Cheap Chinese Air Quality Monitor Teardowns

[Deodand2014]

Teardowns of a pair of Chinese 'Air Quality' monitors that don't live up to their claims...

[AnalogueLove1867]

Maybe the design is calibrated with Chinese air as a "normal" reference point 

[SiliconWizard]

https://aqicn.org/map/china/

Well, it's not good but many other countries are not really any better now.

Other than that, not really surprised. Good sensors are expensive.

[AnalogueLove1867]

https://aqicn.org/map/china/

Well, it's not good but many other countries are not really any better now.

Other than that, not really surprised. Good sensors are expensive.

You do realize that this is Chinese data about their own country. The same country that from the very beginning denied that Corona was even an issue.
 Along with their own completely fabricated death statistics. A country where Olympians, reporters and scientists just magically disappear, never to be seen again.
They were burning so many bodies during their initial pandemic that it was detected by satellite lol. And 20 million people just stopped paying for their phone plans.
A guy I know who acted as an intermediary for an Australian instrument company was stuck in China for ages. When travelling through the more rural parts
 he noticed many  evenly spaced out dead bodies on the side of the road. Then a week or so later they were officially informed of the virus. It was hell.

[thm_w]

There are some name brand sensors as well that give an "eCO2", which is their estimate of CO2 but not directly measuring it.
Then of course manufacturers just take this and display it as CO2 level with no disclaimer, that it is an estimate only and needs proper calibration.

But this is obviously way worse.. surprising.

Probably the best ones to buy on Ali then are the original designs that all came in a clear case so you can see the sensors.

[onsenwombat]

https://aqicn.org/map/china/

Well, it's not good but many other countries are not really any better now.

Other than that, not really surprised. Good sensors are expensive.

Take things with a grain of salt when the data source is China. There's been quite a few of such cases popping out, this was the first that popped in 5 seconds of googling:
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2039838/chinese-officials-questioned-after-cotton-wool-shoved

[CatalinaWOW]

China gets a lot of grief about shoddy data and shoddy products, but they certainly don't have a monopoly on these shenanigans.  Here in the US you find problems monitoring lead in Detroit water, cheating on structural epoxy in Boston's brand new highway tunnels, and policemen hiding behind children in Uvalde, Texas.

I am sure that members here from various other countries can come up with similar things in their home country. 

[onsenwombat]

Of course they're not the only country on the planet with questionable practices, whatever is concerned. The one thing you need to bear in mind when such authoritarian countries are in question, how their media works. Hint: It's all state-controlled. They are well educated about what the party wants people to know.
"But.. but fox news!" Yes, it's horseshit, but at least you can tune in to whatever other source. If you still have the brainpower.

[AlbertL]

My general concern with environmental gas sensors is the risk of the sensor getting "poisoned" by acute or cumulative doses of contaminants.  For example, a wall-mounted sensor that may be unpredictably exposed to various substances from spray cleaners, bug spray, air fresheners, cooking vapors, candles, etc.       

[abquke]

My company had to buy air without methane in it because atmospheric air hs too much methane in it to get baseline data of the instrument we were working on.

[Stray Electron]

https://aqicn.org/map/china/

Well, it's not good but many other countries are not really any better now.

Other than that, not really surprised. Good sensors are expensive.

You do realize that this is Chinese data about their own country. The same country that from the very beginning denied that Corona was even an issue.
 Along with their own completely fabricated death statistics. A country where Olympians, reporters and scientists just magically disappear, never to be seen again.
They were burning so many bodies during their initial pandemic that it was detected by satellite lol. And 20 million people just stopped paying for their phone plans.
A guy I know who acted as an intermediary for an Australian instrument company was stuck in China for ages. When travelling through the more rural parts
 he noticed many  evenly spaced out dead bodies on the side of the road. Then a week or so later they were officially informed of the virus. It was hell.

    I hope this doesn't turn political but here goes;  I've heard that China does not allow the mRNA vaccine.  Does anybody know why?

[thm_w]

This thread is about air quality, please do not discuss vaccinations..

Anyway, tons of crowd source air monitoring occurs in China, I'm just not sure if they are allowed to post their data. Aqicn seems to have some sources like schools, but I didn't see any individual houses. Maybe other sites exist that are not in english.