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Reviews For: Oregon Scientific WMR-968 Wireless Weather Station

Category: Weather Stations

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Review Summary For : Oregon Scientific WMR-968 Wireless Weather Station
Reviews: 19MSRP: 349
Description:
Provides indoor/outdoor humidity, temperature, barometer, windspeed and rainfall. Wireless sensors, solar powered (With battery assist) and computer interface.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.oregonscientific.com/index_ie.jsp
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00192.4
N4GLS Rating: 2004-10-31
Don't Waste Your Money Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I bought one of the units and within 3 months began having problems with it. First off the sensors began to get water in the units, the rain guage would not register the rainfall correctly and the insulation on the cords running rom the units to the solar panel started cracking. Like others have recorded, the insturctions are horrible, and so small you need a magnifier to read them/ The wind vane was constructed out of very cheap material.
KI6YN Rating: 2003-07-01
A REAL PIECE OF JUNK Time Owned: more than 12 months.
My YL bought me the 968 about three years ago. It worked well for two years and then went straight down hill. The outside sensors were loaded with water and I called their customer service. I was told the guarantee had expired and she gave me the web site of a company that sells the individual components. It would have cost me two thirds of the original price to restore it to operation. Definitely junk and lousy tech support. I will never buy anything with the name Oregon Scientific on it.
KG4WBM Rating: 2003-02-27
Really good station, but some readings are a little off. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had no problems with my station so far. The outdoor sensors work very well. The only problems I have had are with the accuracy of some of the readings. For example, I have noticed that the temperature sensor will read between five and ten degrees above what the temperature actually is. A shelter can be built around the sensor however that will make the readings more accurate. Also the barometer at first was never accurate. But there is a way to make it much closer to the actual air pressure. I have done this and now the barometric pressure on the station reads no more than 0.06" more or less than my local airport. I was very happy when I found out what to do about this.
Installaton was very easy also. I followed the manual and got the station put together and installed fairly quickly.
Another thing I don't like though is the updating time of the sensors. They don't update frequently enough, especially the wind sensor. The anemometer/wind vane updates about every fifteen seconds. During a windy day or storm the peak gust can easily be missed. There is nothing Oregon Scientific can do about this though. It is a rule stated by the Federal Communications Commision.
One other bad thing is that the humidity sensor only reads the humidity up to 98%. Many other weather stations are like this though, only measuring humidity to 98 or 99 percent.
I would recommend this station to anyone who only wants basic information and does not plan to use it to keep records. I was satisifed with the price though. For the most part it is a very good station.
RLC516 Rating: 2003-02-23
Fair, but there are better for the $$ Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have had this for over 6 months and have not had any "major" problems so far. I bought mine used, the previous owner sold it after it quit working and he couldn't get any response from Oregon Sci. tech support. He also complained about the instructions lack of clarity, which I understood after I received it. VERY POOR INSTRUCTIONS.

The problem the previous owner was had was in the outside temprature unit, water had damaged the circuit board. The "outside units" are not well sealed. I would recommend using some type of "sealing grease" or some other method of "weather-proofing" on all the "outside" units. Be sure to check it at least once a year to make sure it is still sealed.

After repairs, the outside temprature unit seemed to work OK, however, the main unit would not display any readings from it. After several days of checking the unit and trying to find clues in the useless instructions I finally pushed the "hard reset" switch and all worked well.

I have had to "bias" all the readings in my weather software program to get the readings to agree with the local airport's readings. (I live close enough that we should read about the same.) I don't even look at the "main" unit as those readings are wrong.

While installing fresh batteries I had problems with the "CHEAP" screws stripping.

I would think for the cost of this Weather Station it could have more quality in the units and in the instuctions. I would have given it a lower score, but it is displaying what it is suposed to and it is still operational after 3 months of NW Indiana winter..

Spend your hard earned money on a different unit
FROGMAN2007 Rating: 2003-02-13
Problems Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I, along with other owners of this weather station, had a problem with installation. The single screw that holds the cups on the anemometer would not unscrew initially. I, along with many members of my household could not loosen it. It was finally brought to Boeing where my dad works and they got it out, but by that time it was totally stripped! My humidity sensor never seems to rise above 98% and that worries me. Other than these problems, everything else seems to be in working order. Anybody who is thinking about purchasing this weather station, I would suggest trying a different brand.

Zach Oliver - Western Washington
KD5EVM Rating: 2002-12-31
Please people, dont waste your time and money!!!! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
the sensors arent waterproofed as they should be, terrible quality going into the construction of it all, and when you just thought that you have fixed everything something will go wrong again all over. I should have bought the Davis Vantage pro........
Oregon Scientific = kidsplaythings.......
DAVIS=Adults who want their moneys worth
N4SL Rating: 2002-10-01
Good product, terrible documentation! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had this unit installed at my house in the NW corner of Washington State USA for two years.

GOOD THINGS:
Totally reliable, never any problems once installed. Everything seems to be high quality except some of the mounting screws.

The solar power for the remote sensors really works, even all night long all winter long way up north where the days are very short.

The monitor and display unit is easy to read, has a nice display backlight and even runs from internal batteries so you can pack it around the house/yard. The backlight is disabled when on batteries which is good.

The lack of wires is really great.

It works in the presence of very strong RF fields (my ham station) without failure or glitching.

BAD THINGS:

The documentation is truly the worst I've ever seen! Installation is stunningly difficult for such a simple thing because the manual refers to things that don't exist (written for a different or older model?) and completely ignores things you must do to make this work. Once you realize to ignore the paperwork and just LOOK at the units, installation is OK I guess but not good.

The screws they use are wierd, they don't fit my high quality screwdrivers and are too soft, easy to strip.

The accuracy of the temperature is OK, not great, but the resolution is 0.1 degrees F - a little misleading but the RELATIVE accuracy is good... it shows minor temperature fluctuations accurately.

The accuracy of the humidity and atmospheric pressure is really crappy, but not out of spec with the documentation which ADMITS it's crappy. In it's defense, the pressure TRENDS are all that really count and it does quite well with that. Ditto with the humidity.

The very worst thing about this unit is the terrible installation/operation manual. The unit itself is high quality for a home-type product... once you figure out how to install it!

Radio Shack now sells this exact unit with their name on it for I think about the same price as mail order.

Personally, I like mine a lot and use it daily.

73, Steve N4SL Machias, WA USA

ROB33 Rating: 2002-10-01
Junk Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I purchased the WMR-968 last year and within a month the anemometer completely quit giving readings. Oregon Scientific admitted it was a defect and that they would replace it. Waited 6 months and they didnt replace it. Finally had to file a complaint with the BBB and they eventually did replace it. 3 months after receiving the new anemometer it once again stopped working.
Other problems is it is not accurate whatsoever.

Complete trash.
KY6O Rating: 2002-08-23
Decent, but bad tech support Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
If Oregon Scientific would just do two little things, they would have a *great* product. First, the user manual is terrible! (They did admit, however, they are working on revising it). Second, when you call or e-mail tech support, is it unreasonable to expect them to ever return your message? I purchased my unit last May, and quickly discovered a problem: The tiny Phillips screws that hold the battery cover in place on the sensors must be removed to install the battery. Likewise, the wind vane has a single screw to hold it on the shaft. But none of my standard screwdrivers (I tried dozens!) would fit without stripping the head. I finally spent 98 cents at Sears for a Craftsman screwdriver which worked fine. But this isn't mentioned in the manual! So when I called to ask, they never to this day have returned my messages. The manual claims "24x7x365 tech support". This is also incorrect. "We're closed, call during normal business hours" is the usual response. Other than that, no problems. I bought my unit from CostCo online (www.costco.com), and was happy to discover that it includes a free copy of Ambient Weather's "Virtual Weather Station Pro" which generates ".jpg" images of all your weather data! Check out my station on-line at: http://hometown.aol.com/mvsopen/myhomepage/personal.html

Happy weather!!!