What are the Best Home Weather Stations for a Present?

Stuck for gift ideas? Home weather stations make wonderful and practical gifts. They provide real-time weather data without relying on external sources, generate hyperlocal forecasts to help you plan everyday activities, and provide another way you make a home that’s both technologically smart and interconnected.

Instrument Choice has made choosing the best home weather station easy. We offer the best-performing instruments from under $A150 and all the way up to professional models that weather enthusiasts can operate and enjoy.

Read on to discover 5 of the Best Home Weather Stations for a present on the market today as selected by scientists and discerning Instrument Choice customers.

What is a Home Weather Station?

A home weather station is a device that typically includes an outdoor sensor suite, and an indoor console or receiver. Home weather stations are used to collect a range of environmental and weather data right from your own backyard.

Why Do Home Weather Stations Make Great Gifts?

Have you ever been told there was no chance of rain, only to look outside to see it’s teeming, your backyard filled with croaking frogs, happy ducks, and galahs bathing in pools of rainwater? How can this happen? The answer is simple, your local city weather station could be located a fair distance or even in another geographical range from you! This means the official forecast may not be based on the local weather conditions you experience in your area.

The solution to this and other unexpected weather event inconveniences is a home weather station. These handy instruments can provide you with hyperlocal and accurate real-time data. Some of the parameters that home weather stations measure include temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, dew point, heat index, wind speed/direction/chill, rainfall, rain rate and weather forecasting. What’s more, some are surprisingly inexpensive, which is great if your gift-giving must keep to a budget.

Here's our review of the Top 5 best home weather stations available today.

Best Home Weather Stations under $150

The WS1151 Wireless Weather Station is the best home weather station under $100. With a sleek modern design, the WS1151 is an impressive gift. It is ergonomically designed, can be left free-standing or mounted on a wall. It’s supplied with the main display, as well as an automatically synchronised wireless transmitter with reception up to 100m.  #1: Wireless Weather Station - WS1151

At a quick glance, it provides a wealth of information that includes; indoor and outdoor temperature, indoor and outdoor humidity, barometric pressure and forecasting. If the recipient of your gift is an early riser, they’ll love the sunrise and sunset displays. If they’re into planting according to moon cycles, or keen about astrology, they will be “blissed out” because the WS1151 also shows moon phases.

#2: Weather Station with Rain Gauge, Wind Speed and Direction - IC0400WS

As a gift, it’s nice to know that the IC0400WS is simple to set up. The weather sensor can be placed outside with a reception of up to 100m and the backlit LCD screen placed inside either standing on its own or mounted onto a wall.The IC0400WS is a home weather station for budding meteorologists. It provides a quick and accurate overview of weather parameters that include indoor and outdoor temperature, indoor and outdoor humidity, rain, wind speed, wind direction, wind chill and dew point. Popular features include alarm modes for temperature, humidity, wind chill and more.

Best Home Weather Stations from $150 to $500

This model is an excellent choice if the person receiving your gift would like to record more weather parameters and to store, manipulate or share locally collected weather data. You can also relax knowing that the WS1081 is easy to set up and operate. 

#3. Ver2 TESA Solar Powered Touch Panel Weather Center with PC interface - WS1081

The device features an LED-backlit touchscreen on the indoor console and a weather-resistant outdoor sensor. It accurately measures the 10 most popular weather parameters. These include inside and outside temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed, wind direction, wind chill, rainfall and dew point.

The home console synchronises instantly with the data transmitted by the outdoor station. The outdoor unit uses AA rechargeable batteries and is power-assisted by a solar panel to extend battery life and to help ensure continuous operation. The indoor console comes with a USB port to easily upload weather data and weather history to your Mac or PC. All the necessary computer software is included in the package.

Best Home Weather Stations $500 and above

The IC6250AU is the base model of the Davis range. It’s a model for serious weather enthusiasts. Customers love Davis Vantage Vue Weather Stations because of the following benefits and features:  #4: Vantage Vue Wireless Weather Station - IC6250AU 

• Measurements: The IC6250AU captures 10 key weather parameters, including temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, dew point, heat index, rainfall, rain rate as well as wind chill, direction and speed.

Performance: The instrument’s accuracy and reliability will please the most discerning weather enthusiast, meaning your local data will be highly repeatable.

• Wireless Range: The indoor console is easy to navigate while the outdoor unit boasts a range of up to 300m enabled by the frequency hopping radio transmission from the outdoor to indoor sensors. This makes it more reliable over longer distances compared to more basic weather station models.

Add-ons and Upgrades:

• The device can be expanded to log weather data or upload data to the Internet. (See IC6250AU-LOG - Vantage Vue Weather Station with Data Logging Package). This includes options to upload data directly to the ‘Net without the need for a console or PC! (See IC-Weatherlinklive-6357AU - Weatherlink Live Weather Cloud Vantage Vue Package).

#5 Vantage Pro 2 Wireless Weather Station Packages

The Vantage Pro 2 series of weather stationsis designed for professional users, as well as home users who want professional performance. The Davis Vantage Pro 2 packages and add-ons take weather stations to the next level, which makes this weather station one of the best home weather stations you can give as a gift for someone who is a hobby weather forecasting geek!

The Vantage Pro 2 weather station transmits weather information by wireless signal to the display from up to 300 meters away (i.e. line of sight). The typical transmission range through walls is 60 to 120m. Wireless repeaters can be added to increase the suite's wireless signal up to an impressive 2.7 km! This model tracks a range of weather variables including temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, dew point, heat index, rainfall, rain rate, wind chill, wind speed and wind direction. It also stores historical data. The outdoor sensor suite uses solar power to reduce battery consumption and the electronic components are housed inside of a weather-resistant casing.

The Vantage Pro 2 Packages

The Vantage Pro 2 with Standard Radiation Shield Package - IC6152AU - is a base ensemble that supplied with an outdoor temperature/humidity sensor, an anemometer with 12m cable, rainfall sensor and a radiation shield to protect the sensor suite. (Mounting pole not included).  

TheVantage Pro 2 Weather Station with Weatherlink-IP Package - IC6152AU– has all the same gear as the Vantage Pro 2 base model plus a weather enthusiast can upload data directly to the ‘Net without the need for a console or PC.

 The Vantage Pro 2 Add-ons

There is also a range of add-ons sold separately for the IC6152AU to further enhance your weather collection data including;

• UV sensor (Model Number: IC6490) - Measures the UV spectrum and allows you to display the UV index, dose rate as well as daily and accumulated dose.
• Solar Radiation Sensor (Model Number: IC6450) - Records solar radiation and can monitor evapotranspiration.
• Model Number IC6345 is also required for this sensor.
• Soil Moisture Sensor (Model Number: IC6440) - Calculates the moisture level of the soil by measuring electrical resistance. Note: Model Number IC6345
  is also required for this sensor.

Conclusion

Weather Stations make great gifts. Instrument Choice sells a lot of them, many of them bought as gifts, and we get very few returns. In fact, our scientific team believes that every home should have one. To support our conviction, we stock many models together with lots of add-ons, at prices that range from less than $100 to high-performance devices that cost thousands, that we guarantee will satisfy even the most discerning weather enthusiast.

You can learn more about the best home weather stations mentioned above and browse other models on the Instrument Choice website. If you have some questions or need a bit more help choosing the best home weather station for your application, then call one of our friendly scientists on 1300 964 137 or email [email protected].