Airthings Wave Plus Air Quality Monitor Review

We all know that indoor air quality has a direct effect on our health and well-being, but many have never actually invested into an air monitor to see the actual readings. Over the past year more people are spending time indoors due to the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) global pandemic. Working From Home (WFH) is also the new normal for many and now seems like a good time to check out the air quality of the place you spend the most time, home.

When Airthings reached out to Legit Reviews to review the Wave Plus smart indoor air quality monitor we were excited to hear from the company. We actually purchased the Corentium Home Radon Detector by Airthings earlier this year to do some self-inspection of our radon levels. We did this as we’ve seen a large number of homes in our neighborhood getting Radon gas mitigation systems installed. It seems like every time a home was sold a system was being installed and that was alarming. It turned out the cancer-causing radon gas levels the detector reported were higher than the EPA and WHO recommends. We are currently having a system installed, but we haven’t looked at any other air quality metrics.

The Airthings 2930 Wave Plus air quality monitor gives you detailed information about six indoor air factors: total VOCs (airborne chemicals), humidity, temperature, Carbon Dioxide (CO2), air pressure and radon. It does not measure particulate matter and therefore does not have a PM 2.5 or PM 10 reading.

The Airthings Wave Plus is about the size of a smoke detector and looks like one as well. There are no indicator lights that are always-on to annoy you and doesn’t stand out in a room. You can install it on a wall or sit it on a shelf.

If you want to do a wall install it comes with everything you need. There is a removable plate on the back that can be screwed to the wall. There is a magnetic plate that will then hold the main unit to the wall mount. A single mounting screw is included.

This backplate is also where the two batteries are for the Airthings Wave Plus. It takes two AA batteries and this should keep the Wave Plus up and running for up to 16 months.

If you don’t want to open the app you can wave your hand in front of the device to receive a color-coded visual indication of the overall air quality: Green (Good), Yellow (Fair), Red (Poor).

It also works with Alexa, Google Assistant and IFTTT (if this then that) for those that are fans of home integration. Apple’s HomeKit is not supported.

To get the most from the Wave Plus you’ll need to download and install the Airthings Wave App for iOS or Android. This app connects with Bluetooth to the Wave Plus and will give you insights into the air quality that you are testing. The Wave Plus is a Bluetooth only device, so you’ll have to be within Bluetooth range on your mobile device to get these updates. After the data has been synced via Bluetooth and you have internet connection on your mobile device, the data will be further pushed to the cloud, enabling you to see your data on the online dashboard.

Setup is simple and takes about five minutes to complete if you actually read everything in the setup process.

Once setup it complete it takes a bit for results to be displayed and it takes 7 days for the sensors to be fully calibrated to your environment. The main menu is shown above and it gives you the current reading of all six areas being monitored on one screen. You can then slide over and see detailed results.

The monitor provides a rolling 24 hour radon measurement every hour and the other sensors (temperature, humidity, pressure, VOC, and CO2) are updated hourly.

The detailed results show air quality over time and you can select by 48 hours, week, month, and year. One of the areas that our home needs improvement is in lowering CO2 levels. On Saturday we woke up and the home was over 1000 ppm, so we opened a few windows and doors. Within a couple hours the CO2 levels were under 500 ppm and we closed back up the windows. The levels went back up rather quickly, but it just goes to show that the Wave Plus is actually sensing what we are doing. It would be awesome if Airthings had time stamps on the 48 hour chart to see what happens if you open a window at say 2pm until the time it was closed.

The Radon reading between the Wave Plus and Corentium Home Radon Detector by Airthings were similar and it was nice to have two meters. By having two meters we are able to monitor the air quality in our finished basement and then upstairs in the living room. Both meters are portable and you can move them around to various rooms in the home if you had concerns about certain rooms.

Final Thoughts and Conclusions

The Airthings 2930 Wave Plus runs $229 shipped over at Amazon. It has been on the market since 2018 and has a 4.3 out of 5 start rating with almost 800 user reviews. That price point is more than what you might have expected, but many air monitors tend to be on the expensive side. The Airthings 223 home radon detector runs $147.99 shipped on Amazon and we’ve been told that both units use the same sensor for Radon. Spending an extra $80 will get you an air quality monitor that monitors five additional areas.

We’ve been happy with our experience with the Airthings 2930 Wave Plus and see it as being a positive thing for the home. We’ve installed and used many smart meters over the years. Most are installed and forgotten about. The Wave Plus is one that we often look at weeks after getting it and change things based on its readings. The only thing missing from the Wave Plus would be readings for PM particles like PM 2.5 or PM 10. These particles are not monitored and we feel that would also be some useful data points to have.

At the end of the day the Airthings 2930 Wave Plus will help you monitor and take action to have the best air possible inside your home. This is easily a device that we’d recommend!