Product review (5 stars): Good Weather Station With A Few Conditions
After reading the manual on how to set up the display unit and outdoor sensor, the instructions recommended that both units be allowed to equalize or settle down in temperature indoors. I calibrated both units to an accurate digital thermometer. However the requested 30 minute settling time seems to be way too short for the sensors to equalize. It's actually more in the range of 1 hour or more.

However, after placing the outdoor unit on a garage door post that was shaded by an eave, the sensor was off by as much as six degrees higher than the digital thermometer. It turns out that outdoor sensor placement is critical in getting an accurate reading because it is very sensitive to ambient heat sources including the wall it is mounted to. This in effect is good and bad news. Good because it is accurate to even slight temperature fluctuations. Bad because it will be inaccurate since it can pick up stray heat from its mounting source.

The solution to this is to either hang the sensor from a string or fishing line or hang it from a long nail, but in both cases the sensor should not be touching any surface and should be free standing, if at all possible.

But after dialing in the calibration feature for the display, both sensors are spot on in their readings now. The display, as some have pointed out, is very detailed. Some complain that it is too busy, but I like all the info it displays and I feel that this layout is much better than most of the other weather stations that I have seen. It displays the daily high and low historical readings for temperature and humidity, shows the historical data for barometric pressure, shows indoor and outdoor temperatures, current indoor and outdoor humidity, gives a trend indication on whether the temperature is going up or down, and even a "weather forecaster" that gives a guess of weather conditions in the next day or two. And of course, there is the display that visually tells you what comfort zone you are in as it relates to the temperature via different lighted colored backgrounds.

I only have my indoor console running on batteries, and the LCD display is crisp and sharp. I don't use the colored back-light much, so I do not need to plug the unit in to use this feature. I can always just tap the "light" button and see the colored display for a few seconds.

Setting the unit up was pretty straight forward and not very complicated if you take your time. Some may feel there are too many button presses to change the various setting displays, but the setup is pretty logical. And if you forget what does what, the manual is clear on what you need to do to change the parameters.

Once you understand that the outdoor sensor placement is critical to accurate readings, you're golden. Customer support for the WS-11 is excellent and they will help you with any problems on the setup or questions you may have.

But one thing should be made clear to any wonks or OCD types out there; this weather station is accurate to within certain parameters and does a very good job of it, and shouldn't be expected to perform with the precision of professional meteorological instruments. If you understand this, this unit is great for what it is was intended for. I like it a lot and refer to it for biking weather conditions in order to dress properly for my daily rides.