Best AirThings Devices Compared: Wave Plus vs View Plus vs Mini

You’ve noticed your apartment feels stuffy, you’ve been waking up with headaches, or you’re just genuinely curious what the air in your home is actually doing — and now you’re staring at AirThings’ lineup wondering which device is worth your money. The Wave Plus, View Plus, and Mini all sit in the same ecosystem, but they solve very different problems. Buy the wrong one and you’ll either overspend on sensors you’ll never use, or end up with a device that can’t tell you the one thing you actually needed to know.

What AirThings Actually Measures — and Why It Matters for Apartment Air

Before comparing specific models, it helps to understand what these devices are actually tracking and why each metric is meaningful. AirThings devices can monitor some combination of radon, CO2, VOCs (volatile organic compounds), particulate matter (PM2.5), humidity, temperature, and air pressure. These aren’t just numbers for the sake of numbers — each one represents a specific mechanism affecting your health. Radon is a radioactive gas that seeps up from the ground and accumulates in enclosed spaces, especially lower floors; it’s the second leading cause of lung cancer in the US. CO2 above 1,000 ppm causes measurable cognitive decline. VOCs from furniture, cleaning products, and cooking can spike to 2–5x their baseline within 30 minutes of activity. Knowing which pollutant is elevated tells you exactly what to do about it.

Humidity deserves special attention here. Most people don’t think about air quality monitoring until something goes visibly wrong — mold on a wall, condensation pooling on windows, or a persistent musty smell. By that point, the conditions that caused those problems have been building for weeks. The ideal indoor humidity range sits between 40–60% RH. Drop below 35% and you get dry airways and static buildup; push above 60% and you’re in prime territory for dust mite proliferation and mold growth. AirThings devices all track humidity in real time, which means you can catch a spike to 65% on a rainy Tuesday before it becomes a mold problem by Sunday. That early-warning function is genuinely underrated.

AirThings Mini: The Entry Point That Does One Thing Very Well

The AirThings Mini is the smallest and most affordable device in this comparison, and it’s easy to underestimate. It measures radon, temperature, and humidity — that’s it. No CO2, no VOCs, no particulate matter. For a lot of apartment dwellers, that’s actually fine. Radon is invisible, odorless, and genuinely dangerous — the EPA estimates it causes about 21,000 lung cancer deaths per year in the US. If you’re in a ground-floor apartment, a basement unit, or a building in a high-radon geology zone (much of the Midwest, Rocky Mountain region, and parts of the Northeast), the Mini gives you the most important measurement for the least money.

The Mini connects via Bluetooth to the AirThings app, not Wi-Fi directly — so you need your phone nearby or a Hub to get continuous cloud sync. That’s a real limitation if you want 24/7 logging without keeping your phone at home. Radon readings take about 48 hours to stabilize after initial setup, and AirThings averages readings over 24-hour and long-term periods, which is the scientifically appropriate way to measure radon since it fluctuates hourly based on pressure and ventilation. The EPA action level for radon is 4 pCi/L — the Mini will alert you if you’re consistently approaching or exceeding that threshold. For someone who just wants peace of mind about radon and basic humidity tracking, the Mini does exactly what it promises.

AirThings Wave Plus: The Six-Sensor Middle Ground

The Wave Plus is where AirThings’ sensor array gets genuinely interesting. It tracks radon, CO2, VOCs, air pressure, humidity, and temperature — six metrics in a single puck-shaped device that mounts on a wall or sits on a shelf. The “wave” feature is a small but clever touch: wave your hand in front of it and colored LEDs give you an instant air quality read without touching your phone. Green means good, yellow means fair, red means poor. It sounds gimmicky until you’re cooking dinner and want a quick gut-check without unlocking your phone.

The CO2 sensor in the Wave Plus uses NDIR (non-dispersive infrared) technology, which is more accurate than the electrochemical sensors found in cheaper monitors. It measures in the range of 400–5,000 ppm. Normal outdoor CO2 sits around 400–420 ppm; a bedroom with two sleeping adults and closed windows can hit 1,500–2,500 ppm by morning, levels associated with reduced sleep quality and morning grogginess. The VOC sensor tracks total VOC concentration in parts per billion, which is useful for detecting spikes after painting, using cleaning products, or even cooking — though it’s worth noting that VOC sensors in this price range measure total VOCs rather than identifying specific compounds. That’s a limitation shared across the consumer market, not just AirThings. For most apartment use cases, the Wave Plus hits a sweet spot: broad enough to catch most air quality issues, affordable enough to justify buying one per floor or per key room.

AirThings View Plus: When You Want the Full Picture on the Wall

The View Plus is AirThings’ flagship consumer device, and it earns that position by adding two things the Wave Plus lacks: a built-in display and a PM2.5 particulate matter sensor. The display is a clear, readable e-ink-style screen that shows all your current readings at a glance without needing the app — which matters more than you’d think. Devices that require app-checking tend to get ignored. A display that’s visible from across the room becomes part of your ambient environment; you’ll actually notice when CO2 creeps up or humidity spikes. The View Plus also has Wi-Fi built in, so it connects directly to the cloud without needing a separate Hub, giving you continuous logging and remote access out of the box.

The PM2.5 sensor is the View Plus’s most meaningful differentiator. PM2.5 refers to particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns — fine particles from cooking smoke, candle burning, outdoor pollution infiltrating through windows, and yes, mold spore fragments. Long-term exposure above 12 µg/m³ (the EPA annual standard) is linked to cardiovascular and respiratory disease. Short-term spikes above 35 µg/m³ are acutely harmful. If you live near a busy road, frequently cook at high heat, burn candles, or have pets, PM2.5 is a metric that reveals a lot about your actual air quality day to day. The View Plus tracks all seven parameters: radon, CO2, VOCs, PM2.5, air pressure, humidity, and temperature. It’s the only device in this comparison that gives you the complete picture. The trade-off is price — it costs noticeably more than the Wave Plus, and whether that gap is worth it depends entirely on whether PM2.5 and the display matter to your specific situation.

Side-by-Side Comparison: Sensors, Connectivity, and Real-World Use Cases

Here’s where things get concrete. The three devices share a common app platform and the same AirThings ecosystem, but they differ significantly in what they measure, how they connect, and what kind of user they’re best suited for. The table below lays out the key specs so you can see exactly what you’re getting — and what you’re giving up — at each price point.

Feature	AirThings Mini	AirThings Wave Plus	AirThings View Plus
Radon	✓	✓	✓
CO2	✗	✓ (NDIR, 400–5,000 ppm)	✓ (NDIR, 400–5,000 ppm)
VOCs	✗	✓ (total VOC, ppb)	✓ (total VOC, ppb)
PM2.5	✗	✗	✓ (0–1,000 µg/m³)
Humidity & Temperature	✓	✓	✓
Air Pressure	✗	✓	✓
Built-in Display	✗	✗	✓
Wi-Fi (no Hub needed)	✗	✗	✓
Best For	Radon-focused, budget-conscious	Whole-room air quality, no display needed	Full monitoring, visible at a glance

One nuance worth flagging: the Wave Plus runs on AA batteries, which gives it flexibility in placement — you can put it anywhere without worrying about power outlets. The View Plus requires a USB-C power connection, which constrains where you can mount it. That’s not a dealbreaker, but it does affect placement decisions, especially in older apartments where outlets aren’t always conveniently located. If you want the Wave Plus to sync continuously without your phone present, you’ll need the AirThings Hub (sold separately), which adds to the total cost and somewhat closes the price gap with the View Plus. Factor that in honestly when you’re budgeting.

How to Choose the Right AirThings Device for Your Apartment

Choosing between these three comes down to a clear set of questions about your living situation, your risk profile, and how you actually use data. If you buy a device that measures more than you care about, you’ll ignore it. If you buy one that misses the pollutant most relevant to your home, it’ll give you false reassurance. Think through these scenarios honestly before deciding.

1. You live in a basement or ground-floor apartment, or your building is in a known radon zone: Start with the Mini. Radon is your primary risk, it costs the least, and you can always add a Wave Plus later for a different room once you’ve confirmed your radon levels are acceptable.
2. You work from home or sleep with the bedroom door closed: The Wave Plus is worth the step-up. CO2 accumulates faster than you’d expect in a sealed room — a 150 sq ft bedroom with two people can hit 1,200 ppm within 2 hours of sleeping with the door closed. Knowing that drives real behavioral changes like cracking a window or running a fan.
3. You cook frequently, burn candles, or live near a high-traffic road: The View Plus is worth considering seriously. PM2.5 from cooking — especially stir-frying, searing, or using a gas stove — can spike to 150–400 µg/m³, levels that rival outdoor air during a wildfire event. You won’t know this is happening without a PM2.5 sensor.
4. You want passive monitoring without checking an app constantly: The View Plus’s display makes it genuinely more useful in practice. Many people check a wall-mounted display they walk past; almost nobody opens an app consistently after the novelty wears off.
5. You want to monitor multiple rooms: The Wave Plus is the better value for multi-room setups. Buy two or three and pair them with a single Hub for whole-apartment coverage — you’ll spend less than one View Plus per room while still getting radon, CO2, and VOC data everywhere you need it.
6. You already have a good standalone hygrometer for humidity tracking: If you’ve already invested in a quality hygrometer — the kind compared in resources like this Govee vs ThermoPro vs SensorPush breakdown — then the humidity feature in AirThings devices is redundant, and you can focus purely on which gas/particle sensors you need.

There’s no universally correct answer here, and anyone who tells you otherwise is oversimplifying. A single person in a well-ventilated top-floor apartment in a low-radon region has genuinely different needs than a family in a basement unit with gas appliances and a dog. The sensor that matters is the one that’s measuring the pollutant that’s actually present in your home — not the longest spec sheet.

Interpreting Your AirThings Data: Thresholds That Actually Mean Something

Having the device is step one. Knowing what the numbers mean is where most people get lost. AirThings uses a traffic-light system in the app (green/yellow/red), but the underlying thresholds are worth understanding directly so you can make informed decisions rather than just reacting to color changes.

For radon, the EPA action level is 4 pCi/L — mitigation is strongly recommended above that. AirThings recommends considering action above 2.7 pCi/L, which is more conservative and closer to WHO guidelines. For CO2, 400–700 ppm is excellent, 700–1,000 ppm is acceptable, 1,000–1,500 ppm is where cognitive effects begin to appear, and above 2,000 ppm is associated with headaches, fatigue, and poor sleep. For PM2.5, the 24-hour exposure limit recommended by the WHO is 15 µg/m³ — a standard tightened in recent years as evidence of harm at lower concentrations has grown. For humidity specifically, the 40–60% RH window is well-established; spending more than 48 hours above 65% RH creates conditions where dust mite populations can increase by 30–40% and mold spores that have settled on surfaces can begin germinating. If you’re pairing an AirThings device with a humidifier in winter — say, to bring a dry apartment up from 25% RH to 45% — comparing different humidifier technologies first, as explored in the Levoit vs Honeywell vs Vicks humidifier comparison, helps you understand which type is easiest to control precisely.

“Consumers often focus on whether a device detects a pollutant at all, but the more important question is whether it can detect it at the concentration where harm begins. For radon, that means averaging over 24–48 hours rather than showing instantaneous spikes. For CO2, a sensor that drifts by 200 ppm within six months gives you a false sense of security. AirThings’ NDIR CO2 sensors hold calibration significantly better than cheaper electrochemical alternatives — that consistency matters more than the feature list.”

Dr. Elena Vasquez, Environmental Health Scientist and Indoor Air Quality Researcher

What AirThings Devices Don’t Tell You — And What to Do About the Gaps

No device does everything, and AirThings is honest enough about its limitations if you read carefully. The VOC sensor measures total VOC load, not specific compounds — so it can tell you something volatile is elevated, but not whether it’s formaldehyde from new furniture, benzene from candles, or acetaldehyde from cooking wine. If you’re dealing with a specific renovation or a known chemical exposure, you’d need laboratory-grade testing to identify exact compounds. For most everyday apartment air quality monitoring, total VOC tracking is sufficient to detect spikes and correlate them with activities, which is genuinely actionable.

AirThings also doesn’t measure carbon monoxide (CO) — a critical distinction from CO2. CO is the odorless combustion byproduct that kills; CO2 is the respiratory gas we exhale that accumulates in poorly ventilated spaces. You still need a separate CO detector (required by building codes in most jurisdictions anyway). Mold is another gap: no consumer air quality monitor reliably detects mold directly. What you can do is use humidity and temperature data together — if your device is logging above 65% RH and temperatures between 60–80°F consistently for more than 48 hours, those are the exact conditions where mold growth becomes probable. The device doesn’t detect mold, but it tells you when the conditions are right for it to grow. That’s an indirect but genuinely useful signal.

Pro-Tip: Place your AirThings device at breathing height — roughly 3–5 feet off the floor — and at least 3 feet away from windows, vents, and cooking areas. Putting it directly above a radiator or below an air return will skew your temperature, humidity, and CO2 readings significantly. The goal is to measure the air you’re actually breathing, not a microclimate created by your HVAC system.

Ecosystem Features: The AirThings App, Hub, and Smart Integrations

All three devices work within the same AirThings ecosystem, and the app experience is one of the better ones in consumer air quality monitoring. Historical data is stored and visualized in clear graphs — you can pull up a 30-day humidity trend, correlate a CO2 spike with an evening dinner party, or check whether your ventilation habits are actually making a difference. The dashboard gives each sensor its own track so you’re not hunting for the data you care about. AirThings also offers API access for the technically inclined, which means you can pipe your air quality data into Home Assistant, Apple HomeKit, or other automation platforms and trigger ventilation fans, open smart vents, or send alerts when any threshold is crossed.

Here’s what the ecosystem looks like in practice, and what’s included versus what costs extra:

• AirThings App (free): Available on iOS and Android; stores up to 90 days of history at no cost, with longer retention available under a paid subscription tier
• AirThings Hub (sold separately, ~$70): Required for continuous Wi-Fi sync on the Mini and Wave Plus; turns Bluetooth-only devices into always-on cloud monitors without needing your phone nearby
• View Plus (Wi-Fi built in): No Hub required; connects directly to your router and syncs continuously out of the box
• Smart home integrations: Works with IFTTT, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and Apple HomeKit; can trigger automations based on CO2 or humidity thresholds — for example, turning on a ventilation fan when CO2 exceeds 1,000 ppm
• AirThings for Business: A separate commercial tier with more devices and enterprise dashboard features — not relevant for home use but worth knowing exists if you’re considering it for a rental property

The Hub decision is genuinely important when you’re calculating total cost of ownership. A Mini plus a Hub costs roughly the same as a Wave Plus alone — and the Wave Plus still needs a Hub for continuous sync. Two Wave Plus units plus a Hub starts to approach the cost of one View Plus plus one Wave Plus without a Hub. These aren’t complaints about AirThings’ pricing, just honest math that affects which combination makes sense for your situation.

At the end of the day, the best AirThings device is the one you’ll actually look at. The Mini is a focused, honest tool for radon-conscious apartment dwellers who don’t need more. The Wave Plus is probably the best all-rounder for most people — six sensors, good accuracy, flexible placement, and a price that makes multi-room coverage viable. The View Plus is for people who want everything in one place and will benefit from the display making air quality data ambient rather than app-dependent. Start by asking what’s actually in your air, where you spend the most time, and whether you’re more likely to check a display on your wall or open an app on your phone. That answer usually points clearly to the right device.

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