AcuRite Weather Station Rain Gauge, Lightning Detector, Color Display

This unit is attractive and easy to install. It will come in 3 pieces - the base unit, a rain sensor and a temperature/humidity/lightning/pressure sensor. You will need a total of 8 AA batteries (no batteries are included) - 4 for base unit backup (which plugs into the wall for its primary power) and 2 each for the rain and temperature combo sensor.First I'd like to mention the base unit is a very attractive, colorful, unit. Is it a color display? In a word - NO. It's a LCD display (black/clear) which is in front of a very colorful background. This unit is backlit and you can select auto dim, bright, medium or low brightness levels. Auto dim simply uses bright during the day and dim at night automatically. Overall a very attractive and well executed display. As a consultant by profession I'm impressed. Nice.To install you first need to select the channel on all the devices by setting a switch inside the battery compartment. Your choices are A, B or C. Do this BEFORE installing any batteries or plugging the base unit into an outlet. ALL 3 OF THE DEVICES MUST BE SET TO THE SAME SETTING. Once the channel has been set install batteries into all the units. As a matter of course I'd recommend the base unit first and then the other 2 in any order (it probably doesn't really matter). The battery orientation is well marked but pay attention. Once batteries have been installed you can then plug in the supplied A/C adaptor for the base unit. As I stated before the batteries in the base unit are for backup - why you ask? Well because the base unit will hold recorded values and if you didn't have batteries it would lose all history if A/C power was ever lost. RULE #1: When changing batteries in the base unit leave it plugged into the wall or else you'll lose all your recorded history. The base unit is the only unit that operates using A/C power. RULE #2: Your remote sensors (rainfall & combo temp) use batteries which should last a year or 2 - so when you place these they will be outside and you need to make sure you put them in a place which doesn't make changing the batteries a royal pain in the you know what.Common question: You've been warned about leaving the base unit plugged in to change batteries but what happens when you change the batteries in the remote sensors? Will you lose history when doing this? Well since the history is recorded inside the base unit it really doesn't matter if you pull the batteries out of the remote sensors to replace them. However there could be a little itty bitty issue. Normally once the batteries are re-installed in the remote sensors they will re-connect to the base unit automatically. But if they don't guess what? You may need to reset the base unit (by removing the batteries and unplugging the A/C adaptor). And if you have to reset it guess what? You're going to lose your history. So hopefully your remote sensors reconnect after changing batteries. Of course it's not the end of the world if you lose your history but still.Installing the rain sensor: This should be placed somewhere where it's not under trees or any other obstructions. I put mine on top of a vent on the roof. Be aware this unit really needs to be level in order for it to work correctly. One way to level this is to put it on a piece of wood (using the included 2 screws) which then in turn is placed on silicone caulk with washers used to hold the wood level until the silicone has cured (about 24 hours). Worked OK for me. Just be aware that the main threat to this device will be debris (like leaves in the fall) getting into it's collection area. As I said before just install this where you can periodically check things and easily perform routine maintenance (changing batteries or cleaning it out). They indicate this can be 100 feet from the base unit. RULE #3: Check the signal strength before permanently mounting - there are signal strength indicators on the base unit.The rainfall sensor can be calibrated if necessary but it's a pretty entailed process. It requires mechanical adjustment of the "buckets" in the rainfall sensor itself.Installing the combo sensor: It's rated as "weather resistant". The notes say to put this under a tree limb or some other "sheltered" area. To install this they have provided an opening in which it can be hung on a hook or something similar. In the directions they indicate you could use string to tie it on the bottom of a branch. Just be sure it is sheltered and not next to your house (because then readings could be wrong). I put mine under the north side of my shed's roof overhang. They indicate this can be mounted up to 300 feet from the base unit - call me a little skeptical - but you've been warned with RULE #3 above.The temperature, humidity and pressure of the combo sensor can be calibrated on the base station if required.Once everything has been positioned the unit will go into a 14 day learning mode in which it tries to understand your local weather better. It does this because a part of the display has a "predictive" feature which tries to identify what the upcoming weather will be - storming/clearing/whatever. Out of the box it actually does a half way decent job. 100% accurate? Nope - but neither is the TV weather. I find this unit to be more entertaining though.What's on the display? It's got a lot of goodies. You can refer to the online manual but in short here's what you can expect:-Temperature, with trend (higher/lower/steady) and daily low & daily high.-Humidity, with trend and daily low & daily high.-Calculated dew point.-Pressure, with trend.-Upcoming weather "prediction".-Lightning strike count and nearest distance (also have recorded values for various periods).-Rainfall in hundredths of inches (so down to .01" - also have recorded values for various periods).Overall this device is easy to install, easy to use and is attractive. Out of the box it seems to be accurate enough for me. Yup, I like and would recommend.

I guess I should have read the reviews first! Like other people, I'm having trouble getting the rain gauge to connect to the main unit. Right now I have the rain gauge less than 6 feet away from the main unit and it still won't connect. I had the same problem with the lightning sensor. I couldn't get a strong signal until I hung it right outside the window about 3 feet away from the main unit, but at least it finally connected. It was very frustrating! I switched out batteries - changed the frequency from A to B to C on all the units to try to connect and still no luck. What's strange is I have the Acurite Access that sends all the information from your sensors over the Internet to my My Acurite app on my phone. It's probably 30 feet away from my lightning sensor and rain gauge and it's actually picking up the signal from those sensors and sending the readings to my app on the cell phone. I just can't get the same info on my weather station unit. So maybe the problem is in the main unit. I sent an email to Acurite about my problem and I'm waiting to hear back from them. If the problem can't be fixed I'll probably return the units to Amazon because it's not working properly. BTW the rain gauge was pretty accurate. I have an professional rain gauge and yesterday I got .33" of rain. The Acurite showed .30" on my app. I think with some calibration I could get it to match up, but I'm not going to go to all that trouble if it's not working properly. Other than the problems I'm having I really like the display and the information that it should provide - I just wish it would work and provide the info.UPDATE: I tried contacting Acurite Customer Support through email about my rain gauge problem and never heard from them. So I returned my original unit to Amazon because it wasn't working and got a replacement and it works perfectly. The rain gauge signal was picked up immediately. The rain gauge is completely accurate - I filled my professional rain gauge to .50" and then to 1" and then slowly poured it into the wireless rain gauge and it was accurate both times. No calibration was needed. I've now changed my rating to 5 stars.