We all love drinking beer, but knowing when to say when is as important as deciding which bottle to open next. We tested three pocket breathalyzers, each designed to help you make the right choice.
Alcomate Revo
Notes: Testers liked the standalone design of the Alcomate Revo. Compared to the other two units tested, the Revo is larger in size but doesn’t require connection to a smartphone app in order to function, so if you drain your phone battery checking in beers at the bar, you’re not at risk. Functionally, they found the Alcomate to be very, very sensitive to false high readings if they recently had a drink and tested sooner than recommended, and the blood alcohol reading at times dropped as much as .05 over the course of minutes. However, the second, later reading was very accurate and confirmed by results from other units.
Price: $249.95
BACtrack Mobile Pro
Notes: Testers liked the small size of the BACtrack Mobile Pro—it is roughly 2/3 the size of the Alcomate, but does require the smartphone app to function. The app itself is intuitive and easy to use with no training—the unit paired flawlessly through Bluetooth with various phones, and the app even predicts the time at which the user should achieve complete sobriety. Test results were very consistent with the Alcomate (within .002) although the BACtrack showed less sensitivity to recent drinks and tended to give accurate readings more quickly. For the price, this unit is very, very hard to beat.
Price: $99.99
Breathometer
Notes: We cannot recommend the Breathometer at this time. We purchased two separate units and attempted to use them on multiple devices, but the first unit produced consistently incorrect results (it registered a .02 on every test no matter how much the tester had consumed), and the second unit failed to be recognized by the app on any smartphone we tried.
Price: $49.99