Air Quality Monitors – Can You REALLY Trust Them? Dylos DC1100 PRO vs. Temtop Review
Air Quality Monitors – Can You REALLY Trust Them? Dylos DC1100 PRO vs. Temtop Review
👉FREE Air Quality Solutions Guide: https://midd.me/euyH
👉BEST AIR PURIFIER RANKINGS: https://airpurificationeducation.com/asthma-allergies-and-dust-particulates-in-general/
Air Quality Monitors – Can You REALLY Trust Them? Dylos DC1100 Pro vs. Temtop Review
Dylos DC1100 https ( to 1 microns): https://amzn.to/49H3Oxw
Dylos DC1100 Pro (to .5 microns): https://amzn.to/3OQz8lg
So this sensor says we have Good air quality but this sensor is saying we have Poor Air quality. Uh, Houston we have a problem…” Showing they are giving completely different readings.
Hello, today we are going to compare two popular air quality testing devices head to head in a Hotel Room – and get ready because you are going to be very surprised at the results. This will probably be quite an eye opening experience for many of you who may think you can simply trust the readings you see on various air quality testing devices without questioning their accuracy.
We will check the readings simultaneously, for 2 different air quality sensors, in the same room, with the same air quality. At the conclusion of the hotel room test – we will discuss 3 very important issues that we need to take into account when evaluating the quality of our air so please stick around for that.
So the initial main question is: Can we really trust the results we receive from some of these relatively inexpensive air quality testers that we can get on Amazon?
The 2 devices we are comparing today are the Temtop Air Quality Monitor Professional Particle Counter LKC-1000S+2nd and I got it for $175.99 and the other air quality tester is the Dylos DC1100 Pro which I purchased for about twice the price at $312.00.
This number here is the DC1100 Pro particle count for smaller particle concentrations down to .5 microns. Air Quality Monitors – Can You REALLY Trust Them? Dylos DC1100 vs. Temtop Review
Reference Point: Remember we can only see particles with the naked human eye at 40 microns in diameter and larger. A strand of human hair is around 70 microns give or take 30 microns depending on its thickness. So we are NOT able to see any of the particles in the air that are smaller than 40 microns. Therefore, at best, we see less than 5% of all the particles floating in the air that we breathe. If we see dust floating in our air – we can be sure the diameter of those particles are 40 microns and larger in size – and if you remember from my previous video – for every particle of dust we can see floating in our air – there are 9 more smaller particles of dust we can’t see. And yes, we are of course breathing in these particles all the time.
So the Dylos DC1100 Pro is supposed to be able to evaluate particle concentrations down to .5 microns. And it provides an air quality rating scale sticker on the back of the unit to help you determine the quality of your air based on these smaller-sized particles. 0 to 75 = Excellent air quality. 300 to 1,050 = Fair Air quality and 3,000+ = Very Poor Air quality and so on. I taped the parameters to the front of the unit, as well, to make it easier to view.
The DC1100 Pro has been on the market for over 10 years and it is manufactured in California – that said, not all components within the tester come from the US so they cannot officially say it is “Made in America” but I have interacted with the manufacturer a bit on this issue and I will say that although it is not officially 100% Made in America – it IS manufactured in America and it is heavily influenced by US manufacturing processes – for what it’s worth.
Air Quality Monitors – Can You REALLY Trust Them? Dylos DC1100 Pro vs. Temtop Review
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one of the 2 temtops next to each other must be a faulty unit.
actually, temtops – while not being industrial grade, for sure – are pretty accurate. I have one of this unit, and 5 other temtops showing values in the same ballpark always. Also, the values are similar to readings from the air purifiers as well (well, mostly because they do differ from each other and are not consistent).
so yes, temtops are doing their job just well – if you have a completely faulty unit (that you can clearly see when it shows good air in a smog), just send it back
regarding the pm2.5 vs pm0.1: unless I will fill my large flat with 10, industrial grade air purifier units for tens of thousands of bucks, that I won’t, I am pretty good with pushing down the pm2.5 values to below 3 of pm2.5
do your best to measure and filter the air your family breaths? sure, but there are reasonable limits (we must go out sometimes into the smog anyway) and above the that ROI is just fall to nonsense levels
👉FREE Air Quality Solutions Guide: https://midd.me/euyH
👉BEST AIR PURIFIER RANKINGS: https://airpurificationeducation.com/asthma-allergies-and-dust-particulates-in-general/
I just started researching some of theses and its amazing how many fake ones are out there. Are there any other monitors you’ve tested and recommend? I’m looking for something thats monitors most things not just PM, main reason is for my room with 3d printers in it.
Although the general conclusion in the video is correct and makes sense, you’re constantly comparing 0.5 vs 2.5. When you showed the question to temptop support you’re telling them "Dyloas showed 1407 and Temptop showed 407" which is not true, the Dylos showed 404 for 2.5 and the temptop 407, meaning they are extremely close. The dylos simply measures smaller particles, which the Temtop doesn’t do and therefor it can not use those readings to determine the air quality.
I think you get multiple definitions wrong, should consider retract the video. PM 2.5 means particles 2.5 micrometers or smaller. PM 2.5 actually includes PM 1.0. On the Dylos, it reports particulates > 1 micron on the left and > 5.0 micron on the right (not 2.5 as stated in your video at 2:22), it doesn’t mean the two figures are PM 0.5 and PM 5. I don’t want to comment on the rest of the video because I cannot verify the result but to prove accuracy of a device based on Amazon comments or another tool, should use a controlled lab environment for that.
I have a TEMTOP. It shows that the air quality is usually good, even if I smell second hand smoke from another appartment in my building. BUT, the reassuring thing is that, if I’m cooking, and there is even a tiny bit of smoke from something splashing on the stove, the TEMTOP immediately goes crazy and shows hazardous readings even if it is far away. If a candle is lit in the room it will also detect it right away, even from across the room.. It seems extremely sensitive. ( I usually have a T600 Airpura running.)
I think your test would be more interesting if you were to measure the units against a professional air quality monitor.
I watched this before I wanted to buy Temtop M2000 2nd… Now I’m not satisfied 🙁 I thought it was a good device… What a pity.
Thanks for the video. Very informative. For the average consumer, what would be a reliable brand and even model to get buy? I was thinking of the Temtop, but your results don’t inspire confidence. It makes me even wonder how accurate are the air purifiers that have an air quality monitor integrated.
Hi Doug, thanks for the in-depth review, that was very instructional. Do you know of any reliable VOC sensors? VOC concentrations can also be very detrimental to health.
What do you recommend for an accurate co2 monitor?
Thank you for the comparison. Very informative.
By the way, when they say "CE Certified", you need to take a look at what CE standards they are certified to be in compliance to. Could be, for example, that the device is only certified to be in compliance with CE Electromagnetic Compatibility Directive (i.e. does not generate or effected by RFI noise)
Don’t these devices need time to normalize? You started the test minutes after placing them and starting them up. From other sources on this I understand longer testing would be required.
Also a lot of this video repeats the same things over and over. You could probably shorten it to about half the length.
thanks for the video but ngl it is a bit frustrating. The Temtop device clearly shows measurements in µg/m³, but the DC1100 doesn’t specify its measurement unit. This makes it hard to compare the two. If the DC1100 were also measuring in µg/m³, a constant reading above 100 indoor seems unrealistic. I suspect the DC1100 is using a different unit. The two devices show a roughly linear relationship and I suspect they might be relatively consistent if measured in the same measurement unit.
PM0.5 and PM2.5 readings are not comparable at all as they measure differnet things.
Even when the readings differ a lot, how can we tell which device is giving the accurate measurement?
Whoa . . . too scary! Quick, let’s have a cigarette!
Joking man. Hell you put the fear of God in me. Thank you very much for this: despite being a gloomy revelation, your work inspires us to seek solutions.
You just imagine most people buying this devices can’t even imagine there is no law, no standard, no guarantee to trust them… it’s just something very unknown to the average consumer experience and it’s really scary, even dystopic… this is not just a fake big industry of products, we are talking about people’s health and lifes, in my particular case i have to deal with real poisoning of the air due to some neighbour’s heating smoke and gas being filtered to my house in a way that’s hard to figure out…. and we are poor to afford an expensive meter ! and of course we would not use it everyday, we just want to solve a particular problem that won’t last… you are very important and this is what makes me believe in some people (and not just in the people)… THANK YOU
too bad the dylos is 120v 🙁
How could they possibly agree when the Temtop can’t detect PM0.5??
there’s a bad smell in my house and I’m not sure what it is. i think it’s mold and i think it’s coming from the heating vents. do these testers also work for detecting mold?
Chyna wants air quality to be good no matter what 😂
The poor grammar and poor use of language in the company responses is an indication of the company’s attention to detail. Not a good sign folks.
May I suggest adjusting your language when describing PM levels? Particles ‘down to’ x size particles is not (as far as I understand) an accurate description of PM. Eg PM 2.5 is ‘fine inhalable particles, with diameters that are generally 2.5 micrometers and smaller’ – not ‘down to’ but actually all particles that size and smaller. So, a PM 10 reading includes PM 2.5 particles and smaller. PM 2.5 includes PM 1.0, PM 0.1, etc. Source: https://www.epa.gov/pm-pollution/particulate-matter-pm-basics
I don’t know why I keep posting comments on your videos, but I came across this video during the course of my extensive research into home air quality monitors.
Your video is such a mish mash of uninformed misinformation that I felt compelled to write yet another comment on yet another of your videos. Probably wasting my time, since I am sure you will defend every word you said in this video.
First of all, CE Certification is an entirely Chinese created logo/stamp of approval, sort of supposed to be their version of UL certification, but entirely meaningless. Almost every electronic device Made in China will say it has CE Certification. The ONLY thing it certifies is that the device was made in China, since no other manufacturers use this labeling. Unlike UL certification, there is no guarantee that the device will work much less not blow up or burn your house down. CE Certification exists, as far as I can tell, mainly as a marketing label to fool Westerners into buying Chinese electronics. So, it is obviously useless, and you are totally wasting your time ranting about it without even understanding what it is.
Second, Temtop stated in their reply to you that their device was tested by AQ-SPEC, which is TRUE. They did not say that AQ-SPEC certified their device, because the AQ-SPEC only publishes the performance data of the air quality monitors they test (you mistakenly conflated the useless CE Certification with the "tested by AQ-SPEC" fact). So, search for the terms "South Coast AQMD, AQ_SPEC" and you can find that AQ-SPEC list (it’s a California agency, and so probably has some scientific methodology to their results). And that Temtop device does show up on that list, as does the Dylos model. And, interestingly, the Dylos 1100 has a much greater deviation from the AQ-SPEC lab reference sensors than the Temptop LKC-1000S. And so, in fact it could well be that it was the Dylos model that was the inaccurate monitor, not the Temtop. For you to do a REAL test would have required you to compare the two samples you bought with laboratory reference standard air quality sensors, which is what the SC-AQMD does to generate their AQ-SPEC listing.
Now, I do pay attention to the Amazon reviews, and the Temtop devices get heavily slammed, not primarily for inaccuracy, but mainly for unreliability, with high failure rates. And that is ultimately why I decided to kick Temptop off my list of monitors to consider.
An interesting fact which you haven’t come across yet is that the consumer price range air quality monitors (around $200 or so) that consistently do well on this AQ-SPEC testing almost all use PM sensors made by either Plantower (a Chinese company), or Sensirion (a Swiss company). Neither Temtop or Dylos seem to use these sensors in their models.
Purple Air is one that has excellent numbers on the AQ-SPEC listing, and a long track record of reliability, but they have recently become very user hostile in terms of requiring buyers of their air quality monitors to upload their data to Purple Air’s servers and then charging their users for this data. They use the Plantower PM sensors.
A more user friendly company commited to open sourcing and user access to their own data, Air Gradient, uses the same Plantower PMS5003 sensors (some of Purple Air’s models use the 6003 sensor).
IKEA also has a very very low priced air quality sensor, the VINDSTYRKA, using a PM and VOC sensor made by Sensirion, the SEN54. It doesn’t record data, though.
The Apollo AIR-1 uses the Sensirion SEN55 multi-sensor. I was really considering this one, but it’s very heavily DIY and not for somebody who wants a turnkey, plug and play experience.
Those are the useful bits of facts that somehow didn’t make it into your video.
Thanks for the thorough video! I’m an amateur woodworker still just getting started. I work in my garage and I have a full facemask from 3M with P100 filters. I’ll keep the door open as often as I can but I’d like to have something to tell me when it’s safe to take off the mask. I saw another video that provides advice on using a drum fan along with a cylindrical filter that would normally be part of a dust collection system and that in their tests, the garage had good air quality after about 4 minutes, but I’d like to have a reliable meter to prove it along with my efforts to purchase the fan and filter. Based this video, it sounds like I should be purchasing a Dylos, but are there other options? What is your ultimate pick? Looking forward to your advice!
What do you think about kkmoon d9 monitor? I compare its readings with iqair site for my city and it always consistent with it
If you smoke in a vehicle will it be detected as more particulates are introduced into the air?
Do you think Air-Q is legit with all its sensors?
Any opinion on the brand CEM? I’m checking them out but they also have a similar lineup to Temtop.
This had me thinking, that we in the UK have air monitors in cities that are put up my authorities like councils and environmentalists so they can blame petrol and diesel vehicles for killing people but how accurate are these monitors as they could be just a cheap bit of kit from China and cannot be trusted. What is the air quality like in hospitals or doctors surgeries or even dentists waiting rooms. Are SAFE environments really SAFE
It was really nice. Thanks!
Where the heck has this channel been all my life?!
Great review! What are your thoughts on an Air Quality Monitor that monitors Formaldehyde, VOC, PM2.5 & PM10? Any brands that you recommend? Is it better to just get a PM monitor rather than a monitor that supports other features (VOC, Formaldehyde, etc)? I am looking for a Air Quality monitor that can monitor some of the Ultra Fine Particles. Is there a monitor that you recommend? What are your thoughts on AQI advisories through sites like IQAIr & Purple Air? Have you reviewed any of IQAir’s products like the HealthPro Plus?
Thanks
I appreciate the effort here, but I find this video misleading. The Dylos is measuring number of particles in .01 cubic feet of air, while the Temtop is measuring the PM2.5 std (micrograms of particles in a cubic meter). They are both also, no doubt averaging over different time periods (you’re not seeing the live sensor data in either unit). Trying to compare these is like saying, this ruler measured 5 and this one measured 37, without any context that one is measuring centimeters while the other is measuring in some other arbitrary units, or they’re both measuring in some arbitrary units . . . . For the time averaging, think of rainfall. What would a meter read for avg rainfall if it only rained once in a week? If the time period for averaging was 7 days, it would be pretty low, but on a unit that averaged over 24 hours, if it rained yesterday, pretty high. The actual trending data between the two is quite close, especially if you throw out the measurements most likely to be wrong due to differences in time averaging. Both units seem to be working, they’re just telling you different things because they measure and represent data differently. You can’t compare them without some methodology for converting to a standard first, with a long averaging period that would encompass the range of results. I know that probably doesn’t make for good content, and it HARDER to do, but as-is, the results in this video are misleading in my opinion.
How it is the IQair? Do you have any suggestions for indoor and outdoor monitoring?
Great video. I have subscribed. Can you recommend any other air quality monitor brands that go down to 0.5 microns? I’m in the UK, I can’t get Dylos here.
MY GOD!! THIS VIDEO CHANGES E V E R Y T H I N G WE KNEW FROM AIR QUALITY!! THANK YOUUUU KEEP UP THE NICE WORK!!!
The state of consumerism and capitalism in America and worldwide, based on lies, fake expert audits, and pure irresponsibly harmful to the general public.
Which air quality device should I buy
I like your videos – if I may make a suggestion in your audio editing… take a look at a high pass filter and compression to attenuate your bass. But thanks for your content!
Thank you for doing the work that very few in this world are willing to do, you are a paragon of truth and justice
Could you recommend a good air purifier.
I think one of us can buy those and do a challenge to go around the world on youtube for air quality index monitoring since scientific-based or government statistics can’t be trusted, lol.
What comes to mind is, should there be an air quality monitor that is specifically for people who suffer from allergies? And, what is the most scientific way to test the readings of these monitors. And how can we make sure these monitors are tested with complete honesty.
Excellent video! Thanks for making this as it has changed my mind on the usefulness of these monitors
Hi Doug! Thank you for the video. In your opinion, which air monitor is the best for assessing formaldehyde (HCHO & VOC in general) levels in the air? I was considering Temtop, but after watching your video, I started to have doubts.
ok
You most likely were using a defective Temtop unit. I have a Temtop unit that VERY closely correlates to the PM 2.5 numbers reported by the California Air Resources Board in my area.
I asked gemini to summarize this video, but it fell asleep.
Well , I kind of seeing it in a different way, but I totally get what you are saying. None of them are accurate enough and they can’t be for this price. If you want to have verry accurate device, that would tell you if you are breathing mold , asbestos and the whole range of particles, it would cost thausands, not hundreds .
I also see the point why Temptop is what it is.. In general the air quality in any hotel room is good( as good as it can be in a hotel in the middle of a city) , unless its full of mold, or some dangerous fumes or smoke and I think this is what Temptop is trying to say. Its not for the people who are counting every particle( and definately not for people with some medical conditions). Imagine if you have a very sensitive and accurate device and it shows you poor air quality in your town, house , work place and every hotel room.. what can you do about it? Bring your air purifier everywhere?
it would be nice if someone would test voc with these devices to see how they compare. like alcohol gas motor oil wax melts hair spray etc. one to see if they respond in the right direction. 2 how accurate they are. i would like to improve the indoor air quality but would ike a tester that at least does recognize what it says it does. the actual accuracy would be a second test but very challenging to make sure its accurate. there is a huge difference in our family’s health and energy when we leave windows and doors open. we had air samples taken and set tolab once to see if it was abnormal. but they where within range. but small amounts of voc long term still could effect health.