BACtrack Element Breathalyzer | Police-Grade | DOT & NHTSA Compliant

Bought this product to keep track of my BAC levels when drinking and also to see how accurate it was out of curiosity. It's very easy to put together and comes with a nice assortment of tips to use to gauge your BAC levels. As one other customer review excellently pointed out the manual that comes with it describes some things well such as what the BAC level means and overviews what the outside buttons do. However, it does poorly mention how you have to blow into the device for more than 11 seconds and wait for it to click in order for it to display your results. If you stop too soon, then you won't get a reading at all and it makes you seem like it's defective but it's not. You just need to blow into it longer than 11 seconds and wait for the feeling it gives you in your hand. It will feel like the device has just clicked or activated then you'll get your test results. I've tried it quite a few times and the readouts are pretty accurate based on how intoxicated I was. I do recommend this product it's a solid purchase and works well, but I just wish the manufacturer did a better job of explaining its operation.

Great alternative to a ovi. Can be a little tricky to blow but when you get the blowing strength down it is easy

Works great, convenient to keep in my desk, easy to use and accurate!

Okay, it does work! You just have to give it time to reset. The product worked one time. The lines move on the screen to indicate airflow. The lines stopped moving on the second use. Batteries were changed, so that was not the issue because it would still turn on. The product is just defective. For the price of the device, I thought it would work for more than one day. I plan to return and request a refund.

UPDATE: Hours later, I've added a picture of this crazy device telling me my BAC is nearly 0.32% out of the blue without additional alcohol consumption or any noticable symptoms of intoxication. If this were accurate, not only would I not be typing a cogent review free of spelling and grammatical errors right now, I would almost certainly be passed out or fully deceased. I'm pretty sure this unit has been fully debunked beyond all belief at this point (and it also gave me yet another reading under the legal limit to drive within five minutes of this one). DO NOT BUY THIS THING! I had some whiskey in an adult sippy cup with a straw (like a Robek's cup but by a different manufacturer). This was equivalent to around 2-3 drinks, somewhere between half an hour ago and an hour ago. I took three successive readings within the last ten minutes, and the three readings were taken sequentially by pressing the power button after a rest period of around 30 seconds each time (as this is the time period when the device shows the previous reading and prepares to reset). Each time, another countdown provides an additional wait period of around 20 seconds before you can blow into the BAC reader again. I paid a much higher premium for this particular device because it was supposed to have, as it says in the title, "professional-grade accuracy". However, this is the third occasion in the last 2 weeks where the readings I got in a five to ten minute period were both wildly inaccurate, and so inconsistent that it borders on totally random number generation. Tonight, my three readings occurred within a five minute period, and came in at 0.08%, 0.10%, and 0.20%. This is an enormous range and not something you can trust if you are trying to wait for an appropriate level of sobriety before driving. Thankfully, all of my tests happened in the safety of my own home. In most states, 0.08% is the legal limit, so a reading at this level would technically be legal to drive at. By the standard of most charts you can find about BAC, as well as the papers that came with the device, 0.20% is essentially "blackout drunk" and where you can expect to have serious impairment, slurred speech, potentially "the spins" where your sense of the world around you is nauseatingly spinning, motor skill incapacities and other highly negative effects. On all three nights I tested this device, it was completely inconsistent and objectively inaccurate. On none of these occasions did I feel, speak or act impaired at anywhere near the amount expected if I actually had the BAC this device reported. This includes the ridiculous 0.20% reading I got in the last ten minutes while I am still fully cogent and capable, and received in less than 5 minutes following the 0.08% and 0.10% readings. Do NOT rely on this product. It is likely to give you a highly inaccurate reading that could endanger others if it is telling you the reading is far lower than it actually is, or (with far less consequences but still misleading and potentially affecting your perception of your own behaviors) could tell you that you are absolutely hammered when you definitely are not.

I guess I'm officially old because I couldn't make this work. My husband and I tried for around two hours and just couldn't figure it out. It kept saying "FLO" or "OUT". I read reviews, went to Reddit, looked on YouTube and nothing. I finally emailed BACtrack, because I was certain I had a defective device. And then my 25-year-old got home, picked it up, and made it work on the first try. Kind of annoying, but whatever... he got it to work. And then he taught us how to do it. The next day, BACtrack support emailed me with a list of directions that seem way better than what was included with the original directions. So I'll put them here in case anyone in the future is as technically deficient as I apparently am. Below are a couple of tips when receiving a FLO/OUT error: 1. Make sure the mouthpiece is inserted firmly if applicable. 2. Do not block any air holes/vents on the device. 3. Take a deep breath around the 2-3 second mark of the countdown before blowing into the device. 4. Blow steadily, not necessarily as hard as you can, for the full 5-6 seconds. 5. (For BACtrack S80 Breathalyzer Only) Check the settings of the device to make sure its not set to the highest level of breath flow. If you look on pages 9-10 of the manual it will show you how to get into the menu and on page 10, the Fl-d setting is the one you want to be checking. As far as accuracy, of course I cannot be 100% certain, but it seems right to me. 0.00 before a drink, 0.01 after one drink, 0.05 after two drinks, etc.

Nice device

worked as expected.

Entièrement satisfait , très bonne exactitude

Good daily tester

Provato in un paio di situazioni su più persone, i valori sono molto realistici e la pila di combustione molto meglio del sensore a silicio, non cambia con le condizioni esterne. Per adesso sono contento, aggiornerò il feedback se qualcosa dovesse cambiare.

Used as a backup in the car to check I'm under before driving. Very handy and easy to use.

Perfetto, sensore di grado II con un margine di errore molto ridotto