Many air purifiers on the market include built-in air quality monitors to help users get a picture of their air quality. Unfortunately, there are a variety of issues with these built-in sensors, which is why we recommend using a stand-alone, portable air quality monitor.
Apart from these issues, adding these sensors increases the cost of the purifier, which is another reason we at Smart Air do not include a built-in sensor in our air purifiers.
Air Purifiers With Air Quality Monitors: 5 Issues
1. Inaccurate, Low-Quality Sensors
In general, there are a lot of inaccurate air quality monitors on the market. This is likely even more true with built-in monitors since the sensor is not the main feature of the purifier and they want to reduce costs. Smart Air’s in-house tests of one of the most popular built-in air quality monitors support this. The Xiaomi air purifier’s built-in air quality monitor was showing readings 80% lower than actual air quality levels.
We have seen a complaint from an Amazon user pointing out that the Levoit built-in sensor is inaccurate.
2. Only Measures Air Close to Purifier
A built-in monitor only measures air next to the air purifier, often which has just been cleaned. This doesn’t necessarily give a good representation of the air in the room. An air purifier that is too weak to clean a room may still have cleaner air near the purifier.
Xiaomi 4 Max Air purifier in Pilates Classroom
The Smart Air team did a simple test with the Xiaomi 4Max. With the window open (72 micrograms outside) and the indoor purifier turned on, the built-in air quality monitor of the Xiaomi showed 1 microgram, while the QP Lite Air Quality Monitor showed 48 micrograms. The difference is 48 times, indicating that the Xiaomi 4Max’s built-in monitor cannot accurately reflect the actual air quality in the room.
3. Only Measure PM2.5
Most built-in air monitors only measure PM2.5, such as the Levoit Core® 400S Smart Air Purifier. Just because of PM.2.5 levels are low does not mean the air is safe. VOCs and CO2 levels can also cause serious harm. Stand-alone monitors such as the QP Pro (QP Pro review here) can monitor all of these levels.
4. Not Portable
How is the air quality in my kitchen? What about at my kid’s school? A stand-alone air quality monitor gives you a full picture of the air quality wherever you go.
5. Inflates the Air Purifier Price
Adding an air quality sensor increases the cost of the air purifier. Considering the above negatives, why pay for this “feature”?
Considering the above 5 negatives of air purifiers with built-in air quality monitors, we recommend using a data-backed stand-alone air quality monitor. We ran tests on a variety of air quality monitors on the market, and recommend the QP air quality monitor for its accuracy and features. We recently added the QP monitors to our clean air shop .
Bonus: The QP Air Quality Monitors
Since publishing this article, Smart Air has tested a new set of air quality monitors: The QP Lite and QP Pro+. After testing out the monitors, we were impressed with their accuracy and functionality. We have replaced the Laser Egg on our Clean Air Shop, with the QP monitors.
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I’m so disappointed. Xiaomi looked like the best air filter for me. I would like to have a standalone air filter that turns on when the air is bad. Doesn’t matter too much if it reads 30 when the air is 60 as long as it turns on until the number is very low. But reading 1 vs 48?! If you left it open long enough for the room to stabilize and the air had good access to both sensors, then that’s atrocious! I’d like to have a sensor paired with an air filter with no hubs or apps required.… Read more »
Very accurate article. I purchased a Dyson air purifier with a built-in monitor. It heats and cools as well so I thought, “bonus”! “Bogus” was more like it. It always read that the air quality was “Good” or “Fair” but luckily, I also had an air quality monitor that I borrowed because the air purifier that I had before wasn’t a huge name like Dyson so I wasn’t sure about it. When I got rid of it for the Dyson, I measured the air quality just for the heck of it. Imagine my surprise when the levels were dangerous and… Read more »