Review of the Oregon Scientific Weather Thermometer.

I was pleasantly surprised to receive an Oregon Scientific Weather collection model number BAR218HG to provide a review about and just try out for myself.  While I don’t consider myself too much of a techno geek I do find new electronic toys rather cool to play with! 

What arrived in our box was:

•One indoor temperature/humidity/barometric pressure set display unit

•One outdoor temperature/humidity sensor — the system allows for up to five outdoor sensors

•Quick Start Guide

•Full User Manual

•Warranty information

Upon opening the box and adding the batteries I got busy with The Quick Start Guide.  Most of the setup went pretty smoothly, setting the date and time, pairing the base to the remote sensor, setting the altitude, sea level pressure and what not.  However, I did have a minor hiccup when attempting to pair it to my cell phone and that I believe was mostly user error. Not any flaw in the thermometer. 

Since we already had something like this thermometer downstairs, albeit a much older model, we decided to keep this upstairs in our bedroom.  This allows us now to keep an eye on the temperature in our room, as well as humidity levels inside and outside as well.  During winter this is a big help as we can simply push the button for the backlight to come on to find out how we should dress for the day.  Is it in the negative 30s?  Okay, today is a sweater and undershirt day.  Is it a nice, balmy 10 degrees out?  Okay, I can wear a blouse and slacks today.  As for the humidity levels, we try to aim for about 40% humidity in the house to keep shocking ourselves down to a minimum.  This is extremely difficult to do in the winter without constant monitoring and this thermometer definitely helps with that.  If I notice the humidity levels beginning to drop, I will turn on the smaller humidifiers upstairs to help rectify that.  To save electricity I do not keep humidifiers on non stop, and this thermometer now helps with that!  Who knew this could help me save on electricity!

The only feature I have yet to really experiment with is the Bluetooth capabilities.  I never bring our cell phones upstairs, and downstairs we already have an indoor/outdoor thermometer so I have yet to have a reason to grab my phone and check the weather.  One rather irritating limitation is that Bluetooth in the thermometer cannot connect to the cellular device unless you’re pretty nearby.  This renders this part of the thermometer more or less useless most of the time unless we’re in the house. 

I do look forward to testing this thermometer out more during the spring and summer months however.  Being a gardener, we constantly watch the weather, watch for frosts and watch for freezes.  This I think will be invaluable to us later on once seeds are in the ground.  

This model can either be purchased at Amazon for approximately $62 or at the Oregon Scientific store for $69.  A pretty good bargain regardless of where you purchase this at!