Airthings View Plus vs Corentium Home: which is better for you?

For radon, Airthings lists the same design for both. Air reaches a passive diffusion chamber with no fan or pump, and the radon in it is measured by alpha spectrometry, counting the alpha particles that radon and its decay products give off. Both have a stated radon range of 0 to 500 pCi/L, and Airthings states an accuracy of about 10% after 7 days and about 5% after 2 months for each; for the Corentium Home it gives that figure at 5.4 pCi/L. Neither sends anything to a laboratory.

The View Plus is an air quality monitor first. Besides radon it measures particulate matter (PM2.5), carbon dioxide, airborne chemicals (VOCs), temperature, humidity and air pressure, and its other sensors sample every 5 minutes. The readings you choose show on a 2.9-inch ePaper screen, and a red, yellow and green glow gives the level at a glance; for radon, Airthings lists the glow's thresholds as 4 pCi/L and above, and from 2.7 to under 4 pCi/L. It connects over 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, Airthings SmartLink and Bluetooth Low Energy, uses Bluetooth for onboarding and daily configuration, and lets you access your air data and history from anywhere over Wi-Fi. With Wi-Fi and its USB-C cable connected, its hub functionality is enabled.

The Corentium Home does one job. Airthings describes it as a simple, always-on radon detector with short-term and long-term radon levels on an integrated LCD display. It has no Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or app, so there is nothing to pair and no account, and you check rolling short-term and long-term averages by looking at it. Airthings adds that you can generate a radon self-inspection report to document or share your readings. C-NRPP's list gives its reading periods as 12 hours, 24 hours and 7 days, with the first reading taking 24 hours.

The View Plus runs on 6 AA batteries or a USB-C cable, and falls back to its batteries if the cable is removed; Airthings gives a battery life of up to 2 years, depending on the sensor interval and the Wi-Fi router. The Corentium Home runs on three AAA alkaline batteries, rated for 2 years, and runs cable-free. Both can sit in a room with no outlet. Neither has a lab fee, and Airthings describes a 5-year extended warranty on its consumer air quality monitors, with registration required within 30 days of purchase.

C-NRPP's 2024/25 consumer monitor evaluation put each device through four rounds of testing in four different sets of conditions. It approved the Corentium Home with an A in all four rounds. It also approved a device it lists as the Airthings View, linking Airthings' View Radon page, with grades of B, C, B and B; 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 as passing. C-NRPP tested Canadian-market units; we have not confirmed that the US versions are identical.

Only the View Plus took part in a 2024 field study that ran consumer monitors beside a calibrated reference instrument at a natural radiation laboratory in Salamanca, Spain, between 1 July and 23 August 2023. Its average differed from the reference by 7.7%, and 1.6% of its records were lost. In the study's test of a sharp rise in radon, which the reference followed in about 8 hours, it reached only the 10% level of the change. The Corentium Home was not among the monitors in that study.

C-NRPP grade

C-NRPP grades each round by how far a monitor's reading was from the chamber's known radon level: A for an error of 10% or less, B for more than 10% and up to 20%, and so on down to E. Accuracy results explained sets out every monitor's grades.

For radon alone, the Corentium Home is the one with a C-NRPP grade of its own: the model itself was graded A in every round. The View Plus is the pick when radon is one question among several. Each row below follows from what Airthings and C-NRPP state, and each monitor gets three.

Each has its own page with every specification and its evidence box: Airthings View Plus and Airthings Corentium Home. The View Plus is also set beside its screenless sibling on View Plus vs Wave Plus, and every current Airthings model is on Airthings radon monitors compared.

1. 1Step 1 of 5:

   Pick the floor for radon

   The lowest lived-in level of the home, in a room used regularly, such as a living room, playroom, den or bedroom, not a kitchen or bathroom.

2. 2Step 2 of 5:

   Pick a room people use

   A room occupied for at least 4 hours each 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:

   Weigh the two jobs (View Plus)

   Radon is usually highest on the lowest floor, while the other readings matter most where people sleep and live. Airthings itself sells the View Plus with a View Radon as a living-room-and-basement pair.

5. 5Step 5 of 5:

   Give it time

   At least 3 months, preferably in the heating season, and decide on the long-term average. With less than 91 days of data, follow up with a long-term test.

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