Now you can breathe easy in your home
AirThings View Plus From €299 ★★★★★
Over the last couple of years, spending more time at home than I’d planned or expected to, I took an interest in the tech that can monitor and improve the air in our homes. AirThings caught my eye, with its range of consumer-friendly airquality monitors. Started by CERN scientists, this Oslo-based company has gone from strength to strength and this week its new View Plus smart monitor arrived on my desk.
Inside the eco-friendly package was the air monitor, six AA batteries, a USB-C cable and a quick-start guide.
For a small device, the six batteries were a bit of a surprise but it turns out that they’ll power the unit for up to two years.
Alternatively, though, the USB-C cable can be connected from the device to a USB adapter and you can run it on mains power. However, the cable-free battery option would seem like the best solution
WAVE A HAND IN FRONT OF THE MONITOR TO SEE THE LEVELS
You’ll wonder how you ever lived without this clever air-quality tracker
for most of us. The device itself measures 17 x 9cms and is 3.3cm deep. Inset on the front is the 2.9” ePaper display.
The dimensions mean the View Plus is not intrusive if placed on a mantlepiece and, at just 360g, it can easily be mounted on a wall.
It’s a really attractive smart home device and the smooth elliptical ends and calm white colour are a hint to its Scandinavian roots.
There are no buttons here but on the front are clever colour-coded indicators.
When you wave your hand in front of the View Plus you’ll see a green, amber or red indicator indicating good, fair or bad air quality.
Set-up was straightforward and took me less than 10 minutes. After inserting the batteries, I downloaded the free AirThings app which is available for iOS and Android, and connected to my home broadband network.
The View Plus can also act as a hub if powered using the USB connection. For larger homes, this is useful as it means you can add other AirThings products and the hub will manage them for you, presenting all data in the app.
Perhaps the key part of the set-up is deciding on the display settings.
The View Plus has an array of sensors and you can opt to display any two on the display screen – though you can change these at any time in the app.
The device monitors radon, PM2.5 particulate matter, carbon dioxide, temperature, humidity, airborne chemicals and air pressure.
I selected carbon dioxide and PM2.5 and the readings for both are shown on my display.
In the app though, I can see all seven data readings and an overall air-quality rating on a single screen. There’s also a web dashboard that is even more comprehensive and has a lot of useful information on radon, airborne chemicals and the impact bad air can have on our health.
A swipe in the app brought me on to the individual reading details for each sensor, where I can see a 48hour/week/month/year of readings on a chart. Also in the app, I can set notifications, so I’ll be alerted if thresholds are exceeded. I did this
STARTED GETTING ALERTS THAT THE CO2 WAS TOO HIGH
for PM2.5 and carbon dioxide.
Interestingly, I started to get a notification almost every night around 9pm that the carbon dioxide level was too high.
Already, I’ve changed my routine and switching off the heating earlier, and opening a window have eliminated the nightly peak.
There’s Alexa and Google integration though I would like to see more voice commands or spoken analysis features from connected digital assistants.
Then there’s the screen, which isn’t backlit but that’s understandable to help get that two-year battery life. Overall, this is an exceptional smart home device.
Humidity and temperature are nice to know but knowing the radon, PM2.5 and airborne chemical readings in our homes can help us make changes to keep us and our families safer and healthier.
While the View Plus is not an impulse purchase, it’s beautifully designed, easy to use and I’ve come to rely on mine every day.