I bought one of the Dylos monitors several months ago and I was initially quite impressed. I have the more advanced, 0.5 micron model, and it reported count readings that seemed to correlate with time of day (lower reading at night) and activity (e.g. higher reading when I am dusting) However, I was not as impressed after it started to report readings that were inexplicable. For example, after a while, the reading seem to rest on a plateau of about 2200 (which signified bad air quality), whereas before it should normally read 700. I taped a piece filter paper to cover the ingress and the reading will drop to 1700. So I called up Dylos customer and technical support, who were very friendly and helpful. However, the answers I got from them were not entirely encouraging. First, the monitor had no calibrating function. So, if you suspect the reading is too high (as in my case) or too low, you are just left wondering; and of course, once you think a test or measuring tool is suspect, you don't trust/use it! Second, both the ingress and egress of the monitor has no wire gauze to protect insects from getting inside. This is not good, because if an insect got inside and contaminated the lens, the readings would be completely meaningless. Third, worse yet, you are not supposed to open up the monitor (it will void the warranty; laser might injure your eye if you are not careful) to do any cleaning. So, if, over time, cooking grease vapor, say, condensed on the surface of the lens, the accuracy of the reading would be called into question, and you cannot do any meaningful cleaning. Dylos technical support was kind enough to check and service the monitor for me (even though I admitted to having opened the unit), but the monitor still does not work right.
So, as much as I appreciate the good folks at Dylos, who really tried to help me, I just do not find this monitor a reliable tool, due to the design flaws I outlined above, which I hope they would address in a subsequent version. I hope your experience is better. Dylos DC1100 Laser Air Quality Monitor
I had to write this review because someone said this was overpriced. I checked and the next least expensive Air Quality Monitor here which reads particles is the Fluke 983 which sells for $4,495.00 on Amazon!! The Dylos DC1100 is a laser particle counter which have always been very expensive instruments. Dylos wrote the patent for their technology so that is why they are so much less expensive than everyone else. The unit I'm listening to is actually pretty quiet too and the fan is not annoying at all, but you can always use monitor mode if it bothers you. Also, someone said that they didn't trust the readings because they went up and down, but that is what particulate levels in a house do - they go up and down and often for no apparent reason. That is why you need one of these things so you know how much junk you're breathing! I will say that I think the threat of insects crawling into the unit is real, but a little bug spray around the area you use it might be all that's needed. The people at Dylos are always very helpful and repairs or recalibrations are very cheap.
I bought the .5 micron model. The reason I bought one of these is to test the exhaust from different HEPA vacuum sweepers I have. All I wanted to know is what works and what doesn't... meaning what vacuum sweepers put out readings of "0" particles down to 2.5 microns on that scale reading and "0" particles down to .5 microns on that scale reading in the vacuum's exhaust air. I simply put the Dylos near the exhaust port on the vac and waited for the results.
My lead and asbestos safe vacuums are easily confirmed to the "0" readings as they should be, where other HEPA vacs I own were confirmed to blow all kinds of potentially toxic dust out their exhaust ports even though they were "HEPA" vacs. And yes, we have since trashed every HEPA vac that did not blow clean air. Some of the "hepa" vacs were blowing out as much as a staggering 670,000 particles per hepa-filtered cubic foot of air... it was really eye-opening.
The Dylos told us everything we needed at a very reasonable price and I feel it is saving our lungs on the job site. This may not be the manufacturer's intended use for this product, but it works.
This is a good product. It does measure the count of micro particles in the air quite accurately. Great for you to test the filter of air conditioning systems, but cannot test allergen (like pollen) because it doesn't do any analysis - it cannot figure out what the particles are. Therefore, it is only for dust control.
Two big drawbacks: 1. very noisy in continous mode because it uses a fan to blow in air. However, it can also run in intermittent mode, which is less annoying. Go with this mode.
2. overpriced. When it first came out in 2007, it priced at 149 dollar, which is relatively reasonable. But now it 199 dollar, way over its base, in particular, given the current state of economy. If you don't need this in a rush, wait for a while, either the price will go down, or some made-in-China version will come out with less than 80 dollar. Just check what happened to the oximeter. The following made-in-China version brought the oximter price from 200+ dollars to 70- dollar Finger Pulse Oximeter Octive Tech 300C with Easy-Carry Soft Case
Conclusion: if in a rush, go get it; if not in a rush, just wait for a while. - Temp-humidity - Oxygen Saturation - Oximeter - Humidity Guage'
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