Here's a recent article from The Verge yesterday that reviews products on the market. Please note -- If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission.
Amazon’s Smart Air Quality Monitor could be a lot smarter
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This inexpensive indoor air quality monitor can only say, not do
"5 out of 10
A smart air quality monitor can not only give you a heads up when the air quality is going down so you can do something about it (open a window, turn on a fan, fire up an air purifier), but it should also do something about it without you needing to interfere, thanks to its connected nature.
For example, when particulate matter rises, a connected air quality monitor can tell a smart plug to turn on the fan connected to it or direct a smart thermostat to kick on the HVAC system to get the air moving or even trigger a smart air purifier to start cleaning the air.
Herein lies the problem with Amazon’s cute little $70 smart air quality monitor: it can’t do any of that.
What it can do is send an alert to your phone, announce over an Echo speaker, and indicate with its LED light when your air quality inside is poor. It can also turn on your heating or AC based on temperature, which could help move some air.
There’s no on-device screen to show you exactly what’s wrong (a feature on almost all the competition); instead, you need to have a nearby Echo Show to see your readings (or look in the app). The alert it sends just says the air quality is poor — no other info. Other monitors I’ve tested will send specific alerts — such as “CO2 levels are high, time to air this place out” or “Humidity is a bit high, consider running a dehumidifier.” While Amazon’s device does give you an early warning, that’s about it. But for people who don’t want to shell out a small fortune to monitor their air, this is a decent option.
Price is the biggest selling point for the Amazon Smart Air Quality Monitor. It’s a much less expensive way to monitor your indoor air, with most competing products costing between $100 and $300.
The $300 Awair Element and Airthings View Plus are the leaders here for those who want to get serious about their air. On the less expensive side of things are the $99.99 Eve Room, which is HomeKit only, the Netatmo Smart Indoor Air Quality Monitor for $119.99, and the $45 Aqara’s TVOC Air Quality Monitor (which requires a hub starting at $30), both of these also work with Alexa and can connect to HomeKit.
The Amazon Smart AQ Monitor measures PM 2.5 (particulate matter small enough to penetrate the lungs), VOCs, carbon monoxide, humidity, and temperature. It’s missing a carbon dioxide monitor, which some competitors offer. This can help identify poor airflow in a room and potentially alert you to the risk of indoor COVID transmission. (High levels of CO2 can indicate that more of the air in a room is made up of other people’s breath — and whatever germs that breath carries.) But the Smart Monitor does offer more sensors than the similarly priced Aqara sensor, which doesn’t measure PM 2.5 or carbon monoxide.
As with most consumer IAQs, the Smart Monitor offers up an easy-to-read score of your air quality. Its onboard indicator light also turns green for good, yellow for moderate, red for poor. The score appears in the app on a scale of 100, with 0 to 35 being bad and 65 to 100 good. It’s likely based on the air quality index, developed by the EPA to help average users understand air quality (I’ve reached out to Amazon for confirmation of this). In my testing, my score hovered around 89, unless I was cooking on my gas stove when it nosedived to around 23.
You can see the score in the device’s dashboard in the Alexa app or on an Echo Show. Here you also get a breakdown of what’s contributing to it and what, if anything, is making it worse. Each of the five sensors has its own line, highlighted in green, yellow, or red, indicating its status. . .
The Smart Monitor is a nice-looking device. It has a rectangular puck-like design, with rounded corners, matte white plastic, and a small grille for the air to move through. It’s also significantly smaller than most of the competition and won’t look out of place in a living room or kitchen. It does have to be plugged in via a micro-USB cable and wall plug (included); there’s no battery backup.
The monitor is easy to set up — plug it in, open the Alexa app, and, if you are not prompted to pair the monitor, tap “Add Device.” You need to grant access to Bluetooth and your device’s camera (to scan the setup code), agree to the Alexa and Alexa Devices Terms of Use, and then scan the QR code on the back of the device. Alexa will then find the device and connect it to your Alexa account. Next, add it to a room or group.
The monitor takes seven minutes to calibrate before it shows an IAQ score, and Amazon says it can take about two days to adjust to your air. Because of the calibration time, it’s not really suited to moving around your home, as you have to unplug it, which resets the calibration. Interestingly, all the competitors have the option to just use battery power, which helps with portability, but most also need time to adjust to properly read your air. . .
You can also ask Alexa for an update on your air by saying “Alexa, what is the indoor air quality?” Responses include poor, fair, and good, along with your air quality score. (Note: if you say “Alexa, what is the air quality,” you’ll get a report from AirNow.gov of the outdoor air quality index score in your location, no monitor required.) You can also ask what the indoor temperature or humidity is, but you can’t get CO, PM, or VOC readings by voice.
Amazon tells me you can also ask for the readings in a specific room if you add the device to a Group in the app. This would be useful if you had a couple of these in various rooms around your house. But in my testing I kept getting the response “That’s not supported yet.”
. . .If the Smart Monitor could also act on humidity, VOCs, CO, and particulate matter, it would be much easier to recommend. Amazon has said it is working on adding this functionality, but until it arrives, this device is limited as a smart air quality monitor. . .
If you have an Amazon Smart Thermostat or similar, an Echo Show, and an interest in how high your particulate matter is, you may get some use out of the Amazon Smart Air Quality Monitor. Otherwise, there is no compelling reason to pick this up as it doesn’t do much — yet.
Photos by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
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