Only when sleeping, Abnormal or Very Abnormal Air Quality

[EasyEnough]

I picked up an Arlo Baby Monitor (ABC1000) in mid December and have been getting "Abnormal" and "Very Abnormal" readings with alerts since about day 4.

These alerts only take place after my 2 year old has gone to sleep with the door closed.

The air quality levels always come back to normal in the morning.

I live in a desert climate. The bedroom size is about 11'x11' and temperature measured by Arlo Baby and Ecobee3 sensor stays between 68-74 degrees. Hummidity between 30-40%.

Things tried to date:
1) Picked up a high quality HEPA air purifier as well as a humidifier. No impact.

2) Left the window open to "air out room" several times during the day. No impact at night time air quality.

3) Permanently removed diaper trash pale from bedroom. No impact.

We've left town a couple times and during thos times I left the bedroom door closed. The air quality remains normal throughout the entire day and night and at the very bottom of "normal scale".

Bottom line, the only time the air quality degrades (at least per the Arlo Baby) is when my 2 year old is in the room sleeping.

What can I do and should I even be worried?

Thanks

[TomMac]

Like you my VOC levels tend to go up at night also....

But I related this to the heat system moving air around a bit then and the sensor picking it up.

Since it always happens at night when the 2yr is sleeping it seems that there may be a correlation

But an easy test is if you are able to

1) test the room for a night without the 2 yr old 

2) test for one night in another similar room with door closed so similar conditions.

(maybe eliminate any possible diaper condition on 2 yr old )

But remember you can reset the VOC sensors... IIRR, unplug and turn off battery( under feet ) fro a min and then restart after 20 secs, let it recalibrate over the next day

read;

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Arlo-Knowledge-Base/How-do-Arlo-Baby-s-air-sensors-work-and-how-do-...

https://kb.arlo.com/1282585/How-do-I-recalibrate-Arlo-Baby-s-temperature-humidity-and-air-quality-se...

[EasyEnough]

Thanks for the reply.

As noted in my post, I've tried #1 and found that the air quality levels remain normal (they barley move from the bottom if the graph).

I will try #2 and a reset to see what happens and report back.

Thanks again.

[TomMac]

diaper at night condition causing VOC ??   🙂

[EasyEnough]

It's possible, but considering there's a cart of diapers 4 feet below the Arlo Baby and nothing registers until after he's put to bed, I don't think that's it.

The abnormal air quality literally starts within 15 mins of him going to bed with the door closed.

Even with the door closed all day while we are at work/daycare, the air quality stays in the low green.

[EasyEnough]

Further when I work from home and have the heat at a steady 72 and the bedroom door closed... still normal air quality. Which to me rules out the HVAC.

[TomMac]

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EasyEnough wrote:
It's possible, but considering there's a cart of diapers 4 feet below the Arlo Baby and nothing registers until after he's put to bed, I don't think that's it.

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not the diapers themselves... but a wet or other condition of the diaper

[steve_t]

I'd say the levels are not VOCs but due to the products of respiration/breathing. An option would be to leave the door or window ajar so some fresh air can enter the room

[sagesofrpg]

We seem to get an abnormal reading at night as well. Seems to be ok during the day. Wish we had more information about why/what it is detecting so we could remedy the issue.

[Jnadj]

We have this exact issue and it’s driving me nuts.

The only thing that helps improves the air sensor reading is opening the bedroom door wide open. It will take it from very abnormal to abnormal. Opening the window will drop it down lower in the abnormal scale but never into the normal range.

We are currently trialing the dyson air purifier and leaving it running all night. I can definitely tell the air is fresh and not stuffy in the morning like it usually gets if the door is closed.

Our son is 4 months old and sleeps in our master with us and our two dogs. The Arlo is on our dresser right beside the crib so they are close..

Tonight I had the dyson on full power while we were getting him to sleep and the air quality monitor showed significant improvement in that 30 minutes, however the Arlo was slowly getting worse.

[Jnadj]

I have now tried everything as well..

As the dyson cleans the air the sensor inside the machine show the improvement on the graph getting better and better.

Meanwhile the Arlo shows the air getting worse and worse.

Which device do you think would have a more reliable sensor? The $200 camera of the $700 air purifier?

[steve_t]

It's not necessarily a case of reliability but a case of what each device is measuring. Does the Dyson measure Carbon Monoxide levels?

[TomasJ]

Exactly same issue. However found out following - it doesn’t have to be baby sleeping in the room - any human being even adult will have same effect on the air quality sensor. We were in holidays and senior was constantly reporting great quality. I have returned from hols early and slept last 2 nights in the room with Arlo - around 4AM - bad air quality alert... so nothing to do with diapers...

[TomasJ]

(Meant - slept in the room without baby on my own and still setting those alerts )

[EasyEnough]

Even with a HEPA air purifier running 24/7, I still get abnormal readings at night and normal readings during the day.  The door is closed at night but the door has a 2 inch gap at the bottom which allows plenty of air to enter and leave the room.  Furhter the ARLO Baby is mounted in the corner of the room about 7 feet above the floor (6 feet from the crib and 4 feet from the HEPA air purifier). 

My LO sleeps from 8:00pm until almost 7:00am. Whats strange about the abnormal readings is they typically start at 10:00pm, gradualy get worse until 2:00am then they start decreasing.  By 5:00am the Air Quality is within a normal range.  

Things I've done that have had zero impact on the percieved air quality per the Arlo Baby:

 1) Change my HVAC Air Filters with Filtrete MPR 1000 filters every other month.

 2) Run GermGuardian AC4825 air filter 24/7.

 3) Vacuum the room with a Dyson V8 twice a week.

 4) Got rid of the diaper pale almost a year ago.

 5) Washed the walls with mild soap and water

 6) Had Carpets cleaned with "Non Toxic/Green" chemicals

I've learned to ignore the Arlo Baby Air Quality readings.  The humidity and temp do agree with my EcoBee3  TStat/Remote Sensor witch is a nice head check.

I will say that we do have two large dogs but dont see why that would impact the air quality results too much.

Good luck everyone but if I were you, I wouldnt put too much worth into the Air Quality readings

[steve_t]

We have the Arlo Baby in the dog's room. If we don't leave the door or window open a crack, we get the air quality warnings. So it's definitely some product of breathing that triggers it off. Probably carbon dioxide?? An air filter is not going to be able to change the proportions of different gases. The air filter only filters out particulates in the air

[chetankhatri1]

I have the same issue, tried all of the above. Could it be we have a faulty device? How can I get mine replaced?

[steve_t]

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@chetankhatri1 wrote:
I have the same issue, tried all of the above. Could it be we have a faulty device? How can I get mine replaced?

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Unlikely that it's faulty. Have you tried overnight with the door open or more ajar? If so, try in a completely different room where nobody is breathing in it eg the Kitchen

[Actionjax]

I get the same issue with mine. At night high readings when he is put down to bed. I have an air purifier in the room and no help at all. I’m thinking it’s a CO2 thing that’s picking it up. 

I know now it picks up methane gas without an issue as I have seen a spike when the baby passes gas. (Or me for that matter)

Open doors don’t really help neither do fans pushing the air out. 

[ShayneS]

Actionjax,

have you tried rebooting the device?

[Actionjax]

Numerous times. I still can’t get accurate readings on temperature as well. Always shows high by about 4 deg. 

[ShayneS]

Actionjax

There was an update that went out yesterday. Can you verify that your Arlo Baby has the new update. I have attached a ink to the release notes here - Firmware Release Notes

[Actionjax]

Yes I got the new firmware last night. But still an issue with the temperature. The air quality looks ok for now. A few spikes. But not like before. 

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[ShayneS]

Actionjax,

Have you tried rebooting the Arlo Baby since you received the update?

[Actionjax]

Ok just did that. Still no changes with temprrature accuracy.