The best air quality monitors to keep indoor air healthy

Become aware Knowing your indoor air quality index is like entering a realm where the invisible becomes something you can never unsee. Until I wrote about my quest for quality air in my Brooklyn apartment, I didn’t know air quality monitors existed. Now I couldn’t live without them.

Humans have evolved to respond to changes in temperature, precipitation and wind. Stale air is silent and often odourless, but prolonged exposure to certain vapours, particulates and high levels of CO can cause death.₂ 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 checking the weather forecast prepares us for what’s to come, but checking the air quality may be the most important step you take to improve your health.

These air quality monitors were tested in two locations: a 130+ year old apartment in Brooklyn with a gas stove in a building that is under construction and a cabin in the woods of Maine that uses an electric stove. There were two cats, one dog, and two people throughout the testing period. I had multiple air purifiers running at all times. Neither location had central air or HVAC with MERV filters, nor did they have exhaust fans over the stove that could remove fumes to the outside. In both locations, it was cooking on the stove that produced the worst air. These monitors were used both on days with excellent outdoor air and on days when the air quality was in the moderate zone, above 50 in the middle zone. US Air Quality Index.

For more ways to keep your air quality in check, check out our guides to the best air purifiers and the best robot vacuums.

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