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Airgeek FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

Safety First

Airgeek was designed with a specific use-case in mind: helping you breathe better air. And while it's great in that role, it would be dangerous to use it for things for which it was never considered in the first place. Let's start by getting that out of the way, so that we can all stay safe.

Is this device a carbon monoxide (CO) alarm?

No, this device is not a carbon monoxide alarm. Do not rely on this device to protect life, health or property. We are not to be held liable for any damage resulting from use of the device which contradicts this advisory.

Airgeek does include a carbon monoxide (CO) sensor for long-term monitoring of your background CO concentration. Consequently, it can also detect when CO concentration rises to a potentially unsafe level. We believe it would be very irresponsible on our part if the device just ignored this condition and remained silent, and thus we did include an acoustic alarm. This feature must however not be relied upon, as it isn't the device's intended function. It's a last line of defense in case everything else (such as a dedicated, certified CO alarm) fails. Airgeek is not a certified CO alarm.

We highly recommend that you educate yourself about the dangers carbon monoxide may pose in your home, and you should definitely buy a dedicated, certified CO alarm, as it may save your life some day, or the lives of your family. Unintentional carbon monoxide poisoning resulted in 289,000 deaths globally[1] in 2021.

Please reach out if you have any questions.

Is this device a fire alarm?

No, this device is not a fire alarm. Do not rely on the device to protect life, health or property. We are not to be held liable for any damage resulting from use of the device which contradicts this advisory.

Please reach out if you have any questions.

Crowdfunding starts summer 2025!

Airgeek is almost ready to go, with the final round of improvements now in progress.
We're crowdfunding soon, and we'd love for you to join us.

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You'll receive a single email from us when the crowdfunding campaign starts.
We will then remove your address from our system unless you opt in explicitly.

Power

What is the battery life of Airgeek A1?

Airgeek A1 will run at least one year on a single high-quality AA battery. Details can be found in the full specification.

What type of battery should I use with Airgeek A1?

Recommended batteries can be found in the full specification. However, you can use any rechargeable or non-rechargeable AA battery with a voltage of 3 V or less.

Can Airgeek A1 be powered by anything other than a battery?

No, Airgeek is designed from the ground up to be battery powered. Read why.

Connectivity

Which Matter equipment is supported?

All Matter equipment should be compatible with Airgeek. We regularly test our devices with the following most popular platforms:

  • Apple Home
  • HomeAssistant
  • Google Home

If you run into any problems getting Airgeek to work with your smart home equipment, please contact us. We'll do our best to help you.

Can I connect Airgeek A1/M1 to my Wi-Fi network?

No, Airgeek A1/M1 supports Matter over Thread and Zigbee, but not Wi-Fi. This is one of the reasons why the battery life is great. In order to connect it to your smart home network, you need a Thread border router or a Zigbee router. However:

  • You may already have a Matter router at home without realizing it: many smart devices, such as wireless speakers, come with a Matter border router built in. Check out the specifications of your other home equipment to see if you can connect Airgeek via Matter.

  • You can still access almost all of Airgeek's features through the Airgeek app. All you need is an Android or iOS smartphone with NFC support. The device is designed to be perfectly usable even without a smart home integration.

Please reach out if you have further questions.

Sensors & Measurements

Does Airgeek measure Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC)?

No—VOCs are the Snake Oil of air quality.

Volatile Organic Compounds are an important class of indoor air pollutants. Examples of VOCs include ethanol (alcohol), formaldehyde, acetone, various scents of perfumes and hundreds of other chemicals. Indoors, these chemicals are released from cleaning agents, paint, vinyl flooring, furniture, etc. Many VOCs cause irritation of the eyes, nose and throat; some are known carcinogens.

At first, the omission of a VOC sensor may thus seem like a flaw. After all, most household and office air quality monitors on the market measure VOCs—so it can't be too difficult?

It's incredibly difficult (and thus very expensive) to measure VOCs right. The vast majority of consumer devices on the market uses metal-oxide VOC sensors which are inexpensive but come with serious drawbacks:

  1. They are broadband sensors: They react to hundreds of different gases, but their output is a single number. There is no way to distinguish between the chemicals.

  2. Their sensitivity varies widely with the chemical. As an illustration, a single molecule of ethanol might elicit the same sensor response as 2,000 molecules of formaldehyde.

  3. They are subject to drift over time, as the chemical reactions occurring at the hot plate of the metal oxide sensor continuously change its characteristics. This is why these sensors don't output a direct measured value, but rather an “index”: this is the measured value relative to past measurements, usually 24 hours.

  4. Device-to-device variation: Even brand new and calibrated, two metal-oxide sensors typically differ in readings up to 15 %.

This means that:

  • It's impossible to compare measurements from different devices because of the large device-to-device variance.

  • It's impossible to compare current measurements to past measurements, because the value is a relative index.

  • When the index is very high (indicating poor air quality), it can either mean a very harmful VOC is present in a very high concentration, or it can mean a completely benign chemical is present in a tiny concentration, and there's no way to distinguish between these cases.

  • When the index is very low (indicating great air quality), it can mean the air is completely fresh and clean, or it can mean it's extremely poor, but still the best the sensor has registered in the past 24 hours, and there's no way to distinguish between these cases.

To put it bluntly: the output of a metal oxide VOC sensor is virtually useless, because it's impossible to interpret what it really means, if anything at all. This is true for all metal oxide-based VOC sensors, regardless of brand.

Instead of an elusive air quality index, Airgeek measures the concentration of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) using a high-quality, accurate and absolute NO2 concentration sensor. NO2 is an important indoor air pollutant and is moderately correlated with the presence of many other VOCs.[2]

We believe it's much better to have an accurate measurement of a single important pollutant, rather than an inexplicable value representing hundreds of assorted chemicals.

Didn't find the answer?

Please reach out. Our team is always happy to help!

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References

  1. Global, regional, and national mortality due to unintentional carbon monoxide poisoning, 2000–2021. Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, 2023.
  2. Human Health Risk Assessment for Ambient Nitrogen Dioxide, Health Canada, 2016.