La Crosse Technology WS-811561-W Solar Powered Atomic Digital Wall Clock

Very nice layout and the charging feature it top notch. I would buy this moving forward for any clock needed...

After reading some of the other reviews, I thought it would be best to wait a few months and see how happy I was with this product before submitting the review. I purchased this in Jan of 2014, and it is now November 2014 so I have had this unit for about 11 months.Setup was a little bit funky. You cannot start up the clock until the remote unit is charged and transmuting, so you need to leave the remote out in the sun for a few hours before getting everything set up. I'm not too crazy that the remote unit has non-replaceable batteries, sooner or later they are going to go bad. When they do I will probably take apart the sensor and replace them myself, but this is not a recommended thing by the manufacturer, so at some point, the remote functionality will fail. So far in 11 months it hasn't been a problem.Once you get the remote charged up (you can tell by pressing the reset on it and waiting for the battery voltage to be above 2.5v which it will display as one of the things that it shows on the screen at reset) you press reset on the remote, then after it cycles back to temp display, quickly put the batteries in the clock part. If you don't do it within 3 mins, you will have to do it over. Don't fiddle with the clock or set the time until you get remote reception and the outside temp shows up.Once that is done, you can set the other parts, like time zone, DST, and if you like, the current time. If you don't set the time, assuming you are somewhere the clock can receive WWV, it will set itself, but generally with radio clocks I prefer to set it all initially and just let WWV correct the accuracy on the next go around. This is because it can take a few hours for it to get set. It only checks the atomic time once or twice an hour, and it is a shortwave signal so depending on atmospheric propagation conditions and solar activity, it could be several hours before it gets a clean enough signal to set itself.Once I got it set, I had no problems at all until the other day when a couple of new symbols appeared on the display. Little full battery symbols with RX and TX in them. The manual for this model did not list what these meant. Eventually, I found a similar model manual that stated that the RX one was supposed to indicate that the clock battery was low, and the TX that the remote sensor was low. I looked at the remote sensor battery level and it was fine. I swapped out the batteries in the clock, and both went away. I suspect this comes from using the same LCD for multiple models, including those with non-solar battery powered remotes. Anyway, the batteries lasted about 11 months, after replacing them and doing the aforementioned setup dance, all is right in the world again and the unit works great.So to summarize, the manual could have been a little better and explained all the items on the display, setup has a few quirks but if you follow the instructions closely it isn't bad, and the thing has worked flawlessly. If I could make feature requests of La Crosse, I would like a version of this that has a remote with replaceable cells, and where the clock had a plug in option with an adjustable brightness electroluminescent backlight for night viewing. Then it would be perfect for my needs. I won't rate this one down for not having those features, because for what is advertised, it works great.

Avoid this solar unit! After a year sometime the outdoor transmitter will likely fail for you!

I purchased this in July, mounted the outdoor sensor on the back deck where it was somewhat protected from the weather but got plenty of indirect sunlight, and was pleased with how well it worked. Toward the end of September (2 months after purchase) I saw that the outside temperature was over 90, stepping outside confirmed that it was actually around 40. I brought the sensor inside and placed it next to the indoor display. After a couple of hours there was a 20 degree difference between the indoor and outdoor temperature displays.I posted a product support request on the LaCrosse web site and fairly quickly got a response that batteries are the #1 warranty issue. The indoor display was working fine and the outdoor sensor is solar powered and is sealed so those batteries can't be replaced.A follow-up response from LaCrosse provided instructions for a side-by-side test. Instructions were included to try a different location or look for a heat source if the unit was within tolerance (4 degrees). There was no mention of what to do if the unit was not within tolerance.By the beginning of October it seemed like the outside sensor wasn't transmitting to the indoor display. LaCrosse responded that the indoor and outdoor units needed to be restarted. They also had a list of questions to enable them to provide an effective solution to the issue. I did the restart, got the incorrect outside temperature to display, and replied with answers to the listed questions. I haven't heard from LaCrosse since, even after resending the response email.I have determined that there is not enough sunlight in New England to power the outdoor sensor during the fall and winter. After charging the outdoor sensor 24 hours it will power up and work until after dark.I have also determined that LaCrosse doesn't honor their warranty. If the problem isn't related to batteries or sensor location then it is ignored.I will avoid LaCrosse products in the future.

Excellent produit. Satisfait de cette horloge.