Garmin inReach battery questions

Trying to decide between the mini and the explorer+. Biggest question/concern is battery life. I like to use a gps to navigate for long obscure approaches. So if I am periodically connecting to earthmates to check my route what is this going to do to the battery? Also is eathmates really that bad? Most of the info I’ve found online is just for maximizing the battery life by keeping everything off. I don’t really see myself needing to keep a charge for more than 3 days and I’m fine turning it off at night, but I also go hiking with my kids and do some long obscure approaches from time to time. My main reason for thinking the explorer+ is I don’t want the battery of my device (including phone for mini) dying on the way back in the dark when I may need it the most. Biggest reason for the mini is i will usually have a phone for pictures anyways  and the size/weight for long multipitch/adventure routes.

MP what say ye?

Earthmate runs on your phone, and uses the phone's GPS to find position on the map on your phone, it doesn't need an inReach at all. If you do connect your phone to your inReach, it'll use up more power of both for the Bluetooth connection. 

I would go with the inReach mini, and you can use whatever you'd like to navigate with your phone. Earthmate, Caltopo, Gaia, whatever you like best. Have a backup battery pack for the phone/inreach and you should be good to go for days. 

The plus for connecting an inReach mini to your phone is the ability to send and receive messages through the satellite network - it's annoying to read those messages on the mini and nearly impossible to type one out. I usually just have a bunch of presets and don't usually need to write a custom message out, so it's not a big deal. 

The two things I’d like to use in the inReach that the mini has is the dropping waypoints and the location sharing. The main reason for getting this is piece of mind for my wife so I’d want the location sharing turned on for 18ish hours for long approaches.

Anyone have experience with how the location tracking affects the battery life? Ideally I’d like 18-24 hours of tracking time out of that.

The interface seems to be the same as my old Garmin fortrex so I think I know what I’d be getting with the waypoints and limited tracking in the device itself. Ideally I’d like to be able to sync those to a topo periodically which is what makes me ask about the usability of earthmates. I’d really prefer to have all my tracking in compatible interfaces. 

Phil Sakievich wrote:

The two things I’d like to use in the inReach that the mini has is the dropping waypoints and the location sharing. The main reason for getting this is piece of mind for my wife so I’d want the location sharing turned on for 18ish hours for long approaches.

Anyone have experience with how the location tracking affects the battery life? Ideally I’d like 18-24 hours of tracking time out of that.

The interface seems to be the same as my old Garmin fortrex so I think I know what I’d be getting with the waypoints and limited tracking in the device itself. Ideally I’d like to be able to sync those to a topo periodically which is what makes me ask about the usability of earthmates. I’d really prefer to have all my tracking in compatible interfaces. 

I haven't used the location tracking function on the InReach Mini I use because it requires a higher monthly service cost or extra cost to enable at the lower plan rate. I do use the InReach primarily to keep my wife from worrying, so similar to you. I just ran the rogue river over 2 days, and sent a preset "checking in, all is well" a few times per day, and a, "made it to camp safely" two nights. These are set as pre-set messages with predetermined numbers/emails to receive them and are free at an unlimited amount per month, and they send the location each time. My InReach ran out of battery at about hour 40 of being on, checking for messages once in a while, and typing a few custom messages to work using the Earthmate App. I imagine using constant tracking for any amount of time will significantly decrease that battery life. This seemed typical for the use I get out of it over the last few years. So maybe just use the pre-set check in's to send location instead of continuous tracking? But, the messages don't always reliably send right away depending on location (dense forest, deep canyon, heavy cloud cover, ect...) I have wondered if the weight of carrying a battery pack to lengthen the mini's life, is the same weight combined as the larger InReach devices. 

Ryan O wrote:

 I have wondered if the weight of carrying a battery pack to lengthen the mini's life, is the same weight combined as the larger InReach devices. 

Yeah that is a good point.  I think one of the biggest pro's I see about a mini is keeping it on my harness during a long multipitch.  That's really the only time I would care about weight and bulk vs the explorer+. I don't really get out on long trips very often in this phase of my life.

Earthmate:   You are much better off relying on a different app for gps navigation on your phone.  Both Caltopo and Gaia GPS are recommended.

Battery:  I have had both inreach explorer and mini.   Both devices lasted many days on my work trips in the cascades and Denali.   I do not however enable tracking as I find it a pretty pointless use of the device so your mileage might vary.   I would just recommend bringing a small backup battery that you could then charge your phone if needed.    I now use the mini as I love the size of the device and I never found myself using the mapping capabilities of the explorer. 

Phil Sakievich wrote:

Anyone have experience with how the location tracking affects the battery life? Ideally I’d like 18-24 hours of tracking time out of that.

Well, it reduces it! But you can set how frequently it sends out a ping: every 15 minutes, 30 minutes, hourly - every 3 hours. The more time between, the longer the battery will last. You can make it work for days if the time between pings is long enough.

The interface seems to be the same as my old Garmin fortrex so I think I know what I’d be getting with the waypoints and limited tracking in the device itself. Ideally I’d like to be able to sync those to a topo periodically which is what makes me ask about the usability of earthmates. I’d really prefer to have all my tracking in compatible interfaces. 

Earthmate kind sucks for navigation (personal opinion of course), which is why I suggest the other apps, which both have downloadable maps you can use that'll work for you better. Everything can import/export GPX files, so compatibility isn't a big deal. 

A note about tracking: I think it's can be important data, as it can show your rate of speed, and intended course of action. Are you heading towards a big scary route, or down to camp? Are you moving fast or slow? Or are you moving at all? (Who says you're able to get to that inReach to fire off a message?). That track can act as an arrow to your present location.

It's a good piece of kit, however you decide to use it, and I hate literally everything.

I didn't realize the preconfigured messages also send your location. That seems like it would be sufficient for my needs

Ryan O wrote:

I have wondered if the weight of carrying a battery pack to lengthen the mini's life, is the same weight combined as the larger InReach devices. 

Probably more, honestly, but with the external battery pack, you have flexibility. What needs charging? Your inReach, your phone, your headlamp? (Someone else's x, y, or z?). I'd consider a small one anyways, just in case you DO get into a shit situation and now you're relying on your inReach to send AND receive info about your condition as the SAR gets there. Usually that takes a minute. 

Ryan O wrote:

 I have wondered if the weight of carrying a battery pack to lengthen the mini's life, is the same weight combined as the larger InReach devices. 

The larger InReach devices are going to need backup battery power on a multiday trip, especially if you use it to communicate with or send a lot of location data. An InReach Mini, a smartphone with EarthMate, CalTopo and GaiaGPS and different size battery packs depending on the trip works reasonably well for me.

I had a inreach mini.  The battery life was nowhere near what Garmin as advertised even after replacing the battery.  The software was buggy often failing too transfer messages to the phone.    I got a zoleo.  It is better in every way.  More reliable, much better battery life, software that works.

Use your phone and an mapping app such as gaiapgs or caltopo for navigation.  

climber pat wrote:

I had a inreach mini.  The battery life was nowhere near what Garmin as advertised even after replacing the battery.  The software was buggy often failing too transfer messages to the phone.    I got a zoleo.  It is better in every way.  More reliable, much better battery life, software that works.

I have a Spot Gen 3 and am considering replacing it with either the inreach or the Zoleo. What do you think of the 3 1-star negative reviews of the Zoleo over at REI?

https://www.rei.com/product/194833/zoleo-satellite-communicator

The inReach has a decent track record, the other two do not. If you are going to be relying on this device I certainly wouldn't go with Spot or Zoleo. Regarding battery life, for climbing approaches you are usually moving relatively slowly and a 10 minute tracking interval is reasonable. If you need finer tracking or more frequent uplink with your position then I would go with the Explorer for the better battery.

Marc801 C wrote:

I have a Spot Gen 3 and am considering replacing it with either the inreach or the Zoleo. What do you think of the 3 1-star negative reviews of the Zoleo over at REI?

https://www.rei.com/product/194833/zoleo-satellite-communicator

They are interesting and not representative of my experience.  Inreach and Zoleo use the same satellites so their ability to send messages should be similar.  Zoleo is a bit bigger than the inreach mini and I think it has a bigger antenna.  The Zoleo seems much more reliable at sending an receiving messages.  My inreach mini battery lasted 36 hours without tracking enabled and not sending or receiving any message even after replacing the battery.  My zoleo last about 5-7 days on 24x7.  Messages come through within 15 minutes of them being sent, my inreach often dropped messages and failed to relay messages to the phone about 80% of the time.  I wrote garmin an email with 7 bugs 2 years ago, no response and none are fixed as far as I can tell.  I think garmin only has one programmer who just keeps the app working with new OS releases.  Garmin bought the product from Magellian (?) or someone and have not improved on it since.   I went with the zoleo because it does not have a display so the developers had to make messages get from the device to the phone, there is no backup.  With the inreach and the little display the developers were lazy and did not make that work 100% of the time, or even 20% of the time in my experience.  

The 1st and 2nd negative review seems upset about Zoleo's abiltiy to provide a GPS position all the time.  I think to save battery it only acquires a GPS position when needed to send a message.  If you do not have a clear view of the sky that might not happen.  Apparently for check in messages it goes ahead and sends the check in without the GPS if it cannot get the GPS position quickly enough.  I guessing by the behaviour of my zoleo that it tries for 1 minute to get a GPS fix.  The reviewer says that Zoleo support said it tries harder if the messages is an SOS messages.  This probably means that if you pressed the SOS button it will leave the GPS receiver on until it gets a GPS location, hopefully transmitting the SOS immediately and then GPS as acquired.  Given his complaints I doubt he would be happy with a garmin inreach.

The 3rd negative review complains about battery life.  I had to modify the message check interval to 1 hour to get the 10 day battery life they advertise.  I get nearly a week ( maybe 5 days) with the check interval set to 12 minutes.  Zoleo has a continuous check mode which probably kills that battery in a day or two (I have not tried it).  I have an off grid cabin that does not have any cell or internet service.  When I get to the cabin I place the zoleo on the porch and my wife messages me as normal.  It just works.  The inreach mini did not work well enough to bother with. (my wife has a low threshold for things not working as expected :). )  

I have a bunch of friends with inreach minis.  In reach mini's seem to be a status symbol for backcountry people.  My experience was the worse of them all and some thought I had a defective unit.  That's why I replaced the battery.  Even so none of them get advertised battery life and turn the mini off when they are not actually wanting to send a message.  I just leave my zoleo on now and I am happier.  The only advantage I think garmin has is the preprogrammed messages which are free.  Zoleo does not have a corresponding free message via satellite.  The Zoleo feature that inreach does not have is that zoleo will message via cell and internet for free.  This is a big advantage for me because I turn off the zoleo when I get to the car. Any messages sent when the device is turned off show up whenever I have cell or internet service; with the inreach they show up the next time I turn on the device, often next month.  Zoleo messages can be longer, especially if both users are using the zoleo app.  Zoleo only sends messages to one destination; inreach can send to many destination but each destination address uses space for the message content so if you send a message to a dozen people you might only be able to send 1 character. 

I decided to go with the zoleo when I saw the amazon reviews for it were much better than the inreach mini.  Even on REI zoleo has 4.3 stars and inreach mini has 4.0 stars.  zoleo has 12% 1 star inreach 11.6% one star.   So those that like the zoleo are more satisfied that those who like the inreach mini, Those that dislike the zoleo seem to dislike it as much as those who dislike the inreach mini.

I agree with climber pat that the inreach app software is seriously buggy and has not improved at all in the last 3-4 years. I have only used it on Android, never iOS. It sounds like I have never had as much of a problem as Pat seems to have had, but I am still constantly frustrated with the app not being clear if messages have been sent because the circle icon would keep spinning for days, message history not syncing properly between the app and the unit, and other things. I have never considered any of these a safety issue, just annoyances to consider. Not 100% sure but I think the app is the same regardless of which inreach you have.

Never had a battery or software issue with the inreach mini. In fact I’m very pleased with battery life compared to the 62S. As others mentioned, you can stretch it out by pinging less frequently, and it’s not necessary to send messages through earthmate. I primarily use a map and compass to navigate and electronics as a sanity check. Before heading out I also recommend checking a website like spaceweather for any recent solar flares. the radiation emitted can cause your gps to seem buggy or malfunction.

Get the mini; you'll bring places where you wouldn't bring the larger one. If you need more battery, bring a battery pack, which can stay in the tent while you're out for the day.

I've been using the ACR Bivystick for a few months now and have been pretty happy with both battery life (a couple days in a medium resolution tracking mode) and in functionality. Potentially a much cheaper subscription if you are an occasional user as you can subscribe for a month at a time, and cancel with no fees or anything.   I haven't got much experience with the inReach so I can't really make a fair comparison in function.

Thanks all! I ended up going with the mini. I’m going to demo it around the house and nearby trails for a couple of weeks before going somewhere more committing but so far I’m pretty pleased. Similar experience to using my old fortrex 301 in terms of interface and size but with the messaging and potential phone pairing upgrades.