Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Air Quality Monitors Compared: AirGradient One vs. Airthings

airgradient.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 59 posts

Re: Air Quality Monitors Compared: AirGradient One vs. Airthings

#31

Post by xoa »

ahaucnx wrote: post #8
mbStavola wrote: post #2

I plan to pick up some AirGradient units and phase out my AirThings devices simply because I want to keep all my data local and open. However, I do wish 1) it could monitor Radon and 2) had a PoE powered sku.

Yes, these things have come up quite a few times. Regarding Radon there are unfortunately no 3rd party sensor modules available that we know off (and are reasonably priced). If you know any, please let us know. Regarding PoE, we have made a survey some time ago and less than 5% of the users were interested in PoE. However, the hardware integration is not straight forward and it would increase the price of the unit fo…

So fully recognizing upfront my own bias towards this feature, and that lack of immediate interest makes something a business risk regardless of how it might turn out over time. Still, just 2 cents towards the long term:

>Regarding PoE, we have made a survey some time ago and less than 5% of the users were interested in PoE

1. I'm not sure surveys are that useful for features a lot of users aren't aware of or might have outdated views on. I think a better survey would be on whether users wanted ethernet at all, because that's the only real differentiator there in an age where a basic PoE+ switch can be had for $55. If it's already going to be on a hardline, then having it be powered that way too is ultra useful and zero extra work. Ethernet is also something people can do without being electricians. There is a bit of chicken/egg challenge with features like that where not many people know because there isn't much stuff.

2. I hope you're normalizing to some degree for purchase volume. 5% of customers isn't the same as 5% of sales.

That said I certainly wouldn't want to see you face any challenges over something like that and your reasons are fair enough. It is just a bit of a bummer to not have more options on that front. But the native HA integration added back in June with no firmware flash already sold me on a bunch of AirGradients anyway and was much more important! Thank you so much for that.

Re: Air Quality Monitors Compared: AirGradient One vs. Airthings

#32

Post by lrhegeba »

Am very satisified with https://en.air-q.com/funktionen/air-q-science-option that offers a lot of sensors (https://en.air-q.com/messwerte). Good UI, API-accessible and integration in HA works just fine. Rather pricey though, depending how many sensors you choose.

Re: Air Quality Monitors Compared: AirGradient One vs. Airthings

#34

Post by scire »

daft_pink wrote: post #18

Why no radon on the airgradient? I’d really like a device that also prevents cancer.

Why not measure something like CO2 and use that as a proxy?

The logic being that whenever you bring in fresh air, you decrease radon concentration.

And a high CO2 level means you need to bring in fresh air anyway, and you incidentally also reduce radon concentration.

I could be way off here though, happy to learn more on the topic as I don’t have experience with (dealing with) radon.

Re: Air Quality Monitors Compared: AirGradient One vs. Airthings

#35

Post by ahaucnx »

xoa wrote: post #31
ahaucnx wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, these things have come up quite a few times. Regarding Radon there are unfortunately no 3rd party sensor modules available that we know off (and are reasonably priced). If you know any, please let us know. Regarding PoE, we have made a survey some time ago and less than 5% of the users were interested in PoE. However, the hardware integration is not straight forward and it would increase the price of the unit fo…

So fully recognizing upfront my own bias towards this feature, and that lack of immediate interest makes something a business risk regardless of how it might turn out over time. Still, just 2 cents towards the long term: > Regarding PoE, we have made a survey some time ago and less than 5% of the users were interested in PoE 1. I'm not sure surveys are that useful for features a lot of users aren't aware of or might…

I am not ruling it out in the long term. I actually also would love to have a wired Ethernet connection and if we grow further we might very well come to the point where the 5% really matter and we have more resources available to develop it.

Re: Air Quality Monitors Compared: AirGradient One vs. Airthings

#36

Post by emmanuel_1234 »

I unplugged my AirGradient a couple days ago. It's quite the useless piece.

The CO2 sensor does not read CO2 levels, and recalibrates automagically. I have completely wacky readings from it, from 200ppm to 2000ppm.

The VOC sensor also apparently does not read VOC levels, see discussion here: https://forum.airgradient.com/t/measurement-values-for-the-a....

All in all, I'm frustrated I fell for the regular free advertising they get on HN.

Re: Air Quality Monitors Compared: AirGradient One vs. Airthings

#37

Post by haswell »

I appreciate that AirGradient has open source products, but the company repeatedly posting its own content here is starting to feel increasingly spammy.

Air quality is a hot topic here so the posts often succeed, but why does this product hold so much sway with this community? Genuine question.

Most companies self-promoting their own “we’re better than X competitor” content are not so well received. Am I missing some context/history, or are people just really happy with their AirGradient gear?

Re: Air Quality Monitors Compared: AirGradient One vs. Airthings

#38

Post by anotherhue »

stephenitis wrote: post #19
daft_pink wrote: post #18

Why no radon on the airgradient? I’d really like a device that also prevents cancer.

I agree, I'd like to go with air gradient but i need a radon sensor

You can get a cheap analogue radon sensor. As others have pointed out, even if you do detect radon the typical solution is add ventilation.

Which is exactly what you do if you had a high CO2 reading.

Re: Air Quality Monitors Compared: AirGradient One vs. Airthings

#39

Post by ck2 »

Airgradient teardowns and reports are like the Backblaze reports, always such a great service to the community.

But I really wish Airgradient would get on the national US map for AQI

PurpleAir really has a massive headstart and Google even puts Purple on googlemaps so you can't compete with that.

I keep saying AirGradient needs to massively discount if not just give for free their monitors to all the WeatherSTEM sites in the USA which ALL do NOT have air-quality monitoring. Now -THAT- would get them on the map.

compare

https://map.purpleair.com/

https://www.airgradient.com/map/?zoom=4

https://www.weatherstem.com/sites

Re: Air Quality Monitors Compared: AirGradient One vs. Airthings

#40

Post by ahaucnx »

emmanuel_1234 wrote: post #36

I unplugged my AirGradient a couple days ago. It's quite the useless piece. The CO2 sensor does not read CO2 levels, and recalibrates automagically. I have completely wacky readings from it, from 200ppm to 2000ppm. The VOC sensor also apparently does not read VOC levels, see discussion here: https://forum.airgradient.com/t/measurement-values-for-the-a... . All in all, I'm frustrated I fell for the regular free advert…

Achim from AirGradient here.

I'm often personally going on Zoom call with customers to make sure they get 100% out of the monitor and address these types of questions. Please send me a note through our support form and I'm happy to help [1]. Please make a note in the support ticket to this link so that it will get assigned right to me.

Now regarding the CO2 sensor. We use the SenseAir S8 which is one of the best NDIR sensors out there. If you do not like the auto calibration, you can now switch this off in the dashboard or change the automatic baseline calibration to longer periods. To do this, go to Place Settings, General Place Settings.

In case you still have these wild swings, contact our support with your sensor ID and we will have a look.

Regarding VOC, this has also recently addressed and you can now change the learning gain offset to make it more behave like an absolute sensor. We clearly describe the behavior of the VOC sensor on our website and this is actually the behavior of all newer generations of VOC sensors. We use the Sensirion SGP41 which is regarded one of the best ones.

Now, you are free to call it a "useless piece" but I'd appreciate if we keep the discussion fact based. As far as I know, there is no other air quality monitor in the same price range that is substantially better than ours.

Measuring air quality pollutants is not as simple as measuring temperature so there are inherent shortcoming in some of them. It is part of our mission to educate people on these. This is why we published for example the air quality cheatsheet. [2]

[1] https://www.airgradient.com/support/

[2] https://www.airgradient.com/documents/infographics/AQ-Monito...

Post reply on HN