Davis Instruments AirLink Professional Air Quality Sensor

So I have a Davis Vantage Pro2 console that I compare the Airlink sensor temp/humidity data with - and they're within 2 degrees of each other and within 2-3% humidity reading. I use the Airlink as an indoor sensor only.This is a fun gadget. It has been tremendously helpful (in addition to my outdoor purple air II sensor) during this horrible wildfire season. Just to experiment, I turned the whole house fan off (which has a triple air filtration system). Based on the sensor I can see that the AQI Nowcast shows that the particulates are going up (most likely, due to natural "air leakage" seeping into my house) over the course of 8 hours. I then turn the HVAC on in addition to my diy box air filter box fan, and the air quality PM 1, 2.5, 10 will gradually go down.My only issue is humidifiers WILL effect the readings. When we were getting down to single digit humidity ratings, I turned my humidifiers on, and shortly afterwards, the indoor AQI spiked to the 190's-low 200s.. off the charts high for no reason. No doors were opened, house is closed up, etc. After researching the possible causes of this I came across the research article "The influence of humidity on the performance of a low-cost air particle mass sensor and the effect of atmospheric fog." You should probably read it, just so you have an understanding why AQI numbers would become unreliable with humidifiers/fog/high humidity with this sensor (and not just this sensors, any "low cost" sensor). But in summary, the conclusion of the article states:"As they generally do not have drying facilities at their sample inlets, low-cost particle sensors measure what is actually present in the air, including both the solid and liquid phases of the particles. This is a real observation and not an artefact of the instrument, as suggested by Crilley et al. (2018). This is an important aspect to be kept in mind when using low-cost sensors to assess the pollution levels in the atmosphere. What this illustrates is that it should not be presumed that low-cost sensors are suited for regulatory applications. For example, while it is reasonable to use low-cost sensors to measure the actual particle mass concentrations that are present in the air; such observations should not be used to verify if the air quality meets the stipulated guidelines or standards for particle pollution."That would explain why I have astronomical readings for this sensor. Now, I prefer this as an indoor sensor because it's inconspicuous and boxy whereas the purple air sensor II is round and I'd have to mount it on my wall (ugly). This one I just set on top of my china cabinet.It does connect to a WeatherLink Live (a Davis proprietary device) although you can connect to the internet and therefore connect to WeatherLink dot com/app in order to see your readings. I find the WeatherLink app easy to use. I would also consider this as an outdoor device to connect to a Davis Weather Station.

It's hard to give a single rating to a device like this because there are several factors including sensor hardware, other hardware, and software.The most important factor is the sensor hardware that is "professional grade." (Without this, the rest would be irrelevant.) The other hardware (the hardware except for the sensor) and software, however, has room for improvement.The first annoyance is the power cable. It's a USB2 connector with a USB-to-outlet adapter. Both the connector and adapter are enormous for such a device: it sticks out about 3.75" inches from the outlet. Since these are made to be able to be installed outside, it needs to be plugged into an outside outlet. The problem is the 3.75" connector is too big to fit into a standard-sized weatherproof outlet cover. I had to replace my standard cover with an "extra deep" cover.The second annoyance is that there's apparently no non-volatile memory in the device: if it loses power momentarily, you have to reconnect it to your WiFi network manually.The third annoyance is with the iOS app: it doesn't provide a widget which would be really nice to be able to see one's air quality at a glance. It also doesn't allow you to create multiple accounts so multiple members of the same household could log in with their own accounts.

Setup seemed straightforward but, I never got the "test passed" message even once after connecting to wifi. Looking at some suggestions I have seen, I made sure to connect to 2.4Ghz wifi network but, it didnt make any difference. I ignored the test issue as the data started showing up on the davis cloud and on my app.After 6-7 days of the device being stable (it continued to show the network connection is not working), the device went offline. I reset it and went through setup multiple times with different network settings (5Ghz, 2.4ghz, static, DHCP etc.,). it will work for few minutes but, then will go offline.Sent mail to Davis support explaining the various error codes I was getting but, never got a response back. Finally returned it to Amazon and shopping for an alternative solution.

Bought this on prime day for a great price. The unit was quick to set up with the included directions. The readings match the local NWS monitor 2 miles away very closely. Same with the local Purple Air units, but it was 1/2 the price. It reads out 1, 2.5 and 10 microns and gives you AQI readings which can be set for calculation in your region of the world. I highly recommend this unit.We are now in September and on of my friends has added a unit to his Davis weather unit. We track close to the margin of error to the Purple units and the local NWS station.

Great product from a very good company. Good hardware and highly accurate detecting. It will react to the air quality changes almost immediately when I start my BBQ or start a fire in my fire place, both located a considerable distance from this detector.I would definitely buy this product again!!!