Shop Whole Home ➜ Indoor Air Quality ➜ Air Quality Monitors
Air Quality Monitors
Monitor indoor air quality to make sure its as healthy as you think. Or, use one to figure out the source of a problem. These are the best indoor air quality monitors available, because they’re actually accurate.
Long-Term Comprehensive Monitors
The Airthings View Plus is the best indoor air quality monitor overall because it tracks the most important things in your air including VOCs, PM 2.5, CO2 and radon, which sets it apart from many other options. It’s RESET certified, which means its good enough for commercial use— but it’s made for your home. It’s a portable air quality monitor that’s highly accurate and aesthetically pleasing. I have mine on the wall downstairs to keep an eye on radon, as well as smoke from cooking and wildfires. You can use code INTERIORMED-10OFF for 10% off through the Airthings website here, or you can check the price on Amazon here.
Wave Enhance
I’m so excited about this new monitor— it’s made for your night stand to improve your sleep. The Wave Enhance tracks light levels, noise levels, CO2, air pressure, temperature and humidity. It tells you what happened during the night so you can use the information to improve your sleep (and next-day mood and productivity.) You can get 10% off with the code INTERIORMED-10OFF at checkout through their website here. You can also check the price on Amazon here.
The Awair Element is an ultra-accurate air quality monitor for home. Like the Airthings, it’s also RESET certified, but is more affordable because it doesn’t track radon. It does monitor indoor VOCs, PM 2.5, CO2, temperature, and humidity, with an easy-to-read screen. I use this in my office upstairs, where radon isn’t a concern, but high carbon dioxide levels which make me sleepy are. You can see my video about how surprisingly fast CO2 builds up here, if you’re curious.
This multi-room system includes an indoor air quality monitor with radon, VOCs, and mold growth potential (humidity and temperature), reporting results continuously through the app. This is a good option if you’re not too worried about tracking PM 2.5 (wildfire smoke or cooking particles.) This kit is currently only available on Amazon.
Point-in-Time Air Testing Kits
The popular water-testing company MyTapScore also offers air quality testing for VOCs and formaldehyde. If you have a mystery smell in your home, or want to understand how much formaldehyde is present upon moving in to a new-build or buying new furniture, this is a great way to check. Laboratory analysis of an air sample is required to understand what specific VOCs are present— continuous monitors are notoriously bad at knowing if something is formaldehyde or not, and can’t sort out any specific VOCs. It can only tell you that there are a lot of them, or not very many. A great service.
Another option for doing detective work, Home Air Check also sells single-use monitors through Amazon and does laboratory analysis to determine what VOCs are present. They also check for actively growing mold, which can be helpful if you have symptoms.
Outdoor Air Quality Monitors
I keep the windows in my house open almost all of the time, but if I wake up and notice my indoor air quality monitor is showing high levels of PM2.5, I check the Purple Air real-time map right away to see what the outdoor air conditions are like. Although this website is focused on the indoors, it’s very helpful to know when it’s time to close the windows in case of wildfire or excessive air pollution days. The app draws data from personal monitoring systems— you can get one here, if you’d like to contribute to your local area’s data and help your neighbors out.
Even if you don’t want to track anything else in your indoor air, you should track radon, the second most common cause of lung cancer that comes from invisible gas under the foundation of your home. The fix is easy; just test your home to know it’s there. Here are the four I recommend.
Focused Air Quality Monitors
Wildfire Smoke Monitor
This is the best air quality monitor for wildfire smoke. It’s the only Temtop brand product I recommend, because it doesn’t have a gimmicky formaldehdye sensor (which don’t work in the residential low-cost level of monitors) and it does almost as well measuring PM 2.5 as scientific-grade air quality measuring instruments (it gets a high 0.91 score on AQ-SPEC; read more below). It’s not as accurate at measuring PM10 (big particles like pollen) and it doesn’t measure VOCs, but it gives you a super-accurate PM 2.5 reading, one of the primary concerns of wildfire smoke.
If you just need to avoid mold, a hygrometer will track humidity levels for you. Mold grows best above 60% humidity, so this can help keep you informed about your home’s levels. This is a simple and inexpensive air quality monitor for mold so you can aim for between 40-50% humidity— a good range so that you’re still comfortable, but mold isn’t.
More Healthy Design for You
More About Indoor Air Quality Monitors
Why would I need an indoor air quality monitor?
They can literally save your life, by detecting radon in your home, or alerting you to high PM 2.5 levels, which are linked with heart disease and cancer. They track indoor VOC levels, which can exacerbate asthma and respiratory symptoms. Using one, you’ll see how quickly carbon dioxide builds up in a closed room, and how much better you feel when you ventilate. Finally, they take the guesswork out of air purification and ventilation; knowing when to turn up your air purifier or open a window even when it’s cold is just as useful as knowing when your indoor air is healthy, and you can relax.
How to choose an accurate indoor air quality monitor
Air quality monitors operate on an invisible level, so it’s important to know they’re doing the job correctly and not giving you false readings. Look for brands that have RESET certification for their commercial models, NRPP approval for radon monitors, and that are otherwise made without gimmicks. For example, steer clear of readers that say they can read formaldehyde levels. Formaldehyde is incredibly difficult to measure in a residential air monitor, so companies that do not have this are potentially more likely committed to providing accurate information and data to you.
Another place to look is AQ-SPEC. This database compares low cost residential air quality monitors to the super-accurate, super-expensive air quality monitors used by scientists to see how closely their readings match. The scores range from 0 to 1.0. A score of 0 means they don’t agree at all. A score of 1.0 means they agree perfectly. A score of 0.5 means they agree about half of the time. Choosing an air quality monitor with a score as close to 1.0 is ideal. It’s interesting to see how inaccurate some of the models are. One of the cons of this list is that it hasn’t tested all available models, and most of the ones it has tested with good readings are still very expensive in the $600+ range (Air Quality Egg), discontinued (Kaiterra Laser Egg), or difficult to use in a home. I expect this will continue to change as the need for in-home air quality monitoring continues to rise.
Shop Whole Home ➜ Indoor Air Quality ➜ Air Quality Monitors