ACE Breathalyzer Dräger Alcotest 3000 - the little brother of the German police tester, UK-Version

Now I very rarely drink (which made me a good patient zero for the tests!) but I do run a company which has 7 drivers and even though a breathalyser isn't something we've had/used before I can definitely see that it'd be an extra little bit of security to protect against possible loss of licence/job as there's no doubt that plenty of the general public at large like a good drink from time to time, especially over the upcoming Christmas festivities and I also know that plenty of people get caught over the limit the morning after.So as a test, using the 3 mouthpiece tubes, I found a couple of accomplices who were unsurprisingly more than happy to consume varying amounts of alcohol over the night while I stayed as sober a judge. I specifically asked one friend who, to coin the term, drinks like a fish and my other friend had approximately half of what he did. At the end of the night we waited a good half our, more than the specified time it says and of course we made sure there was nothing else eaten in that time (non of us smoke) then it's as simple as pressing a button, blowing into the mouthpiece for a few seconds and waiting for the result to pop up.Now I have to say that I wouldn't even drive if I'd had one drink let alone half a dozen+ so there's no way I would let friends drive if they'd had that much no matter what the readings had said! So I went first and got the expected result of zero, so far so good. Next up was the 'middle' friend and his result was a high seeming 0.52 and we were eagerly anticipating how hight my last fish, I mean friend, would get and were rewarded with a whopping 1.44!Possibly the most difficult thing is interpreting the results and after some reading up online I'm content that the limits when reading this breathalyser are 0.35 in the UK apart from Scotland (and many parts of Europe) where it's 0.22 so I'm perfectly happy that neither of my friends were under the limit, although I would've maybe expected them to be even further above. For the highest result, him being about 4 times over the limit I guess was acceptable enough and there's no way he would've been under the limit the next morning, but for me the surprising thing was that my other friend was only around 50% over the limit but then I guess that's where time, different metabolism, probably body size etc all comes into it.My overall conclusion is that if you get stopped and breathalysed the morning after and you're still over the limit then, frankly, you deserve all you get because that'd be a scary amount of alcohol consumed and if any of my drivers come to work like that there'll be hell to pay!

There are plenty of breathalysers on the market which vary from £2.99 one use kits up to this semi professional piece of equipment which is apparently the little brother of the one the German police use. It certainly feels substantial as one would expect for this price, unlike some of the flimsier and cheaper alternatives. My interest in a breathalyser is really from the morning after the night before point of view as I don't personally mix drinking and driving to the extent that I am worried about whether I am legal to drive.However, a potential issue occurs when, after an evening of social drinking, driving is on the agenda the following morning. I think most people have a good idea of what they can drink within the legal driving limit and of course, if they are in doubt they should not drive. Calculating how quickly the body has metabolised alcohol and working out the likely residual alcohol in the bloodstream somewhere between 6 and 12 hours later is beyond the skills of many of us, particularly when hungover! Many convicted of drink driving are stopped by the police the morning after.This was very easy to use. Mine came with the two AA batteries pre installed. It was simply a question of turning the machine on and waiting for it to display 'Ready'. Then breathe in for about five seconds until the steady audible sound ceases. The machine takes a few seconds to compute the result. Simples!I tested this machine on several occasions, and cross checked the results against another breathalyser - an AF-33 from the same manufacturer which costs about a quarter of the price of this one. Firstly I tried it after a good evening when the wine flowed freely - the following morning I came in at 0.00 which was encouraging. Then after a good meal with G&Ts and a lot of wine it registered 0.27 - legal in the UK but not in Spain where I was. Finally after a good lunch which included as much red wine as you wanted I came in at 0.12 which was good as I was the designated driver. Other members of our party came in at a less soberly 0.30 and 0.40. All this was entirely believable and came in at approx 0.02 below the readings on the AF-33 which I would regard as acceptable.This machine does require recalibration every year - apparently this can be done in the UK, but I am not sure of the cost. Failure to do this means that the machine could become less accurate with time, but I would presume this is a very gradual process.Overall this is an expensive piece of kit and I am not wholly convinced that it is worth the premium over others, including the AF-33 referred to above. However, it's efficient and robust and my only issue would be the price versus the alternatives.