Which InReach plan do you use?

[xziang]

I leave it on all day when I'm hiking and hunting. Only time I shut it off is at night. Always cool to log into the map once home to plot your path and where you went etc, also allows family members to 'ping' your location with where you are at too.

 

[dotman]

I use the unlimited plans during hunting season and just don’t worry about how many messages are sent, after hunting season I just put it in a no plan state. I also always leave it on during the day, battery life is really good, 4-5 days easy. I recharge it and my phone every 3rd day.

 

[william schmaltz]

Any guys out there that use these for 10 - 15 day trips have anything to add on battery life? That is my big hold out on these. My main uses for this device would be recovery of my body and communicating with pilots. I REALLY don't like that I can't just throw in new batteries or a battery pack. A lot of times sheep hunting you can do 10+ miles a day and at any time need to disappear in and out of the alders. I'd like to keep doing incremental pings on me for that reason. Never know when you step into the alders and that's where you go down. They're never gonna find you if you don't have it updating your location ever now and then.

I also don't want to leave it in this mode and have no battery at the end of the hunt when I'm trying to get a pilot in. When you're limited to 50 pounds to live for two weeks, I really don't want to waste a couple pounds on a solar charger.

So, can anyone speak to using one of these for two weeks in "breadcrumb" mode so they can find my corpse before it's mostly just piles of grizzly crap?

 

[weaver]

I doubt you'll get 2 weeks out of one if you have it tracking you all the time.
I can easily get 2 weeks out of mine but I only have it on once or twice a day to check for messages.

Sent from my XT1635-01 using Tapatalk

 

[idelkslayer]

You do not need to have your Inreach on tracking mode for someone to ping your location. If the device is on, then anyone that you give access to your account and map information can log on and ping your location anytime they want.

So if you miss your daily check in, your wife can log in and ping your location. If for example she sees that your current location doesn't match the location of your camp and you don't respond to a text, she would know you are laying face down in a puddle of your own blood. Or if you are being more mobile and don't have a base camp she would be able to see that you haven't moved in over a day and aren't responding to texts. In either case, a body bag is on its way.

If I leave my inreach during the day and turn it off at night I think I would get more than 10 days. There are also many lightweight and small mobile battery packs that can be used to charge an inreach.

 

[cnelk]

I too have the $15/mo Freedom plan for most of the year. Aug - Nov, I go Unlimited Plan.

There are ways to save message overages on the Freedom Plan.
On Pre-Set messages, mine say something like this:

'Just checking in All OK no need to reply'

If you need to communicate, you get 160 characters per message so be sure to get the most of each message, and tell your recipients that too.

Here is a message that has 158 characters [with spaces]

allok. havingfun. seeing some animals. missed a shot at big one. weather good.Cold at nite. moving camp tomorrow. I will txt again tomro eve. No need to reply

Battery life:
In my testing, if you leave on in 'Standby Mode', the battery depletes approx 12%/day. Thats with sending one txt per day.

I leave my unit off until I need it.

I took mine to Alaska fall of 2016 for my moose hunt. 9 days later it still had 15% battery