Best Airthings radon monitors: every model compared

Airthings describes the radon sampling in every one of these monitors as a passive diffusion chamber, and the detection method as alpha spectrometry. Air drifts into the chamber on its own, with no fan or pump, and the sensor counts the alpha particles given off as radon decays. On the View and Wave pages Airthings states the same radon range, 0 to 500 pCi/L, and the same accuracy figures: about 10% after 7 days and about 5% after 2 months. For the Corentium Home 2 it states a range of 0 to 250 pCi/L and accuracy within 10% after 7 days at 5.4 pCi/L, and for the original Corentium Home 0 to 500 pCi/L, with the same 10% and 5% figures.

So the choice between them is rarely about the radon measurement itself. It is about the screen, the extra measurements, the power and the connection. A 2024 field study that ran the View Plus, View Radon and Wave Plus beside a reference instrument found that all three followed a sudden rise in radon more slowly than some other monitors, which matters if you watch hour-by-hour changes and matters little for a long-term average.

Each family shows its reading differently, and that is the most practical difference between them. The Corentium Home 2 has an LCD screen built around averages: after 30 days it offers 24-hour, 7-day, 30-day and long-term radon averages, plus temperature and humidity, and it returns to the long-term average after 5 minutes. A touch button below the screen steps through the views.

The View Radon and View Plus have a 2.9-inch e-paper display that you can set to show the readings you check most, plus a red, yellow or green glow. The Wave Radon and Wave Plus have no screen at all: a motion sensor lights a green, yellow or red glow when you wave a hand over the Wave Radon, and the Wave Plus has a glow ring; the numbers, graphs and alerts are in the Airthings app. Airthings' color thresholds for radon are the same across both families: green below 2.7 pCi/L, yellow from 2.7 to under 4 pCi/L, and red at 4 pCi/L and above.

The Corentium Home 2 and both Wave monitors run on two AA batteries and connect over Bluetooth, so you see the app's history when your phone is nearby. Airthings rates the Corentium Home 2 for up to 3 years unconnected and up to 2 years with Bluetooth, the Wave Plus for 16 months on Bluetooth and 18 months with SmartLink, and the Wave Radon for about a year and a half.

The View Radon and View Plus take six AA batteries or a cable, and connect over 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi as well as Bluetooth, so you can see your readings from anywhere. When one is on Wi-Fi and plugged in by its cable, it can act as an internet hub for your other Airthings monitors through SmartLink, bringing always-on access to a Wave or a Corentium Home 2 in another room.

SmartLink

Airthings' name for linking a monitor to a Wi-Fi connected Airthings hub, such as a View series monitor or the Airthings Hub, so a Bluetooth-only monitor's readings can be seen from anywhere.

C-NRPP's 2024/25 consumer monitor evaluation approved a device it lists as the Airthings View, linking Airthings' View Radon page, with grades of B, C, B and B across its four rounds; C-NRPP recommends devices that average B or better. The listing does not say which View model was tested, and C-NRPP's 2023 report listed the View Plus and the Wave Plus as passing. The Corentium Home 2, the Wave Radon and the Wave Plus were not included in the 2024/25 evaluation. Not being included is a fact about which devices took part, not a failed test.

The original Corentium Home, which Airthings' US store still sells, was approved in the 2024/25 evaluation with an A in all four rounds. In a 2024 field study at a natural radiation laboratory in Salamanca, Spain, the averages of one View Plus, one View Radon and one Wave Plus differed from a reference instrument by 7.7%, 10.0% and 11.0% over the summer of 2023. One unit of each in one place is a result for that unit, not a ranking.

Every grade is explained, monitor by monitor, on accuracy results explained.

None comes out ahead. Each row below matches a situation to the monitors whose stated features fit it.

Three pairs are compared in more depth: View Plus vs Wave Plus, Corentium Home vs Corentium Home 2 and View Plus vs Corentium Home. The Corentium Home is also set beside other makers' monitors, on Corentium Home vs RadonEye RD200 and Aranet Radon Plus vs Corentium Home. Monitors from every maker are on radon detectors and monitors.

1. 1Step 1 of 5:

   Pick the floor

   The lowest lived-in level of the home; Airthings markets these monitors for basements and ground floors, where radon is usually highest.

2. 2Step 2 of 5:

   Pick a room people use

   A room used regularly, such as a living room, playroom, den or bedroom, not a kitchen or bathroom, and occupied at least 4 hours a day.

3. 3Step 3 of 5:

   Set the height

   At least 20 inches above the floor, away from drafts, high heat, high humidity and exterior walls.

4. 4Step 4 of 5:

   Mind the humidity

   Airthings warns against placing these monitors where humidity is over 85%, which can damage the radon sensor, so a damp corner is worth checking first.

5. 5Step 5 of 5:

   Give it time

   At least 3 months, preferably in the heating season, and decide on the long-term average.

More on placement is at where to place a radon test, and on reading any monitor at continuous radon monitors.