The Best Portable Breathalyzer for Personal Use – Easy Alcohol Monitoring

Going out for a drink with friends can and should be fun. Having a convenient breathalyzer on hand can reduce a lot of the anxieties you could have about the experience and help keep everyone safe.

By responsibly monitoring your blood alcohol level, you can be sure that you’ll be able to drive home when you need to or know if you’ll need to come up with an alternative plan. Your own personal judgment, while under the effects of alcohol is not reliable.

Anyone that is even just a little too drunk to drive safely may not feel that they really are. Alcohol depresses the rational, decision making part of the brain. A breathalyzer test can give you tangible, visible proof whether it’s safe to drive or not.

How Do Breathalyzers Work?

There are three types of breathalyzers, all of which use different types of technology to get readings. However, all three technologies are able to get a base reading, accurate to a full percentage. The difference is in the number of decimal points.

To use a breathalyzer, a person must wait between 15 to 30 minutes after their last meal or drink then turn on the device and let it warm up. A few seconds later, the device is ready for a sample. Now a person will blow into the tube or mouthpiece slowly and steadily until the device has registered the sample. A reading should appear a few seconds later.

There are two places where the device may be tripped up and steps may need to be repeated. In the first case, a person may not blow hard enough or may try to use the device too forcefully and end up sending particle of food or saliva into the sensor. In these cases, a “flow” or error message will display. Simply try again.

In the second case, the readings may be consistently too high. Here, the sensor may be over-saturated. Run the device once or twice through the testing cycle without blowing to clear it. Then try again.

How Accurate is a Breathalyzer?

Commercial breathalyzers, typically any portable model you have seen, will use whether a semiconductor sensor or a fuel cell sensor. The former type is most common and recognized as fair, accurate and effective for normal use while the latter is slightly more accurate to several decimal places.

What Makes a BACtrackKeychain Breathalyzer Better than Other BAC Testers?

Right now, you can get a fantastic breathalyzer for 50% off its regular price. You can get it for just $45.95 instead of $89.95. This product has been used by thousands of people to test their BAC and save them from being pulled over and testing positive. With this, you can quickly and easily know if it’s time to stop drinking or if you’ve sobered up enough to drive worry-free. However, those aren’t the only benefits.

Accuracy and Lifespan – BACtrack has been manufacturing breathalyzer products and technologies for over 14 years. They know how to make a quality product and they stand behind each and every one of them. Further, each device lasts about 150 tests per battery. If you only drink once or twice a week, that could last you all year. Calibration is needed yearly, just like any other breathalyzer.

Warranty – This product comes with a one-year warranty and the customer service department gets fairly good reviews across the board. If you have any issues, they are responsive and look out for you when it comes to the experience you have with their products.

Discretion – If you want to flaunt that you have a breathalyzer, use it as a keychain- it’s built for that. However, it’s also built to fit securely into a purse or pocket without even hinting at the fact that you have a breathalyzer. It even comes in a few nontraditional colors. So, if you want to stay safe and informed but don’t want everyone to know, this could be your perfect fit.

Convenience – You can’t accurately judge your BAC without a tool of some sort. With a breathalyzer, especially one as reliable and discreet as this, you can test with confidence and know where you stand.  With this knowledge, you can make better decisions. Decisions that save you money and regret.

A Breathalyzer Can Save You Money – and Save Your Life

A breathalyzer, used correctly, can accurately judge your BAC and keep you from making some very poor decisions. No matter where you are in the US, drunk driving of any kind will cost you money, typically in the ballpark of several thousand dollars. In the worst case scenario, choosing to drive drunk can cause irreparable damage to something or someone, even you. That’s why a tool like this is so valuable- to you and anyone you feel could use it.

If, after reading all this, you still think it might be embarrassing to carry around a breathalyzer, remember how small this one is. It could be a keychain. Not only that, but it comes in a variety of fun colors, like bright aqua blue and lime green. Above all, try thinking about how responsible it makes you look.

Having a breathalyzer gives you a “prepared for anything” quality. At a party or a bar, you can even offer it up as a way to help a friend. In fact, they might even ask to try it after you’ve used it. (And you can have an extra mouthpiece on hand to keep the process hygienic.)

In addition, here are a few more tips to make sure your breathalyzer experience is positive and accurate.

Test at the Right Time – Test in between drinks, not right after sipping the last of your wine, martini, or chugging a beer. Give the alcohol a few minutes to enter your system. Also, make sure you blow at the time indicated and for the full length, allowing for the 10 seconds or so the device takes to warm up. Always remember, if the test says your level is too high and you really need to drive, you can eat some food, drink plenty of water, and wait an extra 30 minutes to bring your level down somewhat. Then test again until your level is within an acceptable range.

Maintain Your Device – Check the battery occasionally to make sure you have accurate readings. Remember, each battery should last approximately 150 tests, this could mean as many as 10 more or less, for example.

Recalibrate Yearly – Every breathalyzer requires a little maintenance once in a while. BACtrack makes this as easy as possible. You can learn more about the breathalyzer recalibration process on their website.

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