We’re big proponents of breathalyzers here at the Liquor Snob offices, because we think their judicious use can really help you keep out of trouble. One of the biggest names in the consumer breathalyzer industry is Alcohawk from Q3 Innovations, which offers a large line of these Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) testers at varying price points.

A couple months ago we covered the Alcohawk Micro keychain breathalyzer, which has been very popular with our readers, and now we’ve rounded up three more Alcohawk models for review and comparison. We’ve outlined the statistics of each model, as well as our favorite features, and then compared them to one another as well so you’ll have the information you need when you buy your own.

Source: Liquor Snob – Alcohawk Breathalyzer Review – December 15, 2005

Carrying around a breathalyzer is like talking too much about your ex on a first date – ill-advised and likely a deal breaker.

But, while it’s easy to joke about people who own a product such as Q3 Innovation’s Alcohawk Elite, isn’t it better to admit needing a second opinion rather than lurching behind the wheel on intuition alone?

Source: The Montreal Gazette – Portable breathalyzer – November 7, 2005

View a PDF of the article: Police Magazine – Product Patrol – August, 2005

This handheld drinking game measures who’s king of the lushes — first person to 0.08 wins! Wait … it’s a Breathalyzer? Oh, I see. To test it, I threw back a shot of vodka, blew into the plastic tube, and measured 0.40 — a level the instruction manual associated with “coma and possible death.” As the Alcohawk chirped away its warning of my impending demise, the instructions revealed that the blood-alcohol content reading works accurately only after a 20-minute lull in drinking, eating, or smoking. So I took three (or four … can’t remember) more shots and waited. After 30 minutes, I blew. My score was a 0.07, a level associated with “impairment of balance, speech, vision, and reaction time.” Great, now I’ve got an excuse for being so sloppy. But there’s no law against writing drunk, so here I am cranking out a review. What was I saying? Wheee! – B.L.
[RATING: 10/8] [ q3ats.com ]

Source: Wired Magazine – Gadget Lab – June 28, 2005

She is never quite sure when it will happen.

Sometimes it’s first thing in the morning. Sometimes it’s after she comes home from a friend’s house at night. Once it happened when one of her best friends was over and the two were sitting quietly at the computer. Now matter what she’s doing, 15-year-old Taylor Hancock knows at any moment there is a chance her mother will hand her a plastic cup, send her to the bathroom to urninate in it, then dip little tabs into the liquid to check whether the ninth-grader has been using drugs. [Full Story]

View a PDF of the full article: The Wall Street Journal – Drug testing in your living room – June 2, 2005

AlcoHawk Elite » Cold temperatures can skew a breathalyzer’s reading lower; hot vice-versa. This tester uses a thermometer to gauge whether results will be funky and, if so, informs the user on the LCD.
$100 » q3ats.com

View a PDF of the article: Popular Science Magazine – Know Your Limits – April 2005