Air Quality Monitor Professional PM2.5 PM10 Particle Counter, Formaldehyde, Temperature, Humidity, AQI Tester for Indoor/Outdoor Air Pollution Detection w/Data Export

We purchased this in November 2018. We have been using it since. I have taken it on travel with us –and always knew our local air quality -with higher fidelity than can usually be ascertained. We have compared our Temtop gage with many more gages in our community. The BOTTOM LINE: This device is as accurate as we need. For example, many terrible fires are creating bad air conditions here in California right now. Several neighbors have invested in the (pretty amazing) Purple Air (PA) monitors. You can see their readings on the PA website. So, we can look at that map to learn our community’s air conditions, but I have also driven up to all three local PA sites (& actually talked with one of them!). I compared our portable Temtop meter readings with their site readings --and the readings are all close -about plus or minus 5 in the PM2.5 µg/m3 readings. (That’s pretty good for the current conditions of day-and-night swings from the 100s to even the high 300s!). However, I then placed my meter on our backyard table for a few minutes and I had our own personal reading (that was in sync with the neighborhood’s). Nice confirmation. The advantage of this meter is I can take it inside, too. We have checked our home interior -and even our room-to-room air quality. (We are a bit higher than normal with PM2.5 of 14.7 to 16 µg/m3 inside right now, but that’s far far better than outside 199-252 range right now). Inside of our backyard shed (with no air cleaners but all windows and door closed is about 145 µg/m3). So, for us, this is a reliable, versatile meter that we can use everywhere. The price was quite reasonable, too. All this stuff from the original review is still true. 1. Fast shipping was a pleasant surprise! 2. Packaging: Excellent, first-class packaging and a simple set of instructions that are actually readable. The meter came with a low charge (1/4); but I charged it from less than ¼ to full in less than two hours. It uses simple USB charging and comes with a cable, but no wall adapter. 3. Item Quality & Description: It is quite high quality. It has a 1 ½” x 2” color LCD that is very clear and easily readable inside and outside in the sunlight and at night. The meter has a kick stand on the back that allows it to be placed on the table for easy, stable viewing. Very convenient. The meter has an on an off button (it does not time out!) surrounded by four choice buttons (PM2.5, AQI, HCHO, hold/run measuring). Very simple and very usable. 3. Operation: The meter runs constantly unless one presses the pause button, then pressing the resume button restarts the ongoing measurement functions. This means you can '"freeze" a reading to make notes. Not only does the meter provide numerical data on the readings it makes, but also provides a summary bar across the bottom that includes ratings for the readings (“good,” “safe,” “Unsafe,” “moderate,” etc. 4. a. Reading reliability. Well, this is the challenge! Right now I only have direct access to THIS sensor. I did compare it to an online Purple Air sensor in another part of town, and this sensor had a reading is about 28% lower than that other sensor. However, I did this comparison right out of the box –and the instructions recommend waiting six hours for all shipping and packing residue influences to dissipate prior to taking readings (I couldn’t wait! 😊) b. On the plus side, I did notice that the outdoor readings were consistent between neighborhoods. When I traveled about a mile away and then compared it with the air reading in my neighborhood the results were similar. Also, inside/outside readings were different --and this meter was very sensitive to that changes when one goes from a filtered environment to and open/unfiltered location. 5. There is no calibration function or equipment with this meter, but given the (great) price, that is not a surprise. Eventually I will do a methodical comparison with a calibrated air sensor and then can update this review with more information. 6. Bottom line, on a relative scale at least this meter it appears very responsive and consistent. It is very easy to use; and I am happy to have purchased it.

Professional quality. This is super easy to use and useful for making sure you are breathing healthy air. Comes ready to go and with a usb charging cable. When it's charged you just press and hold the center button until the startup screen appears. Place the device on a stable surface or hold steady. Select AQI (air quality index) to see the standard AQI that is used in weather reports and smog alerts. Press PM 2.5 to see 2.5 and 10 micron particles per cubic meter and total particles per liter. Press HCHO to see formaldehyde (chemical from particle wood, glues, etc). I used this in my bedroom to make sure my air purifier was adequate and to minimize air leaks from outside. In my photos you can see the outside air was bad due to neighbor with wood stove. After getting a better air purifier and sealing air leaks I was able have super clean air that improves my sleep! NOTE: Follow the instructions so you get accurate readings. Don't blow into the vents and don't measure with air blowing into the unit. Make measurements in calm air with the device steady in your hand or on a clean surface. The air quality measurement stabilizes pretty quick, but for most accurate reading you should wait 2-3 minutes. Temperature and humidity are slower (the sensors are in the case) but will likely be accurate and stable in 5 minutes. Don't swing the device around or let air blow hard into it, otherwise you might get inaccurate results. It has a tiny internal mechanism that draws air into the particle counter module at the proper rate. The device will run approximately 8 hours on a charge. It does not store data, but some other models by this company do. The display is bright, clear, and easy to read. I am very pleased with the quality and functionality of this device! Don't waste money on the cheap ones. This is professional grade. NOTE: This is a sensitive device for measuring particles that are too small to see. If you use it in dusty or misty (paint, hair spray, fog, etc) environments you could foul the internal laser device that counts microscopic particles. For example if you used this in a cloud of talcum powder you could foul the laser optics. Some fluctuation of readings is normal due to particles shed by you, your hair, clothing, dust on surfaces, many sources. These particles can waft into this device with the slightest air movement, including just walking by this device. This affect is more pronounced in clean air because a wave of particles from clothing or other sources will be more obvious. NOTE: If you use this to measure visible particles, such as pollen, you can damage the sensor and will get inaccurate readings. Smoke may be ok for a short period of time (a few minutes) but this is best used in areas where visible particles are not present. Intended for 10 micrometers or smaller particles.

Update in Sept. 2022. This meter continued to work fine, but I bought a more elaborate meter and gave this one to my brother. Longer explanation: with Covid, I decided to track CO2 levels in restaurants etc. First I got an el-cheapo CO2 device for $60, which I promptly left in a hotel. 😢 Then I got the Temtop 2000C, for about $150, which measures CO2 PM2.5 and PM10, VOC, and NOX. I give a brief review for that meter. So I continue to recommend Temtop meters. They are intended for people who are not intimidated by small fonts and slightly complex menus/buttons. Make sure you decide which pollutants you want to measure and get the appropriate model. I wish they had WiFi or Bluetooth, but that would raise the price. Update in September 2020. This device has held up well and I am using it to track air quality during the ongoing California fires. Its outdoor readings match official numbers pretty well, and I now think it is Reasonably accurate. When I move it from indoors to outdoors, or into a room where I have an air filter running, its readings are about what they should be. As I surmised in the original review, the graphing mode is not very useful. Spikes get averaged out over time. The main way I use it is to bring it into a room, or outdoors, turn it on, and wait about one minute for readings to settle down. What it shows is valuable. For example my air filter reduced the p.m. 2.5 in a 15 X 15 foot room from about 90 to below 20 in half an hour.After a few hours, it was below 10. Similarly, when I open windows, I can track how the indoor air quality worsens rapidly. I’m going to try it in my car to see effects of AC. I also have a “Flow” Meter with a much more sophisticated design, but I find that this is actually more useful for several reasons. PS I’m near San Diego, otherwise the AQI would be much worse. ======= ORIGINAL REVIEW ==== It's very hard to find good information on the many IAQ (indoor air quality) devices, so I will write a prelim review after 24 hours of use. This device, P600, is less than $100, and it ONLY does PM2.5. (It claims to do PM10, but I have not tried it and I suspect that it just uses a formula to extrapolate.) o It is quite mobile. About the size of a 2000 cell phone. The battery lasts several hours, at least, and it's easy to recharge. It was easy to carry, around although if you put it inside a briefcase the readings will naturally be inaccurate. I carried it in my hand while walking. o It has 2 modes: current level, and a continuous graph. When you start the graph, it shows readings every few seconds at first. After a few minutes, it changes scales to give less frequent readings. If you keep leaving it on, it seems to give one bar on the graph every half hour (?) o ACCURACY: this is the key question. I purchased a second meter (Awair) just so I can run them side by side, but I have not run it yet. For now, I can only report that its readings are "plausible." In a clean and almost empty restaurant I got a 7 (I believe this is in micrograms/cubic meter). Walking home late at night it was around 16. Leaving it on at home overnight it gave somewhat lower numbers. But there is no way to tell if these numbers are correct, and I have not yet moved it to areas where I expect high readings. o Don't like: there seems to be no way to go back through its memory. I am going to have to photograph the screen once a day to get a 24 hour graph! (This is a tradeoff for the low price, and I knew about it ahead of time.) o Similarly, there is no clock. The only way to tell WHEN a bar on the graph was taken is to count backwards from the current time. o If I leave it on for many hours, the graph will "average out" any spikes. The only way to detect short spikes is to keep it in continuous mode. Perhaps I will set up my phone to take a picture every minute. (I once read that scientists used to use 16mm cameras to photograph their instruments, in order to get continuous data! This would have been before microprocessors were invented.) o There appears to be a way to adjust the readings, but I have no clue what it is for or how to use it. It starts at a setting of 1.00; if I change this to 2.00, all the readings seem to double. o Overall, it appears that this is a minimalist design which puts all its money into giving accurate PM2.5 readings moment by moment, and a minimalist recording. o I'm giving it 4 stars for now, but that is just a place-holder. o I will try to report back in a month or two.

This does not give accurate readings. Have used it near areas with high toxic chemical smells, mold smell etc. and it does not register how bad the air is. It was reliable outdoors as well. Sometimes the temperature is not accurate either.

The monitor was recommended to me by an environmental health professor at the University of Tennessee. It works great, and the instructions are very easy to understand. I have mass cell activation and need to have consistent and reliable readings for my environment. The battery life is very good as it lasts quite a while before needing to be charged. There are no batteries which I like, and charging is easy. The readings are clear and I would suggest reading over the instructions as humidity can cause fluctuations that are inconsistent with correct numbers. I would definitely recommend this product for anyone who has chemical sensitivities or does not want to breathe air that is toxic. We have had some remodeling and it has been a lifesaver, knowing which environments were safe. I highly recommended it!

Sometimes ya get what ya pay for. Not disappointed by performance of this quality device. Readings agree with my Davis AQI monitors. Quick to update results on the display. Especially in the home, a reliable handheld device that displays Accurate AQI, TVOC, HCHO Readings let you know "How Much" so you can address unhealthy levels of contaminants in your personal space. A little work to monitor can help you improve your indoor air quality. Have a high AQI reading in your home from high pollen or neighbor's smoker going all night? Turn on a box fan fitted with a MERV 13 air filter and monitor the result. Have an unhealthy TVOC HCHO reading in the home and much lower reading outside?? Position a fan to exhaust (suck) inside air one one side of the house and open a couple of windows on the opposite side (and monitor the TVOC HCHO readings. Yes, the AQI may go up while the "fresh" air is flowing from outside but the MERV filters will take AQI readings lower when the TVOC HCHO exhaust process is complete.

I'm very happy with the particle and VOC measurements that I'm getting from this thing. The numbers seem reasonable and they update with only modest delay relative to the triggering event (e.g., lighting a match). It even tipped me off to unhealthy particle concentrations in the air coming from outdoors---which I found out after the fact was being reported in the news, I think because of wildfires from Canada blowing south toward NY. And it showed that my car has unhealthy VOC levels when I first start it and that it takes a good 5 minutes of airflow for them to drop down to healthy levels. I had no idea. But the main thing I got this for is still coming up: tracking the particle and VOC concentrations while soldering to check if my relatively cheap fume extractor is working as advertized (looking at you, Weller) or whether I need to cough up the big ponies for a more proper model. I do have some complaints: the plastic feels super cheap for this price point and it smudges easily, the screen display is super basic, and the supporting flap in the back that allows you to set this vertically on the table opens far too little to provide decent support---the end result being that this thing is constantly tipping over. Who on earth approved that flap design? It makes zero sense and it's almost useless. Overall this thing feels like it was designed way back in the 90s with just the bare minimum updates done to keep selling it year after year. Not saying that is the case, just saying how I perceive it. I think the bright orange and black looks awesome and they should keep it, but the plastic needs to be higher quality, the supporting flap needs to be redesigned to pull back more for support, and the digital display needs to be refreshed to convince us consumers that it was designed in this decade. The battery life is not super impressive for a device this small and basic though it seems to last 6+ hours between recharges. I'm not familiar with the sensor electronics so I don't know if they are just expected to consume that much battery, but, you know, modern portable devices get far better battery life than this on far more demanding tasks than this. I love that the device does what I need it to do very well---to track particle and VOC levels over time in a package that I can trust. But I think at this price point they need to do better on the packaging, display, and battery life. So I'm giving you three stars, TemTop.

This review is for the P600 model but for PM, I suspect it is the same for the 1000S series models. I only needed a good sensor for PM2.5 and PM10. This thing does that and is, in word, amazing. It came nicely packed and there was even a calibration certificate. I immediately tested it on our house inside air and then outside. Our house is tight and we have a constant-fan HVAC with MERV11 filtering, so I suppose it was not surprising to see PM2.5 and PM10 under 1.0. But it is very reassuring. A number like 0.5 was typically shown. Outside, I measured 12'ish for PM2.5 and 24'ish for PM10 so I know its working. Moreover, the online AQI site is showing 12.6 ug/m3 today for our small town. So basically spot-on. The other thing is the solid build and easy operation. Frankly I am amazed at what you can get for under 100 bucks these days. If you need some chemical sensing and/or humidity/temperature too, then I'm sure the 1000S series models are the same. They, like the P600, use a laser sensor for PM, but they add a chemical sensor for the other stuff and/or humidity and temp - for a bit higher cost. Check their descriptions.