Personal Breathalyser

[drsmurto]

Does anyone own a personal breathalyser?

Plenty on ebay starting from a few dollars up to semi pro versions for $300+.

The cheap ones are cheap for a reason but i wonder if there is a point at which they become reliable....

This one seems to be a good compromise....$66 plus postage. Link

Cheers
DrSmurto

 

[Fourstar]

Does anyone own a personal breathalyser?

Plenty on ebay starting from a few dollars up to semi pro versions for $300+.

The cheap ones are cheap for a reason but i wonder if there is a point at which they become reliable....

This one seems to be a good compromise....$66 plus postage. Link

Cheers
DrSmurto

i think the issue with the cheap ones is they loose their calibration pretty easily.

 

[Adamt]

I wouldn't trust them for any more than a ballpark figure. The coppers have the proper ones, and they're not accurate enough to convict on. The quoted "accuracy" is 0.01%, but that's probably just the resolution.

Personally, if I needed to check if I was too inebriated to drive, I wouldn't drive

 

[bum]

A mate has one and every time he brings it out we see if we can max it out. Turns out they saw us coming and it just says "MAX" when you get to some region before alcohol poisoning sets in.

If we drive, we don't drink. Seems like a good way to be sure to me.

 

[drsmurto]

For those of us doing the BJCP course at the moment it would be interesting to check as its very difficult to count your drinks when you have several samples of beer of varying abv.

If i couldn't drive to these events i couldn't participate (yes i know it was my choice to live in the hills) so this would allow me to check.

I realise its not going to be accurate but if you get a reading near 0.05% it gives you the option of waiting for an hour before driving.

So rather than giving me your personal philosophies <_< , anyone care to provide me with their experience as was the question posed in the OP.

Bum - aside from attempting to max out this when drinking at home with no intention of driving (smething that despite not being a teenager anymore still sounds like fun) did your mate find it useful? Any idea how much he paid for it?

 

[bum]

He got one of the $100-ish ebay ones (can't remember exact brand) and it is pretty dinky. It seemes to fluctuate wildly in a very short period in the results it would give once it got over about 0.03. If such a situation existed where I absolutely needed to trust one of these things I would not even think about getting a cheap one.

 

[bradsbrew]

Is it possible to purchase the ones that the coppers use? I was recently thinking about one for club meetings for the designated driver for the night.

 

[bum]

I dunno about the specific unit used in any one state but you can buy 'proper' units used by Police world wide from companies like Draeger (who have 43 Australian distributors listed on their web page, suggesting they are completely legal to own.)

Bit of a Google should turn up the brand/model used local to you.

[EDIT: just a note - Adamt's quoted 0.01% might not be entirely accurate in all cases. I know that in Victoria one Police breathalyser had an allowable +/- of 20%. This is why they prosecute on blood tests, not breath tests. They aren't even allowed to tell you your preliminary breath test results here. [EDITEDIT: the 20% mentioned is the difference between breath and blood readings, not a wild swing allowed on the machine.]]

 

[Greg Lawrence]

I dont know how much he paid for it, but the FIL has one which I used on xmas day.
After consuming 8 longnecks of HB and then moving onto about 4 cans of his swill, over a 5 hour period I blew 0.03.
Had another try and blew 0.01.
There was no way I was fit for driving.

Gregor

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

The breathalyser units the police use for RBT are not able to be used for court, they only give an indication, they MUST take you back to the station and use a proper temp controlled calibrated unit, or they take a blood test at the hospital...

Personally I would ask for a blood test over a breath test if going to court....that way you get to keep a sample....

 

[Rod]

I would be interested it buying some of the old testers , ie crystals ,used before the digital units

Sometimes I wonder how I am after a big night and am I safe to drive in the morning

ie the tester would only need show +ve alcohol , not necessary the absolute value

 

[Fents]

i had a cheapy off ebay a few years ago and used to crack it out when i had all the boys around. they are unreliable at best. we would skull a beer then do a shot of tequila after and it would go off the charts and othertimes it would say .03 when cleary no one was in a state to drive.

the thing to remember like any breath tester is to wait at least 15mins after you have a drink and drink water before you blow into it otherwise your just blowing straight alcohol from your mouth into it.

if i could afford it i would get an expensive one or one of the ones that they put in pubs on the walls for $1 or whatever it is just for fun. but yea you still have to wait and drink water 15mins after you've had a drink.

 

[Bribie G]

I don't have a blood pressure monitor either, I've got enough to worry about as it is, without scaring myself shitless on a regular basis :lol:
Actually the only occasion I drive and have a little bit to drink is BABBs meetings and for the dollars, I'm going to book into the Holland Park Motel a couple of times a year, I've decided, so I can give it a nudge at the meeting. Probably for the American Ales mini comp.

 

[AndrewQLD]

A friend of mine has just been done for DUI, he had a slow New Years eve and stopped drinking at 11.30 pm, obviously he was over the limit at that time but at 8.30 am he drove and was pulled over, he blew 0.075. He was certain he was fine to drive as he didn't hammer the grog like he usually does and was surprised at the result.
Bad judgment on his part but it just goes to show how easy it is to do, and I think that's one of the times a reasonably good Breathalyzer can be of use.

I for one don't drink and drive, but I do worry that I may have been dodging a bullet occasionally the next day, as I am sure a lot of case swap attendees have done to.

Andrew

 

[dent]

I bought one that is good for around $250. it is quite consistent, however it is useless unless you haven't drunk anything in the last half hour or so. Which makes sense really, and also shows that it is a bad idea to quickly finish your one beer of the night before driving over to a meeting with the coppers. I recommend a quality one. Many of my mates no longer go home after a night on the piss when they see how much they blow - before they would think they're good to go.

Personally my experience with "feeling pissed" vs the reading on the breathalyser is that you must get used to the alcohol level in you after a while - it doesn't decrease as quickly as you expect.

It is especially useful on those nights you drank five beers six hours ago - nice to know you are at 0.00 good to go home.

 

[MarkBastard]

Yeah I've heard if you get pulled over and the cops ask you the last time you had a drink, that you should say you literally just had one. I think they have to wait 30 minutes (or give you the option anyway) before breathalising you. Buys you a bit of time.

 

[jayse]

A friend of mine has just been done for DUI, he had a slow New Years eve and stopped drinking at 11.30 pm, obviously he was over the limit at that time but at 8.30 am he drove and was pulled over, he blew 0.075. He was certain he was fine to drive as he didn't hammer the grog like he usually does and was surprised at the result.
Bad judgment on his part but it just goes to show how easy it is to do, and I think that's one of the times a reasonably good Breathalyzer can be of use.

I for one don't drink and drive, but I do worry that I may have been dodging a bullet occasionally the next day, as I am sure a lot of case swap attendees have done to.

Andrew

That suprises me after 9 hours and taking it easy still blowing that high, maybe he didn't take it quite as easy as it seemed at the time is all I can think of.

Yeah I've heard if you get pulled over and the cops ask you the last time you had a drink, that you should say you literally just had one. I think they have to wait 30 minutes (or give you the option anyway) before breathalising you. Buys you a bit of time.

Only thing is if you did only just have one your reading can go up so in fact if you did just have one and know your over the limit you may be better of getting the reading done as soon as you can before it goes up even more.
You could quite easily in this case be under right now but in 30 mins your will be over, so maybe only best to say such a thing if you haven't had a drink in a while when you know it can only go down.

I don't think talking about how to beat a RBT is quite right but...................................


Maybe all these cheap units might work well if people don't pick them up after drinking a gallon of rum and blowing in them.

 

[bum]

Maybe all these cheap units might work well if people don't pick them up after drinking a gallon of rum and blowing in them.

You'd hope so but for as long as we could read properly we were doing our best to follow the instructions properly.

 

[AndrewQLD]

That suprises me after 9 hours and taking it easy still blowing that high, maybe he didn't take it quite as easy as it seemed at the time is all I can think of.

That's precisely the point Jayse, what he considered to be "taking it easy" for him clearly was still far too much for recovery the next day, hence his surprise. It really shows how incapable we really are of judging how much alcohol is in our systems and how much we can handle drinking.
I have a Breathalyzer now, one with the replaceable sensor. It sits in the car ready for the early Sunday morning runs to Maccas for the kids work.

Andrew

 

[Uncle Fester]

Choice Magazine recently trialled personal breathalysers.

Linky

Fester Out