| I am a chemist, a recovering alcoholic, and have a pretty decent command of the literature available on ethylglucuronide (etg) testing. At present there is no known way to "beat" an etg test within the detection window of the compound. As with all drug testing, how long one remains positive depends on how much alcohol was used, when drinking was stopped, and what the cutoff level for "positive" is for the lab doing the testing. People often talk about metabolism being a factor, and while this makes intuitve sense, there is no published evidence that supports this idea.
The 80 hour maximum detection time is really for extreme cases. What does extreme mean? Well, if you're an alcoholic you're probably not happy having a few drinks. When I was drinking a good night would mean around 12 beers. Could I do this now and pass an etg test at 80 hours? Probably not, but I don't plan to find out.
From what I have gathered from the good published studies out there (not the web-basd opinion of those who don't really understand this stuff) I have come to the following conclusions: For an average person who has been sober but slips, a one time drinking event of a few drinks (meaning less than 4) will probably be positive on an etg urine test collected in the first 48-72 hours. With one drink, most people will probably pass in 24 hours. 4 or more drinks and you may get caught at 80 hours. After 80 hours I have only read of one person documented with a positive test at 7 days. That person's consumption was described as "very excessive." I'm not really sure what that means, but continuous drinking will give a very different test profile than a single drinking event. There have not been any studies that I can find on the effect of continued or repeated drinking.
The two gallon of water dilution method might work if the lab isn't testing for a etg/creatanine ratio. Creatanine is a compound naurally in urine, and if a sample is dilute, all they have to do is multiply the etc level times the factor of dilution as dictated by the cratanine level. If the lab is looking for dilution, they will find it, and you will fail.
Everyone who is in recovery knows that if a person slips the best thing to do is own up to it. I understand that is easier said than done, but without help most single slips will become more frequent until the person is caught or dead. That is the nature of our disease, guys. | 
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