We used a Garmin InReach Explorer+ on our recent 3 day trip. Overall, I felt it worked very well and some friends who had offered to cook us dinner after the trip appreciated the message that we were back at the EP, especially because there were thunder storms that morning.

I also sent our cat sitter a text and she was able to respond to it. So, we could have been alerted to emergencies back home (not sure that is a good thing, though!). Those two messages (and one received) were the only ones I sent.

The battery life wasn't as good as I expected. I probably turned it on about 8AM Monday morning and off again around 1PM on Wednesday. That's a total of 53 hours. During that time, I was only tracking for about 6 hours on the default settings (10 minute send interval and 1 minute storage interval). I should be able to track on those settings for 100 hours. At 53 hours with 6 hours of tracking and 3 messages, I had dropped from 100% to 37% battery. Even if I tracked the whole time, I should have been at around 50%.

There are a number of settings I could try to make the battery life longer such as having it go to sleep between the 10 minute sends, longer send intervals, longer intervals between checking messages, and maybe turning off the bluetooth because I wasn't using the Earthmate app.

FYI, I tracked down the battery capacity online and it is 2900 mAh. I had to track that down online because Garmin support couldn't or wouldn't tell me. So that helps with planning on solar or storage batteries for longer trips. Also on longer trips, I might just keep it off. My wife's garmin gps gets great battery life and we don't really need the communications other than emergencies or pickups.

I'm curious what sort of battery life other people have gotten.

Sorry not much help. I have the Delorme version and I just used it to do preset messages 3-4x daily to communicate my location to family and get weather reports . After 5 days it was still at 98% battery but it was only on maybe a total of 2-3 hours the entire trip.

T

I appreciate knowing it does so well in that mode. I could see using it sparingly like that.

I just charge daily off a Anker brick and don't really worry about it.

How big of a brick do you carry?

timatkn: "Sorry not much help. I have the Delorme version and I just used it to do preset messages 3-4x daily to communicate my location to family and get weather reports . After 5 days it was still at 98% battery but it was only on maybe a total of 2-3 hours the entire trip.


T"

I also have the older version, use it sparingly, and have not gone below 90-percent battery on four to six day trips.

andym: "How big of a brick do you carry?"

Copied from Amazon:
Anker Astro E1 5200mAh Candy bar-Sized Ultra Compact Portable Charger (External Battery Power Bank) with High-Speed Charging PowerIQ Technology (Black)
I used to carry one 3 times its size but realized the overkill.

Thanks for all the tips. I will experiment with some of the power bricks we have. Its either that or use it sparingly once the battery gets a bit low to be sure of having power for emergencies. And that’s the main point.

I bought mine brand new in early June. On our trip at the beginning of July, the battery would drop about 12% per four hours of tracking. I kept it turned completely off when we weren't tracking, except that I'd turn it on briefly in the evening to check weather. We wouldn't have *quite* made our whole seven day trip on a single charge, but we definitely could have gotten away with only topping it off once. I have it set to log every minute, and upload every ten minutes. I use a GPS running watch and I have to say I was blown away at how good the battery life on the Explorer+ is, but I guess it's all relative to expectations.

Abbey: "

timatkn: "Sorry not much help. I have the Delorme version and I just used it to do preset messages 3-4x daily to communicate my location to family and get weather reports . After 5 days it was still at 98% battery but it was only on maybe a total of 2-3 hours the entire trip.

T"

I also have the older version, use it sparingly, and have not gone below 90-percent battery on four to six day trips. "

I also have the Delorme version. I do not use mine for tracking, only for sending messages when needed. On my two week Trinity Alps trip, my buddy and I would nightly send messages. The battery never went below 80%. I don't feel the need to bring a brick with it.

I have a brand new unit. My battery life was incredible on my June trip.
40% after 5 days. Reached the whole time. Sent 10+messages.

Anker charger for backup incase I killed it. Charger is smaller than my cell phone. Will recharge cell phone 3 times.

I have a brand new unit. My battery life was incredible on my June trip.
40% after 5 days. Tracked the whole time, until going to bed for the night. Sent 10+messages.

Anker charger for backup incase I killed it. Charger is smaller than my cell phone. Will recharge cell phone 3 times.

Sounds like you got close to the advertised battery life while I was a bit short. I’ll do some testing with my unit and see how it does on a simulated trip. Seems like either carrying a small brick is a reasonable way to go or just using it for messages.

To be clear, I am happy with the unit. It worked great and even with a brick it is far lighter than carrying a sat phone.

Maybe a silly question, but is the InReach unit subject to something like the drain on a cell phone looking for a tower if it can't connect to a satellite?

I know there are times when you're in the thick of it that a GPS unit can't find a sat signal.

the manual doesn’t discuss that but I would suspect that it is the case that satellite availability is a factor. However, I never had any problems when I tried to send a message. But I didn’t do much of that.