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Breathometer Smartphone Breathalyzer Review

You are drinking at a bar with friends. When it’s time to leave, you wonder if your friend has had too much to drink. Wouldn’t it be great if you could see what their blood alcohol content (BAC) was so you can stop them from driving drunk?

The problem with most available Breathalyzers on the market is that you have to put your mouth directly on the unit. This means that you can’t share it with your friends, especially if you have to test more than one.

The solution: The Breathometer for $49.

What you get is this tiny breath reader that plugs into your smartphone headset jack as shown above. The width is about the same as the width of an iPhone. It has a keychain hole on one side so that you can carry it with you everywhere. On the other side, you can see there is a slider (see picture below) that brings the headset jack plug out of the unit.

breathometer side

After you get your unit, download the Android or iPhone app and launch it. The app will recognize your unit and when ready, touch the “Start” button on the screen. It will count down, then you will how to blow into the hole on the unit from about an inch away for about 5 seconds.

breathomete2r_edited-1

You will then see the BAC on the screen with a color coded circle. If it’s red, that means you cannot drive and it tells you how long it will take for you to get sober. As you can see above, if you are at .20 when the bars close, you will be sober at 3:45pm the next day. That should be just about the time you are returning to work from your lunch break. Yellow means you are under the legal limit but you may be impaired. Green means you are good to go.

The app also shows you the history of previous readings and even a list of cab companies you can call to get home.

Summary:

After testing the unit for a few months, it does seem to work. It’s impossible for me to say how accurate it is but the directions tell you to wait 20 minutes after your last drink to take a reading. Also, after one reading, you might wait a few minutes before doing another reading for better accuracy.

If you want to save lives and not get a drunk driving ticket, this is a great product to have around. Have fun but drink responsibly.