I was searching for something on Lowe’s website when I came across this Craftsman digital thermometer.
This Craftsman temperature station, 01137LCM, features a large digital display that updates with temperature and humidity measurements every 30 seconds.
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It has a weather-resistant sensor that transmits outdoor measurements from a range of up to 165 feet. The base station also displays indoor temperature and humidity measurements.
You can view daily highs and lows with the press of a button. The temperature station also doubles as a clock, with both time and date displays. The display is powered by 3xAAA batteries, and the outdoor sensor by 2xAA batteries.
This seems convenient, displaying indoor and outdoor temperature conditions at a glance. It’s not something I would have anticipated from the Craftsman brand, but that’s not a bad thing.
Price: $25
Buy Now via Lowe’s
Compare: AcuRite via Amazon
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If you only want to monitor indoor temperature and humidity levels, I’ve had good experiences with this ~$12 AcuRite model from Amazon. The Craftsman model looks larger and easier to read from a distance, plus it has the wireless outdoors sensor, but maybe you don’t need all that.
Update: Thanks to Elmer for pointing out that the Craftsman looks to be a rebranded AcuRite 01136M!
Price: ~$26
Jaycob P.
I bought an Acu Rite temperature gauge (without humidity) and rain gauge a few months ago on clearance at Lowes.
I wonder if they are going to launch Craftsman branded digital rain gauges at some point too based off that.
Elmer J. Fudd
That looks a lot like acuright: https://www.acurite.com/shop-all/weather-instruments/thermometers-and-hygrometers/wireless-digital-thermometer-temperature-humidity.html
James W
I was thinking the same thing. The Acurite version is model 00136, the Craftsman is 00137LCM ; Rebranding is a thing. Not a bad thing, just a thing. I have had a similar Acurite version for a couple years. For a while, we moved the outdoor unit into the deep freeze when we suspected it was having issues – despite it being too cold for the rating, it actually worked pretty well as long as batteries held up. The outdoor unit looks very similar to the Craftsman as well.
Wally
FYI, the AcuRite 00986 is a 2-sensor wireless fridge/freezer temp monitor. I’ve had 2 of them for several years – 1 on the fridge and freezer, another with each sensor in a different freezer – and so far they’ve worked well and don’t eat batteries.
The sensors attach with suction cups, which only works if you have glass shelves, and about every month the one on the bottom of the fridge middle shelf would fall off, so it’s now zip-tied to a shelf bracket. In the freezers, I just try to keep them in a central spot near the top of the food. The display attaches to the outside via a magnet, so far that works fine.
I can see where Nate B’s solution with the Ecowitt would be handy, especially with multiple sensors. I’ll have to look at that.
When I got mine that was about the only 2-sensor option, now there seem to be 7-10 others on Amazon, no idea how any of the others perform.
Stuart
Thanks! I don’t believe I have ever seen that AcuRite before. I added it to the post.
Nathan
between them I like the accu-rite color scheme better for the house. but I like options.
schill
Assuming they are Acurite products that have been rebranded, the Acurite sensors are really easy to read using a Raspberry Pi, RTL-SDR dongle, and free software (rtl_433). I have about 10 of the indoor and outdoor temperature/humidity sensors around the house and outside that I am reading. Acurite doesn’t sell hardware to read that many sensors (although you can use multiple displays or interfaces) and this gets the data into a computer and then I can do whatever I want with it. This does not interfere with the data going to the display – they are both just reading the transmitted data (nothing goes back the other way).
By the way, this also means that your neighbors can read your sensors. I get data from a couple other nearby sensors, but I have no idea whose they are or where they are located. I just ignore them.
Nate B
I wanted to monitor my fridge and freezer temperatures, and looked at all sorts of wireless thermometer options. Then I realized I also wanted to keep an eye on soil moisture at a few points in my garden.
It was while shopping for soil moisture sensors that I realized I could actually achieve both goals with a single system, it’s just called a weather station.
So as of this moment, I have a single Ecowitt GW1000 receiving readings from a handful of different temperature, humidity, and moisture transmitters, indoors, outdoors, in my fridge and freezer, in the trunk of my car, in my garden, etc. It all shows up in a phone app, and I’ve been playing with software like weewx to perform longer term data logging.
If I’d gone with a single-purpose device for each, I’d quickly have amassed an ungainly gaggle of displays, or ended up throwing out a bunch of incompatible pieces when I unified everything.
HOWEVER, you can also get standalone transmitters and displays that will also work with the larger unified system. Wxforum has a good compatibility guide. I didn’t bother with a standalone display so I don’t know too much about this route, but it might be an interesting growth plan for someone who just wants a single point now, but also room to grow.
Mutombo
Wish this eco post didn’t read like spam. I could use something like that.
David Zeller
I’m a bit of a weather nut myself, and that unit is very popular. I doubt this is someone spamming – they’re really sharing a common, well debugged solution for people into that hobby. Google it for confirmation.
Stuart
I can verify that Nate B is a regular commentor that has never mentioned this brand before, with there being zero indication their conveyance here is anything other than 100% genuine.
Mutombo
Well now I’m comfortably looking into this product, thanks!
David Zeller
What are you measuring in your car trunk, and for what reason/purpose?
Hopefully not monitoring the decomposition of… nevermind…. how’s your wife? Haven’t seen her for a while. She still nagging you all the time?
schill
I am using two of the ecowitt soil sensors, too. They broadcast on 915Mhz (Acurite uses 433Mhz) so I’m actually using a second RTL-SDR usb dongle at 915Mhz to read them.
Ken
Thanks for posting this. I’ve been looking for something to monitor humidity in my sealed attic and sealed crawlspace. This looks like it would do the trick and also allow me to add a few more sensors that I would find handy, like the water leak sensor and the indoor air quality (IAQ) sensor.
I went to the forum you mentioned (wxforum) and it looks like there is a pretty dedicated community for these items. I’m usually very leery of using these types of gadgets if they don’t have a well-known American company providing support because they can disappear into the ether overnight with no support, firmware updates, etc. It appears that the Chinese company behind the Ecowitt products is pretty good from what I’m reading on the forum.
Randy
I bought the Craftsman from Lowes. They give a military discount which I super appreciate.
Jbongo
I almost purchased one of these at the end of last year. I was looking for a way to monitor the temp & humidity of our crawlspace in our new house. I’m interested to see what other people say about it.
Dan Schneider
I bought one of these when they were marked down at Lowe’s after the holidays on a whim. My only complaint is that there is no provision for wall-hanging the base unit, but a couple dabs of epoxy and a picture hanger solved that well enough. Despite being mounted higher on the wall than my other indoor temp sensor, it consistently reads 1-2° lower, but the outdoor temps are within 0-1° of my big old analog Taylor thermometer on the outside of the shop. For $19 I’m pretty happy.
Plain grainy
I have a couple of the plain in-house acu rite monitors. They have been flawless, very nice! I have heard of people putting remote monitors in their dog houses, & greenhouses. Probably not a bad idea to remotely monitor your basement humidity either. Or attic temperature.
Shane
I bought an accu-rite full blown weather station with wind speed, direction and wind gust along with humidity and barometric pressure. I really liked it when I had it.