Ambient Weather WS-5000 Ultrasonic Smart Weather Station

This is my second ambient weather, weather station I have owned. My previous station was the WS-1001 which I wrote a very positive review about. Since then things have changed and I would update that review now if not for that model and parts being discontinued. The anomometer cups broke on that model and ambient weather no longer sells replacement parts for it. Their solution was for me to purchase another entire sensor array which is nearly the cost of purchasing another complete weather station. Let’s just say in the end, I opted to buy an entirely new system.First thing to note is the outdoor sensor arrays, yes plural, do not come with batteries. The WS1001 did come with batteries for the outdoor array, but not the indoor sensor. The WS5000 comes with no batteries at all.I had done some research as to what the new offerings were avalible on the market and again I found myself drawn to ambient weather. Not so much because of having already owned one of their products, but because what they offered in a weather station fits my needs the best. I was particularly interested in the ultrasonic anemometer, but after some correspondence with ambient weather, I was a bit dissatified with their customer services ability to actually help resolve my concerns other than, just purchase new equipment. I think it’s important to carefully note that, ambient weather told me their products are only designed to last 3-5 years. That was a sour pill to swallow for a $300+ item that your only going to get 3-5 years service out of for weather data. I mean I love having real time data, but is that really worth it, especially with all the limitations and accuracy of the equipment to begin with?Speaking for myself, wind speed is the most critical data I am after. But it’s still only +/-5% accuracy. The ws5000 does have a faster update rate of 4.9 seconds, faster than any of their other models, but it’s also limited to 0-89 mph which is slightly lower than their other traditional anemometer models.I have had this weather station for about a month now and there are a number of things I’m not very happy about. The rain fall sensor is not accurate at all. There is no battery back up on the display panel. If the power goes out, the highest daily wind gust is reset to zero upon startup. And worst of all, the sensor array arm has significantly rusted as well as rust staining on the ultrasonic wind screen. I doubt the sensor array arm will last 2 years before disintegrating to the point of breaking off.I really wanted to love this weather station, but even at half the price, I’m just not feeling the love from ambient weatherthos time around.I think the most important take away here is don’t expect a long service life from any of the ambient weather products beyond the one year warranty. Given ambient weathers price point in the market, you might want to consider more robust equipment.I gave the WS5000 a two star rating mainly because of the rusting issues on the outdoor array after only one month. The rust starting showingb up after only a few days, but it has been rapidly growing ever since. In fact, I had contacted ambient weather before I even installed the array, because in their advertising pictures, the array arm is shown as black and the arm I received is unciated bare metal. They said that is how they where being manufactured now. I was tempted to give it one star and I still might before it’s all over with. But for now, I would steeer clear of the WS5000 until they change the material or do something to protect the array mounting arm.

Phenomenal, affordable professional weather station at your fingertips!I have been watching and observing the weather for 30 plus years and have had probably over 5-10 affordable budget type weather stations and not one of them comes close to how awesome and accurate this weather station is.Every weather station I had could not come close to the accuracy of the ws-5000. For example all my stations if they were put in direct sunlight would always read 3-10 degrees higher than what the actual temperature is but not with the ws-5000. It is right on the money. Not only that it is on the money with humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed and all of the other major statistics you need period right at your fingertips :-)Not to mention probably hundreds of other options that are available with this system, for example being able to see historical up to the minute data right on your console, all kinds of minimums and maximums right on your console, the ability to share all of your information to various professional weather websites and have them log and keep your data not just for the day or the week, but for a lifetime and you will be able to look back on that data anytime from anywhere.Want to know the temperature inside your house from anywhere in the world? Or the conditions inside your house with humidity and actual real feel temperature lol? I know that might sound silly but it is actually pretty cool to be able to see that information in a split second. If I'm out of town, and I noticed that the temperature in my house all of a sudden spikes to 85° f, then I know my air conditioning has a problem. But I am a weather nerd and like that kind of information.And do you want to know another incredibly awesome feature about this system? You can get the ambient app and get all of the information that I talked about, it's all free and it's all for a lifetime, but you can set up alerts for just about anything that will be sent to your phone and I love that, for example if there is a gust over 30 mph at your home weather station, you will know about it, if the temperature goes below 60° inside your house, you will get an alert and you will know about it, if the real feel temperature goes above 100 degrees outside, you will get an alert and know about it, it is unreal and I think the alerts are unlimited, I have about 30 LOL. and just about everything is free free free free free :-)Another neat thing you can do is you can bring up your home information like I mentioned earlier, right up to the web and put it on retired phones or iPads and you can put them at various places in your house and they will collect data via Wi-Fi and you will have information pretty much anywhere you want it or you can buy a nice cheap tablet and display that information anywhere you want. I recommend getting a nice cheap tablet and getting the app radar scope and running live radar weather right by it but once again that's just me.And I am not the most tech savvy individual, but I found installing this weather station was relatively easy. Basically you just need to U-bolt the sensor to a pole and get that pole installed and then you can put the rain gauge on the pole if you want to or you can put it anywhere you want. I put mine out on our deck and put a couple of easy screws into it and it was good to go, and then you are good to go and within 60 minutes, you will be running live weather from your home and across the world.There are some weather stations out there for around 50 - $150 but I am almost 100% sure they cannot match the accuracy of the ws-5000 and it's not much more cost to get it and you would be a fool not to try it, plus it's backed by warranty and you can join the ambient weather Facebook page and you will be in great hands with people that know all about it and have used the system for years and swear by its accuracy and functionability and it's Chief executive, Ed Edelman answers just about every question that is asked and he is always there to help and if he is not, somebody on there will help you, you might get a good funny quip every once in a while but really truly the people on the website are there to help and Ed is top-notch and if you really have an issue you can talk to him and he will respond.in summary, it has taken me years to find the perfect weather station and I believe I have found it, I had a friend turn me on to it and I will never look back and like I said Ed Edelman and company will continue to improve and listen to us and I truly believe we can move forward for the rest of our lives using this system, I believe he really cares and wants it to continue forward :-).