Airthings Wave Plus Smart Air Quality Monitor Review

The Airthings Wave Plus is a smart device that aims to monitor the quality of the air in your home. The small white plastic device resembles a traditional smoke detector in appearance but it monitors a number of different pollutants which may be detrimental to your health.

According to the World Health Organization, around 3.8 million people die each from exposure to household air pollution. That pollution comes from many sources but among them is Radon Gas and Volatile Organic Compounds. The Airthings Wave Plus can detect both of these pollutants in your home and in addition to this, it monitors CO2 levels, humidity, air temperature and air pressure.

What’s in the Box

Along with the Airthings Wave Plus, you get some documentation and a screw for assisting with mounting the device to a wall or ceiling. The back cover of the device attaches to it magnetically so you can take that off and fix it to the wall and then attach the device to it after. The back cover, once removed, gives access to the two AA batteries which are also included.

Airthings Wave Plus Setup

Setting the device up is relatively straightforward. You download their app from your App Store and then go through the pairing procedure. The device connects to your phone via Bluetooth and once set up, will sync periodically or each time you open the App.

Once the setup is complete the App informs you that the device needs to calibrate for 7 days. During that time everything is still accessible and data is being collected and reported in the App but we left the device alone and let it complete its calibration for the week.

Day to Day Use

As the name may have suggested if you wave your hand in front of the device an LED ring illuminates in a traffic light colour pattern to indicate the current air quality.

A green light means everything is good, amber warns you that the levels are heading in the wrong direction and red means something has gone above the top limit and you need to take action.

Inside the app, the main screen shows the same coloured ring system and gives you an overview of each of the monitored levels. If you have more than one device you can pick each from a drop-down at the top.

You can then drill down into each of the monitored items and see a graph for the last 48 hours, week, month or year.

During my time using the Airthings Wave Plus, I was a little concerned about the number of times I waved in front of it and saw a red light! The main cause of the red warnings in my home was CO2 levels. While still not something to be happy about it was certainly better than high Radon levels being reported.

While you often hear about Radon in the news I can’t say it was ever something I gave much consideration to until the Airthings Wave Plus arrived on my desk. Now all of a sudden I was very interested and considering the dire consequences Radon exposure can have, that’s probably not a bad thing.

The internet is littered with stories of cowboy builders who didn’t bother laying Radon barriers properly or even at all in some developments and while I always just presumed my house would be fine, it was reassuring to have a device monitor it and confirm that to me. Thankful during my time testing, the Radon levels the device picked up were negligible and never near a level to take any action.

Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOCs) can be equally as nasty as Radon. Unlike the Radon levels, my TVOC levels did rise and fall more significantly but not to a worrying level. The thing that stands out with TVOCs is that you have a direct impact on them. Everyday cleaning products, paints and even cooking can increase these levels. The Airthings Wave Plus regularly showed the amber light for TVOCs and while there was no major cause for concern it did raise my awareness levels as to how simple things could have a big impact negatively here.

By far the most common source of the red light for me was CO2 levels. We’ve gone to great lengths at home improving the energy rating of the house and sealing up air leaks but as a consequence of that, it would seem that clean airflow into the house has been quite restricted. In the evening time when everyone was at home, the Airthings Wave Plus would regularly show red for CO2.

CO2 is linked to a number of unwanted effects on the body such as headaches, shortness of breath, increased heart rate and drowsiness so while it may not have the same impact as Radon, high levels of it are certainly undesirable in the home.

I was oblivious to this in the past but seeing the red light on the Airthings Wave Plus gives you a gentle reminder to open some doors and windows and let some fresh air into the house.

The other items monitored are useful indicators of the environment in your home and can give you advance notice of possible issues in the future. Humidity and temperature can have a big impact on your home and health so keeping them within the recommended levels will be beneficial to you.

IFTTT

The Airthings Wave Plus is compatible with IFTTT. For anyone unfamiliar with IFTTT, it is an online service that allows you to automate tasks and also acts as a middle man so different pieces of smart kit can talk to each other.

There is a huge amount of recipes you can create here such as notifications when levels go high or getting smart lights in your home to change colour as a warning so this is a great additional feature to have included.

Things that could be improved

When you click items in the App to find out more about something it opens a web page rather than having the info in the App itself.

While the traffic light system is easy to understand, there is little info in the App to explain the actual reading levels for each item. So for example, if I look at the average TVOC level in my home for the last week it shows 123ppb and that it orange. What I can’t readily see in the App is at what value that will go red.

While IFTTT is great, it is a third party service and can go down from time to time. Like all smart home equipment, sometimes communications break down and notifications don’t find their way to devices from the cloud. The App has no notifications built-in from what I can see but it would be great if it did.

Lastly, the App kind of felt like it was just a way of getting readings from the device. It would be great if it offered up some tips on how to improve air quality in my home or identified patterns in the readings for example. Plenty of information is available on the web but it would be nice if the App did more from within it.

Conclusion

The Airthings Wave Plus has certainly made me think about the air quality in my home in a whole new light. It has pointed out issues that I didn’t know existed and while thankfully one of them was not radon, that may not be the case in someone else’s home.

With some work creating routines on IFTTT you can be notified of increased levels and you can collect data for further analysis or tracking.

While the impact of using this device may not be apparent instantly, reducing long term exposure to air pollutants in your home can only be a good thing.

The Airthings Wave Plus is available now from the Airthings website for €269.