Radon Testing – use home kit or pay for service visit?
April 19, 2010
I am considering doing a radon test in my home. I have found options for a home test kit around , and an option for a professional to come and test for about 5.
Anyone familiar with this, are the home kits as reliable as the professional, or is it better to pay for the pro to come test?
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For the money you pay a professional you can buy an electronic radon gas detector with alarm.
Safety Siren Pro Series 3 Radon Gas Detector Model HS71512 is on sale now: http://radon-solution.com/pg_store.php
Yes they are not perfectly precise but for what you need to know they are perfect.
It might give you a bit of error (about 10%) but it won’t affect your decision to install a mitigation system if there is radon in the house.
And on top of it it can continuously monitor the level of radon and sound an alarm if there is any problem later.
Also keep in mind that a normal test can fail if handled incorrectly and it has to be repeated. The electronic detector just plugs into an outlet and in 3 days you have a reading.
Good luck.
Both a professional tester and a lab are required to be within 25% of a target value. This is tested with in a radon chamber. So that indicates both should have similar margins of error BUT in reality placement of device, environment (High humidty) etc can affect carbon tests that are the usual ones you find a big box stores. Professional using electronic and Electrets are not affected… So if you do it your self follow the directions carefully. For the Safety siren if should be good BUT I question the accuracy since each unit is not calibrated individualy. Also, during shipping if dropped etc it can affect calibration…
Whatever you choose if high take action…