Our 8 Favorite Indoor Air Quality Monitors We’ve Tried (2025)

Until I wrote on My quest for good air In my apartment in Brooklyn, I didn’t know there were air quality monitors. Now I can’t live without them. Being aware of your Indoor Air Quality Index means entering a world where the invisible becomes something you can never ignore.

We humans have evolved to respond to changes in temperature, rainfall and wind. Bad air is silent and often odorless, but is exposed over the long term to some fumes, particulates and high levels of carbon dioxide.₂ It can affect cognition and make us vulnerable to some types of cancer, as well as heart and respiratory diseases. Reading the daily temperature and looking at the weather forecast prepares us for what’s to come, but checking the air quality may be the biggest step you take to improve your health.

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

For more ways to Keep your air quality under controlTake a look at our guides to Best air purifiers and Best robot vacuums.

Updated January 2025: We’ve added Zen Air from PurpleAir, a smart air quality monitor from Govee, and an Ikea Vindstyrka; Specification tables added. Update links and prices.

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