The Best Air Quality Monitors (2024) tested

To find the best air quality monitors, a lot of study and analysis was done to find out what customers thought and what the product specs were. The goal was to find monitors that gave reliable and exact readings. This was done by comparing products for consumers with lab-grade equipment. There are a lot of options on the market, but five monitors stood out because of how well they worked and how well they were made.

If you buy one of these suggested air quality monitors, you can track and analyze the air around you on your own. These monitors have been put through a lot of testing and review to make sure they work well and can be trusted. With their help, you can keep an eye on the air for pollutants, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and other harmful substances.

Best Air Quality Monitors Comparison Table

Davis Instruments AirLink

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The Davis Instruments AirLink has a Best Air Quality Monitors sturdy body that can be used indoors or outdoors. Just put the machine on a desk or table if you want it in your house. It has four safety feet that make it less likely that it will slide off of smooth surfaces. You could also put it outside (near an outlet) and use the weatherproof cover that comes with it.

If you’re interested in more than just checking the air quality, you’ll really like how the AirLink keeps track of things like the dew point and heat index. It will also connect to weatherlink.com and work with your other Davis weather station items, which is good to know. You can also use the WeatherLink app on your phone to get these features.

Sensirion SPS30

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If you want to feel like you’re really in the lab, you might like the Sensirion SPS30. As soon as I opened the company’s product introduction film, I felt like I was right back in the lab where I used to work.

This really shines because the Sensirion SPS30 is Best Air Quality Monitors and so easy to change. For example, some users are soldering them onto their bikes for CanAirIO, a citizen science project that is building a network of people to track the air quality all over the world. The device can be used for many projects because it is easy to connect to a USB port and quickly generates a lot of data. It could also be used with smart home gadgets, HVAC equipment, air conditioners, and more.

Biaoling Air Quality Monitor

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For our real tests—and we should say right away that these weren’t scientifically controlled trials—we set up situations that we thought were similar to or worse than real-life air quality problems. We put monitors with particulate matter (PM) sensors in a big box and shook a very dirty dust mop over the top to see if they worked.

Then, we looked at the PM readings on our phones (or by hand) to see if they went up or down (as the dust settled). To test the monitors with VOC sensors, we used wood paint, which has VOCs like formaldehyde. We put an open dish of oil-based wood paint in the test box and let the fumes fill the box for a couple of hours before checking the readings.

Airthings 4200 House Kit

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The Airthings 4200 House Kit gives you a pretty full way to keep an eye on any problems that might be happening in your home’s air. It has the Airthings Hub, the Wave Mini, and the Airthings Wave 2nd Generation. Before trying, we put the Airthings app on our phone and followed the steps to set up the monitors via Bluetooth. That was easy; the app found the TVs and synced up with them on its own.

We chose to test the Best Air Quality Monitors Airthings Wave 2nd Generation radon detector in a friend’s house, where radon was a problem. We put the Wave 2nd Generation in a friend’s basement and left it there for a whole week. When we got the monitor back, it showed that the radon level was 3.7 pCi/L. This is just below level 4, which is where the EPA suggests taking steps to reduce radon. This was also the same as our friend’s radon gauge to within 2/10ths of a point. We were happy with how right it was.

Airthings Wave Mini

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The Airthings Wave Mini comes with three AA batteries already installed. To turn it on, all you have to do is pull off the battery tab. After you download the Airthings partner app and create an account or sign in to an account you already have, the app will walk you through the pairing process. The Mini can be hung on a wall or set on a flat surface like a desk or shelf with its L-shaped stand. For exact readings, you should put it at least three feet away from windows or vents.

After setting up, it takes about an hour before you start getting good readings of the air quality. The Wave’s best feature is still how easy it is to use. All you have to do is wave your hand in front of it to find out right away how clean the air is. If the LED lights up green, it means that the air quality is “good.” Yellow means that the air quality is getting close to the highest level that is considered safe. It’s time to open some windows and let some fresh air in. If the LED lights up red, it means that a high amount of a pollutant has been found. Check the app for more information. This is one of the Best Air Quality Monitors.

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