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Unpowered battery life question

Hi Everyone, got a question about inReach Mini battery life.  I've read previously posted threads about battery life, and don't believe this question is a dupe.

My Mini was purchased brand new just before Thanksgiving.  I last used it in the field on Thanksgiving weekend.  It was recharged completely after that trip before being put away.  Tried powering it up about a week ago and, to my surprise, it was completely dead (as in, it wouldn't power up at all without a charge).  I found the complete discharge while *unpowered* to be odd, so decided to do some testing.

Settings: Send interval (Off), Log interval (Off), Auto track (Off), Extended tracking (Off), Brightness (50%), Backlight timeout (30 sec), Bluetooth (On), ANT+ (Off).

Test method: Charge completely, turn Mini on a 2-3 times a day for just about 10 seconds (just to glance at and record battery percentage value), turn unit completely off.  Unit kept at room temperature at all times.

After being completely unpowered for just 9 hours after full charge, battery percentage was down to 93%.  32 hours after full charge, battery percentage down to 80%.  56 hours after full charge, battery percentage down to 66%.  80 hours after full charge, battery percentage down to 56%.

Again, this is with the unit powered on for just about 10 seconds to record battery percentage then immediately turned back off.

The rate of discharge while unpowered is concerning, and appears to fall extremely short of Garmin's "1 year" unpowered battery life spec.  Lithium-ion batteries don't normally have this high of internal resistance.  This unpowered discharge rate doesn't inspire much confidence for field use, especially in an emergency situation when I'd want as much lifetime in reserve as possible.

Has anyone else had a similar experience?  Otherwise I'm thinking I have a defective unit that needs to be replaced.

Thanks!

  • with a fresh battery my inReach Mini can sit for a month and still have over 90% charge.

  • I've exactly the same issue,

    purchased my Garmin inreach mini last November (2019) and found it to deplete battery completely when powered off within several weeks.

    I've been in contact directly with Garmin support (case id:  16371714K1) for several months which didn't solve anything

    I've upgraded the firmware, reset to factory default as they asked and it still happening.

    I've lost completely my faith in Garmin and wasted 300$ on an expensive paperweight :(

    definitely won't rely on it when going out to the wild.

  • Hi , I reviewed the case you mentioned, I'm sorry nothing was solved through your interaction with Support. Please make sure your inReach Mini is on software version 2.80, to check: Go to Setup > About This Device > Firmware Version. If it's out of date, update it with Garmin Express. If the battery is still draining faster than expected, the inReach Mini may need to be replaced. If that's the case, you will need to contact your local Garmin Product Support to setup a replacement order. If you need direct assistance with this, please send me a PM and I can help you get in touch with the proper team for assistance.  

  • Does one really care if you void the warranty when you have a device that wont power on because of a dead battery?  Its absolutely worth replacing the battery and is super easy to do thankfully.  Just unscrew the back disconnect and replace with new one...  Never understand why companies act like it cant be done.. Oh wait, they just want you to buy another device...

  • Considering that I bought a brand new unit that is defective and Garmin promised to replace it (and never did - since February 2020) I don't see any reason to spend any more money on that **** company and pay even more on subscription. I've went with another solution since then and never going to buy Garmin in the future.

  • I'm sorry to hear you weren't able to resolve this with Product Support. I'm going to close this thread. If other users encounter issues with the inReach Mini battery, please contact Product Support for your country.