The US’s largest home weather station manufacturers are AcuRite, Ambient Weather, and Davis. However, buying one of these stations outside the United States is expensive. In the rest of the world, Ecowitt is the largest home weather station manufacturer globally. But like Ambient Weather, this company also licenses its designs from a company called Fine Offset, which explains why both companies have the same weather stations.
We were shocked to find very little on the internet looking at the company’s home weather stations in detail — or Fine Offset for that matter — so we created this guide. Keep reading for an in-depth look at Ecowitt and Fine Offset.
So Who Is Fine Offset Anyway?
Fine Offset, or more specifically Shenzhen Fine Offset Electronics Co., Ltd., is a Chinese manufacturer “of weather-related products.” Founded in 2005, Fine Offset licenses its designs to other manufacturers. As of right now, the following companies are known to use Fine Offset designs:
- Ecowitt (Fine Offset’s commercial brand)
- Ambient Weather
- Sainlogic (outside US)
- Froggit (Europe)
Please note that not all stations from these manufacturers are Fine Offset “clones.” Also, while the stations themselves may be similar in appearance, there are differences in operation and software from company to company.
Ecowitt Weather Stations Currently Available
Editors note: Since Ecowitt is available internationally and prices vary by market, we do not display prices to comply with Amazon policies. Clicking “Find the Best Deal” will take you to your correct local Amazon store. We’ve also listed where each model is available for sale for your convenience.
Ecowitt HP2553 Wi-Fi Weather Station
The HP2553 is Ecowitt's top-of-the-line weather station, and it shows.
The Ecowitt HP2553 is the company’s high-end weather station (and sold as the Ambient Weather WS-5000 in the US). Our tests of the American version of this weather station were stellar. With practically nothing different — save for the lack of smart home support — we had no reservations about making this our top pick.
The HP2553 features a redesigned sensor suite from previous models and an ultrasonic anemometer, drastically reducing the number of moving parts. This should extend its useable life as the traditional anemometer requires ongoing maintenance to ensure trouble-free use. The sensors are more accurate in our tests than in previous Ecowitt stations, and you can add additional sensors, including air quality, soil moisture, water temperature, and lightning. The brilliant colour, easy-to-read LCD console looks great just about anywhere.
The company’s made it easy to share your data publicly through Weather Underground, Ecowitt.net, and many other networks, which is a nice touch and view station data from the Ecowitt app.
This Tempest look-alike doesn't have all its features, but is significantly cheaper.
The Wittboy is Ecowitt's latest Wi-Fi weather station, and it's aimed at those outside of the U.S. who might not want to pay the extra duties to import in the WeatherFlow Tempest. It doesn't have lightning detection or smart home capabilities (that we can tell), but it does pretty much everything else the Tempest does.
The outdoor sensor contains a haptic rainfall sensor, light and UV sensors, an ultrasonic wind speed sensor, and temperature and humidity sensors. Ecowitt also includes its Wi-Fi hub, which allows you to send your data to Weather Underground. The Wittboy is new, so we're hesitant to give it our full-throated endorsement, but it's worth considering.
- Decent accuracy
- DIYer-friendly
- Local storage
- Haptic rain gauge is no better
Ecowitt HP2551 Wi-Fi Weather Station
If the HP2553 is too expensive, consider the HP2551 instead.
The Ecowitt HP2551 isn’t sold in the US under the Ambient Weather brand, but its feature set is similar to the Ambient Weather WS-2000. While you won’t get the accuracy of the HP2553, it is significantly cheaper and measures everything its more expensive sibling does. The nice console you get with the HP2553 is paired with Ecowitt’s base instrument suite.
Ecowitt HP3500 Wi-Fi Weather Station
The HP3500B is Ecowitt's entry level Wi-Fi compatible weather station, but it isn't expandable.
The Ecowitt HP3500B is the company’s cheapest weather station that doesn’t require PC software to share your weather data online. The console isn’t as flashy as the HP2551 but is still readable from a reasonable distance and can display graphs on its screen, something the cheaper WS2320 cannot do.
You do lose the capability to add additional sensors, which may be a reason to opt for any of the above three models if expandability is a concern. But the savings make the HP3500B a contender if you want to save money.
Ecowitt WH5360B Wireless Rain Gauge
The Ecowitt WH5360B is one of the better digital rain gauges on the market.
You’re correct if you think the Ecowitt WH5360B looks a lot like the instrumentation from the Ambient Weather WS-5000. Ecowitt licensed its stations to Ambient Weather in the US, but you can still purchase a few weather instruments from Amazon that Ambient Weather doesn’t sell here in the States.
The WH5360B includes only the rain gauge from the WS-5000, with a 300-foot wireless transmission range to a console that includes a temperature and humidity sensor. This is displayed on the included console, along with rain rate, daily rainfall (weekly, monthly, and yearly), a graphical display — and the support for metric measurements for those outside the US.
A rainfall alarm alerts you to events exceeding a set rate or amount, with flood watch alarms when rainfall may cause flooding.
It is much cheaper to buy than the WS-5000 — so if you want the accuracy of the WS-5000 but don’t need all the bells and whistles of a weather station, the Ecowitt WH5360B is a good choice.
- Accurate
- Nice console
- No connectivity options
The Ecowitt GW1203 weather station combo includes GW1200 Wi-Fi IoT Gateway, WS85 Outdoor Sensor, and WN32 Outdoor Single-Channel Thermometer and Hygrometer Sensor. The nice thing about this package is the sonic anemometer, even though it is missing a rain gauge.
Ecowitt FAQ
We’ll start with some commonly asked questions about Ecowitt weather stations. But first, here is some bad news for our US readers.
Wrapping Up
If you can’t afford to import a weather station from the States, Ecowitt weather stations are just as good, if not better. We’re big fans of their stations and highly recommend them if you’re in the market for a well-performing weather station. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments below.
I’ve found Ecowitt devices user unfriendly. The software is your typical cryptic Chinese variety that comes up with unintelligible instructions.
My rain guage is very inaccurate, by a factor of 10.
Fine offset is the maker of the Ambient, Ecowitt, Tycon, Froggit weather stations among others. Historically their sensors were inferior to those of Davis with respect to accuracy and durability and fine offset based weather stations were considered cheap, inferior but decent alternatives for those not wanting to spend 5 to 10 times more on a prosumer Davis WS. I have had owned Davis, tycon, ecowitt and ambient WS. The combined cost of the fine offset based WS came to less then half what I paid for the Davis and while the Davis was clearly a better and more reliable unit, the cost difference of the fine offset units is too great to overlook for my casual purposes and fine offset continues to innovate. I turned to fine offset when Davis stopped supporting the unit I had purchased but I had the unit for over a decade.