We bought inreach mini on internet, through REI. We played with it and learned how to move thru the menues, then charged it to 100%. It was 5:30 pm. I laid it on the table with it on.

I got up late the this morning at 6am since i am retired now,,looked at the inreach and the battery stated only 1% left! 13 hours sucks! Would need to be a pretty fast paddler to use it.

It was inside my house which has a metal roof, so probly not connected to satellites, and blue tooth was turned on. Bluetooth turned on was the only thing changed from original configuration.

I am charging it now. I will lay it outside after charged to see if the reason for short bat life was it was always searching for satellites which was draining battery. If that wasn’t the cause i guess it goes back. Can you return stuff to rei store that was bought online?

That’s a bummer, maybe a bad battery in yours. Yes you can return it to REI, just need your member number and they can track it from there. I would make a call to them.

I would test it some more. If it was "looking" for a satellite all night inside the house it would for sure kill the battery. Searching for a satellite uses up battery fast!

I have an older InReach SE and the battery will last me a full week but I also am careful with it. I send tracking points every 20 - 30 minutes normally and send one or two texts per day. I turn it off at night and when in camp, although it's always within reach. When I am paddling it is in a waterproof Pelican case with a clear lid on top of a pack with a carabiner attached to the pack. This way it doesn't have to search for a satellite.

Play with it and learn how to use it. I try not to use the Bluetooth feature on mine because I will inevitably forget to turn it off and every feature on a device like this uses power. Bring an Anker 20,100 power brick with you.

Decide what the main purpose is and plan for it. If your primary objective is to use it for emergencies then there is no reason to use Bluetooth or to link it to a phone or tablet, or to leave tracking points (although they would help in an emergency). If your primary purpose is for navigation, well... it will let you down because it's not designed for that. If your primary purpose is for two-way communication then leave it off and turn it on when you want to send or check messages. Although I like to send tracking points and messages, my primary purpose is for emergencies and weather reports. I do everything I can to save battery power for that primary purpose. One other thing, don't leave it on the end of a portage while you go back for another load. Carry it with you at all times.

I think you should get 100 hours of battery life out of it per charge.

Pretty much the life I would have expected, but I have been using such gear for a very long time. Don't blame the unit, consider what your expectations are. Did you change settings or use default (tracking method time vs distance, logging intervals, messaging)? Did you charge it fully before testing.

Personally I would not consider the "Mini" for other than day/weekend hiking trips because of it's battery capacity. The full size unit is not much larger or expensive, and has been proven for longer trips by BWCA.COM members. The full size unit also accepts AA bateries.

butthead

PS; Need to correct, the Inreach did use AA batteries, the Delorme version and the early Garmins did. Now apparently a sealed battery unit. bh

I wish they still used AAs. Lithium AAs are awesome for camping.

Definitely try it outside. I’ve been meaning to do that too. It may not use battery as fast as when moving though. In some modes it only sends waypoints if it is moving.

I had a thread about battery life for my Inreach Explorer+. I still like it but will carry a backup battery for recharging on trips longer than a few days.

You can definitely return to the store. One of my friends has the mini and likes it. But they do a lot of short trips. I’d want to experiment with the texting to see how convenient it is without a phone attached. Could you reasonably communicate in an emergency?

I just used an inReach Explorer + for a six week trip, sending out current positions only every two days, and a dozen or so text messages. At the end of the trip, I still had 80% battery life left. I had a couple of USB charge packs which I never had to use (except for my Kindle). For sporadic GPS use (verifying location on paper maps, and saving daily camp waypoints), and rarely for navigating, I had a Garmin eTrex 20--first set of batteries lasted over three weeks. For both units, I always turned them off when not using--I didn't save any tracks, etc. It's important to use the proper tool for the job, and realize their strengths and weakness. The inReach was for emergencies and communication, and the eTrex was navigating.

Looks like it was the satellite searching at fault. It has set outside all day now and only shows about 20% battery used. I’ll check it in the morning again.

Change your screen brightness to the lowest setting, turn off Bluetooth, if tracking is turned on, don't let it ping your location often.

I just looked at it. The battery indicator on the screen looks the same as yesterday. That first 20% left quick, but overnight it seemed like it did not use any!

That shows it used all the juice trying to find satellites like you guys mentioned.

False alarm! I should have played with it more before i got excited. My fault.

I will leave it outside and keep reporting on battery life as it drops though just for sh*** and giggles.

Thanks

Checked it again this morning. Down to 50%

Maybe test it the way it'll be used on a trip, where it won't be on all the time. . . ? It seems it's been on quite a few hours now and still has 50% battery left.

But it hasn’t been moving. That may save it some power.

I'd charge it up full and then simulate a trip... Turn on tracking for 5-6 hours, and go about your business with it attached to you, walking, driving, flying your ultralite, etc. Turn off tracking, send an OK or two, then shut it down.
I think it's good to get an idea of expected runtime, but just leaving it in one spot isn't necessarily re-creating the conditions of a trip.

mirth: "I'd charge it up full and then simulate a trip... Turn on tracking for 5-6 hours, and go about your business with it attached to you, walking, driving, flying your ultralite, etc. Turn off tracking, send an OK or two, then shut it down.
I think it's good to get an idea of expected runtime, but just leaving it in one spot isn't necessarily re-creating the conditions of a trip."

Probably true. I will leave it on until it goes dead this time, then charge it and simulate a real trip.

My wife insists on taking this, and wants assurance it will last the whole trip. She only wants sos capability and does not care about anything else. I guess i tease her with too many bear stories, busted up canoes, and broken necks, ect. She is easy to make nervous. I probably shouldn’t do that, but entertainment is hard to come by during the work week. She did volunteer to buy it after some good situations were planted in her mind. Lol,,

If you just want SOS capability then do the following:
1) turn it on and make sure it is locating itself once you get near your EP (as in Ely for that whole area). GPS devices locate faster when they haven't moved a long way since their last fix. It can take a few minutes for one to reorient itself after a plane flight, for instance.

2) make sure it is charged.

3) turn it off and leave it off unless you need it.

In the thread about the Inreach Explorer+, people said that the devices were still at about 98% after trips of a week to 10 days.

If having it means that you also want to take advantage of the other fun features like tracking then carry a backup battery to recharge it.

I can't blame her, especially if she's going out of her comfort zone or there are other details specific to your situation. I mean, you're bringing in ice for your drink and ice cream after all.

If she only wants SOS then the only thing I'd recommend doing differently would be to leave it on all the time and just go about your business with it on you for the period of time of your trip. Only modification I would suggest would be to leave it where it has a decent view of sky most of the time, don't bring it inside under the roof where gps signals are blocked and it will burn more battery searching for satellites.

A battery pack is probably something you're already considering bringing, to keep other gadgets topped up... This is just another gadget to charge with it.

I am eager to carry icecream, but no other gadgets will need charged. My night vision runs 40 hours on 1 AA battery and we won’t take phones. I do have a gps i bought but might not take it since we are just going in a circle. I do have an anker brick, but if this mini will last 4 days I won’t take it either. Still debating on whether to carry a thermal device, but probly will take that too. It runs on batteries too, no charging,, so the mini is all that needs to make the 4 days.

You can always pick a battery level, such as 20% left and when it gets to there turn it off to save the rest for an emergency. Otherwise, even the smallest backup batter will charge it back up.

Down to about 10% by the battery indicator.

So, that's about how many hours of run time . . . ? It seems like it's been on quite a while.

boonie: "So, that's about how many hours of run time . . . ? It seems like it's been on quite a while. "

I turned it on and set it outside at 7am on 8-26, so it has about 78 hours on it so far, setting still in one place, no tracking or bluetooth on.

Thanks for testing it!

I'm very pleased with the mini. I have only used it on a 5 day solo trip earlier this month where I turned it on in the evenings to check in using the earthmate app.
GPS signal was found quickly, messages and weather updates were fast and the battery would have easily lasted a week or two only being turned on a for 15-30 minutes/day.

Just remember to suspend your service when you don't plan to use it for a month if you are on the month to month plan. :)

Don't forget to program your 3 free messages.
1. Out of ice please send more!
2. Out of ice cream please send more.
3. Out of TP please send more, and hurry!

Northwoodsman: "Don't forget to program your 3 free messages.
1. Out of ice please send more!
2. Out of ice cream please send more.
3. Out of TP please send more, and hurry!"

Lol,,nobody to send messages too,,she is going with me.

It died at 5:34pm. That makes approx 82-1/2 hours if my math is correct.

That is quite a difference from when it searched for satellites all night.

We reprogrammed our quick messages from their rather happy ones such as, “having a great time, wish you were here,” to things about various levels of medical emergencies.

The three completely preset ones were used for messages about starting and ending the trip for the friends who had offered us dinner when we got back.

But with these devices, you probably could run a delivery business on the number lakes and some of the other large EP lakes.