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

Reviews

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Review AI Summary

Customers find the air quality monitor easy to use and set up, providing good information and surprising insights. The device's functionality and air quality readings receive mixed feedback - while some say it works well, others report it stops working, and while some find the readings accurate, others find them wildly inaccurate. The Alexa integration and value for money also get mixed reviews, with some considering it decent for the price while others say it's not worth the cost. Customers report slow responsiveness, with the app taking up to 3 minutes to respond.

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  JH

  

  Jul 26, 2023

  Ordered the device and had it the next day. I ordered this device to get a handle on our indoor air quality. The motivator of this purchase is the current wildfire pollution effecting many areas of the country and knowing the impact of the winter heating season on air quality. The measured parameters are perfect for this assessment. Carbon monoxide (CO) in particular is a dangerous. As stated by the product description, this device is no substitute for a CO monitor/alarm. What I find interesting is the error some make in not understanding the difference between CO2 carbon dioxide and CO carbon monoxide. CO2 is not a life threatening gas, but CO is! CO2 is produced by the human body as a end product of body metabolism whereas CO is an end product of combustion. Bottom line, elevated CO can kill you within a matter of hours based on how it arrests the carrying capacity of oxygen in the blood. Every home should have a CO alarm! The other misunderstanding is about radon. You measure for it once in your home, if it is high, you install a system to eliminate it. Done. This little device is just what you need to make sure the air you breathe is safe, no more, no less. Newer homes that are built tight for heating and cooling efficiency need a ventilation system to introduce fresh air and eliminate stale air utilizing filtration. An older home such as ours (built 1956) tends to allow air infiltration so there is an element of air exchange at the expense of efficiency. Either way, an air quality monitor such as this device can give you peace of mind. Installation took less than 10 minutes having multiple Alexa devices. Got my 1st report and a green light on the monitor within minutes. I really like the report on the Alexa app and Echo Show. I can access it from my phone as well. Nicely done Amazon. Recommended. Update: 8-2-23 Had this for a few days, very impressed with the overall sensitivity of the monitoring. Examples; 1) was sanding a piece of furniture in the basement one level below the monitor. Within minutes the monitor displayed a yellow light and the monitor readings indicated a moderate elevation in the pm, particulates. This resolved back to a green light, good air quality level, within an hour after I stopped sanding. 2) had our home cleaning service in to do a complete deep cleaning, within minutes of their use of cleaning products (strong smell), the monitor went from yellow to red indicated a high level VOC’s in the air. This too reversed within several hours after the home cleaning was completed. If anything this demonstrates that knowing about changes in air quality in the home can be valuable to help with selection of safer home products and better control of hobbies or habits that create environmental dusts. For me and my health this is a valuable tool to manage home air quality. Update: 8/8/23 Spouse used denatured alcohol in the basement to clean wood table surface. Within minutes of using the chemical, the monitor responded with elevated VOC’s. I noticed the red light on the monitor an hour after use and checked the parameters from the Alexa app. The air quality was poor! VOC’s were in the 90’s. Opened windows on the 1st floor and basement. Within 20 minutes the poor air quality began to reverse. VOC’s were now in the 30’s with moderate air quality and a yellow light. Next time no use of denatured alcohol in the house. Final update/comment 08/20/2023 Overall, very pleased with this device. I’ve read other comments and find some that (I believe) have unrealistic expectations. This is a simple air quality monitor not a laboratory grade instrument. There are established ranges of accuracy but for what you pay this thing is great. As far as it’s integration with Alexa, I find it easy to use, gives me a quick account of air quality, and provides historical information. Graphics are good when using my phone or iPad. If you have concerns about indoor air quality and you use Alexa devices, I don’t see how you can go wrong. Highly recommended.

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  Bruce

  

  Jun 30, 2022

  It works very well and is insanely easy to set up. So far as I've been able to find, it's the only sensor that can trigger a routine based on temperature (or other environmental factors) without involving IFTTT or a Zigby device with a hub. Yes, it's more expensive than most but it just WORKS and that makes me happy. I use this to trigger the fan speeds on my window AC. Above a certain temp it kicks it into high. Below, it kicks it to low. The ECO setting on most window AC units, including mine, rely on the temperature sensor that is right up against the unit. I've found there is generally a 3-4 degree difference between that and the actual room temperature. This means that it often doesn't work properly for me. I tried a few other sensors and discovered that while they worked and showed up in Alexa, you couldn't actually DO anything with them except get Alexa to tell you the interior temperature. This device solved that problem. Now for the bad stuff. First, the light. I was happy to see that you can turn it off. I was unhappy to find that even if it's off, if the temperature, humidity, CO2 level, etc., gets too high it turns on a red light you CAN'T turn off. It's very bright and very annoying. I mean, yay for looking out for me but maybe the alarm on my phone is better suited as a warning...? The red light is just annoying. Next we have the Alexa integration. Like I said before, it sets up super easy and that's awesome. But after a bit I noticed a few things that started to annoy me. Once working, you have to constantly find the icon/button for the device. You cannot add it to favorites or anything like that. Once you're in it gives you a number that is an overall air quality score. Cool. However, the icon/button also has this score so it feels repetitive. It would be great if you could select which number you want the icon to show so you don't need to open it to find the temperature or whatever is most important to you. That brings me to another point. You HAVE to use the Alexa app. There's no widget or anything. Now, I realize that I wanted it to work with Alexa and I'm glad it's so seamless but the Alexa app is kinda clunky and a PITA if all you want is to know what the temperature in the room is. Sure, I could just ask Alexa but then I have to turn the volume up or something in order to hear it, assuming it understands what I ask for and doesn't try to play me "Temperature" by Sean Paul for the billionth time... and if you have your volume up, leads to loud music suddenly and a whole bunch of attempts to get it to shut up, etc.. So yeah, it'd be nice if I could just look at the Echo Show screen (you think they'd find a way to use it) or at my phone quickly since it doesn't have a screen on the device. For me, the worst thing is that you can't turn any of it off or tell what information it may be collecting and to whom it may be sending it. There's no information readily available about it. Now, maybe that's because it doesn't actually collect anything but it's be nice if they would just say that. As to the turning parts off, I'm a smoker so every time I smoke a cigarette, it lets me know that my Particulate Matter score is getting bad. After a while I feel like it's just mothering me. Yes, you can turn off the notifications but that turns off ALL the notifications. See the problem? There's also the issue of does it know how much I smoke? Is it keeping track? Who might get that information? Can it tell what the individual particulates or VOCs are?! (Volatile Organic Compounds-glues, pesticides, fruits, scented candles, cleaning supplies, paints, etc.) This lack of information and/or transparency is either a serious oversight or purposeful obfuscation. To be clear, I'm not that paranoid but I know people who are and it feels like something Amazon should get out in front of before someone does it first. Honestly, if Amazon knows what I'm doing, the worst I think will happen is I'll get more ads for snack cakes and other junk food. I'm going to keep using this and hope they make some changes. To be fair, this is a pretty new device so I'm sure they'll be looking at making some updates to it. And it really DOES work very well. Most importantly, you can trigger routines based on the temperature, humidity, CO2, PM and VOC information without having to become an expert in home automation.

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