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| Reviews Summary for Davis Vantage VUE |
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Reviews: 21
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Average rating: 4.6/5
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MSRP: $$350
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Description: Davis' wireless Vantage Vue weather station combines Davis' accuracy and durability into a compact station that's easy to set up and use. Perfect for home, school, or business.
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Product is in production.
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More info: http://www.davisnet.com/
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write your own review of the Davis Vantage VUE.
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N8ZUZ
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Rating: 2/5
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Feb 4, 2012 12:24
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1st month and nothing but problems
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I had a LaCrosse wx station up for over 4 years with an occasional hiccup but you expect that for a made in China unit. I like having a wx station and my old LaCrosse was about worn out.
I bought a Davis Vue after reading some reviews and talking with a non-ham friend who has one to replace his old Rainwise. I liked that it was made in the US.
My console had an issue right out of the box with the battery voltage. I tested all the batteries, replaced with new ones from another pack, etc but the console had issues. Davis sent me a new one which has worked fine and I sent them the old one. Their customer service is pretty good if you call their non-toll free number.
A few weeks later (not even a month after owning the thing) I have all "---" in my outdoor data fields on the console. I called Davis again and the rep said to hit the white button in the ISS and see if the LED lights up. I did hit the button but nothing happened. I called back and was told to take the battery out of the unit and store it in a dark closet overnight to reset the CPU. I went on the roof to get the unit down off my mast. I was told RF causes the microprocessor to lock up!
I did as was told and got the unit working again. I went back up on the roof to re-install it lower on the mast. So what happened but to have it puke out again an hour or so later from 5w on 2m.
I really wish I hadn't bought this unit. Davis units are sold by many ham shops and I hear they go to the Dayton Hamvention. Why don't they shield their crap to withstand 5w on 2m?
I'm very disappointed in spending up for what I thought was a decent unit only to be severely disappointed.
I gave it a rating of 2 but only because of Davis customer service otherwise it would be a big fat ZERO!
If you are a ham and have limited space to put up a wx station and antennas BEWARE! You may have problems that require many trips to the rooftop.
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W0ACE
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 16, 2011 19:43
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Very Happy
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Fast, easy install. Set-up was fast and smooth following the manual. Works great. Temp matches my home thermostat in my house, and matches the local reported temps. No RFI problems so far, running on 20m, 6m, 2m, 440 very close to it. All in all I'd buy again in a heartbeat! Best weather station I have had so far.
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W3HKK
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Rating: 4/5
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Dec 11, 2011 17:50
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rain gage balky
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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Updating a previous post, the VV is now 8 months old. A month ago it stopped reporting light to moderate rainfall. Following the manual I disassembled the raingage and gave it a bath with mild soap and water, put it back together and ......no difference. It still ignored all but the heaviest rain. SO I called VV and talked with a technician who provided little help. So I resorted to the old tried and true method: Brute Force! I took a 4 ft length of 2" pvc pipe and wacked the 2" pvc mast a half dozen times. It started to rain right after that, and lo and behold the rain gage was working again, detecting very light rainfalls. Figuring it would stop again the next day, I checked and it was still working. But I wacked it a couple times for good measure. So far, its been working fine and I havent had to call Davis back.
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KI6OSH
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Rating: 5/5
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Sep 16, 2011 10:32
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Update....
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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My previous review was before solving my RFI problem. Thanks to N2DY, I followed his advice and installed ferrite chokes on the internal ribbon cables and now the unit works as intended. Hope this helps anybody out there with the RFI problem. Now its a great product, highly recommended.
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N6TAU
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Rating: 4/5
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Sep 16, 2011 06:16
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Great weather station, lousy software
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I bought the Vantage Vue Just after Hurricane Irene blew through the area.
Over the labor day weekend, I installed it on the top of my fifty foot tower, just below the antennas.
The next day, it started raining. and raining and raining. Over the next ten days, we got 11.5 inches of rain. At times the rain fell at about nine inches an hour. There was wide scale flooding but we suffered only minor basement flooding (.5 inch at lowest level, got some cardboard boxes.
The vantage vue was a breeze to setup, taking only about five minutes to tighten the Allen screws that hole the vane and anemometer. I bought the VV because it was wireless and solar powered. In the two weeks that I have owned it, I have not experienced any problems whatsoever.
When I bought the station, I also bought the uSB version of Weatherlink. My praise of the the weather station does not pass on to their software, In as few words as possible, 'It sucks!'
First off, the software looks like it was written by a novice programmer. As a professional computer programmer with 36 years of full time programming experience, this looks like something that took a couple of days to throw together and even then only as a demo. I give the software a hard 2.
For the amateurish software, they charge $148, which is the only way to get the dongle that connects your weather station to your PC. When I installed it, Weatherlink could not see the USB port. Davis support was no help at all. No matter what I did, I could not get the Davis software to talk to the Davis hardware.
I installed Virtual Weather Station and it started talking to the the Davis hardware immediately. (turns out that third party developers are forced to use a different means to talk to the hardware.) The fact that the third party tools work better than the proprietary tools suggest they should dump the proprietary method.
With Virtual Weather station, this is a great product. You have to buy the junky Weatherlink to get the hardware dongle but it seems to be a necessary evil. Paying $148 for $15 worth of USB connectivity is overkill, but I guess that's what keeps their programmers employed.
PS: I did eventually get the Weatherlink to work. After installing VWS and running it for awhile, Weatherlink was eventually able to detect the USB port and started working. I can only guess that there was something that got initialized by VWS that weatherLink didn't.
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N0YK
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Rating: 5/5
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Sep 7, 2011 12:04
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Nice!!!
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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Love the new Vue!
I've been an avid weather buff for the last 6 years. Started with a Vantage Pro II, installed the ISS at 6' and the anemometer at 33' and uploaded the data to the internet in real-time. Loved it and readings were very accurate.
However, we moved to the city a year ago and decided to give the Vue a try. I'm very happy with it's accuracy and design. I currently have mine mounted on my garden shed in the back yard and find the readings to be very close to my friends weather station. His is a Davis Vantage Pro II that is about a 1000' away mounted on a tower and has the day-time fan to move air through the chamber. I find the temperature between the two to vary no more that 1 degree and usually less than a 0.5 degree difference. So you can right away tell the consistency in Davis's products. We both report to the usually internet sites in real-time and are using the WxSolutions software which I also find to be top notch. Here is a link to my YouTube video of the Vue installed and working: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=778cK4Ni_uw
Overall, I'm very happy with the unit and would recommend this to others. A+++++++++++
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N8TNJ
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 13, 2011 18:52
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Great Company
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Had my Vantage Vue for 2 years, with no problems. Woke up one morning console was not receiving any data form the ISS. Changed out the battery dead, took it apart and cleaned the connections and checked a few things, still dead. Finally called Davis tech support, had me check a few things still dead. They sent me a transmitter and the battery holder, NO CHARGE!!! Got it in the mail the other day ISS is now working great. I recommend them to everybody looking for a weather station.
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W3HKK
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 15, 2011 13:23
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Love it!
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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After enduring 6 years with a balky $100 The Weather Channel wireless wx stn that worked ok except when I transmitted. Then I would get daily rainfall totals of 23" on a clear day. Nothing would cure the problem. So I finally bit the bullet and chose the Vantage Vue.
Easy to put up. Easy to move around for just the right place to catch the winds we are prone to get here on the knoll where I live. And best of all, NO RFI!
I also found the rainfall amounts were higher on the VV, as were the wind speeds. This with my VV at 10 ft, and the TWC unit at 22 ft.
No complaints here. It looks. feels and behaves like a professional unit. Id like to put it on the www as a wunderground wx stn or something similar but the cost to do so gives pause. Not worth it IMO.
WHen the local ARES severe wx net comes on, I can give accurate numbers that they can report to the NWS. Being one of the westernmost stations in my county, this is useful stuff
WHen you pay for quality and get it, you feel the expense is justified.
PS Rig here operates 100w on 160-6m, plus I use a 2m/440 rig as well. Mostly vertical antennas. No problems to date.
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N2DY
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Rating: 5/5
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May 7, 2011 11:42
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Update
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I had reported in an earlier review that the Vantage Vue would shut down due to 2 meter RFI. I saw that one reviewer shielded the case of the unit using metal-based spray paint. I went another route. I took the cover off and clipped a number of snap-on chokes to the wires running between the different modules inside the unit. The wires used are unshielded ribbon-type cables, about the worst thing you can use as far as RF is concerned. I now no longer have any RF issues and the Vantage Vue is working like a champ. The ham, public safety and perhaps the military communities are big users of Davis Weather products and so they should make an effort to correct this design flaw going forward. That being said, for the bang for the buck you cannot get a better, more accurate weather station than the Vantage Vue. I am very happy to have it up and running properly again.
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N4CQR
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 26, 2011 11:57
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Good Solid Product
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Purchased my unit January of 2011 and installed it temporarly on the deck. It will be moved at a later date but in summary here is what I have learned.
Installation and setup is a breeze. I got mine going without referencing the manual. Setup is straight forward and simple. Readings have been consistant with those from a small airport AWOS 3 miles north of me.
The only con I canthink of is that wind reading should be taken at 33' and temp. taken at 5' from the ground. Since everything is intergrated into one case, that is not possible.
However, at 10' above the ground, where I have mine now, does give more of a ground truth reading.
All in all a very good investment.
73
Craig
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