While our cities aren’t the deadly smog traps they once were, air pollution remains a serious issue around the UK, so investing in one of the best air quality monitors will help you take action against particulates. In March 2022, the EU Court of Justice ruled that the UK had broken legal pollution limits for over a decade, with levels of nitrogen dioxide, produced by diesel vehicles, illegally high in 75% of urban areas. Since then, the UK government has announced plans to scrap the EU rules on air pollution, and replace them with a strategy that requires local councils to improve their air quality, without any additional powers or funding.
Poor air quality still causes around 40,000 early deaths a year in the UK, with fine and ultrafine particles linked to everything from breathing problems like asthma and emphysema to lung cancer, strokes, dementia, cognitive impairments and even liver disease. google home door alarm
Meanwhile, building materials, paints and furnishings can give off Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) that have equally harmful effects. Many areas of the UK are affected by high levels of radon, a naturally occurring radioactive gas that’s responsible for around half of our exposure to radiation. It’s considered one of the largest causes of lung cancer outside of smoking and industrial pollution. Mould within the house, caused by damp walls and excess humidity, can also exacerbate a wide range of respiratory conditions.
You can fight air pollution with fans, air purifiers and ventilation, but only if you know what you’re fighting. This is where air quality monitors come in, giving you an accurate means of detecting and tracking levels of pollutants in your home, so that you can take action where you need to.
Air quality monitors break down into two main types. We’ll mostly be looking at indoor models designed to sit within one room and provide continuous monitoring of the air quality within that space, but there are also portable devices designed for indoor and outdoor use. They’re often used by professionals or those with respiratory conditions to provide a quick assessment of air conditions wherever they are.
Beyond that, the main distinctions come down to the style and size of the monitor, any displays or connectivity, the software it hooks up to and what pollutants and conditions it detects. This last point is particularly important, as while most air quality monitors track levels of fine particulate matter under 2.5 microns (or PM2.5) and/or VOCs, some go much further to monitor temperature, humidity, finer particles (down to 1 micron, or PM1), radon gas, mould and carbon dioxide.
The more pollutants detected, the higher the cost, but that’s a price that may be worth paying if you live in an area with high radon levels or specific environmental concerns. That goes double if you or a member of your household suffers from a condition that might be triggered or aggravated by certain pollutants.
Most air quality monitors are battery-powered, as this gives you maximum flexibility when deciding where you place them. They may require one or more long-life batteries or a rechargeable battery that needs to be topped up over a USB cable, although these shouldn’t need charging too often.
Connectivity also differs from monitor to monitor. Some use Bluetooth to communicate with a smartphone app, while others can hook up to a Wi-Fi connection, and even communicate with Apple Homekit or Alexa smart home hubs to control other supported devices, including air purifiers, dehumidifiers and fans.
Perhaps the most important feature, though, is how they communicate with you. As these are small devices you’re usually either looking at a coloured air quality indicator or a small display, but smartphone apps give you more information and allow you to track air quality, temperature and humidity over time, which can be really useful if you’re trying to keep an eye on wider trends.
The clearer and easier these apps are to use, the more you’ll get out of your air quality monitor, so it’s definitely worth taking into account.
In most cases your best option is ventilation: open up some windows and get some air moving in the house. However, if you live in one of the UK’s most-affected regions this might not be enough. Air purifiers are now very affordable and can be used to improve air quality in the rooms where you spend most of your time.
Similarly, dehumidifiers can help in rooms where there’s too much moisture and a risk of damp and mould. If you have high levels of radon, you may need more specialist advice. More ventilation or an active air management system may be necessary to get your radon levels down. You can find more information and advice on the government’s radon website.
We tested air quality monitors in two locations inside a three-bedroom detached house. Testing two or more at a time, we set them up and left them on a shelf in the living room in order to see how well they tracked changes in air quality over the course of a week, and how effective they were at reporting changes via any screens, built-in indicators, or companion apps.
We also tested them in a smaller room, where they were exposed to drying paint, smoke, deodorant sprays, and moisture from a humidifier, to see how quickly they react to high-risk particulates and issue any warnings. Where the air quality monitors include smart features, we tried controlling them through an Amazon Echo smart speaker, or through an Android smartphone with Google Assistant, to see how effective they are.
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Price when reviewed: £180 | Check price at Amazon It might look like a simple smoke detector, but the Airthings Wave Plus is one of the most comprehensive air quality monitors around, detecting VOCs, CO2 and radon gas while also collecting data on temperature, humidity and air pressure.
It gives you everyday feedback using a central coloured ring, which shifts from green through amber and into red according to the overall level of air quality when you wave your hand in front of it. If you want more detailed information, you can get it through a web-based dashboard or Airthings’ smartphone app. This will give you the most recent figures for VOC, radon and CO2 concentrations, and a handy graph showing their rise and fall with 12-hour, 48-hour, week, month and year views.
While it’s not quite as speedy to register changes in air quality as the Kaiterra Laser Egg+ Chemical, we found it accurately tracked them over hours and days, making it easy to see the difference when moved to a just-painted upstairs bedroom or placed near a lit woodburner in the living room downstairs. The only downside is that there’s no particulate sensor, meaning some pollutants may go undetected.
The unit connects to your phone via Bluetooth, though you can also connect it to an optional Airthings Hub for real-time updates when your phone isn’t around. This also enables you to get the latest readings through an Alexa or Google Nest smart speaker, or use the data to control other devices in the home through IFTTT, without having your phone in range. The Wave Plus can also be wall or ceiling mounted, and it’s powered by two AA batteries which should last for around 16 months.
There’s no getting around the fact that the Wave Plus is expensive, but it’s a straightforward and thoroughly informative monitor.
Key specs – Pollutants monitored: VOCs, CO2, radon; Temperature: Yes; Humidity: Yes; Display: Ring indicator; Connectivity: Bluetooth 5, Airthings SmartLink; Apps: Android, iOS, web dashboard; Power: 2 x AA batteries; Dimensions: 120 x 120 x 36mm
Price when reviewed: £70 | Check price at AmazonTrust Amazon to come up with such a cheap, effective monitor, even if you need an Alexa to use it. The Smart Air Quality Monitor is a compact block with rounded edges, with an LED indicator at the top and an air intake at the front. It’s permanently powered through a micro-USB charger, and easily installed through the Alexa app. In fact, if you’ve got existing Echo devices and the app on your smartphone, it practically installs itself.
Using the app, you can get weekly, daily, and hourly reports on your air quality, on top of the current measurements, tracking CO, PM2.5 and VOC levels, as well as temperature and humidity. The LED glows green when levels are under control, turning to amber then red should they rise. You can also get alerts through the app or an Echo speaker, or simply ask Alexa for the current readings.
It’s a great device and very accurate in testing, but it’s slightly frustrating that you can only use temperature as a trigger for Alexa routines, where humidity or air quality could have been used to activate a dehumidifier or purifier. All the same, this is one of the cheapest AQMs out there, and the natural choice if you already use Alexa.
Key specs – Pollutants monitored: VOCs, CO, PM2.5; Temperature: Yes; Humidity: Yes; Display: LED indicator; Connectivity: 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2; Apps: Alexa app on iOS, Android, Amazon Fire; Power: Micro USB; Dimensions: 65 x 65 x 45mm
Price when reviewed: £90 | Check price at AmazonIf you’re looking for an unobtrusive air quality monitor, you’ll be hard-pressed to find anything dinkier than the Eve Room. It’s a tiny square unit with a 200 x 200 pixel e-ink display that gives you a star rating for the current air quality based on detection of VOCs, temperature and humidity.
It also works hand in hand with Apple’s Homekit and Eve’s iOS app, which can track all three metrics across a period of hours, days or weeks. It can even trigger HomeKit-compatible air purifiers, dehumidifiers or fans.
It’s very easy to use, although, as with the Airthings products, there’s no tracking of PM2.5 pollutants, just VOCs. It connects to your iPhone or iPad over Bluetooth Low Energy, and only needs charging roughly every six weeks over micro-USB.
We found it as quick as the Airthings products to react to changes in the air, and it gives you peace of mind in a minuscule package. The only problem? As a Homekit-only product, it’s of no use if you’re not an iPhone/iPad user.
Key specs – Pollutants monitored: VOCs; Temperature: Yes; Humidity: Yes; Display: 200 x 200 pixel E Ink; Connectivity: Bluetooth LE; Apps: iOS; Power: Internal li-ion; Dimensions: 54 x 54 x 15mm
Price when reviewed: £100 | Check price at Amazon The Temtop M10i covers more ground than the entry-level monitors, detecting both PM2.5 fine particulates and dangerous VOCs with a special interest in HCHO or Formaldehyde. You can see the current levels update in real-time on the bright LCD screen, switching between them with a click of the button on the top. What’s more, the unit will connect over Wi-Fi and allow you to get updates through an iOS or Android app, complete with daily graphs to help you track pollution levels as they go up and down. It’s a shame there aren’t weekly or monthly views, but you can export the data as an Excel spreadsheet if you want more detailed, long-term analysis.
Key specs – Pollutants monitored: VOCs, PM2.5, Formaldehyde (HCHO); Temperature: No; Humidity: No; Display: 3.5in mono LCD; Connectivity: 802.11n Wi-Fi; Apps: iOS, Android; Power: Built-in li-ion; Dimensions: 81 x 81 x 30mm
Price when reviewed: £68 | Check price at AmazonIf the Airthings Wave Plus is too pricey for your budget, the Wave Mini gives you many of the same features at a much lower price and in a smaller unit. This one mostly monitors humidity, temperature and VOCs, but it also has a handy mould-risk function, which uses data from the sensors to assess your room’s chances of developing mould and mildew.
The Wave Plus’s ring becomes a smaller, single indicator here, but it still works in much the same way. Wave your hand over the Wave Mini, and it will light up a tone between red and green to give you a clear visual indication of your current air quality.
Otherwise, the Wave Mini works in much the same way as its bigger sibling, connecting to your phone or tablet via Bluetooth or through Airthings SmartLink to an Airthings hub. This still means you don’t get real-time updates without your phone in close proximity, but you can use the app or web dashboard to track changes in air quality or set up IFTTT routines to run a fan or dehumidifier if the sensor hits a certain target.
It might be mini, but it’s still packed with features and we didn’t find it any less sensitive or effective than the larger Wave. That makes it a great entry-level device.
Key specs – Pollutants monitored: VOCs, mould risk detection; Temperature: Yes; Humidity: Yes; Display: LED indicator; Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.2; Apps: iOS, Android, web-based dashboard; Power: 3 x AAA; Dimensions: 80 x 80 x 26mm
Price when reviewed: £136 | Check price at AmazonThe Temtop AQD-P200 is designed for handheld spot use in a range of environments rather than continuous use in the home, but it’s a useful device for testing PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations both inside and outside the house. It doesn’t do anything beyond that, with no VOC or even temperature or humidity detection, but it’s quick to take readings, sensitive to changes and easy to use. Just turn it on and it will detect the current levels, and you can pause and continue monitoring with a quick tap of a play/pause button.
It’s powered by three AA batteries, which should last for weeks of use, and the unit shuts itself off after around five minutes to preserve the charge. There are no additional connectivity options, smartphone apps or ways to track your data, but if you want to keep track of fine particle pollutants – both indoors and outdoors – then ADQ-P200 does it at a low cost with precious little fuss.
Key specs – Pollutants monitored: PM10, PM2.5; Temperature: N/A; Humidity: N/A; Display: 2.3in mono LCD screen; Connectivity: N/A; Apps: N/A; Power: 3x AA batteries; Dimensions: 167 x 65 x 31mm
Price when reviewed: £250 | Check price at AmazonAirthings’ newest air quality monitor gives you all the features of the excellent Wave Plus, plus some really useful new additions. The most obvious of these is the 2.9in ePaper screen, which can be configured to show any two measurements in real-time, plus the current air quality when you wave your hand over the surface. The screen is crisp and easy to read, despite the occasional ghosting that’s one downside of ePaper tech, and it doesn’t hit the battery life too hard. A set of six AAs should last you up to two years, or you can power the View Plus over USB-C, though you will need your own charger.
The other big upgrade is the built-in Hub functionality. Keep the View Plus connected to your charger, and you can use it as a gateway to connect any other Airthings monitors to the Internet, allowing them to sync automatically with the Airthings dashboard in the cloud. This is easier than syncing with your smartphone, and means you have the latest data and notifications, wherever you are.
Monitoring remains top-notch, covering Radon, VOCs, PM2.5 pollutants, humidity, air pressure and temperature, making it easy to track mould and damp risks as well as the effects of chemical pollution. The companion app is superb, too.
The View Plus is expensive, but if you want real-time monitoring with a built-in display, it’s the best.
Key specs – Pollutants monitored: VOCs, PM2.5, Radon; Temperature: Yes; Humidity: Yes; Display: 2.9in ePaper; Connectivity: 801.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE; Apps: iOS, Android, web-based dashboard; Power: 6 x AA, USB Type-C; Dimensions: 170 x 90 x 33mm
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