As you’ll see in my detailed review of this Sainlogic weather station, the SA1 offers its pros — but I did stumble upon a few challenges in using it.
In this article, I will explain both the good things and the downsides of this particular weather station and give you my thoughts on whether or not I’d recommend buying the Sainlogic SA1 home weather station.
Knowing my love of meteorology, the folks at Sainlogic sent me an SA1 weather station for free to use and review.
My Experience With Home Weather Stations
The last time I purchased a home weather station was in 2010. I bought the Davis Vantage Vue weather station — which many might say is a crossover between an amateur weather station and a professional one.
The Davis weather station has a weathervane, anemometer, hygrometer, rain gauge and tipping bucket, and is solar powered. The outdoor sensor has to be mounted onto a pole, it needs to be situated at a certain height, and it needs to be away from obstructions to provide accurate data. But it’s really well made and, if you haven’t noticed yet by my use of present-tense verbs in describing my Davis weather station, it still works many years later!
My Davis Vantage Vue weather station has a very basic indoor display that doesn’t connect to any apps or networks, which is fine — it’s totally self-contained. And I like that. But this older model also has its technological limitations, many of which became apparent upon using the modern Sainlogic weather station.
Yes, I could buy a new Davis Vantage Vue console (for around $400) and update my older weather station. But I’m not in a spot right now where I can do that.
I share my thoughts here about the Davis Vantage Vue weather station to make an important point about the Sainlogic SA1: it is a thoroughly modern weather station!
Overview Of The Sainlogic SA1 Weather Station
This Sainlogic weather station offers a variety of features, including:
- Inside and outside temperature
- Barometric pressure
- Humidity
- Dew point
- Rainfall
- Calendar
- AI-generated weather forecast
- WiFi capabilities to obtain home weather reports anywhere on your mobile device
- Connectivity up to 300 feet without interference (but typically up to 100 feet maximum)
- Sensor is battery-powered; console is AC-powered with battery backup
- Weatherseed app (allows for connectivity to Weather Underground for reporting, receiving data, and more)
My Experience Using The Sainlogic Weather Station
I perused other online reviews of the Sainlogic weather station before I began setting my device up for use.
Frankly, I was a little discouraged at first to find many reviewers saying they had trouble setting up their Sainlogic weather stations. So, I was pleasantly surprised when I had no problems whatsoever in getting my Sainlogic Weather Station ready for action.
Setup of the weather station itself — sensor to console — was a breeze. Absolutely a breeze. Within moments my weather station was reporting indoor and outdoor conditions!
CONS: Downsides Of The Sainlogic SA1 Weather Station
Everything has its pros and cons. And being the kind of good-news, positive guy I am, I’d like to wrap up my review of this personal weather station on a sunny note. So, let’s get the downsides out of the way first…
Connecting To The Complementary Weatherseed App Isn’t So Simple
My biggest frustration was in pairing the Sainlogic SA1 Weather Station with the Weatherseed app. The mobile app allows you to view local weather conditions and get hourly, daily, and weekly weather forecasts as well as view weather radar. It also gives you access to weather data from anywhere, and you can connect it to Weather Underground.
I really wanted to connect the Sainlogic SA1 weather station to the app, but I had trouble getting my console to pair with it via the built-in Bluetooth and web connectivity channels. Apparently, the system pairs via wifi using a 2.4ghz network, and the default on my home wifi is 5ghz. Even when selecting the 2.4ghz option while pairing, it seemed the console couldn’t recognize the 2.4ghz network.
I had more luck using the webpage connectivity option. But the overall network-connection experience was more complicated, in my opinion, than the simple setup instructions seem to suggest in the Weatherseed app instruction manual that’s included with the weather station.
A Sainlogic rep offers this advice about the SA1 connectivity issues I encountered:
“The display console only supports 2.4 GHz signals. If you have a dual-band router (2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz), please make sure that the router’s 2.4 GHz band is turned on and can be distinguished from the 5.0 GHz channel’s SSID for accurate connection to the 2.4 GHz channel.”
The Beeping Alarm System Is A Lowkey Nuisance
My only other minor technology-related complaint is that when the Sainlogic SA1 weather station is setting up, it emits a series of incessant beeps that last for around 2 minutes. Oy vey…
Those beeps (which also audibly serve as the system’s alarm mode) sometimes emit when something trips the alarm — like time settings, reaching excessive or unusual indoor or outdoor temperature or humidity thresholds, or upon reading unusual dew point or barometric pressure thresholds. That said, a simple push of any button on the console will hush the alarm.
However, the beeps seem to go off at random times. At one point, the beeping became so irritating it caused me to power off the console until I could learn more about the alarm settings. These can be controlled in settings — so you might say this issue was caused more by user error than anything. Still, the beeps and alarm sounds are unnerving in my opinion.
A company rep offers this advice for loud beeping from the Sainlogic SA1 weather station:
“About any noise from our product, if the product frequently makes noise during use, please remember to update the firmware in the app. You can find the steps under the Help section in the app.”
There’s No Wind Data Offered By The System’s Internal Sensor
One final downside is the wind information — or, rather, lack thereof. The Sainlogic SA1 weather station does not report wind data from the sensor included with it.
This is a huge letdown — because windspeed and wind direction are of particular interest to me, living in storm-prone Central Florida. (One big reason I bought my Davis Vantage Vue weather station years ago was that it includes an anemometer and weathervane for tracking and reporting windspeeds and wind direction.)
Now, what I could do if I want wind data is view it from the Weatherseed app — which gathers local data from other reporting stations in my area. And that’s fine. I don’t necessarily need the exact wind speed by the shed in my backyard. But it’s really nice having this data from my own personal weather station without having to connect to a network to get it. So, this is one big ding for those who want a product offering self-contained wind speed and wind direction data from their personal home weather station.
I should add that there are other Sainlogic weather stations that come with an anemometer and weathervane to report wind data. If these are important considerations for you, I encourage you to check out these other Sainlogic weather stations.
PROS: Good Things About The Sainlogic SA1 Weather Station
Now that I have the downsides out of the way, let me pile on the pros. And there are so many pros to report on the Sainlogic SA1 weather station!
A Large, Colorful Display
WOW… Look at that display! I think this is the most impressive aspect of the Sainlogic SA1 weather station.
Why? Because my Davis Vantage Vue weather station only has a small, greyscale display that seems primitive when compared to more modern weather stations like the Sainlogic SA1 home weather station.
Granted, I could upgrade my Davis Vantage Vue weather station with a modern console that offers a large, multicolor display with networking capabilities. But that would cost around $400. Do I really want to make that kind of investment in a weather station that’s currently 15 years old? Actually, yes — I would if I had the spare cash laying around. I love my Davis Vantage Vue so much that I think it’s worth keeping with an upgrade. But many would question the economic logic of spending hundreds of dollars to buy a new display for an aging weather station when they have a gorgeous Sainlogic SA1 weather station console smiling back at them with its rainbow of vivid data.
The Sainlogic display console data is so easy to read, too! I can tell the indoor and outdoor temperatures just by glancing at the display from across the room. The other weather data is also clearly reported in large-font format.
All The Basics In One Compact Package
Let me go back to the wind data thing for a second. I really, REALLY want a home weather station that has self-contained wind data — and for that you generally need a weather station with an anemometer and a weathervane. But I’m also a bit of a weather bug; many other people can do without this information.
Most people simply want to know temperature, dew point, relative humidity, barometric pressure, and other basics like that. If that’s what you’re looking for, I don’t know if I could recommend a better weather station for the price than the Sainlogic SA1. I mean, it really has all the basics most backyard weather observers want all in one, convenient package.
But what’s more, it’s so sleek and easy to set up. While my Davis Vantage Vue weather station sensor is rather bulky (in part because of the anemometer and weathervane, along with a few other elements) and needs to be mounted to a mast or pole, the Sainlogic SA1 weather station sensor can be hung from a nail on the wall!
TIP: Be sure to place your Sainlogic weather sensor on a northern wall to keep it out of the direct sun. Exposure to direct sun will cause any weather station to report all kinds of crazy-high temperatures on warmer days that really aren’t meteorologically accurate.
Since the Sainlogic weather sensor is about 3 inches square and almost as thick as a deck of playing cards, it can go just about anywhere! I love how small it is.
And the display? Well, that’s decidedly larger — but that’s a good thing! Again, its data is so easy to read, and the display console can be propped up like a picture frame. I have mine on a vintage curio shelf in the kitchen.
A Nice, All-Around Home Weather Station At An Affordable Price
I think the biggest win for this weather station is its affordability. The SA1 model sells on the major online retail sites for a highly competitive price.
They say you get what you pay for. But I think in the case of the Sainlogic weather station, you’re getting a quality product from a company that is trying to earn a name for itself by offering well-made home weather stations. Their prices are on par with or, in many cases, much lower than what you’ll find elsewhere.
The Bottom Line
With all of that being said, I still believe wholeheartedly that Davis sets the gold standard for home and professional weather stations available on the retail market.
Will I go out on a limb and say that Sainlogic’s weather stations are as well made as Davis weather stations? I simply can’t. I’ve had my Davis Vantage Vue weather station since 2010. I received my Sainlogic weather station just a few weeks ago. It’s unfair and totally ingenuine for me to make a head-to-head comparison on quality and especially longevity between the two.
Would I buy a Sainlogic SA1 weather station for myself or as a gift for someone else? Absolutely!
I think the Sainlogic SA1 weather station serves at least 2 important markets:
- It’s a great personal weather station for home weather reports for the amateur weather watcher, the backyard gardener, or anyone who wants to know the conditions just outside their home.
- It would serve as a good “first” weather station — a sort of steppingstone from which the aspiring weather bug might eventually move on to a higher-level weather station from Sainlogic (or another manufacturer).
Even amid some frustrations with connecting the Sainlogic weather station to the Weatherseed app and such, this is a good product.
Sainlogic seems to really be trying to offer a decent weather station that offers all the features many people are looking for in an affordable package. And I like the nobility of that — bringing the joy and fun of personal weather watching to the masses at a price that many can afford.
