Volatile organic compounds (VOC) can quickly contaminate ground water and job sites, creating an immense safety risk for your work crew as well as the surrounding community. The best foremen, cleanup crews and emergency responders bring their own VOC detection equipment and monitors to ensure that jobs operate safely and address spills the right way.

To determine the right VOC monitoring equipment for your job, you will need to determine the most likely situation for the release of VOCs from your equipment and work. The U.S. Geological Survey can help you categorize your need. It separates VOCs into groups such as fumigants, gasoline hydrocarbons, solvents and refrigerants. Knowing the risks on your jobsite is the first and best way to start narrowing down your search for the right VOC monitor. Establish that and then you are ready to look at some of the most popular and capable VOC monitors on the network. These devices can fit almost every need. You’ll find an option that addresses your specific jobsite — from emergency response and incident management to continuous monitoring that ensures your crew is always operating in a safe environment.

Staying Small With MiniRAE PID

RAE Systems makes among the most versatile VOC detectors on the market. Their quality leads us to favor them as one of the best selections for your job site or response, no matter the nature of your VOC monitoring and detection needs.

The most common RAE Systems monitors are in its line of small, portable photoionization detectors (PIDs). They detect VOCs and other gases in concentrations under the parts-per-billion range to roughly 10,000 parts per million. MiniRAE PIDs are relatively inexpensive and will detect a wide variety of gases and vapors for industrial safety measurements, air quality checks, contamination concerns, and hazardous materials handling and control. Military and government hazmat teams use MiniRAE PID units from RAE Systems.

Each unit provides an instantaneous readout. You can use it to continually monitor your jobsite.

The MiniRAE PID line consists of two models: the most popular MiniRAE 3000 and the budget-friendly MiniRAE Lite. The main difference is that the 3000 can operate in a much larger range of fields for more chemical analysis. The Lite, on the other hand, is ready to go right out of the box and is tailored to environmental and construction work.

Let’s take a deeper look to see if one is right for your business, or if the MultiRAE line would be better for you. MultiRAE models combine gas and radiation detection with multiple sensors and wireless alarms.

The MiniRAE 3000 is among the most versatile PID units. It’s a handheld device that can operate on many job sites. The successor to RAE’s extremely popular 2000 model, the 3000 has become the PID of choice for HazMat teams as well as cleanup crews in both public and private use.

The MiniRAE 3000 offers detection in roughly three seconds and can be configured to detect more than 350 contaminants — with more options available through accessories — at levels between 0.1 and 15,000 ppm.

The MiniRAE 3000 is best suited for soil contamination detection as well as pollution mapping. It offers a variety of accessories to connect to your systems wirelessly or directly. It does need some calibration, so it is smart to use a purchase or rental package that contains a calibration kit. This keeps it running well and allows you to use a single PID for multifaceted scanning and monitoring.

One benefit of the MiniRAE 3000 is that it comes with a 16-hour battery life, and you can swap out battery packs in the field without losing information. The battery maintains this life even if you are constantly using its wireless options. Accessories for the MiniRAE 3000 can push its wireless connection strength to around a two-mile radius, making it ideal for remote detection and monitoring.

To help you stay safe, the MiniRAE 3000 uses both a 95-decibal buzzer and a flashing LED light. This means no matter what job site you’re in, you will likely stay safe.

MiniRAE Lite, Rugged and Compact

Construction professionals tend to favor the MiniRAE Lite because it is ready-made for their work. It is also less expensive than the 3000, whether you are buying or renting from a reputable dealer.

The MiniRAE Lite offers a reduced range of compounds and detection options compared to its 3000 counterparts, with detection levels at just zero to 5,000 ppm. It relies on the same PID sensor technology so you won’t experience any reduced quality — you will still get a three-second response in its generalized VOC mode and around a one-minute detection when you’ve selected a specific compound to search for on your site.

The pump can draw in samples from up to 100 feet away, which protects you from leaks before they do any harm. It features a built-in flashlight and humidity compensation, perfect for construction sites that can get a little dank and dark.

RAE offers support for ten languages on the MiniRAE Lite. With its extra-large display and over-sized keys, you will have no trouble using it when wearing multiple layers of gloves.

Among the best features of the MiniRAE Lite is its reliability — you won’t need to do any annual calibration to keep it running strong. If your main concerns are construction and environmental cleanup or leak detection, the MiniRAE Lite has what you need in its 200 detectable compounds.

If you are looking for more detailed information, greater customization or the ability to connect to more alarms, you might want to consider the MultiRAE family of products. Safety workers and first responders prefer these.

The MultiRAE Namesake

For multi-gas monitoring platforms and portable chemical detection, the gold standard has become RAE System’s MultiRAE family. The complete MultiRAE line including the MultiRAE, the MultiRAE Lite and the MultiRAE Pro, can all be customized to include multiple gas sensor combinations. Whether you use them right in the action or at a safe distance, you’ll get a wide range of real-time sensing and alarm notification.

At the heart of the line is the MultiRAE unit. It supports up to six gas sensors and gives you a suite of wireless connectivity and alarm options. You’ll be able to customize it with 25 different sensor options, meeting your PID, exotics, NDIR and LEL needs.

One reason why emergency and hazardous response personnel prefer it is the set of alarm features that come built-in. They include a wide-burst man-down alarm that will connect to remote command centers and request fast incident responses.

Its rugged design keeps out dust and water while surviving harsh conditions as you search for 190 VOCs and 55 combustible gases. You’ll get one of the longest-lasting batteries on the market thanks to its smart monitoring and icon-based display system.

It’s perfect for long-term deployments because it can support up to six months of 24/7 monitoring across five sensors. This setup makes it work well in tough environments around fracking and exploration, while still supporting short-run uses from urban search-and-rescue to confined space entry and emergency response.

MultiRAE Pro for Multiple Threats

If you need detection of gamma radiation and chemical leaks or threats, the MultiRAE Pro platform is your best choice. The MultiRAE Pro is the only multi-threat system that can natively detect concerns and issue warnings based on a parts-per-billion level threat.

The MultiRAE Pro wirelessly sends signals to your central command system. It supports any combination among 25 different sensors that will report warnings for VOCs, gamma radiation, combustibles, oxygen levels and toxic gases. You can further improve life or increase its range through a system of replaceable pumps and batteries.

It also includes the man-down alarm to get you instant help in the event of an emergency. The MultiRAE PID device supports a five-way local and remote wireless alarm system. The Pro is compliant with MIL-STD-810G and 461F performance standards.

One of the main benefits of the MultiRAE Pro system is you can use simultaneous monitoring across your sensors, even on multiple frames such as chemical threats and gamma radiation. If you have to switch out the sensors in the field, you can rely on the intelligent sensor options to calibrate your data and suffer no losses when you’re in a tight spot.

Homeland security officials, HazMat operators, environmental response teams, and even production lines with special needs, such as semiconductor manufacturing, all use the MultiRAE Pro line.

MultiRAE Plus for Detection in Danger

If you’re looking for a versatile option, the MultiRAE Plus package offers a wide range of detections that can be deployed in any field, even when searching for portable WMDs in the ports and crossroads of our country. The system is powerful enough to send data back to a remote monitoring station up to two miles away.

The MultiRAE PID Plus system will allow you to run searches to detect: O2 LEL H2S CO VOC And more

The company says it has more than 10,000 MultiRAE Plus units in use all around the world because it allows for complex sniffing that can be held in one hand. The systems offer both personal monitoring and continuous area monitoring for any deployment.

The MultiRAE Plus system has a MultiRAE PID system that can detect VOCs and other items at levels of 0 to 2,000 ppm with a resolution of 0.1 ppm. This means you’ll get extremely accurate monitoring that can adapt to your current situation. You can log up to 80 hours of monitoring data, and your battery pack lasts a standard 14 hours, though extenders can push that up significantly.

If you pick up the MultiRAE Plus unit, it will come standard with an O2 and lower explosive limit sensor. You’ll have support for more sensors that you can swap out in the field and maintain a pump draw of up to 100 feet. It comes with a strong database of correction factors and is able to detect more ionizable chemicals than any other MultiRAE PID device on our list. It also has a better range than almost any PID device on the market.

Like many of the multi-detection systems, the MultiRAE Plus works well in extreme field conditions. This means you’re getting a durable frame and rugged exterior that can take some punishment. Its rubber boot keeps it from getting damaged while the oversized filter protects vital parts from exposure. If you’re working at night and need detection, the system is backlit so you can easily read it in low light or through heavy garb such as a HazMat suit.

MultiRAE IR

For confined spaces and limited fieldwork that requires multiple sensors running sophisticated monitoring, look no further than the RAE Systems MultiRAE IR. This unit was designed with emergency response in mind, testing for hazardous situations when the threat is not readily identifiable before deployment.

he MultiRAE IR combines the traditional MultiRAE PID sensor with an infrared toxic gas sensor, CO2 sensor, and a monitor for O2 and LEL. The MultiRAE IR replaces multiple devices when you need a quick assessment of risk.

According to RAE, the system can be configured to provide personal monitoring services, area monitoring, technical instrumentation or hand-held sniffing. All of these can function with its interchangeable sensors and varied configurations.

Toxic gas detection for this unit includes: Cl2 CO HCN H2S NH3 NO NO2 PH3 SO2

Switching the unit’s detection capabilities takes no special tools — it’s simple enough for a single operator to do. This boosts its native MultiRAE PID capability and supports detection of chemicals and threats at levels of 0 to 2,000 ppm at a resolution of 0.1 ppm. Beyond that, the unit offers CO2 monitoring at a level of 0 to 20,000 ppm.

You will be able to collect 80 hours of data across its sensors with no loss as you switch between gas detection layouts. The MultiRAE IR can run for 12 hours straight, and it has a two-stage alarm system that can provide direct warnings at any point during that operation.

Making Your Choice

When you need a VOC detection system, you want nothing short of the best in hand-held safety. There is no excuse for going with a system that has spotty ppm detection or does not provide continuous monitoring. You are responding to an emergency, so never go second-rate.

More than 120 countries use these RAE detection units, ranging in applications from homeland security to chemical cleanups and jobsite safety detection. With this line of VOC solutions, you’ll be keeping your crew, jobsite and community safe.

RAE systems offers industry-trusted contaminant and hostile chemical detection. Join the ranks of first responders all around the world and invest in one today.