Smart Netatmo weather station with rain and anemometer being tested

Old-fashioned becomes smart. So also weather stations - until now you always had to be at home to read the data. The Netatmo weather station records the weather data in your own home and sends it to your own app. I had the opportunity to test the Netatmo weather station for a few weeks - here is my test report.

Weather stations - almost everyone has them in their own home. However, the classic weather station cannot be read on the way. Here you have to use an extra weather app again. Netatmo provides a remedy here and makes the classic weather station smart, with its own app and web interface with many statistics. Practical, but is a smart weather station really worth it in everyday life? My test report.

Setup: very uncomplicated via the app

After unpacking it starts. To start, the indoor module must be connected to the power supply using the power pack and batteries inserted in the outdoor module. A Bluetooth connection between the app and the indoor module is required once for the subsequent coupling. Here you establish the connection to the own WLAN network for the indoor module. All other modules only maintain radio contact with the inside without a direct connection to the Internet. Handy if you don't have WiFi in the garden.

The indoor module always eats electricity. (Image: TechnikNews.NET)

Then you put the supplied batteries in the rain and wind gauge and then plug them into the home network. Incidentally, the manufacturer promises a battery life of up to one year. After the configuration has been completed, a suitable place for the outdoor sensors must be found. In contrast to the rain and wind modules, the outdoor module is only splash-proof and must therefore be hung or placed under the roof. With me, the modules are not right next door, but all external modules maintain radio contact, the strength of which is indicated by three of a maximum of five lines.

This inconspicuous gadget measures the wind. (Image: TechnikNews.NET)

Appearance and workmanship

The indoor and outdoor sensors look really stylish. Thanks to the inconspicuous and yet modern design, these can be perfectly integrated into your own apartment. In contrast to the classic weather station, there is unfortunately no "analog" display. The app is required for reading - more on this later below. There is also nothing to complain about in terms of workmanship. The rain and wind gauges are waterproof as stated and withstand any rain. With the supplied Velcro fastener, my rain gauge withstood strong storms.

The rain gauge for outside. (Image: TechnikNews.NET)

In everyday life: recording and reading the weather data

The indoor module, which is constantly connected to the socket, is responsible for collecting the data. This sends the current weather data from all modules to the Netatmo server every five minutes. The recordings of the Netatmo weather station can then be accessed using the app and web interface. While the app only shows the current weather data, you can view all recorded data from the last few months as detailed statistics in the web interface. So you don't get the weather data directly from the station, but go through the Netatmo server. For some, this is quite questionable: the noise level and carbon dioxide measurements could certainly tell at what times someone is in the house.

Retrieving the data in the app almost always worked review proflawless. There were rarely outages, which are displayed in the app with the message "missing weather data". However, the measurements of the wind sensor are not exactly correct. If you want to measure the current wind, this is not possible because you cannot request a current measurement via the app. This means that the values ​​displayed for the maximum wind speed are not accurate either, since it only measures every five minutes.

Conclusion: an expensive gimmick

Let's come to the conclusion of the Netatmo weather station. At first I checked the app every few hours to check the current weather data. Over time, however, this became largely uninteresting and I mainly used my weather app again. Thanks to several measuring stations in town, this still provides more accurate results than the weather station at home. The main feature of a weather app, the weatherproforecasts are ultimately retrieved from the third-party provider wetter.com in the Netatmo app. In addition, the fact that I can't call up the weather data immediately bothered me.

Even if the statistics in the app are interesting to see over time, and you can see the current data of the apartment on the go, this does not justify the high price. This is at an RRP of 169 euros for the indoor and outdoor modules and more than 50 euros each for rain and anemometers. If you buy the complete package, the total costs a mere 340 euros. A premium version for a weather app is definitely cheaper here than your own weather station at home. And to see the current data from outside, you can also buy a classic weather station.

• Buy Netatmo Weather Station from Amazon
• Buy rain gauge for Netatmo weather station on Amazon
• Anemometer for Netatmo weather station at Amazon

At this point, thanks to Netatmo, who made the device available to us free of charge for a few weeks.

Source of images: All images used in this test were copyrighted by TechnikNews.NET photographed.

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