Tag: VOC

A new device from one of the best manufacturer of home air quality monitors – AWAIR Element (AWAIR REV3E)

This one is less expensive, but keep best feature of AWAIR 2.

What changed in Awair Element (in compare to Awair 2)?

• Plastic case
• Little bit smaller
• No microphone and no speaker (no sound)
• No Sub-1GHz wireless
• Integrated antennas
• Less expensive

So I would say nothing critical was removed to achieve better price. It is still a good design, both internal and external. Same air quality sensors:

• t/RH (Sensirion SHT30)
• TVOC (Sensirion SGP30)
• PM2.5 (Honeywell HPMA115S0)
• CO2 (Telaire T6703-5K)

Automatic firmware update, fast new device setup, ambient light sensor, 24h clock mode, and other good features are still in place.

Device support some integrations like: IFTT, Amazon alexa, Google Assistance (not tested).

See what is inside Awair element.

Amazon: 149$ (~175$ with taxes custom and forwarding to Ukraine)

Awair site: 149$

Dienmern DM601 is a portable air quality monitor with two options available DM601A and DM601B. The difference is in additional HCHO sensors. Model DM601A has no HCHO sensor onboard.

The device has SHT30 temperature and humidity sensor but measures temperature wrongly due to device self-heating and poor thermal design (see thermal photos of DM601A). The battery is 3000 mAh that gives about 5 hours of both charging time and battery life (see details).

Most of the sensors inside DM601 are unbranded. No Wireless connectivity. Usability is average. Measurements (except temperature) are more or less ok.

Aliexpress price: 70$-100$

I was not expecting much ordering KKMOON K6 (and receiving actually OCRKJ K6). Which also known as CAFU K6. Because most of the portable air quality monitors I got before have at least one major issue with measurements (AiRead M3 – all measurements wrong, HT-501 – wrong temperature, AirRadio A6 – issues with CO2 measurement after outdoor use and wrong humidity measurements). AirVisual Node was the only exception that both portable and show correct numbers. But it just too big to put it in your pocket. So there was a long history of portable CO2 monitors with issues. And it was kind of a surprise that the device I bought for 83$ is both portable and displays more or less correct numbers.

Pros

• 3000 mAh battery ( 10 hours of battery life)
• additional sensors (VOC, PM2.5)
• correct t, RH and CO2 measurements (not sure about other)
• 16 different screens including trends
• Active airflow with the relatively quiet fan
• quality design and schematic inside (no glues, connectors, replaceable sensors)
• good CO2 sensor inside – SenseAir S8 LP

Cons

• some noise from the PM2.5 sensor fan
• slow charging – 8 hours (in operation mode)
• no connectivity (Bluetooth, wi-fi, USB mass storage) – nothing
• no ambient light sensor
• unconfigurable high CO2 limits (GOOD is up to 1000 ppm)

See device insides: https://wiki.liutyi.info/display/CO2/K6+Inside

Price: ~100$ (sale price was 83$)

Awair 2-nd edition is a better version of Awair, that fix some known issues of first edition

What was fixed and added

• 24h time format
• USB Type-C standard 5v power connector
• USB 5v 2A standard power supply
• Better display (resolution, no backlight)
• Ambient light sensor (display auto brightness)
• Microphone (not sure if it is good to have it on IoT device)
• Better PM2.5 sensor
• New buttons to switch the display mode
• Better wireless connectivity (new antennas)
• Better (active) airflow

Awair. Air quality monitor. Measure Humidity, Temperature, CO2, VOC (Hydrogen gas, Hydrogen Sulfide, Ammonia, Ethanol, Toluene, Formaldehyde), Dust (PM2.5 PM10). That is somehow more than netatmo can do.

Device shows air quality metrics as a dot bars. Where one dot is good and five dot are bad. It is also general “Awair score” on the screen both by number (100 is best, zero is worst) and by color of the LED (green is good, red is bad).

Awair also can work as clock (but only in 12h mode).

In addition to local indication device is also send data to a cloud using Wi-Fi (802.11n 2.4GHz), that allow to see the data using iPhone or Android on a remote locations.