This Do-It-All Air Quality Monitor Is Keeping My Home Fresh Over Winter
The SwitchBot Air Quality Monitor is the most affordable way we’ve found to monitor the air quality in your home.
As temperatures drop and windows close, air quality tends to deteriorate. Add more cookingmore fires, more candles and more gas heating and the winter months can be bad for your lungs, especially if you have pre-existing conditions. This is why I use this All-Purpose Air Quality Monitor from SwitchBot ($70)equipped with a Swedish-made sensor, ready to show what the air is like in any part of my house.
This little screen displays temperatures, humidity levels, carbon dioxide particle counts, and more, right out of the box (and with a battery that lasted me a full year). From the kitchen to the bedroom, it can give you actionable insights into where and when air quality is poor, and whether you should fix the problem with an open window. or high-tech air purifier.
When I reached out to SwitchBot for comment, the company summarized the Meter Pro with some tips on how to use it, saying: “By tracking CO₂ levels, temperature and humidity, users can make informed decisions about ventilation and indoor temperature and humidity control, leading to better sleep, increased productivity and overall well-being.” »
While testing the Meter Pro with carbon dioxide monitoring, I found air quality surprises in my own home, learned what the app can do, and was surprised by how easy the smart meter is to use.
Learn more: 9 surprising things we learned from monitoring our air quality in 3 places
A smart air quality monitor for any location in your home
The SwitchBot Meter Pro works well alone or with other smart devices.
Switchbot’s Meter Pro with Carbon Dioxide Monitoring can work indoors or outdoors (or both with the right add-on), but the carbon dioxide feature makes it a much better indoor option. You can also move it to specific locations where you are concerned the carbon dioxide will be higher. The monitor works by showing you parts per million, a common method for measuring carbon dioxide particles in the air, and updates regularly.
“The SwitchBot Meter Pro CO₂ Monitor uses non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) technology, using Swiss-made sensors for high-precision CO₂ detection,” SwitchBot told me. “It measures CO₂ levels ranging from 400 to 9,000 ppm with an accuracy of ±50 ppm. In addition to CO₂, it monitors temperature and humidity, providing a comprehensive overview of indoor air quality.
These sensors have also proven to be accurate. And if you use the device standalone, setting it up is simple. I unboxed the meter, removed the battery tab to activate the battery, and it immediately began displaying nearby air quality.
You will notice in my photos that by default the temperature appears in Celsius, but this is not a problem. A small button on the top of the meter allows me to instantly switch between Celsius and Fahrenheit. The hardest part was deciding where to put it.
Making sense of air quality numbers
The SwitchBot Meter Pro gives you all the details about the air quality in your room.
During testing, I moved the SwitchBot Meter Pro frequently, placing it on different counters and tables to see how it changed. I quickly learned that the carbon dioxide levels in my home were close to the maximum acceptable level — anything above 1,000 ppm — and that it was time to consider making changes like more ventilation or air purification. This is where our lab-tested recommendations can shine.
The high numbers were not entirely surprising. During my testing, we were at the end of the smoke season here on the West Coast and the air outside was still relatively smoky, which has a major impact on carbon dioxide levels even indoors. Additionally, my home uses natural gas for home heating and cooking, another factor that increases carbon dioxide emissions.
As the regional fires have subsided, the air quality in my home has improved significantly, with PPMs decreasing to around 600 to 700 ppm. It was even better in other homes where I took it for a quick test, indicating that I may still have work to do to improve the air quality.
In addition to temperature and carbon dioxide levels, the meter monitors humidity (my high desert cookers were pleasantly comfortable during the wetter fall season) and tells you the current weather. This makes it an interesting platform for a quick overview of what’s happening in your lungs.
Add a mini hub for more control and better battery life
The SwitchBot app provides a wealth of information.
Connecting the app via Bluetooth opened up a world of possibilities – well, once I created an account and applied numerous firmware updates, anyway.
Using the app, I was able to adjust the meter update frequency to save battery life. The battery is rated for around 12 months of use and charges via USB-C, so this isn’t a major issue. But I found that increasing the frequency of updates made it easier for me to test air quality, without any notable inconveniences.
You can use the Meter Pro as is, but it gets a huge feature boost with the SwitchBot Hub Mini ($40). My model came with one, so I was able to set it up and connect the SwitchBot app. This enabled some of the more advanced features like notifications and remote monitoring, so it’s a quality of life improvement if you want to spend a little more.
Along with the hub, the app also lets you set alerts, via notifications or sound alarms, based on triggers such as when temperature, humidity, or parts per million reach certain levels. This also allows you to receive low temperature alerts in rooms (or garages) far from your thermostat so you know when they might need additional heating.
Dive into air quality stats, personalization, and more
SwitchBot’s preferences allow for many playback customizations.
The SwitchBot app isn’t quite finished yet. As I discovered, you can check the local dew point and vapor pressure deficit, as well as get a weather forecast if you want to provide your address to the app. The app also includes a historical graph so you can see trends over time.
Deeper into the settings, even more options emerge. You can recalibrate the temperature and humidity settings if they seem a little inappropriate for your climate, then manually adjust your idea of a “comfort” level to control when the monitor alerts you of a problem.
The Hub Mini also offers compatibility with popular voice assistants, such as Amazon Alexa. This lets you set up automations with other Alexa-enabled devices, like a smart thermostat or even a humidifier.
Although the app mentions the ability to store your long-term air quality data in the cloud for a fee, there’s absolutely no need to do so if you’re only using the Meter Pro, so subscriptions aren’t an issue for this monitor.
An Air Quality Monitor for Any Home
SwitchBot’s Meter Pro with Carbon Dioxide Monitoring is compact, highly portable, and accurately measures air conditions in any part of your home with its Swiss-made sensor. Add to that the current low cost of $50 to $60 and it’s an ideal monitoring solution for anyone who is unsure of the air quality in their home and wants to keep an eye on the air quality this winter.
One last note: If you are interested in purchasing this air quality monitor, be sure to choose the option with carbon dioxide monitoring. SwitchBot has a similar Meter Pro which does everything except monitor carbon dioxide levels. The new version with carbon dioxide monitoring is a much better package, even with a higher price.
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