Between the pandemic and working from home, my family and I have spent a lot more time in the house these past couple of years. That naturally made me more curious about the air we’re all breathing. I’ve already added an air purifier to the house, but I’m someone who likes to see numbers and data.
That’s why when I saw the Sensibo Elements Smart Wi-Fi Air Quality Monitor, I got excited at the prospect of seeing real-time data about our indoor air quality. Thankfully, the company was nice enough to send one out for review.
Design
The Sensibo Elements consists of the main unit with all the sensors, a cradle to hold it vertically, and the power brick with USB Type-A to Type-C cable. While I found the cable to be a little on the short side, it’s easy to replace given that it’s a standardized cable. However, I would have loved to see a six-foot cable included in the box.
The main unit in the cradle measures 4.5 x 5.7 x 2.5 inches so it has a rather small footprint and fits in well on a shelf out of the way. Additionally, there’s a mount on the back that makes it possible to mount it on the wall as well.
On the front of the Sensibo Elements is an LED light in the shape of the Sensibo logo. This light changes colors to give you a quick way to see how your current air quality rates. There are three different colors on the scale, including green, orange, and red. As you may have guessed, red is the worst while green says you’re all clear. While I personally love the LED light on the front, rest assured that it can be disabled if you’d rather rely on the app for the current status.
User experience
Setting up the Sensibo Elements was quick and painless. It only took me a few minutes to hook up the device and get it connected to the Wi-Fi and app. You’ll also have to create an account which is something I’m not a huge fan of, but it’s most likely required because there is an option to upgrade to a subscription service. More on that later.
The Sensibo Elements includes sensors for temperature, humidity, CO2, TVOC, ethanol, and a PM2.5 sensor. This makes it capable of tracking and analyzing the indoor air quality of your home and condensing that down to one overall score and color rating.
While the LED light on the Sensibo Elements gives you a quick and easy way to check the overall indoor air quality with a glance, the app provides a more detailed look. By using the Sensibo app, you can check and monitor each of the individual sensors, along with viewing graphs that provide a view for the past 24 hours.
The app is clean and lays out everything very well. However, I do wish it provided more information about what the sensors detect and how it affects the air quality. To be fair, each reading does have an explanation, but I found it a little lacking. Especially with the TVOC sensor that was consistently going into the moderate area a few times each day. It had me so concerned about what it could be and how harmful it was that I had to start researching TVOC and what exactly it was. All of that could have been avoided with a couple more paragraphs explaining TVOC in the app.
Besides that one nitpick, I really enjoy the app and it’s a big selling point for the Sensibo Elements. Speaking of selling points, the app is also capable of providing weekly and monthly graphs for everything it monitors, as well as the weather and air pollution conditions outside. That does require a subscription to Sensibo Plus for $4.99 a month or $2.49 a month for yearly subscriptions.
Personally, I would love to see all of those stats but I didn’t find it necessary enough to subscribe. So, don’t worry, it’s still entirely possible to use the Sensibo Elements without signing up for a subscription and to get some value from it.
Final thoughts
After using the Sensibo Elements for the past few weeks and trying it in various rooms of the house, I am very satisfied with it. I was happy to see that my home stays in the green the majority of the time, and when it does creep up into the moderate category, there’s always a reasonable excuse. Such as when I’m cooking or when there are multiple people in the room producing more particles in the air.
The notifications aren’t always the most helpful though, like suggesting we open the windows to let in fresh air when it’s 40 degrees outside. Yet, it has made me more conscious of my air quality when cooking. I’ve found myself using the exhaust fan more often to keep the TVOC levels lower, and I’m definitely going to try opening the windows more often once it warms up.
The Sensibo Elements is currently available on Amazon and Sensibo’s website for $179. It also works with Sensibo’s air purifier and Google Home or Amazon’s Alexa.
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