Isle Royale Forums

Fortunately, I decided to test my inReach Mini a couple weeks before my last trip in June. It had sat unused for about 2 years. I was not surprised that it was dead, but was surprised that it wouldn't take a charge at all. The screen would only come on for a second, then go blank. After spending a significant amount of friendly phone time with Garmin support, they determined it was broke, offered to replace it for "only" $130, and Fedex'd it to me in time for the trip. Thankfully, it worked as it should--although I can't say that I've verified the SOS feature, thankfully.

I'm convinced it was a battery issue, since it went bad when it was off and sitting in the closet, and there is a known problem with older units that has supposedly been fixed (and can be fixed) with a firmware update. I was not thrilled that the replacement was refurbished, and they didn't tell me that on the phone. On the other hand, I suppose they could have just said, "Sorry, you have to buy a new one" since it was out of warranty.

So if you have one that is more than a couple years old, I would fully charge and update the firmware if you have not done so recently. And even so, I will make sure to charge it every few months from here on out. The lithium batteries should drain very slowly (I've read over a year), but I will make sure they don't get to zero again, even with the supposed fix.

There are several factors that affect the life of rechargeable batteries, lithium ion included. One factor that rates very high up on the scale of things to avoid is to store them for any extended period of time without being substantially charged. But constantly "topping them off" can also be detrimental at accelerating their aging (it depends a lot on the sophistication of the charger so I could easily understand how a software update might affect this). Lithiums are the most forgiving of being more deeply discharged than older technologies but allowing them to discharge very low should also be avoided when possible. $130 doesn't sound too bad considering it's about half that to pay Apple to replace the battery on an iPhone, considering they are exponentially more prolific.

I'm now on my way to find, charge and update my Inreach that's been sitting dormant for well over a year. Thanks for the heads up and reminder.

Good info, thanks Ingo!!