go for the La Crosse this time around, and keep it simpler.
The Combo11-IT is actually two weather stations -- one complete and one basic -- in one package, plus an external temperature and humidity sensor. The more complete station is the WS-9037U-IT and the basic one is the WS-9080UR-JT. There is no way you can apprehend this from reading the skimpy info in the product page, and I only found out when I received it. This two-in-one scheme is very handy because, for instance, you can have one station in the living room and the other one in the bedroom, and both are fed the same data from the external transmitter.
The more complete panel is very similar to other La Crosse models, and gives you:
* Time, in 12 or 24 hrs, and date (set by atomic clock if you live in the US, or manually if you don't)
* Moon phase
* Indoor temperature and humidity (celsius or fahrenheit and %, respectively), plus a comfort indicator icon that states the obvious
* Forecast, which is dependent on barometric pressure changes. Another set of icons, composed of an arrow and an image. Arrow can point upwards or downwards, and the icon can indicate "sunny", "cloudy with sunny intervals" or "rainy"
* Barometric pressure, in Hg or hPa
* Barometric pressure 24-hour history
* Outdoor temperature and humidity (C /F and %), plus the comfort indicator
You can also set the station to alarm clock mode with or without snooze, and customize several parameters, such as measuring units, forecast icon sensitivity, back-light intensity, etc., and see the maximum and minimum indoor and outdoor temps and humidity for the last 24 hours.
The basic panel gives you only time (12/24 hrs), indoor and outdoor temperatures (C or F) and minimum and maximum temperatures in the last 24 hours. It comes with its own little manual. You can set the time by the atomic clock or manually, and adjust the LCD display's contrast.
The weather-resistant outdoor transmitter only displays the current temperature reading in fahrenheit, which I found very odd. My stations are set to celsius (I am metric) and there is no way to set the transmitter to it. I emailed La Crosse about this -- the package contains helpful info about contacting them for support, including an email address -- but more than a week has passed and still no reply. I no longer expect one...
I advise you to read the manual, as there is a procedure to set up the main units and the transmitter, and all the configuring is done with 5 buttons on the right side. However, I found it easy and quick and got it right the first time around in a few minutes.
The readings from both units appear to be accurate enough. I put them in different rooms, in places with no direct sunlight, and the temperature variation between them is just 0.3 celsius (roughly 0.6F). The external transmitter reaches both units equally well.
Both units have a nice, discreet design and appear well built. The complete one has a very firm detachable stand or can be wall-mounted. The basic unit has a fold-in stand and can also be wall-hung.
The one thing that really daunted me was getting all the components out of their horrendous packaging. It was one of those impossible-to-cut-open plastic and cardboard setups that nearly made me send the whole thing back. But once I overcame this first hurdle (with a brand-new cut on my finger), the rest was easy.
I like the Combo11-IT pack and think that it is good value for the money. I just hope it lasts for a long time. La Crosse Technology Combo11-IT Wireless Weather Station Combo Pack
Pros:
* Practical information without overload... time, temperature (in/out), and humidity (in/out). Some of the other models show indoor humidity but are strangely missing outdoor humidity!
* Look very nice on the wall... simple, clean, yet still aesthetic. (Although, the larger station would look a bit better if the button labels were on the side instead of the being so highly visible on the front.)
* The new 915 MHz sensor seems to synch up more quickly and reliably than the old 433 MHz sensors.
* Secondary station (display) is a nice little bonus.
I would easily give this product a 5 star rating, except...
Cons:
* The "Pressure History" display flashes! It's quite distracting. This is a perfect example of the all to common phenomenon where an engineer adds a "cool" feature without really thinking about the user experience.
* I've seen a lot of over packaged products before, but this one takes the cake. You practically need a hacksaw to cut through the plastic packaging.
I'm very happy with my purchase, but I do hope La Crosse adds an option to un-flash the "Pressure History" display. I also purchased the WS-8035U-IT-SAL model and run all three weather stations off a single sensor. Works great. - Temperature - La Crosse - Atomic Clock - Weather'
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