Question for anyone with a Dylos air quality monitor

[Dan Friedrichs]

I bought the DC1100 Pro meter, and am wondering if it's working correctly. The "bar graph" jumps from near-zero to near-full scale, seemingly at random, very quickly (every few seconds) and I can't figure out what information this is telling me (and it looks so erratic that I wonder if it's defective). Does the bar graph on yours jump erratically? Is it useful for anything?

(as an aside, after all the talk I've heard about this meter, I'm disappointed - seems like a cheap toy that someone built in their garage...)

[Marc Fenneuff]

The bars are just hits by the detector. You care about the numbers, particularly the fines count. Figure out your baseline, then decide what is acceptable. You can also bring it inside your house or sit it outside on your deck to see how much the counts will vary.

For reference, my fines baseline with nothing going on in my shop is about 150-200. I mask up if it exceeds 300.

I'm very happy with mine, going on 3 years now.

[glenn bradley]

Another happy owner. I use the "fines" number primarily. Like Marc I watch for anything in the mid hundreds area as a notifier. Consistency of conditions and location have helped me get a better feel of how to react to the readings. I actually get higher fine particle readings when I leave a door open than when I just scrub the captured air in a closed shop. This may explain why I developed issues despite running a fan blowing "stuff" out the open garage door years ago. Science is not always inherently obvious to we laymen.

[Marc Fenneuff]

I actually get higher fine particle readings when I leave a door open than when I just scrub the captured air in a closed shop.

Ditto. 900+ in the spring is common if I just open the overhead door.

Honestly with an air cleaner running my shop can get cleaner than inside the house

[Dave Schreib]

Ditto. 900+ in the spring is common if I just open the overhead door.

Honestly with an air cleaner running my shop can get cleaner than inside the house

I agree. Mine too.

[Scott Bernstein]

Same. I got mine when I was still using (or attempting to use) a cheap shop vac for dust collection on my table saw. The garage would fill up instantly with saw dust. I went from basically no dust collection at all, to a huge CV1800 with a 16" impeller and 5hp motor. So I got the Dylos to monitor my air quality when I made that transition. I don't recall exactly what the numbers were before but well over five digits. Let's just say there was so much dust in the air I could barely see the numbers on the monitor. After installing an industrial-size DC in my tiny garage the numbers barely move above baseline when using the big dust collector. And that's with the the DC filter stack in the same room. Night and day difference. Was nice to see that with the Dylos monitor.

[Alan Lightstone]

My baseline count in the shop (and outside ambient air) is around 500 (also only really care about the small particles). So I mask up if the workshop air exceeds 500. And, hopefully, my Grit Automation sensors are set to that level to start the air cleaners so I can lose the mask.

I never pay any attention to the bar graph.

[Alan Lightstone]

... I don't recall exactly what the numbers were before but well over five digits. Let's just say there was so much dust in the air I could barely see the numbers on the monitor. ...

5 digits!!!! OMG
I've only seen 5 digits when the raised access floor installers were drilling/cutting concrete. I offered them respirators. They all turned me down. Nothing like concrete/cinder block drilling in my experience for creating huge amounts of small/awful particles. I wonder how long they will survive?

[George Kasten]

Last year when the Canadian wild fires were blazing, I'd occasionally take the Dylos out in the back yard and see counts up in the 4,000 to 5,000 range here north of Pittsburgh, PA. When that occurred, the counts inside the house would be, perhaps, 1,500 to 2,000. I found that with a MERV 13 furnace filter, I could just run the a/c system in the "FAN Only" mode and bring inside count levels way down in a few hours.

The Dylos is certainly handy to monitor for woodworking dust problems, but you might find it very useful if you get any serious local air quality conditions.

[Dan Friedrichs]

Little update:

The reason I bought the Dylos is that I had previously bought one of those ~$40 "air quality meters" on Amazon (e.g. https://www.amazon.com/Zetiling-Dete...dp/B07SD5HJ3Y/), and thought it was inaccurate because it was reading insanely high levels (60,000) inside my house and basically zero in outside air. The Dylos.... did the same thing :/

I have no idea why that would be the case - I have no carpet, pets, or other obvious sources of fine dust, but running the furnace fan (with a MERV 12 filter in it) for a few hours brought the count down to 100 (on both meters). I'm surprised.

My conclusions are:
-those little Amazon air quality meter cubes have very good correlation with the Dylos.
-I continue to be unimpressed with the build quality and usability of the Dylos. I bet it was neat a decade ago when there were no other options, but there are cheaper, better options, today.