What are the Best EMF Meters?
Measuring electromagnetic pollution is an important step in creating a healthy home. Many people initially buy EMF meters such as the TriField TF2 or Cemprotec 34. They are decent devices to start learning about electromagnetic frequencies. I also purchased several EMF meters like these when I began my journey twelve years ago.
However, you will quickly discover that inexpensive combination EMF meters are not adequate if you truly want a low EMF home. They are not sensitive or accurate enough. They will give you false positives and completely miss important EMF exposures, which I demonstrate below. This can ultimately do you more harm than good.
To understand the exposures affecting your family, you want EMF meters that accurately measure the four types of electromagnetic fields. The four primary fields are:
- Radio Frequency
- AC Magnetic Fields
- AC Electric Fields
- EMI (electromagnetic interference) or “Dirty Power”
The reality of EMF meters is that no single inexpensive device can measure multiple fields accurately. Combination EMF meters typically only measure one type of frequency correctly. This is why I recommend a kit with multiple quality devices.
EMF consultants have professional meter kits costing $5,000 – $10,000. However, after more than a decade of testing dozens of different EMF meters, I have found that you can obtain nearly professional level accuracy with a set of meters that costs between $500 and $1,000. While this may seem expensive compared to all the cheap EMF meters available online, there is value in knowing you are accurately measuring the electromagnetic exposures in your home.
My Recommended EMF Meters
The following are the EMF meters that I recommend for your family. They are the best consumer EMF meters on the market at the lowest price possible. The Advanced meter package is what I recommend to most of my clients. I have relied on these EMF meters myself for many years.
The Intermediate package is quite accurate, but less sensitive than the Advanced kit. This is the best set of EMF meters if you are on a budget. You will also see a 5G meter package below. The 5G kit combines the new mmWave RF meter with the advanced EMF meter package.
Your EMF meters will arrive from Safe Living Technologies in Toronto within a few days. SLT is one of the most reputable EMF companies in North America and can ship anywhere in the world. I have partnered with them for client EMF meter and bed canopy purchases for eight years. For any purchases with Safe Living Technologies you will receive a 10% discount with my coupon code of EMFA.
I will send helpful instructions and a free copy of my Ebook How to Find a Healthy Home with your EMF meter kit purchase. I also provide 20 minutes of free Zoom or email consulting to answer questions that arise.
Advanced EMF Meter Package #1 (Recommended)
The following are the most accurate consumer EMF meters on the market today:
- RF / Microwave Radiation: Safe and Sound Pro II ($399)
- AC Magnetic Fields: Alpha Lab UHS2 3-Axis Gauss Meter ($390)
- AC Electric Fields: Gigahertz Solutions ME3851A ($432)
- EMI / Dirty Power: Alpha Labs Line EMI Meter ($165) + AM Radio
With your discount, the total price for the Advanced EMF Meter Package is $1,259. For your convenience, each of these EMF meters, including an AM radio, are loaded directly into your Safe Living Technologies cart on this page.
Intermediate EMF Meter Package #2
Here are EMF meters known to be quite accurate for their price:
- RF: Safe and Sound Classic II ($169)
- AC Magnetic & Electric Single-Axis Meter: Gigahertz Solutions ME3830B ($235)
- EMI / Dirty Electricity: Alpha Labs Line EMI Meter ($165) + AM Radio
The total price with discount for the Intermediate EMF meter kit is currently $539. Each of these devices, plus an AM radio, is loaded directly into your Safe Living Technologies cart on this page.
Note: The Advanced meter kit can also be purchased with the Gigahertz Solutions ME3830B to measure AC electric fields. This will reduce the package price to $1,079. You can select this option here.
Ideal Measurement Levels with Your EMF Meters
The following are EMF measurement levels that you want to see once you get your EMF meters. They are levels that can almost always be obtained by eliminating sources of EMF pollution and applying certain shielding techniques.
Normal Family with no health issues:
- Radio Frequency: 300 µW/m2 or 0.3 V/m
- AC Magnetic Fields: 1 mG or 100 nT
- AC Electric Fields: 5 V/m
- EMI/Dirty Power: Light static on AM radio and under 100 mV units on Line EMI Meter
Sensitive Populations with health conditions:
- Radio Frequency: 10-100 µW/m2 or 0.06 V/m
- AC Magnetic Fields: 0.1 mG or 10 nT
- AC Electric Fields: 1.5 V/m
- EMI/Dirty Electricity: No static on AM radio and under 50 mV on Line EMI Meter
Note: Some highly electrically sensitive people may need lower levels a night.
Using Your EMF Meters to Create a Healthy Environment
I would now like to share a real world example of how to use your EMF meters to create a healthy environment. The first image below shows an EMF situation that many people are unwittingly exposed to in their home office or bedroom.
At left is an extreme radio frequency exposure from both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The middle UHS2 gauss meter shows an incredibly high AC magnetic field from a wiring error. This is a magnetic field level linked to leukemia in multiple studies. Then at right, the Gigahertz Solutions ME3851A is measuring significant AC electric fields because the computer system is not properly grounded. High exposures from three types of EMF like this could damage the health of even the strongest person over time.
However, once each of these fields was detected, they could easily be eliminated. All wireless in the home office has been turned off. The magnetic field from the wiring problem has been fixed and the electric fields at the computer have been properly grounded. The following image shows what a truly low-EMF environment looks like after just a few relatively simple changes. This is why quality EMF meters are so important to your health.
The next photo is the Alpha Labs Line EMI Meter, which measures dirty electricity. At left is high EMI from a variable speed furnace. Homes with AC solar systems, or that have direct neighbors with solar systems, can be as high as 2,000 mV. At right is an ideal EMI level, which is considered to be very good power quality. The Line EMI Meter complements an AM radio, which is actually my favorite device for detecting and eliminating sources of EMI in your home.
How to Operate Your EMF Meters
It might seem complicated to operate your EMF meters. However, the meter kits are actually quite easy to use. After you watch several videos and experiment with your meters for an hour or two, you will get the hang of it and start measuring different environments. It actually becomes quite fun! This is also a skill that you will have the rest of your life that will protect the health of your family and friends.
I will walk you through this process, plus here are a few videos to get you started:
In the next video I show how to use the Advanced EMF meter package to measure your sleep sanctuary.
Here I demonstrate how to ground your Gigahertz Solutions ME3851A or ME3830B EMF meters so that you can accurately measure the AC electric fields in your home:
My Recommended 5G RF Test Meters
5th Generation cellular technology or “5G” is expanding throughout our communities. Unlike previous cellular technologies, 5G contains multiple radio frequency bands.
The lower bands, which are primarily used in rural areas, range from 600 to 800 MHz. The middle bands are typically from 2.5 to 6 GHz. This includes the widely used C-Band which made the news last year for potentially interfering with airplane altimeters. Finally, there is the new millimeter wave (mmWave) technology. This type of radio frequency is predominantly in dense urban settings with frequencies ranging from 25 to 40 GHz depending on your country and service provider.
Because there are multiple frequency bands at play with 5G, no single consumer RF meter will be able to measure everything. This means you will need two RF meters. For the low and middle 5G bands, I recommend the Safe and Sound Pro II. The Pro II is very accurate from 200 MHz to 8 GHz. You can see the 3rd party frequency response test for this RF meter here.
For 5G mmWave frequencies, I recommend the new Safe and Sound Pro mmWave meter. Millimeter RF waves are very difficult to measure accurately, with most meters in this category costing well over $10,000. However, SLT has created a consumer priced RF meter that can accurately measure between 20 and 40 GHz for under $1,000.
Safe Living Technologies put a lot of work into this 5G mmWave meter to design a product that can help make our communities safer. If you are concerned about 5G mmWave exposures, this is the RF meter I recommend.
Here is an EMF meter kit with my Advanced EMF meter package and the new mmWave RF meter. You can purchase the Safe and Sound Pro II and mmWave meters in this RF meter kit.
How Accurate Is Your EMF Meter?
As I mention above, inexpensive 3-in-1 combination EMF meters such as the TriField TF2, Cornet ED88T Plus5G2, GQ EMF-390, ESI 24, Cemprotec 34 and ENV RD-10 are just not accurate or sensitive enough for anyone who truly needs a low-EMF home. They are good EMF meters to help you start learning about electromagnetic fields. However, independent lab tests have shown that these cheaper EMF meters often completely miss fields or greatly exaggerate fields that aren’t actually there. If an EMF meter company does not release an independent frequency response curve test, then I would not trust the results.
EMF Measurements with the TriField TF2
Perhaps the most popular consumer EMF meter in the world is the TriField TF2. While this meter is very accurate in measuring AC magnetic fields, it is not something I recommend for AC electric fields or radio frequency. You can see why in the following images and video.
In this first image, I measure the the AC electric field on a bed with both the TriField TF2 and the Gigahertz Solutions ME3851A. You can see that the TriField completely misses an extremely high electric field exposure.
In the next image the TF2 is underreporting the radio frequency level by 100 times. This is because the TriField does not accurately measure RF sources such as Bluetooth radiation or wireless smart meter pulses.
In this image the TF2 is too sensitive by a factor of 100X, reporting a radio frequency exposure that is not actually there. Overreporting an exposure can lead you to purchase expensive shielding materials that are unnecessary.
The following video shows how the TriField TF2 combination meter stacks up against the more accurate Advanced EMF meter kit above. This is why I recommend EMF meter kits if your budget allows.
I hope this EMF meter guide has been valuable and has encouraged you to start testing your environment. This will make your home much healthier for you and your family. If you have any questions on EMF meters or would like to be connected to a local EMF consultant I trust, don’t hesitate to contact me.
Jeromy
Updated November 2023
Disclosure: EMF Analysis is partly supported by a small commission for purchases made through product links on this page. This income enables me to continue to research and write about this important topic. Thank you for supporting my work.