Amazon Smart Air Quality Monitor – Know your air, Works with Alexa

Using to monitoring indoor midwest air quality for sinuses and allergies
The Air Quality Monitor (AQM) market is horrible for consumers. I settled on the Amazon branded AQM as it was affordable, it seemed relatively decent in regard to what it can monitor, and of course it works with Alexa so there is some added convenience. I should mention that I do not overly rely on digital assistants, I don’t really have a smart home but I do have a few devices that have Alexa. I also did some research (mostly on YouTube)on AQM’s and most of the affordable options, especially on Amazon, were inaccurate and manipulative. During the fall and winter months in the mid-west something strange happens to the air (there are also a ton of farms within a 10 mile radius of where I reside). It’s nice to have more localized idea of what’s going on with the air quality. The Amazon AQM does not give many details but it gives you some valuable insight and that’s what I want as I do have some troubles with sinuses and allergies. I’ve only been using it for a few days now and I plan on getting a few more of these AQM’s as it has been picking up some air quality anomalies. I’ll admit that when these were first released I thought they were gimmicky and another way for Amazon to make money but I kept hearing great things about these little units so I decided to get one to try it out. As for how accurate it is, I really have no idea so I’m trusting Amazon and the unit. The temp and humidity levels seems to be spot on though as it is spot on with my analog and digital weather stations. I would recommend this unit but you have to have Alexa so you can set it up and get updates. If you don’t use Alexa, I believe by default it will alert you with light color changes (green, yellow, and red) as to the current air quality. It does not have any other capabilities other than monitoring temp, humidity, particulate matter, CO, and VOC’s and then it gives you a air quality measurement based on those five readings.

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Getting this calmed my fears initially, but I am just not sure it is serving the purpose I ordered of which I ordered it.Pros: it’s attractive and you can easily walk by, look at it, and know by the color indicated if the levels are normal or if something is off.I had no connectivity issues and can move it from room to room without any issues, it just needs 7 minutes to calibrate each time you unplug it.You must use something to read the results- I use Alexa. But it’s very basic, only giving the the levels in categories, a time table and color distinction for good/ bad levels and some numerical detail- not bad, just basic.It is definitely usable. But VOCs go off fairly frequently. It’s on our main floor, which we are not using much right now except that is where our kitchen and bathrooms are. The VOCs rise when it seems just random, but maybe it’s reality 🤷🏽‍♀️. It will rise if we just use the bathroom, if no one is home, in the middle of the night, and reasonable times, like it I clean with Clorox.Right now, I have it in my cold basement to monitor the temperature there as the temperature outside drops. Interestingly enough, the VOCs have not risen there and we are living in the basement right now.Cons: So I purchased it for the purpose of particulate detection after resurfacing our wood floors. I was relieved when this came because it showed no issue with the particulate level. However, whenever I go into the rooms that were resurfaced, I smell the dust and the air quality simply does not appear super clear.So I did a made up powder test and litely puffed baby powder in front of the detector for almost a minute- to the point that powder is in the floor visibly and the whole room smelled of powder, but there was no rise in any levels. No one told me this is any official way to test for particulate, but it seems to make sense to me. So now I am a bit conflicted. Or maybe mine is just a fluke in particulate detection.Another negative, minor one- is that I can only read it with my Alexa App- I cannot pull it up on my Alexa Echo device, which would be convenient at times. Every time I try, Alexa reads off the local area air qualities. But the Echo will announce when the air quality is low.I don’t know if I will keep this around (like a pack rat who can’t let go of anything) or return this and look for what all better suits my needs. At the same time, I am having a hard time finding a product.Update: I feel it accurately measures the humidity. I pretty much can expect for it to alert whenever I use household cleaner or other sprays, even on a different floor of the home.**Update: Maybe they updated its capability, but I now can ask Alexa, for example- “Alexa, what is my air quality temperature?” And Alexa will inform me, which is really nice because before I had to go into the app to check.