Awair Element Discontinued — Aranet4 Home Is Our Recommended Replacement

The Awair Element has been discontinued. As of April 2026, the monitor is no longer available on Amazon, and remaining stock from third-party sellers is either overpriced or of questionable provenance. If you came here looking to buy one, do not bother hunting for leftover inventory.

The good news: the SAF Aranet4 Home is available at the same $189 price point and is, in our assessment, the better air quality monitor for most buyers. It trades the Awair's breadth of sensors for significantly deeper accuracy where it matters most — CO2 monitoring — and adds genuine portability that the wall-powered Awair never had.

What You Lose From the Awair Element

The Awair Element measured five parameters: PM2.5, CO2, VOCs, temperature, and humidity. The Aranet4 Home measures four: CO2, temperature, humidity, and air pressure. That means you lose two sensors in the switch:

PM2.5 monitoring is gone. If tracking fine particulate matter is important to you — during wildfire season, while cooking, or in a home near a busy road — you will need a separate device. The Amazon Smart Air Quality Monitor at $70 covers PM2.5 and works well as a companion.

VOC monitoring is gone. The Awair tracked total volatile organic compounds from cleaning products, paint, and off-gassing furniture. If VOC detection is a priority — particularly for new construction or renovation monitoring — consider the Airthings View Plus at $299, which includes both VOC and PM2.5 sensors alongside CO2.

Wi-Fi connectivity is gone. The Awair Element connected to your home Wi-Fi and supported Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and IFTTT automations. The Aranet4 uses Bluetooth only, which limits it to phone app connectivity. No smart home triggers, no remote monitoring from outside your home, no voice assistant queries. If automated routines based on air quality readings are central to your setup, this is the biggest practical loss.

The LED display is gone. The Awair's backlit LED display showed an air quality score readable from across a room, with color-coded indicators that changed in real time. The Aranet4 uses an e-ink display — sharp and always-on, but not backlit. In a dark bedroom, you cannot read it without ambient light.

What You Gain With the Aranet4 Home

The Aranet4 does fewer things than the Awair. It does its core job — CO2 monitoring — better than almost anything on the consumer market.

Legendary CO2 accuracy. The Aranet4 uses a dual-channel NDIR sensor calibrated to within plus or minus 50 ppm. The Awair Element's NDIR sensor was rated at plus or minus 75 ppm. In practical terms, the Aranet4 is the most trusted consumer CO2 monitor available — it is the device that schools, universities, and public health agencies deployed during COVID ventilation assessments. If CO2 accuracy is what you care about, there is nothing better at this price.

2+ year battery life. The Awair Element was USB-C powered — no battery, permanently tethered to an outlet. The Aranet4 runs on two AA batteries for over two years. You can place it in any room without worrying about cable routing, move it between your bedroom and office depending on the day, or toss it in a bag for travel. This is a transformative upgrade in flexibility.

E-ink display. The e-ink screen is always on and consumes almost no power, which is how the Aranet4 achieves its multi-year battery life. The traffic-light color system (green, yellow, red) communicates air quality status at a glance. While it lacks the Awair's backlit vibrancy, it is perfectly readable in any lit environment and never needs to be woken up or tapped.

True portability. At 3.1 x 3.1 x 0.9 inches and roughly 4 ounces, the Aranet4 goes anywhere. Check CO2 in your conference room during a two-hour meeting, monitor your hotel room overnight, or verify that your classroom ventilation system is actually working. The Awair, plugged into a wall, could never do any of this.

Air pressure sensor. A minor addition, but useful for weather-sensitive individuals and for correlating barometric pressure changes with air quality patterns.

CO2 Is the Metric That Matters Most

If you could only monitor one indoor air quality parameter, CO2 is the one to pick. It is the single best real-time indicator of ventilation quality — the factor most directly tied to cognitive function, sleep quality, and general comfort in occupied spaces.

In a closed bedroom with one person, CO2 levels rise from the outdoor baseline of roughly 420 ppm to over 1,000 ppm within an hour. Above 1,000 ppm, research shows measurable declines in cognitive performance. Above 1,500 ppm, headaches and drowsiness become common. The Aranet4's tight accuracy means you can trust its readings to tell you exactly when ventilation is slipping.

PM2.5 and VOCs matter, but they are event-driven — you know when you are cooking, painting, or near wildfire smoke. CO2 buildup is invisible and gradual. A dedicated CO2 monitor with industry-leading accuracy is more useful day-to-day than a multi-sensor device with adequate accuracy across everything.

Running Costs

The Aranet4 is cheaper to operate than the Awair Element was. No electricity draw, no USB cable to replace.

Pros and Cons

Who Should Buy the Aranet4 Home

The Aranet4 Home is ideal for:

• Remote workers — CO2 monitoring tells you when your office air is stale, and the portable form factor lets you check any room
• Parents — Monitor CO2 in a child's bedroom overnight, then move it to the playroom during the day
• Travelers — Check hotel rooms, Airbnbs, and conference venues
• Anyone who valued the Awair's CO2 feature — You get better accuracy and zero cables

It is NOT ideal for:

• Smart home automation users — No Wi-Fi, no HomeKit, no Alexa integration
• PM2.5 or VOC monitoring — You need a separate device or a different monitor entirely
• Dark room visibility — The e-ink display is not backlit

How It Compares

The Verdict

After extensive research and analysis, here is the AirQualityNest editorial team's verdict.

The Awair Element was a strong product. Its discontinuation leaves a gap in the multi-sensor, Wi-Fi-connected monitor space. But for the core use case that drove most Awair purchases — knowing when indoor air quality is slipping and when to open a window — the Aranet4 Home does it better, more accurately, and without a power cable.

If you need PM2.5 and VOC coverage alongside CO2, pair the Aranet4 with an Amazon Smart Air Quality Monitor ($70) for a two-device setup that covers more ground than the Awair did alone, for roughly $70 more total. Or step up to the Airthings View Plus ($299) for a single device that monitors seven parameters including radon.