What it is
An indoor air quality monitor. It measures nine things continuously and turns them into one calm reading, with no cameras and no microphones.
A gift for the first 1,000 days
A present for the air a child grows up in.
ALEX is an indoor air quality monitor for the years around a new baby: from trying, through pregnancy, and into the first couple of years. It is not on sale yet, so this page covers what it is, why it makes a good gift, and how to put it on a list for when it is.
The short version
Who it suits
Anyone trying for a baby, expecting one, or living with a child under two. It is useful from before conception onward, not only after the birth.
Where things stand
Not on sale yet, and nothing to pay today. The waitlist is an email list, and everyone on it hears first when ordering opens.
Most new-baby presents are outgrown in a season.
This one is not. It earns its place before the baby arrives, through pregnancy, and for years afterwards, in whichever room the family happens to be using.
Nothing to set up
No app to download, no account to create, nothing to assemble. Set it down, and it gets to work.
It suits every stage
Useful the week someone starts trying, and just as useful in a toddler's bedroom two years later.
Private by design
No cameras and no microphones. It reads the air in a room, never the people in it.
Made to be left out
A softly fluted cap on a brushed metal body. A quiet object for a shelf in a home, not equipment that belongs in a lab.
Nine things, measured quietly, all the time.
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Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) How stuffy a room has become, long before anyone notices.
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Particulate Matter (PM) Fine dust, far too small to see.
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Air Pressure Changes with the weather, and with how a room is aired.
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Humidity Too dry or too damp are both hard work to breathe.
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Formaldehyde Given off by some new furniture, flooring and paint.
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Temperature Warm enough to settle, cool enough to sleep well.
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Nitrogen Dioxide (NO₂) Drifts in from traffic, and from cooking on gas.
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Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) Everyday fumes from paint, cleaning products and furnishings.
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Carbon Monoxide (CO) The one with no colour and no smell.
ALEX does not clean the air. It says what is in it, so a small change (opening a window, moving a cot, leaving a freshly painted room a day longer) can be made on purpose rather than guessed at.
Where things stand, plainly.
ALEX is in development. It is not on sale, there is no price yet, and there is nothing to pre-order. We would rather say that here than let you find out at a checkout.
The waitlist is simply an email list. When ALEX can be ordered, everyone on it hears first. If you are buying for someone else, it is worth joining yourself, so the timing sits with you rather than with them.
Be told when it can be ordered
Join the waitlist No payment now, and one click unsubscribes.Putting it on a registry or gift list.
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Copy the link to this page
It explains what ALEX is to anyone who opens it, so the list does not have to.
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Add it as a custom item
Many baby and wedding lists let you add an item of your own with a link and a short note. If yours does not, add it as a note at the end of the list instead, or send the link straight to whoever is organising things.
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Mark it as one to come back to
Because ALEX cannot be ordered yet, list it as a later item or a group gift, and join the waitlist so you know the moment that changes.
If several people are going in together, one person on the waitlist is enough. Anything else, write to hello@airplus.uk and a person will reply.
Not the most obvious present. Quite possibly the most useful.
If you were pointed here by the parents-to-be, there is also a page written for grandparents and family, covering the same ground in plain language.