until I wrote As for my quest for good air in my Brooklyn apartment, I had no idea air quality monitors existed. Now I could not live without them. Becoming aware of your indoor air quality index is entering a realm where the invisible becomes something you can never see.
We humans have evolved to respond to changes in temperature, precipitation, and wind. Bad air is quiet and often odorless, but long-term exposure to certain vapors, particles, and high levels of CO2 It can affect cognition and make us vulnerable to certain cancers as well as heart and respiratory diseases. Reading the daily temperature and checking the weather forecast prepares us for what’s to come, but checking your air quality may be the biggest step you can take to improve your health.
These air quality monitors were tested in two locations: a 130-year-old Brooklyn apartment with a gas stove in a building under construction, and a cabin in the woods of Maine that uses an electric stove. Two cats, one dog and two people were present during the whole experiment. I had various air purifiers that worked all the time. None of these locations had central air or air conditioning with MERV filters, nor did they have over-stove exhaust fans that could have blown the smoke outside. In both places, it was cooking on the stove that produced the worst air. The monitors were used both on days with great outside air and on days when the air quality was in the average region, above 50 on the US Air Quality Index.
For more ways to control your air quality, check out our guide to the best air purifiers and the best robot vacuums.
Updated January 2025: We’ve added PurpleAir’s Zen Air, the Govee Smart Air Quality Monitor, and the Ikea Vindstyrka. Added specification tables; And updated links and prices
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