Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)The Davis Vantage Pro2 is an expensive unit compared to other semi-professional wireless weather stations. Unlike most of its competitors, however, the Davis Vantage Pro2 is considered the among the best a consumer can buy. My experience on two counts, however, has been somewhat of a letdown.
During Santa Ana wind conditions, reported wind speeds do not jive with averages derived from Weather Underground stations within a two to five-mile radius. Visually, too, wind speed readings do not appear consistent with Beaufort estimation techniques. The wind meter in question is located about six feet above a single-story roof and is not at all blocked so there is really no excuse for an inaccurate reading. Nevertheless, the Davis Vantage Pro2 has failed in three years to record a wind speed over 25mph even though wind gusts at or above this range are all but guaranteed each and every Fall. Last year, for example, a windstorm hit my area that left tree branches scattered about the streets for miles in every direction. The only upside is that my Davis Vantage Pro2 has not been linked up via the costly optional software package to the Internet. I would not want the station feeding erroneous data to the Weather Underground network, and fortunately it has never been set up to do so.
Iffy wind speed readings notwithstanding, the most frustrating weakness in the Davis Vantage Pro2 pertains to the forecast icon/trend. The unit displays a "Partly Cloudy" icon 95 percent of the time (in notoriously sunny Southern California). It displays this icon all through the summer months -- to include a 110-degree Labor Day heat wave with not a cloud in the sky! If the Davis displays a "Sunny" icon at all, it is brief -- perhaps two hours or so before switching back to "Partly Cloudy". It also rarely displays the "Rain" icon even when the rain gauge is collecting so much water that the text read-out says it is "raining cats and dogs". If the Rain icon appears in advance of a bona fide rainstorm, it is usually so brief that it is easy to miss -- as little as one hour before returning to the Partly Cloudy icon. Because the icon changes so little and so briefly, it is easy to assume that the text forecast also remains unchanged, which for the most part is the case. Even so, the forecast icon can be misleading in the sense that it is often a poor visual tip-off to noteworthy text forecast changes such as "Precipitation possible within 24 to 48 hours". Therefore, it would appear that while the text read-out is tied in to the status of the barometer, wind and rain sensors, the forecast icon seems relatively isolated and unresponsive.
In my experience, inexpensive weather station forecasting icons tend to be inaccurate for the opposite reason: Barometric changes associated with nightfall, for example, may be enough to fool a poorly designed weather station into forecasting an impending rainstorm. Davis appears to have attempted to compensate for this common problem by making their forecast icon less sensitive to certain barometric shifts. Unfortunately, there is an apparent downside to this approach, too. Perhaps this helps explain, incidentally, why I have yet to see the unit predict fog or frost conditions even though both have occurred in my area over the past three years. Area airports that have not shut down their runways in over a decade have done so due to poor visibility this Fall, and a year or two back a Federal Disaster was declared after California citrus growers lost their crops to record frosts. I, too, lost plants to frost that year, yet the Davis Vantage Pro2 did not warn of such conditions (short of the user programming an alarm, that is). As far as the text-based forecast capabilities are concerned, I am not even certain that the Davis Vantage Pro2 can predict fog or frost.
For the past three years I have enjoyed the ability to compare the Davis Vantage Pro2 against wireless weather stations at the same location manufactured by Uniden and La Crosse, respectively. The latter displays a more accurate forecast for 1/10th the price (sans wind or rain measurements and most of the bells and whistles). Personally, I find it inexcusable that Davis has so poorly integrated and implemented the Vantage Pro2 forecasting features (especially in comparison to La Crosse). Even on the rare occasion that the Davis Vantage Pro2 predicts wind or rain, it seemingly does so only when correlated to the rainy season (thereby all but precluding a forecasting icon change in advance of an out-of-season storm). By contrast, my La Crosse weather station consistently displays a Rain icon a day or so in advance of any incoming rainstorm regardless of season for an overall accuracy of about 65 percent compared to a Davis forecasting accuracy rate of about 20 percent during the Spring and Summer months, and a 40 percent accuracy rate during the Fall and Winter.
Contacting Davis about the weather forecasting problem while the unit was still under warranty resulted only in a useless explanation regarding forecasting algorithms, and a comment on the part of the support rep to the effect that, if anything, the Davis Vantage Pro2 should be the most accurate in California because that is where these units are designed. Davis support staff are friendly enough, but no offer was made to take the unit in for inspection while under warranty. I regret that it is now far too late to receive any sort of help.[Jan. 2009 Update: Applying the firmware update to correct the daylight savings problem also seems to have moderately improved the forecasting capacities -- but we had to pay return postage for the updater, in addition to the $30 fee to rent it.]
Other areas in need of improvement are not as essential, but may be worth mentioning. For the price paid, for example, the Davis Vantage Pro2 ought to contain an atomic clock. Because it does not, however, I experienced a daylight savings problem. As it turns out, the firmware is too old and must be updated at a cost to rent the cable necessary to flash-update the unit (among other bug fixes). An atomic clock would have made a firmware update optional, rather than necessary to the ongoing functionality of the weather station. Worse yet, Davis product documentation is somewhat slim, and the present incarnation of the Davis Web site is equally lacking in relevant FAQs or support documentation. For example, nowhere in the owner's manual does it warn users that replacing the lithium battery will nevertheless prompt the display to report a "Low battery at Station 1" for hours on end. It was Google and not the Davis Web site that came to the rescue on that issue.
Bottom line? The Davis Vantage Pro2 is over-hyped. While I am aware that home weather stations are mostly novelty gadgets despite claims of being "professional", I expected far better from Davis for a retail price in excess of $500.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Davis Instruments Vantage Pro2 Weather Station (Wireless)
Product Description:
Vantage Pro2 Wireless with standard radiation shield. This system uses frequency hopping spread spectrum radio technology to transmit weather data wirelessly up to 1,000 ft. (300 m) With data updates every 2.5 seconds. Includes Vantage Pro2 console/receiver, integrated sensor suite and mounting hardware. Integrated sensor suite includes rain collector, temperature and humidity sensors, anemometer with 40-Feet (12 m) anemometer cable and solar panel. Sensor suite is solar powered. Console may be powered using the included AC power adapter or with three C batteries (not included)
Get 25% OFF
Want to read more honest consumer review about Davis Instruments Vantage Pro2 Weather Station (Wireless) now ?
