Conclusion:

Before using this device my rule of thumb was it took about an hour per drink to get out of your system. But based on the testing, it was almost 6 hours from the start of my first beer to my ZeroLine for just four beers; that is 50% longer than I expected. Considering the blip in the middle; which was likely due to food consumption, and you could inadvertently make a really bad decision using my rule of thumb. While you should never drink and drive and the device warns you not to use it to determine if you are too impaired to operate a motor vehicle, it really does give you a very good insight into what your impairment might be. But I think they could take it a little further; in the manual it gives you % BAC reading ranges and some detailed insight to what your expected impairment is as seen in the picture below. While they do provide some impairment info after a reading, which can be seen in the promotion image below, it is very truncated and I think having access to the more detailed description might be beneficial. Also, while the app does give you the ability to call an Uber, it would be cool to have that option on the screen after ever reading rather having the user dig through the menus to get there.



The device is very easy to use, and really my main complaint is the battery door. I found it slides open a little too easy. But this was more of an annoyance than a real problem. I suppose a small piece of tape could fix this, but on a device that costs $99 I would have expected a better latch. Also I think it would be nice to be able to purchase different colored mouthpieces. Much like people put charms on their wine glass to know which is theirs, you could do the same with colored mouthpieces. I think having something like this would mean it ends up getting used more since people aren’t grossed out about swapping spit.



One feature BACtrack offers but I didn’t try out is their BACtrack View. This allows you to monitor someone remotely, seeing them on your phone while they perform a BAC reading. I can see this being very beneficial for parents with new drivers going to parties or those with friends or family members that are struggling with addiction. Currently the BACtrack View is only fully released on iOS and you can find info about the monitoring service here. For the many Android users out there, they do have a version in Beta now and you can access it here.

While I found this very cool and fun to play with, for me it would be a hard sell to spend $99 on this device. I simply don’t drink that much to warrant spending that much at this point of my life. But for those of you who do drink frequently or have frequent parties this would be a great gadget to pick up. In fact this device will likely find its way to my sisters who are in a wine club. This would give them a better idea of how impaired people are before anyone leaves.



Pros:

» Appears to be quite accurate
» ZeroLine feature provides good estimate for sobriety
» One year warranty
» BACtrack View is a great idea

Cons:

» Battery door opens too easily
» Would like to be able to get colored mouthpieces

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