AcuRite 02027AIM Color Weather Station with High Low Temperature and Humidity with Moon Phase, Dark Themed , Black Display

Let's face it. When you buy an electronic device, you'll occasionally get a dud. You can't mass-manufacture electronics and not make a mistake every once in a while. How the company deals with these mistakes is what makes their product, and the company itself, one that I'll happily use again. When I got my AcuRite 02027 I was pleasantly surprised. It has a highly-visible display that's nicely arranged and color coded to distinguish interior from exterior readings. All the sensors seemed very accurate once I got the little outdoor sensor in the right place. Even the forecast was correct most of the time. A neat little trick is that the display is at its brightest when viewed from slightly above, so it's perfectly at home on a desktop or table. About two months into ownership, though, the outside sensor stopped transmitting. I put new batteries in it, but it didn't come back to life. I changed the transmitting channel, and it immediately started registering on the display again. But something was wrong. The sensor was sitting next to the base station, which was showing an inside temp of 73 degrees. But the sensor was transmitting a temp of 91! And it was climbing rapidly. I watched it until it showed 113 degrees, then picked it up. The sensor itself was hot. I pulled the batteries and put in different ones, but it did the same thing. Something inside the sensor was overheating badly, making it useless. I contacted AcuRite using the web address in the owner's manual. A couple of days later, a rep named Charlotte sent me a reply. She said that they stand behind their product, and she was sorry I was having issues. All she asked was whether I was using rechargeable batteries, which they don't recommend. I assured her I was not. She then asked me to email her my receipt of purchase from Amazon. A couple of days after that, I received an email saying that my replacement sensor was on its way. She again apologized for my inconvenience, and hoped I would contact her again if there were any further issues. There was no charge for shipping, processing or handling. This is customer service as it should be. No lengthy process, no ridiculous hoops to jump through, no stupid charges that make using the warranty useless. Just a confirmation of the problem and a quick replacement. Thank you, Charlotte. AcuRite will be my weather station from now on.

I wasn't sure if this was the right choice when I bought it. I assumed the color display was one of those fancy gimmicks and the weather station wouldn't be very good as a whole. But it was on sale and I gave it a shot. I have had it for about a month now and I am really impressed. Readability is excellent. Much better than the black and white LCD displays from prior stations. You can see the temperature in and out across the whole room. You can have the display on low or high brightness, or you can have it adjust itself. I use this function and it basically turns to low brightness at night and back to high during the day. Works quite well most of e time. I entered the pressure manually via the local airport pressure online, and it it has matched it ever since. It finished learning and the forecast seems pretty accurate so far. My absolute favorite function is the fact that you can calibrate the in/out temperature and humidity individually. I have never owned a weather station which can do this. The in and outside temperature were off by a degree so I matched them to what my thermostat and other thermometers displayed which were all in the ballpark. If you do this, allow the base station to be turned on for an hour or so, it seems it warms up once it is plugged in (I assume the electronics or display inside get a little warm) so allow it to settle before you calibrate it. Originally I didn't bother using batteries but sure enough, the second night I had the station the power went out for a moment and it lost all calibration changes and the air pressure I entered. I brought the sensor back inside for the day and re calibrated it all and then I added some batteries for back up. No issues after that. I do wish the time display was bigger, and really, the only function I wish it had would be the ability to receive the atomic clock signal. Then this weather station would be absolutely perfect. At this point I'm giving this five stars. If it goes on sale again I will buy another for my father.

This is a very nice unit with one major issue noted below. Otherwise I really like it. The display is really nice (excluding the exception) and the information the display contains is very nice as well - indoor temp & humidity and outdoor temp & humidity (it even shows the high and low for each - an additional 8 numbers) along with the time and date, pressure, and moon phase. Altogether there are 13 numbers display for the indoor and outdoor environment (does not include the date and time). As for the forecast, I never really found the forecasting on units like this to be that accurate. The remote sensor takes 2 AA batteries (I recommend lithium but alkaline will work as long as you don't live in a cold environment) and the station itself takes 3 batteries. I'm pretty sure the AC power is only for the backlight (which you really need in order to read the display). Now for the negatives: * The biggest one in my opinion is the viewing angles, especially when looking at the unit when it's lower than your head. This means that if you have it on a table and get too close to it then you have to look down to see it and when that happens the display because much less readable or even totally unreadable. * The display is also on the dim side for bright rooms (but OK for darker rooms), and it is very glossy so you don't want the place it where it will reflect a window. * You need to keep this plugged in for the backlight so there is a need for a power cable. I have a regular LCD unit as well, and while that doesn't have the pretty colors and it's not backlight, it is totally battery operated so you don't have to worry about the wires and moving it around because it is extremely portable since it is only battery operated (and the batteries last a long time). Seriously consider whether that type of fully wireless unit may be better than this one for your needs. Minus 1.5 stars for the display limitations. Overall 3.5 stars and rounding up to 4.

When I was looking for an indoor/outdoor thermometer there weren't a lot of reasonably priced units that were wireless and had a logical display layout. Many displayed the time in larger characters than the temperatures I was mainly interested in. Few were in color and most were criticized as being inaccurate. I settled on the Acurite 02027A1 because of it's well designed screen layout and reasonable price with the hope that it was somewhat accurate and had decent wifi range. I initially installed the outdoor sensor on the north side of the house under the eave and attached it with velcro. I was getting 4 bars of wifi reception and allowed it to complete its 14 day learning cycle. Indoor temperature and humidity readings agreed with an older analog unit I had and the barometer was consistent with the nearby airport readings. The outdoor humidity readings seemed reasonable but the temperature was high, sometimes by 10 degrees F. I found the effect to be more pronounced on sunny summer than winter days even though the sensor was completely shaded at all times. I suspected the sun was warming the building structure and the sensor was picking this up so I tied a string to it and hung it from a bird feeder post I had near the edge of the woods. This location was mostly shaded but had good airflow and was not close to any structure. To my surprise the temperature readings lowered and were within a degree or 2 F of the nearby airport. The humidity readings also correlated much more closely especially on the high end which before rarely got above 90%. I have since purchased an Ambient Weather radiation shield for the outdoor sensor and have continued to obtain accurate temperature and humidity levels. Another surprise was the accuracy of the forecast. With a few exceptions it accurately forecast rain/snow 6 to 12 hrs before it occurred. It is sometimes fooled by popup summer rain showers but not usually by weather fronts. I have been using it now since February and have had no problems. I have found the old adage location, location, location to be the deciding factor for accurate readings when placing the outdoor sensor. I have about 80ft of separation between the indoor and outdoor units and consistently receive 4 bars of wifi signal and have never had dropouts or frozen readings that others have noted. For what I have seen currently available, this thermometer will not disappoint.

It's hard to find an indoor/outdoor thermometer anymore that remembers the highest and lowest temps until you choose to reset it. That was my number one priority because our house is empty when we travel and I like to know what the extremes were during our absence. The AcuRite 2027 does that. Things I like: When comparing its readings with two other units I have access to, the readings are remarkably consistent. It has very good range to its remote sensor. The color screen is "fun" to look at. The functionality is no better than that of a monochromatic screen, but it's cute. I've had no problems with the temp, humidity nor other readouts. Things I don't like: The screen is too faint. From ten feet away, in a non directly lighted daytime, you can't tell that it's lit. I'd rather have slightly larger numbers, especially since the most landscape is taken up by the "weather forecaster" which is a real joke. I have no idea what the unit was doing during the two weeks it claimed to be "calibrating", but it's forecasting ability is completely useless. We live in the desert, Phoenix, where the barometer goes up and down every single day. While we will go for months with zero rain, this crazy unit tells us, almost 100% of the days, that it is either going to pour or have thunderstorms that evening/night. Once, in several months, it actually did rain and for that single time the forecaster was accurate. Apparently, the mfg. thought it was too difficult to provide user feedback to the unit for it to learn from. Closing: One thing I wonder about. Since this is an active screen rather than an LCD, how long with the display continue to work??? If you're looking for temp/humidity,this is a very good product. If you want to know what the extreme of high and low temps have been over the past week, month, or longer. Then this will work well for you. If you really want a weather forecaster...look elsewhere. And yes, this unit is not faulty. I tried two with the same results. Maybe where you live it will be different...or not.

Very impressive unit. Seems like someone actually thought this product through from start to finish. Everything about this product is just about perfect. A minor nitpick is that the remote sensor which is "outdoor rated" per the manufacturer, but there are no seals in the battery compartment or body itself. The electronics are likely coated in an epoxy resin which protects the unit from moisture but not sure how long the remote sensor will last. The base unit electronics are of good quality. The included 5V power supply has good ratings and is of higher quality than similar units. The weight of the AC adapter suggests it might even be a linear supply versus a typical switching power supply -- the latter versions can and often do cause some sort of EMI interference unless properly filtered. Adding these filtering elements however raises costs. The display is surprisingly good. The unit has a backlight button to change the brightness levels and an "auto-dim" function which uses (smart) logic. Setup of the unit is very simple and doesn't take more than a few minutes. READ the manual first before inserting batteries and be clear about what the unit will and will not do. I placed my sensor under a medium-sized tree and used a nylon tie to secure it. It's hanging at around 7 FT high and seems to work quite well. It's easily reach the bedroom thru the wall. LOS distance is about 30FT. The sensor requires 2 AA batteries. Using the more expensive Lithium batteries is a requirement ONLY if you are in extremely cold climates. Thankfully, we don't reach below -4 DEG F here. The most impressive feature of this unit so far is its accuracy. I have a NIST-calibrated unit next to the AccuRite unit and both are very nearly in-sync with each other. They're not perfectly in-sync on the outdoor side due to the sensor placements of each unit. During my initial testing however, the remote sensor was spot on with the NIST-calibrated thermometer. For the price this is an excellent value. The display is not very large but still very readable. The best part is I can now see the temperature while the lights are out!

Just received the AcuRite 02027 WX station today and it was easy to set up. Took about 15 min total to get it up and running, and that included mounting the remote sensor underneath my back deck. I mounted it on a flooring support cross beam, approx. 5.5 ft above ground and 9 ft out from the house. In this location, the sensor gets adequate protection from the elements, is completely shaded all day and gets good air flow. No problems with data transmission as well thus far. I have 5 bars of signal strength indicated on the WX station screen and the sensor transmits at exactly every 16 seconds (red light on the remote sensor flashes when it transmits). The station itself is very easy to program. Instructions are easy to read and follow. After starting the unit up, I spent about an hour online pinpointing a dozen nearby professional-grade Personal Weather Stations - "PWS's" (see wunderground.com, search by zip code) so I could get a geographical baseline on air temp, RH and barometric pressure readings for my neighborhood. After manually adjusting the readings on the WX station to match the local PWS's, I sat back, watched and waited. I checked it against the local PWS' obs every 30 minutes or so for almost 9 hours. So far, the WX station readings are right in step with several PWS's in my vicinity (1/4 - 3 miles distance from me). As far as indoor temp and RH readings, the unit is pretty accurate IMO...as I bench-marked the indoor temp and RH with an older WX station I have, as well as against a couple of reliable mercury thermometers I have hanging here in the basement. All in all, this unit is very well worth the price as far as I can tell so far. I'll provide a follow-up to this review in a couple of weeks once the self-calibration ("Learning mode") for the barometer is complete. 09/29/2015 Follow-up; Still very pleased with the performance of this WX station. The "Learning Mode" calibration period ended at 2 weeks and my barometric pressure readings have been spot on compared to several nearby online PWS's. Outdoor Temp and RH are very accurate and again match very closely with nearby airport METARS and PWS's. I have been so pleased with the accuracy of this station, that I bought a second unit for my living room upstairs. I am running that unit off the same remote sensor I am using for the original unit (just had to make sure the new unit was set to the same channel as the sensor is set to). So now I have 2 of these stations in my house...and both are displaying the exact same outdoor temp, RH and pressure. Obviously the indoor temp and RH readings are slightly different between the two as one is in my basement office and the other is upstairs in the living room. Moon phase feature has been accurate and the clock is surprisingly precise so far...+/- 2 or 3 seconds when checked against shortwave radio time stations, WWV (US-10.000 mHz) or CHU (Canada-14.670 mHz). I am thinking of getting a 3rd station...for my night stand....but will have get approval from my wife before doing that!! Update 11/18/2015: 2+ months after purchase and this weather station is still spot-on with it readings; indoor and outdoor. Regarding the outdoor readings; temp, RH, barometric pressure and tendency are still almost exactly in step with the two nearby airport AWOS reports I benchmark against. The clock has been very consistent as well (still holding at +/- 3 seconds accuracy versus the NIST shortwave radio time clock). I did end up moving moving the outdoor remote sensor to another part of the cross beam underneath my back deck. The original spot turned out to be on drip line for water...so the sensor was getting wet in heavy rains. The new location, only 2 feet to the left, has proven to be a much drier spot and free of heavy drips.

While this product initially makes a good impression, its luster quickly fades. Worse, the manufacturer then fails to stand behind its product, opting instead to let its retailers deal with defective units. Consequently, I don't know which deserves less stars, the product or its manufacturer. The Good Out of the box, the unit sets up easily. The display is bright and pleasing to look at. The barometric pressure reading and moon-phase icon are nice touches, but I quickly found that I stopped looking at these data points during my quick glances at the display unit. The range seemed acceptable, but I didn't push it - the outdoor sensor and the display unit were no more than 25' apart, and separated only by an exterior wall and some windows. The Bad I purchased the item in late May. I live in the Midwest, so the daily temperatures at the time of purchase ranged from the 50s to the 70s. Both the indoor and outdoor temperature displays operated flawlessly while the outdoor temperatures remained mild. Things began to go haywire in October, when the average daily high temperatures were only in the 50s and 60s. I noticed that the outdoor temperature stopped updating. There was no indication on the display that it had lost contact with the outdoor sensor; the outdoor temperature simply remained at 62F, even though the actual outdoor temperature was going up and down. I brought the outdoor sensor inside, put fresh batteries in both units, and then followed the steps in the manual for re-syncing the indoor unit with the outdoor sensor. When they were once again in sync, I moved the outdoor sensor back outside, but closer to the display unit so that they were now only 4' apart, and separated by just a window. The two units stayed in sync for about two days. Meanwhile, the outdoor temperatures averaged between the 30s and 50s. When the outdoor temperature once again stopped updating on the display unit, I contacted AcuRite's customer service via online chat. The customer service rep I chatted with told me to replace the batteries in both units (again), and to go through the sync process (again). She even emailed me the sync instructions (which are already in the manual), and encouraged me to follow-up if there were any further issues. One week later, I responded to her email to report that the outdoor temperature had once again stopped updating on the display unit. When I had received no response after four days, I sent her another email asking her to respond. When another two days passed without a response, I called AcuRite's customer-service line (the online chat option has since disappeared from their website). This call was made just yesterday. The customer service rep I spoke with yesterday did find my name in their system, but she could not find any notes entered by the rep who conducted the initial online chat. Consequently, I had to start from the beginning in explaining my issue and the interventions taken to date. She recommended - wait for it - that I replace the batteries in both units and restart the sync process. I was furious, but I agreed to go through the sync process because none of what had gone on so far was her fault. So I did the sync steps while she was on the phone. When the outdoor temperature did not immediately display on the indoor unit, she said that it may be defective because both the indoor and outdoor temperatures should display as soon as the units are powered on (the outdoor temperature has always taken 15-20 minutes to display on the indoor unit). This is where things got crazy. The AcuRite rep asked what the return policy is at Amazon, to which I responded that the return window closed nearly five months ago. She recommended that I call Amazon and ask them to work with me because my unit is defective. If - and only if - Amazon refused to replace the unit - I should call back and AcuRite "would see if they can do something." I asked how long the warranty period is. The answer? ONE YEAR! So despite the fact that the unit is guaranteed to be from defects for one year, the manufacturer will only replace it SIX MONTHS AFTER IT WAS PURCHASED if the retailer refuses to to replace it. This is the craziest thing I have ever heard. And, quite frankly, I am looking into filing a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. Believer it or not, she said that my having to go through Amazon for replacement of a defective unit was my fault because I had chosen to purchase it from Amazon rather than buying it directly from AcuRite. She said AcuRite would "go broke" if they had to replace all the units that were purchased from third-party retailers. How about making non-defective units that don't need replacement in the first place? The good news is that, because Amazon has some of the best customer service around, they actually agreed to refund my money for the purchase of this unit. The agent initially balked, citing the return window and offering to give me AcuRite's toll-free number. When I told him what had transpired on my call with AcuRite, however, he put me on hold for a few minutes and then came back and said they would refund my money. Don't be surprised if Amazon stops selling AcuRite products. I know I would if I was Amazon's purchasing manager. Save yourself the frustration, and buy another brand.