Airthings Full Review - Wave, Wave Plus, View Plus, Wave Mini - Watch Before You Buy

[@Airthings]

Hi Sal, this is one of the most complete deep-dive overviews of our products we've watched so far! We were impressed by the quality of your researches and very pleased by your kind words, we are looking forward to your next videos, keep up the good work! - The Airthings Team

[@ItsAboutTime]

Could you pease answer the questions for me? What is life expectancy of the Wave +. Will they last and be acurate for 5 or 10 years or you have to get a new one every 3 years? Do you ever have black Friday or other sales? Is this somethng that I would want to buy an extended warranty? ie its stops working 1 day after the 1 year warranty expires or falls off the wall and breaks? Will you offer a new home kit with the View Plus and Wave Plus? Thanks!

[@Airthings]

​@@ItsAboutTime Hey! Unless it is operated in an unconventional way, our Airthings Wave Plus has an expected lifetime of many years, just like a normal smoke or CO detector, with accurate measurements throughout the lifespan.
View Plus is not going to be a part of the House Kit but you can always find bundles on Amazon and other retailers. 
 And yes, we do have Black Friday sales alongside other seasonal offers ☺️

[@ItsAboutTime]

@@Airthings Thank You .very much for the information. The reviews about the customer service are correct. Keep up.the good work!!!!

[@ChristopherConnors]

@@ItsAboutTime This kind of interaction from a company to a reviewer who is honest about the product is what convinced me to take the leap to try Airthings. Way to go :)

[@pmAdministrator]

Best review of these things I've seen yet. Thank you.

[@75JEG]

Thank you for such a great review on this system. I have gone ahead and purchased a number of the sensors for where I live. Did you ever find out what the extra sensor was "under the hood"?

[@DukeFarmsEagleCamFan]

Thanks for a great overview, Sal. I was looking for this type of feedback. I have the Wave Plus and I am very happy with it. Their website FAQ's and info are very, very informative. Lots of nice features to see the data in different ways.

[@DmoneyJames]

Excellent review... I like how you said somewhere along the lines that it's not airthings fault for the reading its just where technology is at.

[@martinlutherkingjr.5582]

The 4.0 pci/L action level for radon wasn’t established due to health effects. It was established out of practicality in mitigating homes in a specific state in the USA. In most cases you can and should get things below 1.3 pci/L. There’s no safe level of radon, the risk of lung cancer goes up linearly with increased radon levels. Keep in mind what matters is your long term average, not a week or month of fluctuation.

[@tonimcadams605]

Firstly, great review Sal. Strange it doesn’t have a fresh air range hard coded. .. like an AQI range. What if the outside air quality in my area is mostly bad? When I calibrate it, will it baseline according to that bad air? I’d rather it adhere to an AQI standard (or some other standard of air quality) and compare my air quality to that.

[@mokanin8894]

I wanna know that also. Can somebody respond?

[@CiscoSal]

Hopefully this helps. I did some digging into this when I created the video and it seems like all the manufactures use the same type of sensor. help.airthings.com/en/articles/4679798-vocs-how-does-the-airthings-voc-sensor-work

[@CiscoSal]

One thing you can look at is your pm2.5 levels outside. If that number is low then I would say it’s probably in line with the voc level outside

[@realtyrocks1969]

I've got just the regular Air thing for monitoring radon. It works flawlessly. I had levels that were as high 15 and after 1 day of getting a radon system my levels dropped to . 24 Amazing device. I also have a radon alarm that will go off if my radon system stops working. Radon is no joke.

[@ItsAboutTime]

Hi. Thank you for the very detailed review. Could I please ask some questions? If you can't answer them its okay. What is life expectancy of the Wave +. Will they last and be acurate for 5 or 10 years or you have to get a new one every 3 years? Do you know when or if they have sales? Is this somethng that I would want to buy an extended warranty? ie its stops working 1 day after the 1 year warranty expires or falls off the wall and breaks? Will they offer a new home kit with the View Plus and Wave Plus? Thanks!

[@jsfbay1]

This link, www.alarmnewengland.com/blog/best-radon-detectors says that the Corentium has a useful life of 10 years (search for "10 years" on that link.) I did not see any lifespan for any of their other products. As Airthings stated in a comment above, just like a smoke or CO detector, the sensor(s) have a finite lifespan. I would appreciate it if Airthings support would comment on the lifespan of their other products here. I would assume at least 5 years, but that's a guess. And with the new View Plus product, which has multiple sensors in it, it may turn out that one of the many sensors might quit working/become inaccurate before all the others. If I can assume that the Wave Plus uses the same Radon sensor as the Corentium, then I would expect the Wave Plus to provide accurate Radon readings for 10 years too.

[@ItsAboutTime]

@@jsfbay1 Thank you for the information.

[@tastyseabass]

Such good practical information. For example, regarding high humidity and the radon sensor.

[@bgates275]

Was considering this or a health watch for Black Friday. Any reason why this would be the better buy?

[@CiscoSal]

Like a fitbit? I guess it depends on if you think you have air quality issues. If you think the health watch will help you exercise more then i might value that in the short term.

[@MicahFunk]

Nice info about these sensors. I'm looking to buy but one thing I'm noticing is the View Plus and Wave Plus have two separate apps. The Wave Plus app has pollen info that the Wave View doesn't have. It almost appears that the Wave Plus app has more development than the other one. I would like to figure out how these apps would work if I were to buy a View Plus and add a Wave Plus . Which app is used or do I have to use both. Have you got to experiment with this since the making of this video?

[@CiscoSal]

That is a great question! I have not had the chance to buy a view plus and play with it yet so i can’t answer your question. You could reach out to Airthings support. In my experience they are super responsive. I bet you will have a reply in less than 24 hours. Keep us all posted what you find out. I’m curious now 🙂

[@Kommunarsk]

Thank you for the review! I'm curious: does this product (and Airthings) has any competitors with about the same features and quality?

[@Siddharth2460]

What is radon? Does it detect alpha particles?

[@sedtar]

Hi thanks for this video. If I wanna proof to my property owner that the central air coming into my apartment is polluted, can I use the mini to prove it?

[@CiscoSal]

It will show voc. You probably want a pm2.5 monitor as well. I would look more at the the view plus as it will do both. The only bad thing is that its still on pre-order. So you might have to wait a few months.

[@sedtar]

@@CiscoSal thank you for your quick answer, but what is pm2.5? And why do you think I need it? If I wanna be more specific, what I’m experiencing in more like strange smells coming from other condos, combined with smoke from cigarettes and other things people smoke, in this case what do you recommend best? Thank you so much for your time and help!

[@CiscoSal]

Check out this video i did. It will go over everything for indoor air quality. kzbin.info/www/bejne/f3rFXp6VYpyfZrc

[@kjlore3396]

Quick question for you. What if I put a sensor in the sump pump room, and another one in the machine room, to get a better picture the radon levels in the different parts of the basement? Would I be able to connect two sensors to one hub?

[@CiscoSal]

No but you could view them both on the same app. Also it might be overkill. I would start with one and just move it around. I did this with mine. There was almost no difference in different parts of the basement. I did a few weeks in one spot and another few weeks in another.

[@kjlore3396]

@@CiscoSal thanks!

[@jackc8120]

Is the hub ethernet port POE?

[@CiscoSal]

It is not.

[@RogerWilsonTodd]

I don’t want to deal w batteries. Do all units provide a USB-C port for power?

[@CiscoSal]

The view has a usb port for power. None of the other ones do. Airthings say the batteries last 3 years. In my testing I was a little over 2 years. When you use the app to look at the sensors it causes them to exchange data over Bluetooth. So the more you look at them the more battery is used up. I would say i am a heavy user. So a light user could probably get 3 years.

[@victorlin8098]

Thank you so much for your great sharing!!!!! Just found this one before I start purchasing, thanks again for your great work

[@CiscoSal]

Awesome! Glad it was helpful!

[@jerry8637]

I am looking at the view plus vs other brands. It seems to be a great monitoring tool but I am worried that a tool like this is only good if it is accurate. Otherwise your just paying for tech and random lights. Your thoughts on the accuracy of air things sensors?

[@CiscoSal]

Airthings publishes most of their accuracy numbers. From a radon perspective I would say it’s accurate. I have two other brands of radon monitors and all 3 read about the same. VOC you won’t find accuracy numbers for. But again this is more of an industry problem and the technology that’s available. The PM 2.5 sensor i def want to compare it to IQAir. The really nice thing about the view plus is it has radon, VOC, and PM built in. There really isn’t anything else on the market that has all that at that price point. My thoughts on general accuracy is that if you want to get a general idea these types of consumer sensors are fine. If you are trying to get an exact number then you need to look at more of a professional model. Expect to pay 5x for something professional. Also a lot of times the professional stuff has the same type of sensor in them, they might just be certified for accuracy. The other thing like for radon, most of these professional ones have the same sensor just multiple copies of it. This is to speed up the process, get more samples and get a more accurate reading in a smaller amount of time. Since i live in my house it’s not a big deal for me to wait a few days to get just as accurate of a reading.

[@jerry8637]

@@CiscoSal thanks for the reply. Yup this tool checks all the boxes for multiple sensors for the right price. I will be very interested in the pm2.5 accuracy vs the iq air monitor. I look forward to that video. I plan to preorder the AirVisual do you have an like to give you any kickback from my purchase? Thanks again.

[@CiscoSal]

I do not. Thanks for asking though!

[@ChristopherConnors]

@@CiscoSal Great answer, thanks Cisco. Have you been able to test the PM 2.5 sensor vs the IQAir? That's the only other brand I was really considering.

[@g123-u1l]

Have you had the chance to get your preorder yet? Airthings is taking their sweet time on this sensor

[@NicolaiRosenberg]

But doesn't it idicate the relative humidity? So basically the mold indicator is kinda useless because if the hygrometer gives a reading of 70% then you probably have a risk of mold growth. It doesn't matter if it indicates 70% humidity in warm or cold air because it's relative humidity?

[@crystalmethshrimp]

very informative

[@alexeymalafeev6167]

Thank you for the review!

[@user-nq9gz4xf7f]

I just got the wave mini..i just assumed these products measured particular matter. To me the most important. The wave mini dont seem to do much

[@CiscoSal]

Unfortunately the mini does not do pm2.5/10. You would need the View Plus for that. amzn.to/3zve7Up

[@martinlutherkingjr.5582]

They just want you to spend $300 on the view plus. What’s worse is if you have a multistory house with a basement, then you need 3 of them.

[@Gandalf_Lundgren]

Why would they not calibrate these in a controlled environment during production? Sounds like the best way to calibrate is to leave outside for a week.

[@CiscoSal]

It needs constant calibration. It will take the lowest reading as its base point.

[@Wojtkingson]

@@CiscoSal It is little bit bad solution, every 7 day try to reach the clean air for regular calibration. I understand the need of calibrating because of some kind of drift in sensors, but callibration every 7 days...

[@jc8867]

I think their secret sensor was an April Fools joke… see their video on the Love sensor :-) Posted the day before you posed this…

[@TheSkillkeeper]

You need to check your carbon monoxide source, way too high. Your breathing creates carbon dioxide which does not kill you as monoxide will.

[@CiscoSal]

Yes absolutely. Carbon monoxide is part of healthy indoor air quality. Carbon dioxide is also part of IAQ. You will want to watch both. Most people have carbon monoxide sensors in their home already. In most areas it’s code for any new house to have carbon monoxide/ smoke detectors in the hose. High levels of carbon dioxide may be less dangerous but should still be monitored. It can also tell you how your ventilation is doing. If you have multiple people in a room and carbon dioxide starts to go up dramatically you also have a higher chance of spreading germs. If there is more ventilation carbon dioxide will be lower and any pathogens in the air will be diluted. Check out this video i made. kzbin.info/www/bejne/f3rFXp6VYpyfZrc