Hello. I’ve been running a PurpleAir PA-II for over 5 years. About a week ago, it stopped reporting and was no longer visible on my WiFi. I unplugged it for a few minutes and reconnected. It’s now active again, but reporting what appears to be very bad data. Channel A is at or near zero for PM1.0, PM2.5, and PM10 most of the time. Channel B seems pegged at 4195 for all the values. Has my PurpleAir finally died after all these years or is there some way to repair or replace the laser cartridges?
After doing some additional searching, I learned that the laser counters are replaceable. PurpleAir sells them here. I’ll give that a try and hopefully have my PA-II back in service soon.
I have two PA-II monitors that have been running continuously for three years 9 months. They continue to agree with values returned by two other PA-II monitors that have been running for 2 years 3 months. And they in turn agree with two flex monitors that are less than one month old.
My sensor consistently held out for about 5 years but now needs service. I want to try a simple cleaning first, but I’m ready to order a new one to put up first and maybe just keep the old one for a backup.
What’s involved in submitting new sensor info for my map point? Thanks, Purple People!
Hi Keith, sorry to hear your sensor is having an issue. Feel free to email us for maintenance tips.
If you’re looking to pick up a new sensor, you can set it up as a new device in the same location as the previous sensor, although I would recommend having it not at the exact same coordinates, since this will make it harder for you to view the older data on the map.
Over time, the old sensor will “drop off” the map, but it will always be there. You can open the Map Configuration Menu and adjust the “Show sensors reporting or modified within” setting to continue to view the old sensor.
Andrew,
Thanks for your suggestions! I have a new sensor on order and will slightly change the coordinate location for data purposes.
If I inspect / service the original optical path parts, is there any logic to keeping that as a backup? Mainly I was wondering how difficult it would be to validate after cleaning.
If you have a compatible model, it could definitely serve as a good backup. For example, if you’re replacing a PA-II (PurpleAir Classic) with a Classic Plus, many of the older parts will still work. However, if you move to a Flex or Zen, the parts won’t be compatible.