Apollo Automation AIR-1 - Preliminary Thoughts

Ethan · September 28, 2024, 12:41pm

The Apollo AIR-1 from Apollo Automation has been one of the most requested monitor reviews over the past few months. If you haven’t heard about this monitor yet, don’t worry! It’s quite a niche product, but it’s also very interesting.

Apollo Automation is primarily a smart home company that makes sensors for Home Assistant. This means that, while they may not have a lot of experience with air quality monitors, they have a lot of experience with smart home integrations through Home Assistant, making this one of the most widely used ‘smart’ air quality monitors. It was even recently brought up in this conversation:

I only received the monitor today and haven’t yet had a chance to run it as I am still waiting on a Raspberry Pi to run Home Assistant. However, while my full review is still a few weeks away, I wanted to start sharing my thoughts on the device as I form them. This way, you can keep up with my thoughts throughout the review process. Also, let me know if you have any questions you want answered along the way.

As a disclaimer, I now work with AirGradient, which could be seen as the most direct ‘competition’ to the AIR-1. However, I also want to note that both companies have a good relationship (see here). I only joined AirGradient because I am allowed to be completely transparent, and it’s a company that values transparency and honesty above all else.

With that out of the way, I must say that I’ve been extremely excited to try out the Apollo device, not just because I’m curious about its performance but also because I want to try out Home Assistant (which, until now, I haven’t had a reason to). While the Home Assistant part is still a few days away as I await the Raspberry Pi delivery, I have unboxed the device and have a few thoughts.

My first impression of the device was amazement at how small it is. So far, the Amazon Smart Air Quality Monitor has been the smallest air quality monitor I’ve reviewed. However, while I don’t have that monitor on me right now, I believe this may be even smaller! It’s certainly impressive.

However, considering the sensor used in this monitor is almost the same (the SEN54 vs the SEN44), I shouldn’t be surprised as these all-in-one sensors combine great performance in a small package. Combined with the optional SCD40 CO2 sensor (which is tiny! You can see images in this post if you’re curious) and you have the makings of an ultra-compact air quality monitor.

Since the device’s housing is 3D-printed plastic, it’s also quite light, meaning that it is portable (not that it should be used this way, as it requires both a WiFi connection and power) if needed. Unfortunately, since it is 3D-printed, there can be some build issues, and I found the bottom plate of my monitor pretty bent when I unboxed the device. I don’t blame Apollo for this, as it was likely caused by rough shipping (and it did have to fly a long way to get to me!), but it was disappointing. Luckily, I ordered the GPIO header, which came with another base plate anyway! Once changed, the device looked much better and could sit flat again.

While I was at it, I thought I would dismantle the monitor to have a look at the internals. As you might’ve already guessed, they’re packed very tightly (especially since I added both the optional CO2 sensor and gas sensor), and I was again amazed at how small this monitor is. While it might potentially cause some heat issues, that is something I will look at at a later stage when I compare it to my Traceable monitor.

I’m very excited to get this monitor up and running and can’t wait to test it some more! The price (starting at around $90 and going up to $150 once the extra sensors are added) is affordable for air quality monitors and could provide a very compelling choice - at least for anyone with Home Assistant.

If you have any questions, please let me know. Otherwise, I will be back to share more thoughts as I test the monitor more!

Richard295 · September 29, 2024, 12:59am

Home Assistant primarily adds value to this product by its ability to augment its sensors with temperature sensors, PWM fan controls, and information displays. Please evaluate the product integrated with the aforementioned supplemental functionality.

Ethan · September 29, 2024, 11:40am

Thank you for the suggestion! I agree that this would be a great aspect to cover. It might be out of the scope of my initial review (these are normally upwards of 5000 words already and focus mainly on the sensor performance and usability), but I think it would be a great topic to cover in an additional post once I learn more.

Ethan · October 3, 2024, 8:17am

I finally got Home Assistant set up on my Raspberry Pi, and I’ve added a whole host of devices to my dashboard. One thing I noticed with the entire HA setup process was how straightforward it was - everything was seamless. Once HA was installed on my Pi (which, itself, was extremely straightforward), it detected the Apollo AIR-1 straight away after I’d entered my WiFi credentials. I’m still working on a more permanent setup, but this will work for my review!

Firstly, I wanted to do a few basic measurements and tests with the device. I measured it and found the 61x61x30 dimensions listed on the site to be quite accurate, with the exception of the height, which, for me, is 35mm due to the fact that I am using a different faceplate. I had no reason not to trust the official dimensions, but I was curious to check anyway.

After some comments on how loud the IKEA air quality monitor is (which you can read about here) I’ve also decided to incorporate noise level testing into my reviews. The SEN55 sensor in this device has a fan that constantly runs (unless you make changes to this yourself), but the fan is barely audible, and I could only hear it if I held it to my ear. The ambient noise levels in this apartment are around 39dB, and with a noise meter less than 1cm away from the device’s fans, I only saw an increase to 40-41dB. Overall, this device is super quiet and won’t bother you - even if you place it on your bedside table.

Another question I wanted to answer is how the device performs regarding temperature and relative humidity readings. Since the device is tiny and, in my case, has three sensors housed inside, I figured there would likely be some heat issues with the device. While heat is standard for electronics, I was worried that it could skew the temperature and relative humidity readings for this monitor as these sensors are located within the particle sensor ‘all-in-one’ module. I used an infrared camera to see how hot the device gets, and you can see the results below.

As you can see, with only the top of the device removed, the internal components can easily reach the mid-40s (Celsius). When I saw this, I was instantly worried that the temperature and RH readings from the device couldn’t possibly be accurate.

Interestingly, however, the device actually reads cooler temperatures than most of my other monitors. The AIR-1 reads 25.9 degrees Celsius and 83% RH in the image above. On the other hand, my Traceable monitor read 26.7 degrees Celsius and 81% RH. This was surprising and would indicate to me that compensation algorithms are at play here. Either way, compared to my Traceable monitor, the AIR-1 is normally within 1 degree Celsius of the actual temperature. While RH is far harder to compare, it usually tracks well with the Traceable monitor, too.

I’m looking forward to trying this monitor more, and I’m particularly looking forward to setting up my HA dashboard a bit better. However, my first impression of this device is quite positive!