BACtrack Mobile Smartphone Breathalyzer | Professional-Grade Accuracy | Wireless Smartphone Connectivity | Compatible w/ Apple iPhone, Google & Samsung Android Devices | Apple HealthKit Integration

When I first bought this I thought it was defective—I did followed the instructions I thought and it still gave me an error message.I emailed tech support for the company and they let me know I was doing it wrong—blow gently! You doing need to think of it like blowing out birthday candles, rather think of it like a gentle sigh as you blow…the device makes a popping noise once you’re done, but it’s not a race by any means.The app is helpful and easy to use—it guides you through the process while you wait for it to warm up, and the data log is helpful for someone who is trying to build trust with people who may have felt wronged in the past. I’ve been using it for two weeks and the battery life is still reading as full, so I’d say you don’t have to worry about making sure it’s charged. Portability is fantastic as well…it’s about half the size of a deck of cards, but I’d say the travel case is a necessity if you’re going to keep it in your pocket. The shape isn’t really going to snag on anything, but the mouthpiece does stick out from the main body if you choose to use it.Value for money is a matter of perspective—I used my HSA account to buy this which works well for me since I never come close to using my yearly savings and I didn’t have to work it into my budget as I was already stressed about money from rehab. That said, looking at the peace of mind my family and friends get from me blowing three times a day without having the cost of a 24/7 program makes it fantastic value for money. That’s not even considering what would happen if your spouse asks for a divorce because they suspect you’re still drinking….

Works good as intended.

So I've had this unit for three days, very accurate quick and easy to use (I wouldn't change anything on it).With all the regulations in Calif why isn't a law in place that would provide self testing in establishments? How much money is being extracted from those who have never been tested, totally unaware?Do not set yourself up to learn about alcohol levels from the police.Here are the benefits of this device:a) learn the cumulative effects of each drink wait 15 minutes before re-testingb) learn the rate, time it takes to become sober, confirm with re-testingc) for college kids this unit is a great way to self test and learn from. If you drink after working out you probably will have euphoria from adrenaline and could think the alcohol has burned off ,WRONG ! (you will see in the % numbers)d) if you make you're drinks strong (say at home) you will understand this unit will not lie, so you can't count a strong drink as equal to just 1 drink (%)e) as another wrote in their review they now drink less, let your readings be your guide (there is no value in drinking to the point of blackout?)f) You will learn first hand what % alcohol has and effects; balance issues, blackout can't remember details, slurring etc.g) if relaxing after a long day having a few and you're thinking about driving be sure to self test avoid guessing and just hoping your okh) get family members a gift, college kids need to learn at what point they are a .08 about themselves and the effects of alcohol so they are well advised and can make educated decisions before drivingi) Learning from this device you will be able to accurately self guess within range you're own % levels based on knowledge not wild guessing !j) Avoid $20,000 DUI costs. Avoid being a victim of legal and illegal sobriety tests and the system (see YouTube for more info)

It fits in the palm of your hand. It’s easy to misplace, so I would always keep it on you or leave it in the car.

This product is worthless if you don't voluntarily accept that it is going to destroy your life. The first thing the BACtrack app requires is for you to enter your email address. If you do not wish to, well, you simply cannot use your $100 Breathalyzer purchase at all. There are no other buttons, menus, or settings in the app until you let it phone home.While my email address is by no means sensitive information, a legal connection between it and my purchased BACtrack Mobile hardware most certainly is. On page 6 of the Privacy Policy booklet, Section 2.2, "Information We Receive or Collect When you Use the Service on a Mobile Device", you will find:"If you access the Service from your mobile telephone or other mobile device, including iPads and tablets, we collect mobile device identifiers, including MAC Address, and IP Address."As an electrical engineer who's written a TCP/IP communications software stack before and is quite familiar with Bluetooth and Internet Protocols, I'd very much like to highlight that MAC addresses are a globally unique identifier that are permanently stored in hardware devices. In other words, they are a type of serial number. They do not normally get transmitted onto the Internet, which uses IP addresses instead, so this policy suggests that KHN Solutions is purposely recording and sending your hardware's MAC address back to them. Coupling your MAC address(es) along with your email address means they will forever in the future, trace BAC readings collected on your hardware back to you. Keep in mind that all Bluetooth devices also have MAC addresses, not just Ethernet and Wi-Fi devices, so the Privacy Policy's lack of clarification on which MAC addresses has to be assumed to mean all MAC addresses for your phone/tablet and the Breathalyzer hardware.To all those 5 star reviewers, I have some advice for you: remember and live by the words: "anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law". Also, since you aren't being arrested right now, instead interpret this as "anything you say or do can and will be used against you in any context at any time in the future if it looks bad".I know how fun it is to pull out a Breathalyzer at a party. Not only are your friends curious about themselves, but they also like to create high scores. In fact, while out of town and definitely not driving, such as on a cruise ship, I've personally admonished my peers and told them they need to do a shot when they score below 0.04% estimated BAC. As fun as these situations are, these results absolutely, positively, do not belong on Facebook or any other company's database, along with globally traceable hardware ID numbers, your GPS coordinates, email address, and first and last name.Consider how innocent it is to sip pure vodka and then immediately blow into the Breathalyzer for a fantastic Facebook photo taken in your own home. Now consider that if you Google your name, you will see your defunct Myspace account show up from 9 years ago. Let's pretend that 4 years from now, you interview for a new job, only to never receive an offer. One very plausible reason for not getting an offer is because the potential employer Googled you and happened to see a fantastic 0.321% BAC photo of you. It isn't so fantastic that the employer has no background information on your true drinking habits, no way to legally ask you about this photo, and is left with an impression that you can impossibly stay standing with extreme intoxication. The only reasonable conclusion is that you are probably a heavy alcoholic and likely an unreliable perspective employee.Consider also that this same measurement without any Facebook photo or authorization by you for sharing can also haunt you a decade from now. Say your spouse is leaving you, you're depressed and you get arrested for a genuine DUI @ 0.07% or 0.15% suspected BAC. In my state, these are just under the limits of an easily convicted DUI or an Extreme DUI, which is a felony. Actual police readings and blood measurements are not exact; as I understand it, it can take an hour before they get you processed and have your blood taken. This means your BAC has gone down some from its peak and the prosecution then must find other evidence to support the more unpleasant charges they have against you.In such a case, merely historically owning the BACtrack Mobile Breathalyzer and submitting your "email address for 1-year warranty registration" means you are in a subpoenable KHN Solutions database which has a fictitiously generated 0.321% BAC reading in it tied directly to you. The prosecutor will show this to the jury, your defense will object that this is circumstantial, unreliable information not tied to your DUI, the judge will agree and tell the jury to disregard what the prosecutor just showed you, and then the trial will continue normally. You will never have an opportunity to clarify why and how this reading came into existence since it isn't considered admissible evidence by the court in the first place. No matter what though, the jury DID hear it and it DOES bode ill for you. They may well convict you of a felony, destroying your life from then on as you find it problematic getting jobs or doing anything that requires a background check.A few other wise Amazon reviews see the problem with this product too, which has received replies from the BACtrack vendor. Something I observe is that the vendor downplays the significance of keeping your BAC records, photos, and other self-incriminating evidence in the cloud. They claim you already store credit card data, bank account credentials, and other sensitive information in the cloud, so what KHN Solutions is doing is not risky to you. Goodness me are they full of crap. If someone steals my bank account login, the worst they can do is siphon my account to $0. I won't be happy, but my life will continue as it always has in less than 6 months time. Credit cards are even safer.Meanwhile, if someone important mistakenly believes that I'm an alcoholic, my life will change in ways I cannot imagine or predict, nor sometimes even detect. From loosing job opportunities, to child custody battles, to DUI charges, to would be eHarmony relationships, to who knows what else, you really do have a lot more to lose by buying or using this product than bank fraud or identity theft.The sad part for me is that I've purchased a, now obsolete and discontinued, contactless silicon based BACtrack to get me interested, followed by a BACtrack S75 Pro, and then two BACtrack S80 Pros. I am a strong advocate of informed and sensible decision making and participate in social activity clubs that regularly do include alcohol consumption. I therefore, also have always recommended or given as gifts, the fuel cell based BACtrack products to my friends. I loved them and expected the BACtrack Mobile to be the latest and greatest, self-powered and compact product to buy. I also happen to work at a semiconductor company that manufactures some of the silicon contained in BACtrack devices, so I've always wanted to promote the BACtrack brand and see business success for the vendor.Now all I want to do is educate people and see KHN Solutions go bankrupt. I've been completely tricked with a $100 hardware purchase, when in fact the BACtrap Mobile Breathalyzer is a data mining device requiring a "free" subscription/license to service I most definitely do not want to have any part of. I'm sure I could return it and get my money back, but I've never once returned an online purchase and my 1 star rating is not over money. It's about being evil. Getting my money back won't help cure evil. Letting them keep my money such that my anger lasts longer and I educate more people against BACtracks will perhaps bring me minor relief.Perhaps one of the most ironic aspects is that I'm very pro-law enforcement and I didn't drink a drop of alcohol in the past 2 years. In the past, I have volunteered to let police officers stick needles in me to draw my blood in a classroom environment (they need phlebotomy certification and renewals to handle DUI cases). Being on the wagon is not because of an incident, nor am I ever at risk of a DUI, but because I'm partially Asian and lack a gene needed to metabolize alcohol. I.e. alcohol makes me sick way too quickly. I liked BACtracks because they were fun to use on my friends, and peer pressure works in reverse. Seeing a BAC estimate that is high has shamed people into sleeping on the host's couch. I can't do this with a BACtrack that phones home and holds unknowable risks to myself and my friends.