# Are consumer breathalyzers any good?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-consumer-breathalyzers-any-good/224236>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [January 13, 2004, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-consumer-breathalyzers-any-good/224236 "2004-01-13T05:50:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2004, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-consumer-breathalyzers-any-good/224236/1 "2004-01-13T05:50:15Z")

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Occasionaly I see consumer breathalyzers for sale (like [this](http://www.brookstone.com/shop/product.asp?product_code=290197) and [url=http://www.breathalyzer.net/consumer-breathalyzers.html]these]) are they any good? How accurate are they?

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**Author:** ![Daftbugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Daftbugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daftbugger)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2004, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-consumer-breathalyzers-any-good/224236/2 "2004-01-13T15:12:43Z")

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Ok, my policeman friend was talking about these in the pub on Saturday. The only problem with these is that they can be affected by any electrical equipment and possibly even your mobile phone. The police in England (well, I only know about Lancashire Constabulary) have had to go back to using crystals in a bag as their radio’s were affecting the digital breatlyzers.