The following is a review of this Weather Station hardware by WeatherMatrix Founder Jesse Ferrell, who uses and reviews multiple Electronic Weather Stations as a hobby. The key for the ratings is shown below.

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The following is a review of a Texas WRL-32 with high res output, obtained in 1998. For more information about this station, including manufacturing details, see the main page. This stations was reviewed for over 3 years from installation.

P R I C E :

This station was the most expensive station reviewed at $2746. However, Texas Weather does sell starter stations as low as $999. If you're an amateur weather observer with a normal budget, you won't be looking at the station reviewed. If you're a business or professional meteorlogist who desires a top of the line station, you've come to the right place. But do you get what you pay for? Read on...

F E A T U R E S :

This station had more features than any one reviewed, including a lightning detector and solar radiation sensor. It also can be purchased with a leaf-wetness sensor.

I N S T A L L A T I O N :

This station's installation was fairly easy because of the amount of hardware included. It had longer wires (100ft) than any of the stations reviewed, which made for easy mounting in high places.

R E S O L U T I O N :

The resolution of this station (with "Euro" high res option) is incredible for pressure - it measures every 0.001"Hg, which makes for a very smooth line of pressure in graphs and enables subtle variations in air pressure to be picked up. The temperature and wind speed are measured in tenths, which again makes for a smooth trace. Sampling rate is also outstanding... the wind speed & direction are real-time, and I believe other important sensors must be one second. This enables the scientific user to catch peak wind speeds and not have them lost inbetween measurements.

A C C U R A C Y :

WeatherMatrix Member Ed Edelman's Electronic Weather Stations Accuracy Table reviews the "WLS" station, which has the same accuracy as the WRL-32 with the "Euro" option. Accuracy is outstanding, this station ties or has the best accuracy of all of the stations reviewed on that page, with +/-1% (generally less than one degree) for temperature, +/-3% for humidity, and 0.03"Hg for air pressure.

R E L I A B I L I T Y :

I'm giving this station a Fair reliability rating because we had a lot of trouble with the station but we have not heard similar stories.

Within about 2 months of purchase, the temperature/humidity sensor started giving random readings during cool weather with rain. This continued to be a problem for 42 months even after we made modifications requested to the junction box, then after the sensor was replaced, then after the junction box was replaced, then after the wires inbetween were replaced. Finally in Summer 2001 the sensor was replaced again and the problem went away.

One positive story, from the console to the sensors, the Texas Weather Stations are solid components that seem to be built to last. The station reviewed was hit directly by lightning in August 2000, but the damage was only to the console, and was fixed for a mere $88.

S U P P O R T :

This station gets a "Fair" support rating, which sounds generous considering that it took 3 and a half years for the problem to be fixed, and since they sent us another bad sensor part to replace the bad one.

However, we were able to speak directly with a technician almost every time we called, and we probably were a little different than the average customer because we were testing the station and did agree to do some early tests to help them determine what the problem was. Some of the lengthy time to fix the problem was waiting on us to do additional tests.

We hope the average customer would have had the entire station replaced immediately after the problem was reported -- this is what should have been done, from a customer service perspective. We have not heard any similar stories about poor support for this station, so we give this station a "Fair" for support.

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