Ambient Weather WS-2902 WiFi Smart Weather Station

For years I wanted a weather station. At first, I did not want to deal with hard wiring the unit which is solved with these wireless models. Plus, they were expensive and now they are reasonable. This unit met my specifications and has exceeded my expectations. Now, after having the unit for 7 months, contacting support and adding another LCD display, I am ready to write a review. 1. The unit is nicely packed and easy to unpack and assemble. Total assembly time was under 10 minutes. 2. The instruction manual in really great. Some manuals have scant details, others are so long and detailed they confuse most. This manual is clearly written. Perfect length. Pictures match copy and language is easy to follow and understand. 3. From the time I opened the box until the unit was fully functional was under 1 hour. This includes mounting in backyard. 4. I bought this pole at Amazon and highly recommend: 5 Piece Feeder Pole Set with Twist-in Ground Socket by Erva Tool and Die. I actually put this pole into the ground at 9PM one summer night and it took about 10 minutes. 5. You need to download the Ambient app to connect/set-up the unit to your house WIFI and another app to actually enjoy the features (wind, temperature, rain, humidity) of the weather station. My unit did not connect first time to WIFI. Maybe I made a typo, but second time was fine. Again, easy to follow instructions in app. The weather station unit now for sale had a software upgrade about a year ago. So issues with connecting to 2.4 WIFI networks were resolved and I had no issues. So ignore folks who raised this as an issue. 6. You then connect the LCD display to the outside weather station unit and WIFI (as I recall) and it starts working right away. 7. I also created an account at the Ambient website so I can see remotely on both the Ambient web site via a web browser and via the Ambient iPhone app – I use an iPhone and it works great. 8. I also connected to Weather Underground and downloaded the Weather Underground and PWS Monitor iPhone apps so I can see my weather station. With PWS you can see other weather stations nearby. 9. I have contacted Ambient support twice. Both times I got an answer in hours! Really great support. In fact, I wanted to add a second LCD display in my house and had a question and a follow-up question. Again, both times Ambient responded in hours. And I think one time they added a page to their excellent support pages with a picture to help me further. Now this is awesome support! 10. You can also add alerts and get an e-mail/text if you get > xx rain in an hour (so I can check my sump pumps as an example), if it is really hot or cold inside or outside (if inside it would mean an issue with HVAC perhaps), so some nice 'security/peace of mind' type features. 11. I enjoy seeing the various displays and checking locally and remotely. I have recommended this unit to a few people who are also really happy. I would highly recommend this unit. It works. Seems nicely calibrated when I compare to other devices and units in area, clean display and like I said – excellent support and instruction manual. Super easy to install and set-up.

I have had a weather station (Davis Vantage Pro) for years which is an awesome weather station but is a bit dated (it also recently stopped transmitting). So in need of a new weather station I purchased the WS-2902 after looking at reviews and prices. Hardware setup is easy as it can mount to any pole between 1-2 inches in diameter. The installation is just two u-bolts and took me about 5 minutes. Plugging in the base station it instantly connected and started to read data from the weather station. It really could not have been easier. Software setup had two problems but neither of them were directly the fault of the base station. First, the setup of the base station requires a WIFI network with AP isolation turned OFF. AP isolation just means that no device/computer using wifi on the network can see any other device/computer on the network. So AP isolation turned on will not allow your cell phone to see or talk to your base station once it is connected. My router from Xfinity is terrible and for some reason doesn't allow you to turn AP Isolation off. Luckily... I have an extender upstairs I connect to that does... problem solved. Next software problem was uploading data. It is supposed to upload to 3 different websites (Ambient Weather, WeatherCloud, and Weather Underground). I set them all up (easy) but the data going to Weather Underground was a mess. Even worse... the data would not upload to Ambient Weather or WeatherCloud for about 20 minutes. This left huge gaps in the data charts. The problem was Weather Underground. It seems that according to the Ambient Weather FB group, Weather Underground has had huge technical problems for the past week. People can't connect and problems of bad data persist. I went back to the phone app and removed the Weather Underground from the list of sites to upload to. Suddenly... everything worked PERFECTLY. The data going up to Ambient Weather updated every minute. The data going to WeatherCloud updated at the right intervals (I think it is every 10 minutes) and the charts looked great. So if you purchase this weather station I suggest setting it up so that the data uploads just to Ambient Weather's website first and hold off setting up the other two for a day or so. This way you have some level of confidence that the whole system is working properly. When WU gets itself back up and running right I will probably reconnect and upload to it. So far the data has been very accurate. I've compared it with the local airport and surrounding stations and it appears there are little changes in calibration needed. Oh... and I can also query my Alexa about the outside/inside conditions. It works very well also. My only complaint is that it appears the Ambient Weather website doesn't allow you to share your weather information. You need to log in to see it as there is no way to make it public. WeatherCloud, however, is open and doesn't have that restriction but Ambient Weather 'looks' much nicer. Oh well, it still gets 5 stars.

The instructions were so disappointing on this. The real problem is getting it connected and the online community system working. After that most of it makes sense. I used to write tech manuals, so I am picky. They go back and forth on whether you use provided rechargeable batteries or you install your own alkaline or lithium batteries. You are 4 pages into installing before you find out. Meanwhile you can't do the installation because you dare not set it up till you have batteries (that you are searching for). If you do it without batteries in five minutes the system goes out of setup and you have to use other instructions to get back into initialization. That requires you to push buttons on the back of the console which are really on the front. This is a model D, the latest greatest self start software, and it is. The problem is they have instructions printed for model C. Smart companies make improvements or corrections and print a little addendum that you read first. Not Ambient. No they print it on that clear plastic screen protector for the console. Seriously! You have no idea what instructions to follow. I finally went to YouTube. That wasn't much better, but after 3 hours I got through it. Putting on the wind vane was terrible guidance, they have a flat in there the quick guide doesn't explain. Then you finally get it going and it is awesome. The display is great, the features robust, the app has wonderful information and hyper local weather from thousands of others. You have history. This thing is the bomb. Why I gave it 5 stars. And I appreciate the new features. You just need to get people writing the manual who know the product they are selling and have actually set one up a few times. I have my console 100' and 5 walls from the sensor unit. It works great. You must have 2.4 mhz wifi! I highly recommend the unit but Lord help you with the setup.

UPDATE JAN 22, 2023: STILL WORKING GREAT.....THE PIC WAS TAKEN BEFORE I RAISED IT TO THE MAX HEIGHT POSSIBLE...ALKALINE BATTERY LIFE STILL APPEARS TO BE CLOSE TO 100%, NEXT TIME I WILL USE LITHIUMS, VERY ACCURATE, AND EVERYTHING WORKS....I AGREE SOMEWHAT WITH THE COMPLAINTS ABOUT THE VIEWING ANGLE OF THE DISPLAY, BUT I USE IT IN MY OFFICE AND POINT IT DIRECTLY AT MY CHAIR, SO IT ALWAYS LOOKS GOOD......FOR THE BEST RESULT PUT IT IN THE LITTLE CLIP-ON STAND AND LET IT SIT AT EXACTLY 90 DEGREES STRAIGHT UP (NORMAL TO THE MOUNTING SURFACE)....IT'S QUITE NICE FROM WHERE I SIT MOUNTED THIS WAY. WARNING: THE DISPLAY WILL NOT UPDATE THE IPHONE APP IF THE AC POWER SUPPLY IS TURNED OFF...AND SOMETIMES MY HOUSE CLEANER TURNS THE WALL SWITCH OFF THAT THIS IS CONNECTED TO...BUT AFTER SWITCHING IT BACK ON, 5 MINUTES LATER THE APP WILL UPDATE CORRECTLY. HAVE NOT YET SEEN ANY BIRD PROBLEMS. ORIGINAL COMMENTS, 11-12-2022: Since I am a weather geek, I looked at several units and bought this one. Easy to assemble, but be careful as it is a bit fragile so care should be taken. I installed a third-party pole mount bracket on my barn shed and brought a 2" wood dowel rod and raised it up above the roof line. So far, very nice performance. Seems to be really accurate and setting it up on the web was easy. The wind direction seems to move a lot, but honestly, when I am in my yard working I notice variable wind direction all the time. The wind speed is usually lower than reported by Weather Underground....the pressure measurements coincide with expected drops and increases. I have not calibrated the pressure yet, might need tech support for that. In three months' time I have noticed only one anomaly, and that was no rain was reported during one recent rain event, and I thought maybe a leaf clogged something......but two days later it was back to working perfectly. So, I'll leave it alone for now. I like the idea of looking at other people's weather systems, and mine correlates well with those. The outdoor unit communicates seamlessly with the indoor display at a distance of at least 75 yards, maybe a bit more (???). I should have installed Lithium batteries, as you should too.......but I could not find them at the time I needed them, so I used Alkaline. The iPhone GUI reports the battery level and it's still full after three months. 3 AA's required. All in all, great unit. My only concern is how long will it last. Time will tell. If I could add something to the GUI, I would ask for a report over time, stored data for perhaps up to a year that can be presented logically. For example, when I cover my pool I'd like to know how much rain we got in a 1-2-3 month time frame to know when/if it needs to be pumped to keep the water line below wall tiles. Minor point. Have not required Tech Support, so no rating is possible.

I spent considerable time researching products before making this purchase. I could spend more money for better accuracy. I could spend more money for a unit that separated the wind speed from the rain meter to better locate each one. I could spend more money for a unit with a better display. So why didn't I and what are the results? Accuracy: I wanted a unit that would match other weather data in my vicinity. This unit does just fine in that regard. The only way I would know if readings were off a little is if I had an expensive unit next to this one to compare. Accuracy is plenty good enough for a non-enthusiast like me. Wind and rain in one unit: This is an accuracy issue. I understand that more accurate wind speed readings require the sensor to be much higher. I have found no difference in the wind readings from my unit and other stations in my area. Wind speed reads plenty accurate for me. Display: There are complaints in reviews of the readability of the display. The display does quickly fade if you raise the display above you. It fades less if lower the display. It fades left to right only at extreme angles. I keep mine on a bar cabinet that is 3 feet high. In this location, the display is highly readable everywhere in the room. Given all of the complaining in some of the reviews I expected the display to present some problems. There are NO issues with the readability of the display in my setting. Weather Station: The unit comes almost completely assembled. All that you need to do is install batteries, twist in the rain collector and install the wind meter and wind direction arrow. All of these tasks only took a few minutes. Then just attach to your post and tighten the 4 nuts on the 2 u-clamps. Another 5 minutes and my weather station was up and running. Setup online was easy, just follow the prompts in the app. I was also easily able to set it up as a Weather underground Personal Weather Station so I can see my data on their site along with getting the details on the Ambient app. Overall I am very happy with the purchase. NO complaints yet. Update: Feb. 2, 2023 I've had this weather station for a few years now. We live on a large bay on Lake Michigan. This is a pretty rough environment for a device like this but the only problem I've had is the top of the rain cup has come off twice in some of our very high winds. It's very easy to reinstall so no big deal here. I've had to call customer service once to reset the wifi after I bought a new router. I missed a step in the directions, my fault, but they were extremely helpful. Still love the weather station and the company.

I am loving my weather station! This is my first real station although I’ve always had the simplified stations with one little sensor outside. I have to tell you, I was very motivated to do this right. When I read mounting instructions, I paled. I live on a very wooded lot so my roof was the only option. I’m a 55 year old petite woman who lives alone. Scared to death of heights! But I got my Little Giant out, put it up against the house and... well I’d like to say I charged up that ladder with my tool belt on but the truth is I sort of carefully, inch by inch...step by step, very slowly climbed up and at the top, had a good look at that very steeeep roof top and slowly climbed back down. With my hands on my hips, stood there thinking “who can I pay to come do this”. But determination won out and I wanted my station up so badly until I did climb up again with the station on the pole and put them on the roof, then back down for my tools. Back up again and lay them out on the roof. Back down for another gulp of determination. And off I went. I can’t tell you how scared I was when I first crawled onto the roof on my butt and inched my way up toward the top. But in a few minutes, I was on my feet walking the line of the roof top looking for a good spot. Anyhow, long story shortened a bit, I was able to get my PWS and pole mounted on the top of my roof soon enough but I do deserve a bravery award. I bought the cheaper TV antenna mounting pole which is adjustable and which makes it much easier to level this thing. I also went to Lowe’s and bought a 3 foot metal pole. The stupid TV antenna mount I bought said it was 2”. Not. I bought a two inch pole but it worked out because it just slipped over the pole on the mount and rested very solidly at the bottom. That decreased my height a little but no big deal. At least I didn’t have to attach them together with screws. My pole was a heavy metal, maybe iron or steel but heavy. The mount’s metal is more flimsy I worried a bit that with the station on top and the weight of the pole, the mount might bend. But so far so good. And I’m requesting a gold star in addition to my bravery award for taking a big deep breath and drilling holes in my roof! Everything lined up and I was able to hold the pole and station up and screw in the base at the same time. I forget but I’m thinking I couldn’t get the pole off the mount to just screw in the mount then put the pole and station on. So tightened all screws and stood up and leveled the station with the integrated bubble level. There you have it! And the station has functioned perfectly from the time I did the wireless and wi-fi connections to connecting with Wunderground. Follow instructions and it should go perfectly for you too. I had a bump in the road recently when I received a wunderground email saying I had stopped transmitting data. Took a day to figure out that I had upgraded firmware on my station and so had to go back to the app and register it again with wunderground. I now have a Gold Star rating by wunderground. I check my data frequently. I’ve had to turn the lighting off completely to sleep at night with it in my bedroom but I’m sensitive to light when trying to sleep. So easy to just touch the light setting on the console twice for s black screen and again in the a.m. to light back up. It has a dim setting but is not enough for me to sleep. Now already wondering what to upgrade or add to it maybe. This station is a great first dive into the weather data hobby.

I had been looking for a home weather station for years and finally decided to pull the trigger. Mainly because I had the perfect poll for it that had been sitting under out carport for years and my wife threated to get rid of it with the next bulk trash pickup. Use it or lose it, so I put it to use. If you are looking for a great weather station at great price this is the perfect unit. This station has all the basics you would want and more. Rain gage that measures not only the amount of rain but hourly rain fall as well as 24 hour rain fall, weekly, monthly and rain event totals. The unit has a wind vain and anemometer for wind direction and speed, of course. It also has temperature with heat index and wind chill. We have a pool so I love that the unit measures UV index and Solar Radiation. Assembly: Not too difficult. Everything goes together pretty easy if you have a basic knowledge of putting things together. If you don't then call your kids or grandkids to come do it for you. Directions are rather long and wordy and at times seem out of order. It also has a few steps for optional equipment that does not some with this particular unit. Dug through the box looking for those things before realizing they were optional. The wind vain and anemometer cups slip on and you just need a small screw driver to tighten them down. Rain gauge twist into place and the wire filter pushes right in. The unit runs on solar power but uses two AA batteries as a backup. Took me a minute to figure out how to get the cover to slide off, I never want to push too hard and break something. The biggest issue you will have is how and where to mount the unit. I have a large yard and a garden framed with rail road ties out around 100 feet away from the house. I also had an old pipe with tripod feet that use to be on our roof with our internet dish that I was able to mount the unit too. I was able to bold the stand to the railroad ties so it is not going anywhere. The u-joints that came with the unit securely mounted the unit to the pole I had and was fairly simple. The thing to remember is mouth it facing north, which I was easily able to do using the compass on my iPhone and the arrow on top of the unit. And do not forget to check the level of the unit. It has a level dot on top. I thought I was done, but then noticed that and spend another 30 minutes trying to adjust the base and the u-joint and pole screws to try and get it perfect… then just got mad and bent the pole and BAM… unit level. It took the unit a few minutes to find the indoor unit. I had to then move it around to find the best spot for reception. I have tried moving it all over the house and the base has a tough time reading the station if you move it too far away or there are too many walls between the station and the base. I have it setting on one of my wife’s tables by a back window within eyesight of the weather station. It gets five bars there and is working great, however my wife thinks it clashes with the aesthetic of the table… can’t win them all. Pros: Within a few hours of setting the unit up we had a big rain event. Unit worked great. We got over 3 inches of rain over night. With wind and rain unit held firmly in place. Display is easy to read. Also easy to setup and create accounts on Ambientweather.net and other weather apps that let me check out the weather conditions at my home wherever I am. Cons: Not many major ones. Set unit DST (Daylight savings time) thinking it would automatically spring forward and fall back with time change, but instead it would randomly spring forward an hour. Once I turned DST off the clock has kept the correct time. I could see if you have a small yard, or are in an area where the house are close together, or have a lot of trees, you may have a hard time finding a clear, unobstructed, spot to mount the unit. Also, if you do not have an existing pole to mount the unit to you could spend as much on the poll and hardware as you spend on the station itself. As for the unit itself the wind gauge does not look to read over 99.9 mph. I live on the Texas coast, took a direct hit from Hurricane Harvey in 2017, so that is a possibility where I live. While the unit might not display wind speed that high it may still read that and post it on the Ambientweather.net site. Lastly, If you are not computer or tech savvy then have your kids, grandkids, or someone under the age of 25 come over and help you with that part of the set up. I had an issue connecting it to our WiFi trying to follow the directions, and my son took it and without even looking at the directions had it connected in about 30 seconds. Overall great weather station for a great price.

October 11, 2025 My wonderful, WS2902A, is showing signs of its age. I bought the WS2902D with Cam2 to replace it. (I will keep my 2902A to use with my RV.) However, I seem to have made a dreadful Mistake! All kinds of problems with this later, "improved" model. Apparently, (SWAG) all connections go to and through the AMBnet and when it fails, so does your weather station. I lost my gold medal on Wunderground because of this. There is ZERO support availability on Weekends. The software uses terms (like "handle") that are not mentioned anywhere in the documents. After about two dozen tries to get this thing up and running, I quit. **************************************** August 25, 2025 Upgrade rating after Dec 2020 purchase Yes, the setup was a pain-in-the-neck. However, here is is years later and that good ol' system is still working along! I hung a scientific rain gate on the same post. After adjusting the rain sensor on the 2902, it has kept perfect records. All my friends go to it on Weather Underground. Almost 5 years old and it is fabulous. Side note - I wipe it down with Aerospace Protector 303 every Spring. Helps keep the AZ sun from beating it to death. ============= I have had this system for 3 days. Sorry, Amazon, you charge tax so I bought it elsewhere. It goes together easy enough. It was difficult to get it level on the post, as there was some kind of 'give' to the surface that meets the top of the post. The bubble barely stayed in the red circle. I thought about gluing it, but I haven't . . . yet. The app that sets it up is NOT intuitive and does not give feedback on what it is doing. You have to download awnet from Play Store or wherever you iPhone users go. NOT the Ambient Weather app - that is for after it is set up. NOT the Osprey Tool. Fails every time. First, have your Router SSID and wireless password available. 2. Press the "wind" and "pressure" buttons for 4 seconds, until the wireless symbol flashes rapidly and the day swaps from day to MB. 3. Start the application. Do not expect any "connected" or any other feedback. Mine failed continuously for some strange reason. I uninstalled, reinstalled, and somewhere around the 10th try it connected and returned the MAC address. Write that down, preferably in the book. Do NOT call for help. It's noon on Friday and their "support technician has left for the day". Seriously? No one there over the weekend and you're left to hang out to dry?? I was certainly miffed. Then, Miss brainless answers with "Hundreds of people install this every day without trouble." Really. How UN-helpful can you get? ***** Update: Patience! ***** 5. When you finally connect . . . it asks for your router info. Your router info, into which your wireless station will reach the Internet. That SSID and password. There is a scan button. It will glom onto a 2.4 net, by the way. I did not have to turn off my 5G wireless. 6. First, the AmbientWeather.net. You click on the not-so-obvious "Register at AmbientWeather.net". Put in the MAC. SAVE . . . then hit next. 7. Same with the Wunderground -- register your station and get an ID and station Key. 8. Weathercloud . . the phone-ware issues a million-character station ID and Key. Write it down carefully; there is no cut and paste. Finally hit finish. If you typed all that stuff in correctly, your station will report. The WS-2902A sensor unit does not seem as solid as the AcuRite Weather sensor unit. My AcuRite was 8 years old and beginning to fluctuate too much. If anything happens soon, I'll let you know. Lastly, I was trying to register the unit on APRS. NOTHING comes up in the search for setting up APRS, except the Virtual Weather Service or whatsit that doesn't work for the A.W. stations. If you send an email, you get a canned response that links to some article that doesn't pertain. On the third try, I got a link that said clearly that A.W. does not support APRS. Why isn't that a FAQ? Or come up in a search? Hiding it in case it dissuades you from buying? I don't know if I would recommend this yet. It needs to withstand one of our horrendous storms, first. Update: 30 August 2021. Five days, and it is reporting often and accurately. It is an upgrade to Acurite 5-in-1 for sure.

nice product. working perfectly

Great bit of kit. Easy to setup and just ticks away. Gives all the data I want. Connects only on 2.4Ghz.

Great product up and running all working well.

Working flawlessly now for several months.

Notice succinte et on ne peut avoir la notice globale en français! l'appairage est très compliqué! pour l'instant je n'ai toujours pas réussi de l'appairer avec mon iPhone