Spot Tracker Gen3 battery life?

[Scott Burnett]

Anybody have first hand experience on the battery life of these? I keep seeing the same numbers bandied about but without any source. I plan on 10 min. tracking while hiking about 9 hours a day and send an ok message to my family once a day.
How long the batteries last will help me decide on extra batteries, external battery source, or some kind of charger.
Would appreciate any information you may have.

[Zorg Zumo]

I can tell you that the 1st Gen will exceed 100 hrs on 2xAA Lithiums.

2×2900 = 5800mah versus 4×1200 = 4800mah. So I'm gonna guess that worst case the Gen 3 will do about 80hrs on a set of batteries, or about 9 days at your usage rate. Since power consumption is typically always an area for improvement, I think my estimate is pretty conservative given the 5 year product development difference between Gen1 and Gen3.

I'm interested in this too as I am going to upgrade to the Gen3 in a couple months.

[Scott Burnett]

"With a clear view of the sky and a single set of Lithium 8x batteries, the following battery life can be expected (assuming ~9hrs of constant movement per day):
2.5min Interval: 20 days
5.0min Interval: 25 days
10min Interval: 45 days
30min Interval: 50 days"

This is the prediction I see repeated frequently online. However, I haven't found many people who have tested the Gen3 long term under real conditions with the tracking interval I intend to use (10 min.). Still, if it gets half that it won't be too bad to carry a single set of replacement batteries since 4 of the lithium AAA weigh about an ounce.

[Zorg Zumo]

Gen3 hardware quality seems pretty good this time. Gen2 had a big faux pas at launch, requiring a recall. I've been reading the user comments/reviews at REI & Amazon and so far so good. And the recall was due to excessive power consumption.

The addition of one more AAA was an improvement as was powering from USB. There's a sporting goods store grand-opening this week and one of the clerks informed me of a 100% rebate on Gen3 SPOT. Hope it is true as I'd love to upgrade, especially for free.

[Author]

Posts