Please help improve air quality

[waki]

Hi, I would like to improve my air quality. I live in an appartment, the appartment is a second floor. My bedroom has very poor ventilation, since my window faces a laundry, where people have their washing machines, AC units, dusty tubes all over.. good stuff.

My bathroom has no window, and the ventilation duct is filled with dust. I don’t know what do with that, since if I put the vacuum cleaner here, aren’t I just pulling in all the dust, potential viruses and stuff stored there? Plus it would only remove it on my end, the rest of the duct on the building is filled with dust anyway, since I doubt people clean it. The ventilation grill is glued there, you cannot remove it. Shouldn’t a company hired by the community do a maintainance and clean the entire thing? They have never done that.

The bathroom also builds up mold, probably after showering due the humidity, it has some mold buildup here and there.

I have been trying to find a good air purifier. I bought a Levoit Core 300, and I have a Temtop LKC 1000S

This is me moving from my livingroom (which has a balcony to the outside) to my bedrom with the purifier at speed 1 (picture 1)

It is successful in lowering pm2.5, but look at HCHO (picture 2)

It’s higher in my bedroom. The Temptop does not have a chart for VOC but it’s also higher (picture 3)

In my livingroom (picture 4)

(I had to put all pics together in one pic because it wouldn’t let me post more than 1 attachment):

While it seems to work for lowering pm2.5, it does nothing for HCHO and VOC. This is quite disappointing considering the marketing these guys have. How are they allowed to sell them claiming it lowers it? Levoit simply told me to buy the smoke filter, but from what I’ve researched, the activated carbon surface is too small on commercial grade filters to lower any relevant amount of these compounds. So basically, I need an alternative to lower them. The question is how?

Im also not sure if the meter is even accurate. I wanted to buy an aditional meter and test. I was thinking of the Airthings 2960 View Plus, it tests radon, PM 2,5, CO2, COV, humidty and temp. Im also interestd in the radon, since I live in Spain near the beach, and in some places there is radon. But im not sure if this is also accurate or not, an some people complained on the app being a bit lame. Can I use this device and collect data while I turn all wireless off at night? Could I just download the data on the computer and check months worth of charts? Since I may need to run it for 90 days to test for radon properly. Other alternatives mentioned I’ve read are the Aranet4 Pro, which measures CO2 (carbon dioxide), temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, so it will be lacking pm2.5, VOCs, and radon. I would need to buy the Aranet Radon one separately, so I wonder if this means the Airthings one will not be accurate.

While I live a building in the second floor, this elevation may lower radon, but I want to double test. This is an old building, I think the components are decaying and leaving particles in the air. My chest feels irritated sometimes, I don’t smoke. I would like to be able to find what’s up with the air and fix it. Please let me know.

[Ethan]

Thanks for joining @waki and great question! This sounds like a tough situation to be in, but I’m sure there are some ways you can improve your air quality.

@waki

I don’t know what do with that, since if I put the vacuum cleaner here, aren’t I just pulling in all the dust, potential viruses and stuff stored there? Plus it would only remove it on my end, the rest of the duct on the building is filled with dust anyway, since I doubt people clean it. The ventilation grill is glued there, you cannot remove it. Shouldn’t a company hired by the community do a maintainance and clean the entire thing? They have never done that.

Yes, I agree. I don’t think it is a responsibility that should fall on you and I also don’t think it would make that much of a difference since other parts of the vent are likely blocked/dirty too. I guess you could try adding a filter at your end, but since it’s quite dusty anyway I’m not sure how great the airflow would be.

@waki

The bathroom also builds up mold, probably after showering due the humidity, it has some mold buildup here and there.

Do you normally run the ventilation system (I’m assuming it’s an extraction system?) or not since it’s dusty? One thing that I used to do in the first apartment I lived in in Korea (similar situation with the bathroom having no windows or an extraction fan) was to keep the bathroom door open at most times so it never got too damp.

Overall, your PM2.5 levels look quite good (but lower is always better!). This brings us to VOCs… which are very tough. In short, I wouldn’t pay too much attention to VOC readings from low-cost monitors unless there is a significant/regular trend. I’ve had quite a few discussions on this topic here already, and I would recommend reading these two posts for more details:

Air Quality Monitors for VOCs

When it comes to indoor air quality monitors, there are generally three pollutants that people care about: Particulate matter (PM0.3-PM10) VOCs (volatile organic compounds) CO2 (carbon dioxide) For some, CO and radon sensors are also important, but I’ve found that most readers ask me to recommend a monitor with the above three sensors. While I’ve discussed CO2 and PM sensors at length, I thought it would be interesting to discuss VOC sensors in air quality monitors because they have a few cav…

IQ Air Multigas Purifier

Hi Ethan and all, I am just wondering if anyone can advise or has any experience with issues we are having with the IQ air multigas purifier. We have a number of the Airthings air monitors and they are recording quite high VOCs in the majority of rooms. All other measurements are generally good. We made the decision to invest in the IQ gas purifier as a result as my son has health issues (big decision as these purifiers are expensive). However when we run the purifier - the vocs spike like cr…

If you’re worried about VOCs and HCHO in particular, I wouldn’t look at air quality monitors, but rather getting a professional test (I discussed that a bit in the thread link above) as they are far more accurate and will likely put your mind at ease. They also tend to be affordable in most countries.

When it comes to radon, then yes, I think a monitor could be a good choice! Since you already have the Temtop monitor, would you be primarily looking for a radon monitor, or would you like an all-in-one device (like the Airthings View Plus)?

[waki]

@Ethan

Do you normally run the ventilation system (I’m assuming it’s an extraction system?) or not since it’s dusty? One thing that I used to do in the first apartment I lived in in Korea (similar situation with the bathroom having no windows or an extraction fan) was to keep the bathroom door open at most times so it never got too damp.

There is no ventilation system like I said it’s just a grill in there. If I leave the door opened, the problem is you would have a stream of contaminated air go into the rest of the appartment. Bathroom could have e.coli everytime you flush the toilet pushed into the air, you could have stuff comming from the dusty grill, plus mold spores that you have not spotted etc. I leave the door opened after a shower when it’s wet, but when it dries I close it. I use a product to clean the walls to stop any mold. But like I said I don’t like the air quality in a bathroom with no windows or proper ventilation so I prefer to have the bathroom door closed. I wanted to solve this by installing an extractor with a filter, but like I said if the ventilation duct is blocked by dust, then I don’t know what to do.

@Ethan

If you’re worried about VOCs and HCHO in particular, I wouldn’t look at air quality monitors, but rather getting a professional test (I discussed that a bit in the thread link above) as they are far more accurate and will likely put your mind at ease. They also tend to be affordable in most countries.

I will need to find more information about who is a trusted source for this in Spain. What do profesionals use that is so expensive that it would be worth it not buying the device yourself?

@Ethan

When it comes to radon, then yes, I think a monitor could be a good choice! Since you already have the Temtop monitor, would you be primarily looking for a radon monitor, or would you like an all-in-one device (like the Airthings View Plus)?

Well I wanted one that could do everything like the View Plus but I’ve read it’s very inaccurate, people bought like 3 units, compared them, they gave different readings, so it looks like they have some random number generator and it’s all a waste of money.

So you think the Temptop I have is accurate for at least pm2.5? For radon and the rest, I don’t know what to buy at this point, if you look around for reviews, nothing seems accurate.

[Ethan]

Ah, I see. Thank you for the clarification.

@waki

I leave the door opened after a shower when it’s wet, but when it dries I close it.

I think this is the best you can do - as you’ve mentioned, it’s better to keep the door closed once the bathroom dries, but at least until it does, opening the door can help prevent mould from building up.

@waki

I wanted to solve this by installing an extractor with a filter, but like I said if the ventilation duct is blocked by dust, then I don’t know what to do.

I still think this might be the best bet, and it could be worth looking into if the ventilation system is usable. With a filter, you’d at least have clean air circulating through the bathroom.

@waki

I will need to find more information about who is a trusted source for this in Spain. What do profesionals use that is so expensive that it would be worth it not buying the device yourself?

It depends on the exact test in question, but air quality monitors are very limited when it comes to monitoring VOCs (please check the above-mentioned link for further information). Not only do most of them use a relative scale, but there is no way to identify which VOCs specifically are present. Professional tests can identify which VOCs are in the air and provide an absolute measurement of these. They don’t use monitors (some do, but not the tests I’m thinking of), but rather collect a sample of your air over a few weeks and then send it back to a lab for analysis. I generally don’t recommend these kinds of tests unless you have a specific worry, but I think in this case it could be useful.

@waki

So you think the Temptop I have is accurate for at least pm2.5? For radon and the rest, I don’t know what to buy at this point, if you look around for reviews, nothing seems accurate.

For PM2.5 I think it’s okay. For radon, I generally check accuracy reports from this organisation.

[sana786]

Hi there, it sounds like you have already put in a lot of effort to understand your indoor air quality situation and that is a great first step. regarding the poor ventilation in your bathroom you have absolutely right if the building is ventilation duct is filled with dust and has not been maintained, simply vacuuming your end won’t fix the issue and may even stir up more particles. Since the grill is glued on and it seems to be part of a shared duct system, this really should be handled by your building management or community association. It is worth requesting a professional inspection and cleaning of the shared ducts especially if this has never been done before. Meanwhile to reduce mold buildup, I recommend using a small dehumidifier in the bathroom and wiping down wet surfaces right after showers.

As for the Levoit Core 300, it is good for removing particles like PM2.5, but like many consumer-grade air purifiers, it’s not effective at reducing gases like VOCs and formaldehyde. The smoke filter helps a little, but the amount of activated carbon in most commercial purifiers is too small to make a real difference. If you want to reduce VOCs and HCHO effectively, I recommend looking into higher-end models like IQAir, Austin Air, or Airpura these have much more carbon and are designed to handle gases and chemicals properly.

About the air quality monitors: the Temtop is useful for PM2.5, but if you want to monitor VOCs, CO2, and especially radon over time, the Airthings View Plus is a strong option. It allows you to download historical data to your computer, and you can use it with wireless features turned off at night. While no consumer monitor is perfect, Airthings generally provides reliable data for long-term tracking. The Aranet4 Pro is excellent for CO2 and basic environmental tracking, but since it doesn’t measure PM2.5 or radon, you’d need to buy additional devices to fill in those gaps. If you’re serious about accuracy, it’s actually a good idea to run two monitors side by side for comparison.

A few other tips: adding some indoor plants like peace lilies or spider plants may help absorb a small amount of VOCs, though they aren’t a full solution. Try to avoid synthetic air fresheners and switch to low VOC cleaning products. If possible, consider using a window AC unit with a fresh air intake to help improve ventilation and bring in filtered outdoor air. Since you mentioned some chest irritation, it’s worth keeping a symptom log and checking in with a doctor if it continues.

You are definitely on the right track it sounds like a few equipment upgrades and perhaps some building wide action will make a big difference. Let me know if you want help picking a specific purifier or air quality monitor. Wishing you cleaner and healthier air ahead.