Delorme SE battery life hypothetical

You could definitely get close. I've used my SE without tracking but only sending 1-3 messages a day, and I've been well over 1/2 battery after 4 days. I wouldn't be surprised if you could make it 12 days with only 4 hr tracking. Shut it off at night, even though it's not doing much.

If you wanted even less battery usage, you could just turn it on and manually send a tracking point once or twice a day.

Make sure you don't have it checking for messages, as that can use quite a bit of battery.

Seems plausible. For some reason I thought it would be easy. Is everyone that is using this bring batteries or solar panels??

oooops. Double post

Check out this post from 2014.

My recent experience with an inReach Explorer has been similar.

I'm new to this device and haven't thought my approach out very much. So, read with skeptical caution.

Since I was originally worried about battery life, I started out turning it on in the morning to send out my plan for the day, then I turn it off. Turn it on again to send a message when I'm camping for the night. If I make a drastic change in my plans, I'll turn it on to update people. The longest I've done this, is for 7 days, but I don't think I used more than 30% of my battery doing so and I sometimes left it on for a quite a while waiting for replies.

The way I figured it, is if I go missing between two points, finding my body shouldn't be very hard. If I'm not dead, and have at least one working arm, then I can turn it on and "text" for help.

I don't know how much power is really saved by powering it down, rather than setting the intervals farther apart. Maybe what I'm doing is totally pointless, or even uses more power.

My battery life is amazing. I've had it for 2 years at least. I just used it for 5 days. Sent one message during the entire time but checked for incoming messages 2-3 times each day and at the end of the trip still had 98% battery left. I power up and down each time I use it and keep the screen display on 25% in the shade or 50% if I'm in the sun. I also turn the sound functions off or way down. I don't use tracking though so it's not a clear answer to your question.

Just got a SE, but from friends who have them and suggested it, set everything to manual and power up and power down after use. They can easily go a week with dropping 2-3 points a day and sending a text in the morning and night.

I used the SE on my recent JMT hike. My battery lasted almost 7 days with 10 minute tracking and several messages each day. I did turn it off at night and rarely checked for messages. I think if you used 4 hour tracking, limited messages, and turned it off as soon as you stop for the day, the battery may last for 12 days. I carried a small Anker 5200mAh battery pack (4.5 oz) for recharging the SE and my camera. The battery pack charged the camera once and the SE twice.