Until I wrote about my search for good air in my Brooklyn apartment, I didn’t know air quality monitors even existed. Now I couldn’t live without them. Becoming aware of your indoor air quality index means entering a realm where the invisible becomes something you can never unsee.
We humans have evolved to respond to changes in temperature, rainfall and wind. Bad air is quiet and often odorless, but long-term exposure to certain fumes, particles and high levels of CO2 it can affect cognition and make us vulnerable to certain types of cancer, as well as heart and respiratory diseases. Reading the daily temperature and watching the weather forecast prepares us for what’s to come, but checking your air quality may be the biggest step you’ll take in improving your health.
These air quality monitors were tested in two locations: a 130-plus-year-old Brooklyn apartment with a gas furnace in a building under construction and a cabin in the woods in Maine that uses an electric stove. During the entire testing period, there were two cats, a dog and two people. I had various air cleaners on all the time. None of the locations had central air conditioning or HVAC with MERV filters, nor did they have exhaust fans above the stove that could vent fumes outside. In both places, cooking on the stovetop produced the worst air. These monitors were used both on days with excellent outside air and on days when the air quality was in the moderate zone, above 50 at American Air Quality Index.
For more ways to control air qualitycheck out our guides to The best air purifiers and The best robotic vacuum cleaners.
Updated January 2025: We added PurpleAir Zen Air, Govee Smart Air Quality Monitor and Ikea Vindstyrka; added specification tables; and updated links and prices.
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