Hi sorry to jump on your post like this. I have just purchased this weather station to replace my old bresser5-1 due to rubbish rain readings. Just wondering the only issue i see if the wind speed seems quite low. Highest gust was 30mph i live by the north sea and my bresser got high gusts than that. Either bresser was over reading or this one is currently under reading, Other than that i love the console on the W8686I guess you get the wind readings from the WH65 outdoor sensor array (see also: https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=40730.0).
In my observation the Ecowitt WS80 outdoor sensor array with an ultrasonic anemometer picks up winds earlier and tends to have a higher reading than the WH65 cups.
Compared to stations around me, also some Davis Pro VP2, the WS80 wind readings seem to be more accurate (but it's another investment
). So I'd say the WH65 is under reading.[ You are not allowed to view attachments ] WS80 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ] WH65 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Also, the positioning plays quite a role. The 7-in-1 is always a compromise between Temperature, wind and rain, whereas the WS80 separates wind and rain, and if you also want to separate outdoor temperature reading to have all three main sensors in their optimal position, you get yourself an extra WH32 outdoor T/H sensor. I've done the latter, and have the WH65 in parallel (as backup and for comparison).
The optimal combination as far as I can tell (and what my measurements support) is: wind from WS80, temperature/humidity from either WS80 or WH32 and rain from WH65.
[The absolute enthusiast will put a WH32-EP into a Meteoshield Pro
- the -EP is the extra precision version].The WH65 rain gauge provides better readings than the WH40 single rain gauge (many discussions about this in this board). It needs to be improved, design-wise and firmware-wise (and Ecowitt are aware of it).
While the W8686 is a good start, and probably for many sufficient to satisfy their weather enthusiasm needs, if you have higher standards for accuracy, a setup with separate sensors will be your target configuration (and necessitates bigger investments, too
). The good thing is that the WS8686 console (an Ecowitt HP2551 clone) works with all recent Ecowitt sensors. See the table/matrix at the above mentioned link.