Amazon.com Review

Sleek and handsome, this wireless doorbell features a push-button unit to mount outside any door, along with a ringing unit that can be wall-mounted, set on a table, or carried from room to room so an important delivery is never missed. Three channels allow the user to choose from three distinctive rings. The doorbell features a 100-foot transmission range, volume control, and low battery indicator. The main unit measures 6-1/2 by 2-1/2 by 1-1/4 inches and requires two AA batteries, while the push-button unit measures 4-1/4 by 1 by 1-1/2 inches and requires three AAA batteries.--Ann Bieri ... Read more

Features

• Modular 2-unit, 3-channel wireless doorbell
• Push-button unit mounts by any door
• Main unit/ringer sits on work desk or wall mounts
• 3 distinctive sounds for channel identification
• Requires 2 AA and 3 AAA batteries

Amazon.com Review

Homeowners are increasingly becoming aware of the healtheffects of indoor air pollution, which can be two to five times higherthan outdoor levels, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.This indoor air-quality monitor lets you know if the concentration ofVolatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) within your home are at a safe level.The monitor should be plugged in at eye level, where most peoplebreathe in harmful gases. It can be set to display the average airquality within a 70-second, 7-hour, or 7-day period of time and canalso be adjusted to a specific sensitivity level. A smiley face willdeliver the results of the air sampling by showing a smile for verygood air, an even expression for good air, and a frown for poor airquality. In the event of dangerous levels of VOCs in the air, a windowicon will appear on the display to signal that immediate ventilation isneeded, and an alarm will sound and continue to beep until air qualityimproves. In addition to showing a history of air quality levels, theunit also constantly displays the current temperature and humidity ofthe room. The monitor has electro-luminescent backlighting for readingresults in a dark room and comes with a 3-volt AC adapter and two AAbatteries for backup. However, when operating on batteries alone, theunit only shows temperature and humidity results. This device iscovered by a three-month warranty. --Cristina Vaamonde ... Read more

Features

• Measures level of indoor VOC, which can cause health problems
• Icons show different air quality levels; alarm for bad air quality
• Displays history of air level quality, temperature, and humidity
• Electro-luminescent backlighting for easy viewing in low light
• Includes AC adapter and two AA batteries

Reviews (3)

Nice idea, but how sensitive can this device be?
I've worked with analytical equipment designed to detect ppb (parts per billion) of volatiles, so I realize that a home unit such as the Oregon Scientific Indoor Air Quality Monitor scarcely can compete with that kind of sensitivity. But is it any good?

The really useful things on the unit are humidity and temperature, good for monitoring the quality of household air on a daily basis anyway. As to the VOC (volatile organic compound) sensitivity, I assumed it must be in the high ppm --which means that by the time the device alarms, your nose might have told you something was wrong long before. So, being the geeky, techy type I am, I decided to test the unit out. First, I dipped a cotton swab in shoe polish (which has a petroleum distillate of low volatility as a component.) Held near the air intake, the unit changed from "very good" to "good", meaning the unit did detect something. (The unit shows you air quality with a series of smiley faces, smiling, straight and frowny.) Later, I dipped a swab in household spray cleanser (a more volatile organic as a component) and the unit showed the same neutral face. No alarm went off.

But...here's the fun thing. A day or two later, I had a window open in an adjoining room to the monitor, and someone was burning trash outside somewhere. A waft of smoke and fumes rushed through the house, only for a moment, and the monitor alarmed. It shut off right away, as the air was only momentarily polluted but this did show the unit functions when fumes are present. The smoke was transitory, clearing quite quickly, but the unit detected it--I barely had time to sniff the burning odor.

I would not rely on this device as anything but a confirmation that something is amiss with the air, and it's more of a curiousity than a real detector, such as a smoke detector. But I did once experience a situation where a small fire in an area produced fumes and NO smoke, and our detectors were silent while the room (at work) filled with a noxious odor. So this could be a good back-up to the smoke alarm.

My summary: more of a fun item than a hard-line household detector, but it does seem to work, and it does measure humidity, so it's fine as far as it goes.

clarified
as a clarification to another user's review of this product, the reason the device did not detect pesticide is because pesticides have a low evaporation rate at room temperature, and thus simply holding them under the detector won't set it off; whereas a can of highly vaporous gasoline will instantly sound the alarm.

as for the orange peel... peeling the orange near the device causes dispersion of orange oil in the peel into the surrounding air. it may be that the oil is then oxidized in the air, causing the alarm to sound on the device.

However, it seems to me this device is more aimed at measuring the average air quality over an extended period of time in an area; and the alarm feature is probably not aimed at detection of highly localized pollution that disperses in a short period of time.

That is to say, if you were to put the device in your bathroom, you would not want to use the 70-second measurement feature, since the alarm sounding every time someone uses the facilities is not a very good indication of the overall air quality--and consequent health hazard--in the bathroom.

Good, as far as it goes
I saw the Air Quality Monitor in my Gold Box and decided to buy it, since my wife and I have two young children and you never know what you could be in the air (especially since we live in a smaller condo, with neighbors, cleaning crews, and no way to get cross-ventilation).

The digital thermometer and hygrometer seem to do very well (although I have no way to confirm the readings' accuracy).

The measurement of VOC's is really hit-or-miss. When I first got it, I tested it with things at my parents' house: the VOC measurement goes off the chart when you put gasoline under it -- exactly what I expected. I put an open bottle of pesticide under it, and the VOC measurement didn't move -- not at all what I expected. In the kitchen at home, our readout is usually one rectangle above "V. Good," which really had me wondering until I discovered that peeling an orange near the device makes the VOC reading go off the chart -- again, not at all what I expected.

So does the Air Quality Monitor give a sense of security or a false sense of alarm? For us, both. I wish that the manual had a list of what exactly it detects and what it doesn't; if I knew what it was detecting, I wouldn't be as concerned when it didn't detect a particular thing. ... Read more