Ambient Weather WS-2902 WiFi Smart Weather Station

I have had a weather station (Davis Vantage Pro) for years which is an awesome weather station but is a bit dated (it also recently stopped transmitting). So in need of a new weather station I purchased the WS-2902 after looking at reviews and prices.Hardware setup is easy as it can mount to any pole between 1-2 inches in diameter. The installation is just two u-bolts and took me about 5 minutes. Plugging in the base station it instantly connected and started to read data from the weather station. It really could not have been easier.Software setup had two problems but neither of them were directly the fault of the base station. First, the setup of the base station requires a WIFI network with AP isolation turned OFF. AP isolation just means that no device/computer using wifi on the network can see any other device/computer on the network. So AP isolation turned on will not allow your cell phone to see or talk to your base station once it is connected. My router from Xfinity is terrible and for some reason doesn't allow you to turn AP Isolation off. Luckily... I have an extender upstairs I connect to that does... problem solved.Next software problem was uploading data. It is supposed to upload to 3 different websites (Ambient Weather, WeatherCloud, and Weather Underground). I set them all up (easy) but the data going to Weather Underground was a mess. Even worse... the data would not upload to Ambient Weather or WeatherCloud for about 20 minutes. This left huge gaps in the data charts.The problem was Weather Underground. It seems that according to the Ambient Weather FB group, Weather Underground has had huge technical problems for the past week. People can't connect and problems of bad data persist. I went back to the phone app and removed the Weather Underground from the list of sites to upload to.Suddenly... everything worked PERFECTLY. The data going up to Ambient Weather updated every minute. The data going to WeatherCloud updated at the right intervals (I think it is every 10 minutes) and the charts looked great.So if you purchase this weather station I suggest setting it up so that the data uploads just to Ambient Weather's website first and hold off setting up the other two for a day or so. This way you have some level of confidence that the whole system is working properly. When WU gets itself back up and running right I will probably reconnect and upload to it.So far the data has been very accurate. I've compared it with the local airport and surrounding stations and it appears there are little changes in calibration needed.Oh... and I can also query my Alexa about the outside/inside conditions. It works very well also.My only complaint is that it appears the Ambient Weather website doesn't allow you to share your weather information. You need to log in to see it as there is no way to make it public. WeatherCloud, however, is open and doesn't have that restriction but Ambient Weather 'looks' much nicer. Oh well, it still gets 5 stars.

I've only had my 2902 for a couple of days but here's my initial impressions. Boy do these folks know how to package their product. Good heavy duty boxing and protective materials. You can expect to receive your weather station in good condition. Second, the product itself is built using good quality materials. You can tell when assembling the parts that they were well thought out. And what an operating manual. Printed so you don't have to go to a website and download and print it. Nice. The main reason for my writing a review at this early stage though is to compliment the customer service I received. I was missing a step in setting up the wifi connection to my router so I called the number provided. After a short wait, I got a USA based representative on the phone and I have to say that this was the best customer service experience I've ever had with any product or service and that's saying something. The rep was knowledgeable, patient and listened well. I was truly impressed. Think about this when you're debating between an Ambient product and brand x. Being able to get someone on the phone who you can understand and can figure out what's going on and get things back on track is invaluable and rare these days. Also, there was no excessive background noise on the call giving you the impression that you're talking to someone in a huge room full of reps with headsets taking 5 calls at a time. Good job Ambient Weather. This experience has made me glad I bought your product. And, by the way, my system is up and running giving me exactly what I thought it would. Being part of the Ambient Weather network is an added benefit which is the icing on the cake.

I had a La Crosse station and its accuracy, app, and customer support were subpar. So in Oct 2018 after serious research for a new mid-range weather station, there was good evidence pointing me toward the WS-2902a with Ambient Weather, so I got it! In a nutshell, it's fantastic and that's coming from a huge weather geek who's often critical of weather instruments.The item was well packaged and first impression right out of the box were positive - it has an actual owner's manual, felt durable, and had protective wrapping around everything. I had no issues connecting the sensor array to the console, and no issues using the "awnet" app to connect the console to the wifi router/internet (Ambient Weather Dashboard, Weather Underground, and PWS.com). Once that was all complete, I needed to mount the array outside. Now, I live in an urban area & in an apartment. After toiling around with where & how to situate the sensor array, I decided on what's indicated in the picture. While I find occasionally that the wind & solar measurements are curtailed due to nearby homes (which I knew before buying it), the temp and rain are always right in line with other nearby wx stations (including Davis ones). Plus, this setup is mobile, non-permanent, and easily accessible.Accuracy is hugely important to me. You can have a $500 station and have it report bad readings, so for 1 month after the array went "live", I recorded daily high & low temps of all nearby Weather Underground stations within 2 miles. Safe to say, my WS-2902a was right in line with all other stations - between 0-2°F difference, most times within 1°F. The rain, UV Index, Solar Radiation were also accurate, so much so that I stand by my WS-2902a's readings whenever I need to report to the NWS for storms. I was afraid the that temp sensor would be too warm in the sun and the warmth reflecting from my apartment building would get picked up from the temperature probe - I was wrong. The solar shield works fantastically! I doubt when summer comes with the heat & high sun angle that that will change. With all of it's measurement sensors (temp w/ dew point & humidity, wind speed, wind direction, rainfall, UV, Solar, Pressure, and indoor temp-dew-humidity) combined with their accuracy, it’s an extremely well-priced unit.All my data can be viewed on Ambient Weather Dashboard on online or in their app, and if you don't like that there's PWS.com and Weather Underground which record your data in 5min intervals, but display live readings quicker than that. You can even export your data to excel to make graphs. The mobile access is wonderful.Also, I can't say enough about the CEO Ed Edelman. He is countlessly answering my questions - he's super fast to respond and gives you honest & direct answers (no BS like other companies). And he's quick to release update fixes to the station's firmware and AWDashboard when customers report issues. There's even a FB group for Ambient Weather device owners, which serves as an additional tool to receive input from other owners in the group. Best customer experience I think I've ever had, and I know others can say the same.Sure, there are small things about the WS-2902a that I've noted that could be improved, but nothing drastic. I'd like increased customization of the AWDashboard (manually move tiles around, more computed data displayed like "Today's Max UV Reading"). I also wish the display cycled through other measurements (Dew Point, Wind Chill, Heat Index, Max Daily Gust), but you can view that online and/or you can buy the WS-2000 console for that and for better all-around viewing angles and you can even add up to 8 additional temp/humidity/dew point sensors.Would I buy this again? Absolutely YES! Just note that if you want more data on your console and better quality screen, buy the WS-2000 instead - their sensor arrays are the exact same, just different display.