Another Mini and Battery topic about poor battery life

WD over 5 years ago

So what kind of battery life are people seeing? This link to Garmin's Support page gives estimates, but I'm nowhere close.

Expected Battery Life of inReach Garmin Models

Yesterday on a hike yesterday of about 3.5 hours (3:22 to be exact), I used 13% battery. I was, for sake of comparison, in the extended tracking mode. While I did not choose extended tracking, I had ANT and BT off, no on-device logging, and upload every 10 minutes of position. During the hike a sent two preset messages, and received one response. While I was in the woods, the skies were pretty clear, as no tree cover with leaves. And the Mini seemed to stay connected.

That equates to 14.8 minutes per 1% of battery. Thats 24.6 hours. That doesn't even come close to the above link, and NORMAL CONNECT TO MOBILE usage, with logging, of 35 hours.

I also have an Explorer+ and it just seems much more efficient. In my experience, the Mini is just not even close.

I was curious what others are seeing while out and about.

0 twolpert over 5 years ago

Honestly, I don't track it. Power consumption varies considerably depending on conditions as well as device settings. I suspect I do not see anything approaching the listed maximums. Everybody's experience is different, and probably differs from day to day.

With regard to your specific experience: Note that your settings are NOT equivalent to extended tracking. In particular, the device is still performing message listens. I believe current f/w still periodically performs passive listens. It will also attempt to perform an active message check once an hour (in addition to the checks inherent in track point and message sends). I believe that sending and receiving messages also invokes a short period (10 minutes or so, IIRC) of much more active message checking. This is an attempt to make messaging more "conversational" - but it burns battery.

You don't mention your backlight settings - either brightness or timeout. This also matters since the backlight is a power hog.

Finally, tree cover can be important, but mostly only if you have wet deciduous leaf cover or heavy cover by certain evergreens. Sky condition is generally a second- or third-order contributor. Anything which blocks the sky view - such as steep hills, bluffs, narrow slots, etc. is more important. As is the location and manner in which you carry the device. Can't tell from your post if any of that is relevant.

Edited to add: As you know, the battery on the Explorer+ and similar models is much larger.