A #seetheair reader has purchased a Foobot and a Netatmo units and he was kind enough to answer some of my questions and help me write this comparison post between these two devices. Something adictional that I want to meantion is that he used to have an AirMentor device too but he had to return it because of the wifi-internet lack.
Q1) Which one do you think is more accurate? On VOCs, PMs, CO2, Temperature and Humidity.
A1) I have the feeling Netatmo is better on CO2 readings it had the same values as AirMentor as I said if AirMentor would give the ability to check it from the web and had a IFTTT channel I would have kept it, but the levels of PMs and VOCs were more or less the same between AirMentor and Foobot. Netatmo shows always an higher RH% than the others. I also have Wirelesstag tags and they show the same RH% as Airmentor and Foobot, so I guess Netatmo is wrong. (All companies have tested their devices inside chambers but still they fail to have accurate readings because the sensors either aren’t good enough or they don’t calibrate propertly especialy the PM sensors. I read and see that many consumers struggle with that, they just don’t know what to believe.)
Q2) Have you ever had connectivity issues with any of the devices?
A2) Sometimes Foobot shows a message, but are simple glitches that do not really create a problem. (I want to mention here that I have never had connetion problem with Foobot and my Home Wifi router but yes with my parents router, but even other devices like iPhone, Android or Windows Laptop have had problems with my parents’ router, so maybe you need to check the router as well.)
Q3) Which device has friendlier user interface and which has better data representation?
A3) I would say Netatmo has a better user interface…, but there are also differences between iPhone and Android for Foobot and the iPhone version is a bit better, but probably this is personal taste. (Indeed Foobot has a bit better interface on iOS than Android. Also Netamto offers weather forecast in the app.)
Q4) Is there anything you would like to change on both devices?
A4) Netatmo could improve the humidity sensor nothing more, on the other hand Foobot could split the PMs and add an action in IFTTT to send a notification when air pollution is lower than x value, this would help in managing the air purifier. I guess Foobot could improve the way they calculate CO2 but at the end I still have a bit the feeling that I don’t know where the truth is and maybe only with a professional device we will know this. (As I wrote before, companies have to join somehow forces and standarize their results, maybe they need to apply EU or USA Air Quality Standards or come up with new ones, but common ones.)
I would like to thank Angelo @ilprofessoredi for helping me writting this post and for the time he has spent answering my questions and taking photos and screenshots of the apps.
You can also read my previous comparison article “Foobot vs Awair“ here.
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