Bulbs & Fittings Ideas

Customer Video Review Length:: 1:09 Mins

Out of the box, this AMBIENT WS-10 WIRELESS INDOOR/OUTDOOR THERMO-HYGROMETER will continuously display the current temperature and humidity in four different locations inside and outside your home. The square master console displays the temperature and humidity of the room it’s located in, and also the readings that are wirelessly broadcast by the three small indoor/outdoor sensors you place at other locations within a range of about 100 feet. (To monitor eight locations, you will need to purchase five additional sensors.)

Note that this device is a thermometer-hygrometer, NOT a weather station. (For an excellent weather station that I really like, see Ambient Weather Station with Temperature, Dew Point, Barometer and Humidity).

Humidity readings in particular will be approximate, unless you calibrate them using a sling psychrometer (expensive!) or an Ambient calibration kit (about purchased from Ambient through Amazon). Once you have a measured humidity reading, you can use the console to “calibrate” each sensor by adjusting the displayed percentage figure–the console will then show the corrected humidity reading for that sensor, although the sensor itself will continue to display its factory-calibrated reading. (For me, it’s enough to accept the approximate humidity readings that the sensors display, without resorting to further purchases to get an exact humidity calibration.)

Temperature readings are much easier to calibrate, using a mercury or spirit (red fluid) thermometer. Once you have an exact temperature reading (if you care to bother with this), you can “calibrate” the temperature by adjusting the console’s temperature reading from the sensor in exactly the same way as the humidity reading. To make the “calibration” adjustments for humidity and temperature, you use the big buttons labeled Channel, Min/Max, and Alarm. The included instruction manual is a good one that you probably won’t have any difficulty with.

Don’t be surprised if your sensors give different readings out of the box. When placed side by side, my console and all three sensors gave nearly the same temperature reading, but one “rogue” sensor gave a humidity reading about 5% higher than the humidity reading on the other three. I solved this by “calibrating” the rogue sensor so that its humidity reading would display the same as the others on the console. Also, you may need to be patient, because the temperature and humidity readings can take as much as 48 hours to stabilize. My devices actually stabilized in just a few hours.

The console displays the temperature and humidity for each location in big, easy-to-read numbers. Pressing the min/max button changes the display to show the recent minimum and maximum history for temperature and humidity. (The min/max history can be reset at any time by holding the min/max button for 3 seconds.) You can also program the console to sound an audible and visual (flashing) alarm when specific maximum or minimum levels for temperature or humidity are reached.

My chief complaint is that the console display is NOT backlit. Thus the console must be placed in a reasonably well-lit location to be readable (near a desk lamp will do). A lesser complaint is that a couple of cute console features–a “smiley” icon indicating the dry/comfortable/wet humidity level at each location, and an arrow indicating the up/unchanged/down temperature reading at each location–are too small to be seen and read unless you are very close to the console.

Another nice feature is that the console and sensors have holes in the back for hanging (on a nail), so they’re extremely easy to install. The console, in addition, has a fold-out stand so that you can set it on any available flat surface.

All in all, I like this Ambient Thermo-Hygrometer a lot. I’m a bit of a weather buff, so I enjoy being able to sit at my computer and see all at once what the temperature and humidity levels are in my home office, bedroom, living room, and garage!

Update 1/1/2014:

For some reason all of the sensors drop out all of the time. Usually it is one at a time and sometimes it comes back, most of the time I do a battery pull on the main unit and it finds them again. Oddly it seems to be the sensors CLOSEST to the main unit that drop out. It is very annoying. Moving from 4 stars to 2 at the moment.

Update 1/25/2014:

After a lot of experimentation, all 4 units seem to stay in sync. I had to move the base close to two of the sensors as apparently 2 walls an a door is a bit too much for it to communicate through. My home does have metal studs as opposed to wood. I am not sure if that causes more interference.

Moving back to 4 stars and we see if the new location solves all the problems.

So I needed additional sensors to monitor the temp and humidity of some pretty remote spots in and outside my home. Following the instructions from Ambient was easy. The remotes found the display with no problem – even through walls of concrete block. The remote temps seem accurate and have a method of re-calibrating them through the display if for some reason there is an error. You can check it against a mercury thermometer just in case you suspect a false reading. Right now I have three sensors that are up and running and as far as I can ascertain are reporting accurate temps and humidity. The display is just the right size and clearly displays information for 3 remotes (with room to expand to additional remotes) as well as for the conditions existing at the display. I think the Ambient Weather WS-10 Wireless Indoor/Outdoor 8-Channel Thermo-Hygrometer is a winner!