- AcuRite 01517RM Wireless Weather Station with 5-in-1 Weather Sensor: Temperature and Humidity Gauge, Rainfall, Wind Speed and Wind Direction

I bought this to replace an old LaCrosse "weather station" that the outside sensor finally stopped working on. Granted it was probably 10 years old so it had definitely proved it's worth. I did a fair bit of research before deciding on this model as I was concerned about the size of the sensor unit and unsure what would be the best mounting option. I can happily report that the overall size of the outdoor unit isn't as big as I was expecting so it's certainly not intrusive looking. I also wasn't about to get anything that required mounting 30 feet off the ground! First I really don't have a place in my yard that would work for that kind of mounting and I wasn't about to start installing a separate mounting pole anywhere. Not to mention the concerns for general maintenance of the outdoor unit if it was mounted somewhere totally out of reach. I do have a 10 X 12 deck attached to my house so I mounted the outdoor sensor on the deck post that was at the farthest corner with the most open area away from the house and it works great! Due to the construction of the house it just happens that the mounting spot is on a northern exposure area. I have a good sized but not huge back yard and I do live in town so there's really no place with a totally unobstructed mounting place since there are other buildings and trees within 50 feet. The total height off the ground is maybe 6 feet max but that's not affecting the accuracy at all. Overall installation was a breeze. It maybe took 10 to 15 minutes total to put it together, mount the outdoor unit and plug in the indoor display. No muss no fuss, it started working immediately! Super impressed by the ease of set up! The "feels like" and wind chill readings are spot on with what the weather service reports for my area and those are the readings I was most intrigued by. I live in a northern climate where wind chill is a big deal in the winter. The temp reading is extremely accurate. The only precipitation we've had since I installed it are snow and sleet and I have't been super diligent about cleaning out the rainwater collection bin so I can't really say how accurate it is yet but it has given me a reading of total rainfall so I'm assuming it's working fine. The only real suggestion I have for the indoor display is to consider wall mounting it. The base isn't super sturdy and mine fell off the counter causing a corner of the display that fits in the slot of the counter base to break off. The piece that broke is clear so it's not an issue looks wise and the fall didn't affect the performance at all so I'm not knocking any stars off the review but please do be aware that the counter top may not be the best mounting option if you have kids or pets that could knock it off.

Out of the box, the indoor display was not working properly as it was not displaying numbers properly. Some of the segments that make up the number to be displayed did not light up on 3 of the display panes. I called AcuRite, explained the problem, they told me to take pics of the display malfunction and send to them and they would take care of it. within 3 days I had a new one that worked perfectly and did not have to return the original one. Love the product. Was easy to set up and so far the rain amounts are right on, without calibration !! I have had it about 2 months and so far has not missed a beat.

Works very well most of the time. The only problem I see is that when the wind speed gets up around 30 mph or faster it registers rain fall when there is none. This is not a problem unless you are looking at monthly or yearly rain fall accumulation which is way off because of anfew windy days recording 4 or 5 inches of rain when there was actually none on that day. Here in southern Arizona in a year you may have more wind reported as rain than actual rainfall at the end of the year.

It’s informative and fun

This is my 2nd system the first was left behind when I moved and was still working after 4 yrs. Acurite stand up to the weather and they have far more features than others. They may cost a little more but return many years of service for your money. No I wasn't paid to write this I'm just a repeat customer.

Pros - Monitor is very easy to read from all angles and has an auto dimming feature that is nice. Very easy to install and set up if you don't use their recommended rain gauge calibration procedure. That is another story, read on for more info. Temperature is believable and not way off like others have experienced. Cons/troubles - Wind vein squeaked at a certain point of every revolution right out of the box, which doesn't give me much confidence in it's longevity or accuracy as time/wear goes on...I don't know yet if Acurite will do anything about it. Rain gauge was WAY off calibration right out of the box. I opted not to follow their silly calibration procedure...get serious...who wants to try to get exactly 8 oz of water to drip evenly over a 20 to 30 minute time frame to see if the gauge reads 1.06" rain? And then when it doesn't read 1.06", then adjust screws and start over and repeat process who knows how many times until it is accurate? MY PROCESS....install a manual rain gauge within a few feet, compare manual gauge to weather station gauge after each rain event for several events and adjust calibration screws accordingly until both gauges match. The more rain that falls in the event the easier it is to calibrate. I had to turn each screw 1 and 3/4 turns ccw to get close to accurate, waiting now for a big rain to make final adjustments. I was also a little disappointed in the range of the signal from the weather station to the monitor... at about 125 feet it lost signal and I had to move it into a room with a more line-of-sight position that puts it about 85 feet from the weather station. ADMITTEDLY, the house has a metal roof and metal siding which I'm sure greatly inhibited the signal. All in all, pleased for the most part. 3 STAR RATING because of the out of the box squeak in the anemometer and gross inaccuracy of an instrument that is supposed to be not just *accurate* but "Acu-Rite."

***Update #2 (December 8, 2020): Weather station, and remote battery pack, are still going strong and no issues encountered with them. Also, still ORIGINAL batteries from Christmas 2018. Make sure to use LITHIUM Batteries for cold climates. Still, very pleased!!*** **Update (March 18, 2020): This weather station is still in use without issue....AND still the original batteries since Christmas 2018....We have experienced all weather conditions since then and the unit has literally weathered them all from nearly -50 C to + 30 C...snow, rain and a LOT of sunshine!! Very pleased!!** Weather station was purchased as a gift. I thought the mounting hardware was initially missing and did not find it until installing the unit and found the mounting hardware in the battery compartment. This station was purchased as a gift 2018 and the recipient is happy with it so far. It is being used with the remote battery pack which can be purchased separately and should help with making battery changes easy while ensuring the historical data is not lost. The unit is working well and required little setup other than ensuring both the unit and the display are on the right channel. I was expecting it to require more effort to have it talk to the display but it recognized the device once the batteries were in. The display gives access to a lot of data and the giftee is looking forward to the weather forecasting abilities once the unit finishing its "learning" period. You can set the units for each separate category individually allowing a mix & match between imperial and metric units as desired. The categories and the available displayed units are as follows: 1) Temperature (Fahrenheit or Celsius) 2) Wind Speed (mph, km/h, or Knots) 3) Rainfall (inches or mm) 4) Pressure (inches of mercury or hectopascals). The only area of concern is how the unit will hold-up to UV damage over time as the unit is very lightweight plastic. It does seem very well constructed however. I hope this review has been helpful!

Unit setup fairly easy and so far it is working great. I had a few questions during setup and Acurite’s customer service was excellent.

Works like a charm. I've had other weather stations in the past but this one (with my choice of monitor as there are different combinations available) is very cool, adjustable and calibratable so you can zero in on accuracy. The weather ticker on the bottom contains extra info i.e it does not just repeat what you see on the screen.

Replacement for the older ACU RITE weather station - that was very good. This is another level. Wow! Worth each penny. Easy to install, set up a breeze. Tested for rainfall as per manual. Perfect. In rural area is fantastic addition to the house and our life. Because the nearby city weather is not like we encounter here. So I am looking forward for years of good weather informations. Excellent item, highly recommended!

4. Now 3.5 years later (2021). Definitely needs a component update. Replaced the anemometer and the temperature sensors with components from AcuRite. Unit is like new! Kudos to the company for providing and easy and cost-effective way to breathe new life into the machine. 3. Update: About 2 h after changing batteries, the unit is now fully operational. Nothing in the manual to indicate that I should wait this long ... 2. Change in my opinion. Two and a half months later, and the anemometer is no longer working. Changed the batteries. No effect. Am now about the engage the company in a warranty exchange. Will post my comments when I hear back on how that worked out. Stay tuned. 1. Happy so far. Easy setup. Batteries are easy to change. BUT have only had the unit for a month. My last weather station (not this brand) only lasted 14 months. So, if this one holds up over the long-term then it deserves 5 stars - we'll see.