Cheap Digital Barometer Suggestions?

demonboy

demonboy

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Hi,

I'm looking for a digital barometer for around £30. Some of the weather stations display images for the barometric pressure but I just want a display of the actual pressure that I can glance at across the room. I'm not interested in what clothes the man is wearing or what the time is, I'm just after pressure. This is probably the closest but it's a little fussy, though I like the bar graph showing the previous readings. Apparently this one is a little small. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance.
 
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Aldi and Lidl frequently have cheap weather stations for sale. The designs vary, but I have had one with a reasonably large baro display plus graph (and no little people with umbrellas) which has served me well for the past three years. It also tells me the time of local(ish) sunrise, sunset and moon phase, rise and set.
 
I think you may be unlucky.

They all seem to be combined with various displays of temperature, humidity, date, time, moonphase, state of tide, sun rise and set and the weather forecast symbols.

The lower priced ones seem to only have the symbols not the actual pressure.

My experience of "budget" priced weather stations is not good.

One that only has symbols has not changed in the 5 years or so that we have had it.

The one that does have an actual pressure reading seems to be more sensitive to changes in ambient temperature than it does to pressure changes! Thats a Lidl one!

£30 wont even buy a decent aneroid barometer.
Be prepared to spend a lot more or forget it.

It will be interesting to hear if anyone can recommend a simple digital barometer, especially one that is accurate, at an affordable price.

Vion is a brand name recommended in the past but I am failing to find anything now!
 
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My local optician had a bit of kit that did all of the stuff that one expects from the marine cos. Wind speed & direction from a seperate (masthead?) unit plus all the other data. At around €120 with a 2 yr back up, it makes marine kit look wildly expensive And one can always turn it in if it quits, just clean the salt off.....
A
 
alan_d said:
Aldi and Lidl frequently have cheap weather stations for sale. The designs vary, but I have had one with a reasonably large baro display plus graph (and no little people with umbrellas) which has served me well for the past three years. It also tells me the time of local(ish) sunrise, sunset and moon phase, rise and set.
Click to expand...

It's maybe a matter of luck. I got one of these a year or so ago. Initially it worked fine, but first the outside temperature sensor failed, then the pressure display started creeping high (it currently thinks it's 1039.0 mb here which I feel is a tad optimistic :) ), then it lost contact with the German radio station so its time is a few minutes slow - wrt GMT that is - it never managed the BST shift this summer. OTOH for about £20... The internal temp. / sunrise / sunset / moon phase and pressure trend bits currently still seem to work OK.
 
Oregon Scientific do some nice kit... complete with wireless sensors.. so you can mount on a spreader or up the top of the mast..

GL
 
If it's a matter of luck...

then I've been lucky. I got an Aldi weather station for the boat and was sufficiently impressed to get another for the house. The one on the boat's 5 year old now and the outside sensor went swimming , but the rest still works fine, including the barometer, which was a couple of millibars out when I last changed the batteries, which I can live with after more than a year. If I was fussed enough I could recalibrate it every few months, but I'm more interested in the change - especially rate of change than I am absolute pressure and the graph feature gives that at a glabce.

AT £15 it's fine for the kind of sailing I do. When it dies, I'll be getting another
 
The only important things is that the device has the possibility to display the pressures every half an hour for the last 12 hours or so.
Most electronic devices can be calibrated .
 
I have an anaeroid barometer and an Aldi cheapie, and Aldi slightly more expensive, and a Lidl one (Don't ask)

None of them match in readings, but once I take a 'fix' and calibrate them they all track the trend correctly and I've been quite impressed with the better Aldi one and the smaller Lidl one which have boith kept radio time and give readings quite close to each other.

A digital barometer is a bit useless unless you have the historical trend bar graph as half the use of a baro is whether its rising or falling or static.

I'd buy an Aldi one..for not very much, see how you get on with it, and you will find out what you like or don't like. Then you can spend more on a better piece of kit when you know better what your requirements are.

Tim
 
A few years ago I was in France, lots of touristy shops were selling mercury barometers for about £80. I was going to buy one on the way home, but failed. I don't think they are easy to get now except as antiques?
 
pieter2 said:
The only important things is that the device has the possibility to display the pressures every half an hour for the last 12 hours or so.
Most electronic devices can be calibrated .
Click to expand...
I think you might find the half-hourly requirement rather restrictive. Most devices I've seen will only log hourly data - certainly at the lowerer end of the market
 
alan_d said:
Aldi and Lidl frequently have cheap weather stations for sale. The designs vary, but I have had one with a reasonably large baro display plus graph (and no little people with umbrellas) which has served me well for the past three years. It also tells me the time of local(ish) sunrise, sunset and moon phase, rise and set.
Click to expand...

I've also got a Lidl one at home, has pressure in figures as well as the bar display for trend. Paid about 20 quid a few years back, so far can't complain, excellent value.
 
Vion for the boat, without a doubt. Has a bar graph for trend, and is 'almost' instrument sized, as opposed to the desk-top type from Lidl/aldi etc.
The only icon the Vion displays is a yacht on its side along with the strong wind alarm, and that is only if you select the function via the light switch on the back.
I find the desk top unit OK at home, as I am really only looking for the trend and rate of change in pressure, to see if it's worth visiting the Vion....
 
Billjratt said:
Vion for the boat, without a doubt. Has a bar graph for trend, and is 'almost' instrument sized, as opposed to the desk-top type from Lidl/aldi etc.
The only icon the Vion displays is a yacht on its side along with the strong wind alarm, and that is only if you select the function via the light switch on the back.
I find the desk top unit OK at home, as I am really only looking for the trend and rate of change in pressure, to see if it's worth visiting the Vion....
Click to expand...

I mentioned Vion earlier because they have been recommeded before but Googling now for them almost in vain.

However found this one http://www.marinescene.co.uk/product/2945/vion-special-marine-electronic-barometer-a4000
It would seem to be what is wanted but a tad more expensive. There seems to be a new version on the way . Same price .
 
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Pic of cheepo Aldi one £17 IIRC.

IMG_1055.jpg


Bar chart shows present,-1,-3,-6,and -12 hrs.

Pressure reading is reasonably accurate as I track Manston. It's out by 6hpa in the pic as I couldn't be bothered to recal after battery change.

4 years old.
 
Billjratt said:
Vion for the boat, without a doubt. Has a bar graph for trend, and is 'almost' instrument sized, as opposed to the desk-top type from Lidl/aldi etc.
The only icon the Vion displays is a yacht on its side along with the strong wind alarm, and that is only if you select the function via the light switch on the back. . . .
Click to expand...

............................Seconded


Absolutely no contest. I have a Vion A4000 and it is designed specifically for the marine market:

http://www.vion-marine.com/english/recherche_produits_fiche.asp?id=77&lng=2&fam=2
 
Difficult to resist such a ringing endorsement! I might ask Santa Claus for one.

Can it be screwed to a bulkhead or does it need a bracket making for it?
 
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