air quality

The DC1100 works on an entirely different technology than the inexpensive sensor built into your air purifier. The DC1100 is a true Laser Particle Counter that works on the same principles as the $8,000 particle counters used in pharmaceutical and semiconductor clean rooms. Those guys really do need to know how clean their air is and they don't use sensors like the one on your air cleaner. Those cheap sensors usually have an LED and photodiode arranged at an angle so the photodiode will pick up any light scattered back off the particles in the air. This design is inexpensive, but suffers from very poor signal to noise ratio and can only detect light scattered off many particles in a volume of air. In contrast, the DC1100 uses a focused laser which results in a drastically higher signal to noise ratio. This means that air can be flowed through a focused laser beam and the DC1100 is actually sensitive enough to detect individual particles.

We have yet to see a decent quality monitor on either an air purifier or an air cleaner. They typically display air quality as only "good", "clean", 5 green LEDs or some other vague way which gives the user no real information. Our tests have shown that these inexpensive type air quality sensors are inaccurate, with a tendency to drift up and down. Furthermore, they have the major limitation of only measuring the air quality right at the air purifier or air cleaner. Of course that is where the air is going to be cleanest, but unless you have the air purifier strapped around your neck it is not the air you are breathing. Besides, does it make sense to trust your air purifier to tell you it's doing a good job? So, these built in sensors are essentially a gimmick and worthless to anyone serious about improving their air quality.

The Dylos DC1100 is a tool which gives you information about your indoor air quality. It is a Laser Particle Counter which counts and sizes the invisible particles polluting your home air. With this knowledge you can take intelligent steps to improve your indoor environment. Since the DC1100 gives you an actual count of particles you can adjust those steps to achieve the amount of cleanliness you desire. Quality air purifiers and air cleaners are expensive, but without a way of measuring the cleanliness of your air you cannot know how well they are working in your house.