Frequently Asked Questions

We do not prescribe a calibration frequency. The Radon Sniffer is intended to act as a diagnostic tool. It is clear when the Radon Sniffer is not behaving how it should. If the Radon Sniffer is failing, it will detect radon presence in clean air or fail to respond to the presence of radon when measuring areas where radon is present. Please contact us if you believe your Radon Sniffer is malfunctioning.

This could have several causes and different solutions:

1) Cause:  You are looking at the ‘Short’ (15 second) average in a low radon concentration area. In the 15 second interval, one detected count corresponds to about 350 Bq/m3 or almost 10 pCi/L. So, at low radon concentrations, you can expect the ‘Short’ display to display 0 most of the time, and then jump to 350 or 700 Bq/m3 (10 or 20 pCi/L) when one or 2 alpha particles are detected in the 15 seconds. The ‘Short’ setting is for measuring high levels quickly.

This is further explained in the Quick Start Guide.

Solution:   At low radon concentrations, the ‘Long’ (5 minute) reading should be used.

2) Cause:  You turned the unit off and back on while you were in the middle of a measurement sequence, after the cell was exposed to radon. The CT007-R should be turned on at the beginning of a measurement sequence and left on until all measurements for the day are complete. If it is not being used, leave it running in a low radon area. As you measure radon, radon decay products accumulate in the detector. These will contribute to the counts and can not be flushed out. Our algorithm tries to account for these in the calculation. Turning the unit off and on, with radon decay products in the cell confuses the calculation.

Solution:  The radon decay products will decay away in a couple of hours after the radon has been flushed out and you can resume your measurement. You can also connect to the Radon Sniffer app and turn off the “Smart” calculation switch. In that mode, the radon concentration values displayed on the app don’t try to compensate for radon decay products. There is no complicated algorithm that can get confused.

This issue can be avoided by not turning off the CT007-R before all measurements are completed.

3) Cause:  The ‘Smart’ algorithm got confused for another reason. This can happen if it registers many spurious counts (for example the black curly hose is detached from the CT007-R and light gets into the unit causing spurious counts). Now, the CT007-R will think there are radon decay products in the cell when there aren’t any.

Solution:  In this case, turn the unit off and back on to reset the algorithm. If there actually are a lot of radon decay products in the cell, this will not solve the problem. See 2) above.

4) Cause:  You exposed the unit to high radon concentrations for a long time and are now trying to measure low radon concentrations. When the CT007-R is exposed to high radon concentrations for a long time, many radon decay products accumulate inside. These contribute to the counts detected. Our ‘Smart’ algorithm accounts for the radon decay products and subtracts their contribution. However, this process is not perfect.

Solution:  Try to measure low radon concentrations first (i.e. living quarters in a house), before you start your diagnostics, where you could measure higher levels (e.g. inside a crawl space, block wall or below a slab). Use the ‘Short’ (15 second) display in high concentrations and only measure for long enough to get a good reading. Leave the sniffer running in low concentrations between measurements. The short lived radon decay products have half lives around 30 minutes and leaving the unit running in clean air for 30 min to an hour will get rid of a good portion of the radon progeny.

This may happen on Android phones after many connections. When you disconnect your detector, it seems to be disconnected from Radon Sniffer App, but the phone hasn’t properly closed the connection. This leaves the detector in a connected state and not advertising.

If you encounter this situation, try to restart your phone. After a restart, the phone’s Bluetooth should resume working properly, and the problem should be fixed.

Not advertising (appearing in scan list) can also be fixed by turning the detector off and on again. It is still a good idea to restart your phone though, as its Bluetooth not working properly is generally the cause of this state.

This may happen when the phone has cached incorrect Bluetooth credentials for the detector, possibly during a failed connection. If this happens, check the “clear Bluetooth Cache” option in the external detector settings. After a successful connection, the proper Bluetooth credentials should be stored. This setting can then be disabled again, as it may unnecessarily increase Bluetooth connection times.

The Radon Sniffer App is used to change the units displayed on the Radon Sniffer. With the Radon Sniffer paired to the app, navigate to the menu bar located in the top left corner, select “Settings” to open the detector settings, then scroll down to “Detector Unit”. Here the Radon Sniffer units can be changed.

Due to radon decay products also being radioactive, the Radon Sniffer will continue to receive counts after a radon exposure. These counts due to radon decay products, not new radon. The  “Counts” LED indicator will flash, but the device is not detecting any radon. This is normal and will stop shortly after a radon exposure.

The App and the Radon Sniffer perform individual calculations independent from one another, therefore they will display slightly different readings. Either reading is valid and can be used for successful operation of the Radon Sniffer.

The ‘Smart’ algorithm seeks to calculate the radon decay product contribution to the counts and compensate for it. 

The ‘Standard’ mode simply assumes that one third of all counts received are due to radon decay products and does not try to compensate for the build up of radon decay products. This makes it not as efficient in measuring high radon levels. 

The Radon Sniffer itself is always in ‘Smart’ mode. The display on the app can switch between the two modes. 

The operation page further explains these two modes.

The default password for secure settings is ‘1234’, once you have entered it you can change the password if desired.