Weatherflow WINDmeter

I love this little dude. Seriously.PROs:-- Price. This is significantly less expensive than many comparably sized wind meters.-- Accuracy. I haven't done any scientific testing, but it seems plenty accurate to me, and highly sensitive. Even a very gentle, almost imperceptible wind will easily register.-- Quality. This is a precision device with high quality bearings. The blade seems to turn forever after the wind stops, which suggests the quality of the hardware.-- Very user friendly. I plugged it into my Android phone, downloaded the app, and was soon in business on the range. It has worked flawlessly and is very simple to use. The smartphone interface provides a large screen and great storage if you want that. That alone compelled me to choose this over smaller, handheld gauges.-- Built in compass: Provides a heading for the winds.CONs:I can't think of a single one. I've owned this for approximately 6 months and used it dozens of times (primarily for shooting, but a few times for wind gust measurements in bad weather) and I'm truly impressed. I highly recommend it if you are in the market.

I bought this wind meter in the fall of 2013, and tried it on my iPhone 3 GS. On this phone, the meter was NOT accurate. I tried it a couple of times on different days when the readings from a nearby iWindsurf meter were around 25 mph, with gusts to about 30 mph. The WeatherFlow wind meter sometimes gave readings that were similar; but as soon as a small gust would come, the wind speed shown on the wind meter would go above 50 mph. Some readings gave averages above 40 mph. These were clearly wrong - sand starts blowing when gusts go above 30 mph, and there was absolutely no sand blowing.I recently switched to an iPhone 5S, and tried the meter again. On the iPhone 5S, the meter seemed to work fine. The readings were similar to the iWindsurf meter readings, and I did not get any of the very high spikes I had seen on the older iPhone. Very few people will be using the old iPhone 3GS anymore, so I changed the rating from 2 stars to 4 stars. I'm not giving it 5 stars because (a) I get very similar readings with the $1 Windmeter app that uses the microphone, and (b) because the app does not show a graph for the measured time period, which would be useful to see how gusty it is.

Started out great, but stopped working after a few days. No matter what I try, even on another phone, it won't connect. iPhone thinks its headphones..

Worked for 5 readings.. then very intermittent for 2 more... the internal electronics appears to be poor.. after a few more tries... then just won't connect at all. Garbage.

While this device seems to work ok in my HTC One, I'm not very thrilled with the Android app. Apparently there are two versions or more of this device, one for wind only and another that includes Temp, Pressure and Humidity. While the meter works ok the app should be smart enough to figure out which device is plugged in and only display the relevant information. I would also suspect that once I upgrade the phone in the near future that the odds are that it won't have a earphone jack to plug it into. Perhaps a Bluetooth device would have been a better design.

I use this meter almost each time I fly. I started using it in Santa Barbara, California and now use it in Costa Rica. An App is required to be downloaded to your cell phone. I had to dig around for the download from the company site but once I found it and downloaded I had no issues and everything worked well. In fact, I did the download on two different phones and it worked well for both. The wind speed units can easily be changed from Km/h to Miles/hour and back super easily. Average speed, wind gusts, and wind direction are all provided in an easily to read display.

I purchased this for taking wind readings before I go Kiteboarding. I've used it several times and I absolutley love it. It appears very accurate, especially for what I use it for. I consider myself able to judge the winds fairly well without it when I'm about to go Kiteboarding, however, it's nice to know exactly what the winds blowing at the spot I'm at, so that I can have an additional wind meter other than the ones on WindAlert. It's extremely Simple to use, just plug it in, face the wind direction and hit start. The wind meter it self does not give a wind direction, it gives that direction based on your phones GPS or something. But it's pretty easy to out your face in the right direction. Another great feature is the case it comes with. While the meter does seem durable, I definitely recommend keeping the case and soon as your done taking a reading, put it back in the case to keep it safe.I highly recommend this purchase to anyone who does wind sports, such as kiteboarding or wind surfing. It's worth the money.

Pros- small and obviously very portable. Nice app that is user friendly. Works even with very minimal wind.Cons- Comes with only the most minimal directions imaginable. They are literally printed on a piece of paper less than one inch by two inches. When gauging the wind, you have to turn the device toward where you think the wind is coming from, meaning you could be turning 90-150 degrees trying to ascertain the wind direction and speed.Overall, I'm not sure I really like this thing. At $35, it's just ok- not a particularly great value, but not the kind of thing that makes you resent the purchase, either. If I were doing it over again, I'd probably get the Windtronic 2, which I've seen in action and is going to be better for most people/uses.