Qingping Air Quality Monitor Gen 2 First Thoughts

Just today, a reader informed me that there is a new Qingping Air Quality Monitor 2, which is an updated version of one of my favourite low-cost indoor air quality monitors, the Qingping Air Quality Monitor.

While I haven’t yet had the chance to use the Air Quality Monitor 2, the idea of a second-generation monitor appeals to me for a couple of reasons. Firstly, and most importantly, it seemingly shows that Qingping is willing to address issues with the first monitor and to put effort into improving the device. Equally as important, it shows the company is still invested in creating air quality monitors and that there was enough demand to justify and update. While this isn’t very important on a brand level, it’s great to see the increasing demand for air quality monitors as awareness increases.

So, what does the second monitor change from the first version? As far as I can tell at first glance, these are the biggest updates:

  • Additional PM10 measurements**
  • Additional noise measurements
  • Easily replaceable PM sensor
  • UI and ease-of-use changes

** This is not an additional sensor but just means the company has allowed users to view PM10 measurements from the sensor that already measures PM2.5. It’s also worth noting that PM10 measurements on these low-cost sensors are often inaccurate anyway, as the sensors can’t directly measure PM10 particles and estimate counts based on smaller particles.

In particular, the noise sensor looks to be an interesting addition, transforming the Qingping Air Quality Monitor from an air quality monitor to a ‘wellbeing monitor’ - something more akin to the Ultrahuman monitor. This is not bad, but it’s an interesting direction for the Qingping lineup.

The addition of a replaceable PM sensor is something that can only be considered good. While it’s interesting that they’ve only made the PM sensor easily accessible, it makes sense as these sensors are the most likely to become inaccurate or fail due to needing moving parts (a fan). Any improvements to repairability are a good thing! It does make me wonder, however, if the company commonly ran into customer complaints about the PM sensor or if this is a preemptive move.

It appears that Qingping has also made some changes to the UI, but I can’t comment much on these as I haven’t tried the device yet. However, these changes look quite nice at first glance, and I think they are probably improvements.

One more minor change that I found interesting is that the monitor now shows eTVOC instead of TVOC. Since these low-cost sensors only show relative VOC concentrations, this change might convey this better to users who regard the VOC measurements as absolute when they are not. Here is an excerpt from the Qingping website:

The TVOC sensor used in this product automatically adjusts the measurement baseline according to the data of the past period, so this product displays eTVOC (equivalent TVOC), which is not an accurate TVOC absolute value, and is only for users to observe the relative change trend of environmental TVOC concentration.

What are your thoughts on the new monitor? Personally, I am hoping they also release a version 2 of the Qingping Air Monitor Lite!

On 5/28 I ordered this V2 monitor from Amazon. As of 5/30 it is still not available to ship.

I hope it ships soon! If you do get it, would you mind reporting your thoughts here? I would love to know how it performs as I am thinking of replacing my V1 myself.

I received it today.

The bigger / brighter screen and updated user interfaces are gorgeous!



The PM2.5 sensor is in a metal case that appears to have been uniquely designed by Qingping to be user replaceable in their system. The PM laser particle counter appears to be the Sensiron SPS30 compatible CO2 PM2016. It has a ± 10% worst case accuracy variance.

All the other sensors are Sensirion’s.

It works well with both their Qingping + application and their Qingping IoT application.

There are a significant minor translation bugs in the user interface. This screen is an example:

“Date” is in Chinese after selecting English as the language.

The correct hour for San Carlos, CA is 15:25 (PST) and not the EST hour displayed.

Sancarlos is correctly spelled San Carlos.

Thanks for the update! I’ve actually gone ahead and got one on the way now, too, as these changes look quite promising (with the exception of the translation/timezone errors).

The PM2016 is a good sensor, and I’m glad to see that QP has begun to use it. It should be a good step up from the previous GrandWay sensor used in the version 1 device.

While I like the decision to include a user-replaceable PM sensor, I’m assuming the custom design means any replacements will need to be purchased from QP.

Either way, a promising update to one of the best low-cost indoor air quality monitors.

I asked Qingping tech support about the cost and source of the user replaceable PM2.5 sensor. I received a response within 24 hrs. Here is what they said:

“Hi Richard,

Thank you for reaching out.

We will list the PM sensor soon on major e-commerce platforms. The cost will be about US$20.

Sincerely,

Bin
Team Qingping”

I sent a 2nd tech support request telling them about the clock interface problems. I again received a response within 24 hrs. This is what they said:

“Hi Richard,

Thank you very much for the feedback.

We will solve the problems in a future firmware update soon.

Sincerely,

Bin
Team Qingping”

I came up with a work around for the bug where they use the network address for clock setting and weather information and it is the wrong information.

There is an option to manually specify your location. Small towns that you enter will not be recognized. If you enter larger towns near you, it will eventually accept one of them. Once that happens, the clock will set to that town’s time zone and weather forecast. The weather forecast usefulness will vary on how far that town is from you. The time zone will be the same and so the clock reading will now be accurate.

QP has always been quite good with updates in my experience, so while I usually take the response ‘we will solve the problems in a firmware update’ with a grain of salt, I have a good feeling that they will actually address these issues soon.

I’m looking forward to trying the monitor myself in a couple of weeks. Did you ever try the first generation monitor @Richard295?

Yes, I have one running outside and one running inside in addition to companion Purple Air sensors both places. The V1 PM2.5 reading both jumped around and did’t correlate closely with the Purple Airs. The V2 is much improved in this regard.

Interesting. I wonder if that is due to the new sensor or if they’ve changed the sampling time. I can’t wait to try out the monitor!

Qingping fixed the problems I reported in a couple of weeks and did an over the air update. Excellent service!

That’s amazingly fast!

I also just received my version 2 device today, I’m looking forward to testing it further.

One thing I’m already impressed with before even trying the monitor is how they mention specifically that eTVOC is a relative number based on an index with an updating baseline. Not many companies explicitly state that!

After using the monitor for a few days, I must agree with your initial impressions. The screen is stunning and very responsive, too (often an issue in cheap touchscreens). I was quite amazed at how high-quality the V1 monitor felt for the price, but this has outdone it! While I haven’t delved into the accuracy yet, this monitor certainly looks promising.

Another design factor I love is the magnetic back plate that hides the sensor. It’s so easy to remove, and it seems that the design (at least the exterior) of this monitor is fantastic. I can’t think of a monitor that is better in this regard.

More to come soon!

I contacted Qingping to ask about the sensors used in this device, and it turns out the PM sensor on the new model is the same as the previous one. While I would’ve liked to have seen the SPS30 used, the previous sensor did okay in AQMD’s testing, so I think this is fine.

I will need to do more testing, though!

I’ve finally finished my full review after using the device for a few weeks. I think this may well be my favourite indoor air quality monitor now.