INTRODUCTION

   Air pollution has reached new heights this past decade and so it's no wonder really that an increasing number of companies is focused in the design and manufacture of products developed solely with that in mind. Such products of course include air cleaners (either standalone or combined with fans, air conditioners and even dehumidifiers) and air quality monitors/sensors (again, standalone or combined with other devices). Air quality monitor/sensors usually check for specific air pollutants the most well-known of which are PM (particulate matter - divided into numerous sub categories), CO (carbon monoxide), VOC (volatile organic compounds) and SO2 (sulfur dioxide). INKBIRD is a rather new player in the air quality monitor/sensor market (was made aware of them roughly 2 months ago myself) and since they just introduced their latest model in the market called the IAM-T1 Smart Indoor Air Quality Monitor i really wanted to test it out.

   INKBIRD is a smart IoT technology company and its business was established in 2010. As a high-tech company, INKBIRD has been devoting itself to offering its worldwide users excellent smart home living products, since the date it was established. Inspired by the history of quill-pen and the spirit of The Wright brothers’ making the world's first motor-operated airplane successfully happened, the founders of INKBIRD named the brand with the word INK which is used for writing with the quill-pen and the word BIRD which is the prototype and the inspiration of human being’s flying tools to encourage the development and continuity of the company as well as to motivate their solid steps of chasing innovation and freedom.

   Unlike most air quality monitors I’ve used to date the IAM-T1 model by INKBIRD is a CO2 (carbon dioxide) PPM monitor/sensor which actually is extremely useful not only for people who live in a big city but pretty much for everyone especially during the summer season when forests go up in flames (regardless of the how). You see in high concentration carbon dioxide is one of the most harmful air pollutants around (although not classified as toxic) produced from the burning of things like wood, charcoal, petrol, kerosene, oil, gasoline and natural gas and since in some cases it's not only colourless but also tasteless and odourless it's not easy for people to detect. To achieve optimal detection results (up to 30ppm +-3%) INKBIRD has placed an NDIR CO2 sensor inside the enclosure of the IAM-T1 manufactured by the Swedish Senseair, a leader in the field. The INKBIRD IAM-T1 also doubles as a humidity, air pressure and temperature monitor and can output all its measurements onto a very useful Android/iOS app via Bluetooth v5.0.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The IAM-T1 arrived inside a small white box that has a large product picture at the front.

On both sides INKBIRD has listed the main features of the unit.

Another product picture is located at the rear of the box along with contact information for INKBIRD and their UK and EU representatives.

The box has two compartments one for the IAM-T1 monitor and one for the two bundled AA batteries.

Along with the IAM-T1 and its 2 AA batteries inside the box you'll also find the user manual and the app quick start guide.

THE IAM-T1

The IAM-T1 is actually a very compact device measuring just 74mm in width, 29mm in depth and 79mm in height.

At the front INKBIRD has placed a high contrast screen (180 degrees viewing angle) which shows the CO2 PPM, humidity percentage and temperature (in either Celsius or Fahrenheit).

Turning the unit around after removing the rear plastic cover we find the Celsius/Fahrenheit button, Bluetooth on/off switch, wall mounting hole and the AA battery compartment.

INKBIRD APP

As with most apps the INKBIRD one first requires you to pick the device you want to setup.

This is a Bluetooth device so as long as Bluetooth and location services are enabled on your smartphone (and of course Bluetooth is turned on the IAM-T1) you will locate it as seen above.

Once the app is done detecting the device it will be listed on the intro tab.

The very first tab gives you a quick look on what the sensor inside the IAM-T1 is currently reading including CO2 PPM, humidity, air pressure (don't know why INKBIRD didn't include this on the screen) and temperature.

Inside the settings you can change the temperature unit (Celsius, Fahrenheit), change the name of the device, check CO2 levels graph (showcase), set the sampling interval, enable the CO2 alarm, check for new firmware updates), switch between light and dark mode, check the user guide and remove the device from the app.

From the calibration tab you can either choose for the device to perform an automatic calibration or adjust numbers manually.

Moving to the app alarm tab from here you can set alarm thresholds for CO2 levels, humidity, temperature and even air pressure.

Finally, you can export data from the data tab.

CONCLUSION

   There are various health complications linked to air pollutants aside respitory ones like asthma including heart disease, stroke and lung cancer so people should obviously keep track of pollution and do their best to improve air quality. To that end both at home and the office i have several devices featuring air-cleaning functionality which does come handy at times (needless to say air pollution levels are mostly within acceptable parameters). That being said i don't live in a particularly bad area in regards to air pollution and so i can only imagine what people living in cities with high pollution are going through on a daily basis. For them such air quality sensors are a must and my guess is that companies like INKBIRD bet a lot on that demographic. In regards to accuracy I only have 1 more device that measures CO2 levels (no other air pressure measuring device however) aside the INKBIRD IAM-T1 and that’s the Netatmo Smart Indoor Air Quality Monitor. I was glad to see that both devices returned more or less the same readings when placed next to each other (don’t know which is more accurate however) so that’s a good thing. For good or bad every other device, I have that measures air quality does so in regards to PM 2.5-10, VOC and NO2 (Nitrogen dioxide) thus I can only compare those two. Moving to temperatures and humidity results seem on par with both my in-house thermometers and dehumidifiers so no issues here either. As for the high contrast screen and battery life not much to say here, the screen looks great no matter from where you look at it and in regards to battery life INKBIRD claims two AA batteries can keep the IAM-T1 running for up to 4 years if you set the recording interval at 10 minutes (this probably means that at the default of 1 minute battery life could drop to as low as 5 months).

   The INKBIRD IAM-T1 Smart Indoor Air Quality Monitor currently retails for USD169.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) so it doesn’t come cheap. This of course is primarily due to the NDIR Senseair sensor used so it can’t be helped really. The sole issue with the IAM-T1 is its available measurements and even though it does seem to be very accurate with CO2 and everything else it doesn’t provide measurement for PM 2.5/10 and that’s probably far more “popular” for home users nowadays. Also, the fact that INKBIRD has such air quality monitors already (CO2 & PM 2.5/10) in its product line means that many people could opt for one of those instead. Yes, they may not be as accurate with their CO2 measurements/readings but to most people those will look better. At the end of the day the IAM-T1 does what it was designed and manufactured to do and so if accurate CO2 readings are what you’re looking for then i strongly suggest giving it a chance.

PROS

- Design
- Compact Size
- Senseair NDIR Sensor (CO2 Reading Accuracy)
- Humidity, Temperature & Air Pressure Readings
- Battery Life (Up To 4 Years)
- Smartphone App

CONS

- Price (For Some)
- Available Readings (No PM 2.5/10)