Hi all -
I am going to get an Air Gradient monitor soon for use in my woodworking shop. Being a wood shop, it is extremely dusty, but dry.
Is there any difference between the indoor and outdoor models that would make a difference in this environment? Would the outdoor unit handle it better, or no?
It is no more resilient against extreme dust.
The outdoor model has it enclosed in a hood to keep water coming from above from getting in, but still open on the bottom for airflow.
I would think the sensors would get full of dust pretty quick and affect their accuracy in that environment, but AirGradient has these running outdoors and in wildfire areas so they may hold up better than I think
Thanks @MallocArray - I’ll opt for the indoor model I guess (pretty blinking lights and such). The area that it will be mounted in isn’t as horrible as the rest of the shop, and I suppose the occasional clean out is to be expected.
One thing to be aware of is that these particle sensors are not working well for dust with large particles of 10 ug and larger. I am not sure what sizes are predominantly in a wood shop but might be worth checking.
Did somebody follow up and try it in a dusty (woodworking) workshop?
In a non-scientific article (adding the link didn’t work) I’ve read that also in this environment the small particles seem to be the main health issue. I think the AirGradient One sensors would be of great help here to make sure the air quality is okay.
However, I fear that the sensors get dusty quickly and then no longer work. Would it maybe help to wrap the entire AirGradient One in some sort of mesh to filter large particles out? Not great looking, but could that work?
Hi @Bastian,
This is an interesting idea. I imagine the mesh idea may work, but you would want to ensure it doesn’t get clogged up with larger dust particles as that may restrict airflow to the sensor. However, as long as it is cleaned regularly, I don’t think this would be too big of an issue.
@four12 did you even get a monitor set up in your workshop? If so, it would be interesting to hear how its held up.
thanks for your response! Regular careful cleaning (whipping or maybe vacuum on low power) would be perfectly fine with me. I founded meshes sold for the fans of desktop PCs to keep the dust out. Those seem to be good candidates for such a solution.