When I was coughing through Beijing’s airpocalypse and thinking about buying an air purifier, I wanted to know something first–do air purifiers really get the small particles of PM2.5? I wondered because I saw lots of air purifier tests on pollen, but pollen is generally 10 microns or larger, whereas I was really […]
Tag: particle counter
The Xiaomi Particle Counter Is So Inaccurate It Should Not Control the Purifier
Tech companies love to talk about how automation, internet of things, and the connected house are going to make the machines we use every day more convenient. But does it work? Anyone who’s used Apple’s Siri or “talk to text” feature knows that the promises of technology sometimes fall short. Here’s the Xiaomi air purifier, […]
How accurate are common particle counters?
When I started Smart Air in 2013, I wanted to buy an air quality monitor. I had basically two options. I could buy a US$260 Dylos or spend thousands of dollars on the crazy expensive particle counters. Since then, the market has exploded with new air quality monitors as cheap as 99 RMB. But are they […]
Are Particle Counters and Government Machines the Same?
My particle counter is a beast–I’ve loved it. But I’ve always wondered how the counts of laser particle counters like mine: …compare to the measurements of the huge stationary air quality monitoring stations that governments use, like this one in New Zealand: If you look at the US Embassy’s Twitter feed, […]
Dylos DC1100 Pro Air Quality Monitor (Particle Counter)
The Dylos DC1100 Pro Air Quality Monitor is what I’ve often used to test the effect of air purifiers and to test whether indoor air is safer than outdoor air. The particle counter gives readings of the number of particles 2.5 microns (also known as “micrometers”) and above, as well as 0.5 microns and above […]