Color Weather Station with Temperature and Humidity Monitor, Weather Forecaster

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.

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!

I've had this product for just about a month now and while it DOES provide the weather data correctly, I can't really give it 5 stars because of some issues with the display that I'll get into. First, let me just confirm that if you follow the instructions to hang up the white, external sensor in a non-direct sunlight / non-direct rain exposed area, then yes, the readings are fairly correct. The readings are sensitive and I have seen it go up or down by a degree within the course of a few minutes as is the case at dawn or at sunset, but that's a good thing. It means the sensor is doing what it is supposed to be doing. When I first hung up my sensor, I hung it up in a pocket of the eave of my house's roof, but that was not a good place to place the sensor. The sensor needs good air flow and my temperature readings were well above the outside temperatures. I suspect that because heat rises and because it gets trapped in the eave of the roof, the sensor was reporting on the temperature of that air, which was much warmer than the general premises of my yard. Predicting rain: to my pleasant surprise, this device knows when rain is imminent and it hasn't been wrong so far. Even on days when the sky was blue and there was a 40% chance of rain according to local meteorologists, this little weather station turned out to be more reliable in predicting rain than those TV meteorologists. Now, the reason for the 4 stars instead of 5: as other reviewers have pointed out, the display is not very bright. So, if you set the weather station on one side of your living room and you are on the other, not only can you not read numbers, the display is not even bright enough to show that the device is displaying anything. I'll put it like this: if I wanted to know the time that my wall clock is showing, I would find it inconvenient to have to walk up to the clock to see what time it is. If I wanted to know what channel my cable TV box was showing, I wouldn't walk up to the cable TV box to look. However, if I want to know the weather that the AcuRite weather station is displaying... you guessed it: you have to be no more than a few feet from it if you are in a sunny room of your house. Well, unless you have all of the shades or curtains drawn and it is dark in your house. The other problem with the device is that the design of the weather station allows for it to only be set on a table or a mantel. It is not designed to be mounted directly on a wall because the back of the weather station is not flat, but curved. I guess it is debatable as to whether that is a fair criticism, but hey, it matters to me as a consumer and maybe other potential buyers would want to know that. Other reviewers have pointed it out as well. Overall, AcuRite has done a great job with getting the weather and temps right. Where they have room for improvement is on making it easier to see those readings and options on how to place the weather station's base.

I wanted a weather station that would provide both temperature and humidity for both inside and outside. Barometer and forecast are also included, as well as temp history. I looked at every weather station that Amazon sells, plus every other supplier I could find on the internet. There were very few that had all these features, without spending at least a C note. This one has it all, plus time, date, moon phase, AND forecast. For half that cost. It has worked exceptionally well here in New England. Readings have been spot on when compared to internet figures for my locality, and the forecast has been as accurate as if it is hooked up to National Weather Service, even though it doesn't actually do that. I don't know how it achieves that, but it has matched the official forecast every time I have checked it this month. Plus, the color display looks very nice. Amazon has been out of stock on these lately, but you should ask them for one - IMO you have to spend a lot of $$ for a professional unit to get something better. Oh yeah, the first time I mounted this was on the far side of a large cedar tree about 100 ft from the house, and I found that was too far - or maybe the tree blocked the signal. So I tried the back porch and protected it from rain and direct sun. We haven't lost the signal once since then. Followup March 8, 2014: The unit has continued to provide accurate temperatures in this very cold winter. I used Lithium batteries in the outdoor sender and it has worked flawlessly through the coldest days, including a minus 9 morning, and several near zero days. My previous unit would shut down if it got too cold.

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.

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.

I see that most of the negative reviews are 1+ years old. They are also referring to the black unit. This review is for the white model 01123M purchased 09/2020. Either this model is a better quality than the black one, or AcuRite significantly improved this product in recent years, or I just got lucky. Whatever the reason is, I’m happy with the purchase. The user interface is clean, readable, logically laid out and looking more modern than any other in this price range. The size of the display is just right and well visible from most angles. Despite my worries, the white casing doesn’t look cheap or tacky; it actually looks great on the dark granite kitchen countertop. But most importantly, it delivers better than expected weather readings for this low-end consumer grade device. Couple observations that you may find helpful while testing and tuning up your weather station. Always compare against reliable and well calibrated reference device. Do not rely on weather reporting websites. Due to normal local weather variations, as well as the placement of the outdoor sensor, you may never be able to match data reported by these websites with your device. But more importantly, the results reported by wunderground.com, weather.com, accuweather.com and others don’t even match each other’s. For ex. the humidity levels reported by the big three above for my city differed by up to 12% this morning. This is likely due to the use of different transponders, reporting delays, etc. But you got the point. Model 01123M is very easy to calibrate. First, place the outdoor sensor next to the base unit for a few hours and compare the temp/humidity levels between the two. To enter calibration mode, select ‘gear’ + ‘’ok’ + ‘bulb’ keys simultaneously for 5 sec. Note that the user guide has the key sequence wrong! Instead of waiting 14 days for the learning process to complete (and likely end up wrong anyway due to lack of elevation adjustment), I switched the barometric pressure to the manual mode and then adjusted it to match my professional grade sailing barometer. I’ve been very satisfied with the accuracy of the device since. Hope this helps.

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.