Okay, so I am a weather geek – I admit it. My father was often at sea, and every day of my childhood, he recorded the weather in a journal. He would then proudly state, before an event, what the weather would be based on historical data, without needing a supercomputer.
Imagine my horror when I discovered that my weather station, which had been exposed to the elements for 10 years, had failed. Vevor, a company that prides itself on tough tools at reasonable prices, came to my rescue. Let’s take a look at the Vevor 7-in-1 weather station (YT60234) and see if it lives up to its weather-monitoring claims.
Looking at the Vevor 7-in-1 weather station
The good news is that if you want to be a weather geek, then a basic weather station will set you back about $20 for an indoor/outdoor temperature gauge, with prices then ranging up to thousands, depending on the quality and information it gathers.
I estimate the sweet spot is around $200 for a home unit that captures temperature, humidity, rain, wind, and the amount of sunshine. At this price point, you can also expect a Wi-Fi connection, which allows all your data to be stored in the cloud and provides access to both real-time and historical data over time.
The Vevor weather station is a self-contained weather monitoring solution that comes with everything you need to start live readings, including mounting hardware and a screwdriver. You will need three AAA batteries if you want data backup. The indoor and outdoor units that connect wirelessly can be placed up to 150m apart. The indoor unit features a 7.5-inch display and requires mains power, while the outdoor unit is rechargeable via solar energy.
Sold directly through Vevor for $152, the weather station is cheaper than many comparable products. The outdoor sensor unit is well-made and comes with a flexible mounting solution that would suit a wall, a horizontal surface, or a pole. Don’t be concerned if your mounting surface is not square, as the Vevor has a levelling mechanism to level the weather station using a built-in level bubble.
The weather station comes in a few pieces, but it’s relatively straightforward to assemble. Note that when mounting the outdoor sensor, you must point the solar panel to the north. This contradicts the instructions. The indoor and outdoor units should automatically sync once both are powered on.
In a departure from most modern smart devices, there’s no app functionality for this weather station. Instead, you use a browser and link to a Wi-Fi signal coming from the indoor unit. A setup screen will appear in your browser, where you enter your home Wi-Fi details, timezone, and weather server details (more on that later). The last step is to adjust the weather station from the Northern to the Southern Hemisphere, so that with the solar panel pointed north, the correct wind direction is shown.
At this point, you can read live weather data, including precise monitoring of wind speed, wind direction, temperature, humidity, rainfall, light, etc. In addition, it displays wind chill, dew point, pressure, calendar, temperature trend, moon phase and a forecast based on pressure changes. An alarm can be set for a specific time if this were to become your bedside clock, and a temperature alarm can be set to alert if the minimum or maximum is exceeded.
For the weather geeks
Now, let’s get really geeky about weather.
The Vevor weather station can send its data to either Weather Underground or Weathercloud. Both of these are free services, and you can not only see your data but also the data of any other weather stations in the world that share their data.
I can analyse graphs and tables, comparing data just like my Dad did, without ever having to record the data manually. If you are travelling and want to check the temperature inside your house from your phone, you query your station from your browser. Too cold, and geeky enough to have a fully connected smart home? You can turn the heater on remotely.
So, equilibrium has been restored in my household thanks to the Vevor weather station. My weather party trick is much simpler; in the summer, I open the doors when it’s colder outside, and in winter, when it’s warmer outside. After a rainstorm, I proudly proclaim how many mm of rain we got. If only the grass would stop growing.
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