My little Chinese inside/outside temp monitor

[Ben]

Don't get me wrong - I love my Davis VP2+ weather station, and wouldn't replace it for the world. But I must give a big tip of the hat to the little Chinese workers who made my un-named, no logo, generic inside/outside temp unit that I bought for a staggering AU$6.26 + postage back in 2008 on eBay. Less than US$5.00 in those days.

For five and a half years, it has faithfully recorded the temps in my kitchen, and the temp just outside the kitchen. Unlike the Davis, it doesn't keep monthly or yearly highs and lows, but it does keep the true extremes of temp, in my case -0.1C up to 49.6C (Black Saturday in Feb 2009 here in Melbourne, Aus). Amazingly, it's accuracy in temp is the same as Davis claim, + or - 2 degrees C.

The outside temp probe is a simple 2.0 M wire with a sensor on the end of it. All I did was cut a miniscule hole in the bottom of the fly screen and drop the sensor through. In all this time, it has experienced countless wind gusts of more than 100 km/h, torrential rain, has been immersed in water once (my fault, result of poor kiddie pool placement), and anything else Mother Nature could throw at it. Throughout, there has been nary a glitch on the LCD.

I buy a fair amount of stuff from China, being a remote control aeroplane enthusiast for some years. I can't help cringing a little bit when I order, because I know that roughly 5% of the stuff I buy from my supplier will not perform as advertised - all due to the suspect quality control of Chinese products, which has been well documented in the past. Nevertheless, it's still cheaper to buy this way than from more recognised brands which will perform to specs, but cost three times as much.

Which brings me back to my original point. Thank you, you un-named and unrecognised people, who designed and built my little inside/outside temp display. For five and a half years, I have regularly consulted your LCD, and given your opinion almost as much weight as my Davis. You have never given temp spikes or a blank screen.

And you've done it on the two AAA batteries that you supplied me with when I ordered you.

Ben.

[steve]

It sounds excellent value for money!

Just one point - I think the accuracy claimed by Davis is 0.5C?

[Ben]

To be honest, not quite sure about the accuracy of Davis stations....... perhaps the newer ones claim 0.5C accuracy, but I know the supplier of my station, accredited as he was, said no better than 2C. That seemed to be the standard in 2010, when I bought mine. I had just upgraded from a Lacrosse station; I was more interested in wind speed at the time, and remember being disappointed that the more expensive Davis was no better at temp.

Of course, this was all more than 3 years ago, so I may be wrong; at my age, memory is a fragile thing.

Ben.

[Ben]

Steve, as always, is right. I checked the specs on Davis systems, and they are correct to 0.5C, out of the box. Even on my 2010 system.

It doesn't change my original thank you to the people who designed and built this fantastic little monitor.

And it was through observations of this monitor, I bought LaCrosse and upgraded to Davis stations and Cumulus.

Ben.