Delorme inReach Lock Failure

I have found the inreach very useful.  I carried an irridium phone (rented) for off trail trips in 2012 (WRR), 2013 (Sierras), 2014 (WRR), and 2015 (Alaska), but in Alaska one of the guys I was with brought an inreach, and when we needed to move our bush plane pickup we had no problems with the bush pilot (who also had an inreach), so I bought one and used it in WRR last year, and this year in Alaska we had two inreaches which was useful as the group split halfway through the trip (some people decided to go to a different backcountry strip and bail out early).

That being said, it does have a clunky interface and they could make it so much more functional than it is.  I had hopes that Garmin would do good things with it, but with the new models, I have lost hope in that.

I had been a Spot user for a very long time. A couple of years back I switched to DeLorme. I have used it on a handful or trips in the US, Alaska and Mexico. I have also carried an Iridium phone in Patagonia. DeLorme does work, but in a sense it combines the worst qualities of Spot and a sat phone. The communication channel is quite slow and “narrow”, like Spot, at the same time “getting a signal” with DeLorme is as difficult as with a sat phone.

Spot used to work everywhere, including some quite obscured canyons and trees. DeLorme needs pretty much unobscured view of the sky, 180 degrees. I once lost Spot in Utah for two weeks; somebody found it and returned to me, run over by a car. The device worked fine for 5 years after that, until I gave it away. DeLorme? The build quality is such that a sideways look could break it.

Based on my comparison of a sat phone, Spot and DeLorme and the issues with the UI, reliability and build quality, I am tempted to just get a sat phone. On my next Alaska trip, if a plane is involved, it’s sat phone only. On a low stakes trips DeLorme is probably fine.

“DeLorme needs pretty much unobscured view of the sky, 180 degrees.”

Not in my experience.  When in the woods, if I have about 30° of opening I will quickly get out a breadcrumb, location, or text out/in. Deep narrow canyons are a problem.

(An extended hand with fingers spread will span 10° to 15°.  Most of my time is spent around 40° +/- 5°.)

Note that I have, on occasions, with 180° of clear horizon, waited 10+ minutes for messages to come or go.

Not in my experience. When in the woods, if I have about 30° of opening I will quickly get out a breadcrumb, location, or text out/in. Deep narrow canyons are a problem.

I really had a hard time sending messages in a lightly forested area around Monterey, MX (Cumbres de Monterey). In general, it appears to closely match my experience with Iridium sat phone. The view of open sky is critical, much more so than Spot.

Anyway, I found something interesting (duh!):

https://www.iridium.com/products/types/Personal-Tracking

Essentially, Iridium is making the DeLorme type devices. Now I suspect that Delorme/Garmin simply re-package and resell the devices made by Iridium.

Interestingly, Iridium sells a unit that can pair with a cell phone, it appears (“Iridium Go”). https://www.iridium.com/products/details/iridiumgo

Anybody had any experience with these?

^^^

“Essentially, Iridium is making the DeLorme type devices.”

The first link takes me to a page that highlights “Partner Products”, and the description includes “… inReach satellite communicators from Garmin …”

My take is the products are made by others, and utilize the Iridium system.  What suggests that Iridium is making theses products?

The first link takes me to a page that highlights “Partner Products”, and the description includes “… inReach satellite communicators from Garmin …”

Edited: “NAL Shout”, made by NAL. 4 different devices.

Interestingly, I also looked into the prices. I paid $50/month in the past, but there’s also a $25/month voice offering with no minutes and prepaid cards with a limited expiration as well.

I seem to remember that the inbound texts were free on a sat phone, which was a life saver for receiving the weather forecasts. 15 vs 25, hmmm.

The sat phone admittedly is better if you have a real emergency or need to change plans, though you can do both with the inreach.

The inreach is cheaper initially and is less intrusive to use to check in at home, though I guess you can text with the sat phone.  If I remember correctly the iridium was 9.5oz and my inreach is 6.8oz.

If I remember correctly the iridium was 9.5oz and my inreach is 6.8oz.

I really liked extra batteries and a larger capacity battery for a sat phone. Agreed, the sat phone handset is larger, heavier and probably about as rugged as DeLorme.

I’ve used my Delorme Explorer for a couple of years in most of California including some canyons in the Sierra. While far from perfect, I’ve never had trouble sending and receiving messages or tracking.

I know several others who’ve been using multiple generations of Delorme communicators. I only got mine on their generally positive experiences and of course many online reviews here on BPL as well as other sites.

BTW my Explorer has the bug where it will turn on and send an SOS if the SOS button is pressed and held down even when the unit is powered off.
This is clearly a problem but I haven’t accidentally triggered it (yet).

All Iridium devices like the InReach, CerberLink, and Yellowbrick use an Iridium-built modem internally. These devices have other, major design differences. I’ve seen no evidence that Iridium builds all these devices.

My inReach SE has delivered track points and messages quite reliably in several heavily forested canyons in California.

If you need extra battery life, the inReach can recharge or run from an external USB battery pack.

Out of seven attempts to trigger SOS on my locked inReach SE, only one succeeded – and that was after pressing the button very hard for 10+ seconds. Less than perfect, but also not a common scenario. Never had it trigger accidentally in my pack. Not going to worry about it.

— Rex

My inReach SE has delivered track points and messages quite reliably in several heavily forested canyons in California.

In my experience it’s not a given even in wide open Utah. I have always been able to send out a message, eventually, but sometimes it takes a while and some searching and jumping around.

Based on what I have seen and what I hear about DeLorme, at this point I do not trust the device enough to tell my contacts that lack of communication indicates a problem.

The device obviously has issues (accidental SOS, for instance), but Garmin won’t even acknowledge it. They don’t have to. There’s not really a competition, so why. They can simply put a new case, add $100 to sticker and keep charging money.

Like I said, switching to a sat phone may be the only alternative, and it may be worth it at some point.

For now, I am stuck with DeLorme SE. I guess I need to make sure to pack it such that SOS won’t get pressed by accident.

I was on the fence about getting a Delorme, but this issue and Garmin’s response was enough to sway me to get a PLB instead. Much simpler and less things that can go wrong. And it’s way cheaper over the 5 year life!

Skurka has even posted on this topic.

I do not trust the device enough to tell my contacts that lack of communication indicates a problem.

Any communication device, including a satellite phone, can fail at any time for many, many reasons. Standard recommendation to people at home is “no news is no news, do not send SAR unless I’m overdue or send an SOS.”

— Rex

The sat phone admittedly is better if you have a real emergency or need to change plans, though you can do both with the inreach.

I have to disagree here. I’ve had to use a satphone during an actual emergency twice – once it worked great, the other time I spent a couple hours trying to get connected before I got a good enough signal. The Inreach will occasionally have trouble getting texts out, but at least I can write a text then just let the device keep trying until it gets out. With the sat phone you have to physically attempt to make the call over and over until it goes through.

So despite it’s flaws, in an emergency situation I would rather have my Inreach over a sat phone. We’ll see if that changes if I ever have to use it for an SOS. I also prefer it over a PLB – I have a friend who works SAR in the Grand Canyon and she hates PLBs, because they have no idea of what to expect, nor how urgent the situation is. So they may take unnecessary risks to evacuate a person who doesn’t need urgent help, or they may show up and not have what they want for the situation.

I’ve had to use a satphone during an actual emergency twice – once it worked great, the other time I spent a couple hours trying to get connected before I got a good enough signal.

The Iridium website talks about “short burst data”, which I guess may be easier to get working than a sat phone voice connection, but otherwise it’s the same network and same satellites, hence I would anticipate same issues. I prefer the immediate feedback of a sat phone to uncertainty of a DeLorme. In fact, I always have trouble telling whether anything has been sent or not.

This is not to mention an additional failure prone link of a call center. I’d rather deal with my dedicated contact, then rely on a third party.

Any communication device, including a satellite phone, can fail at any time for many, many reasons. Standard recommendation to people at home is “no news is no news, do not send SAR unless I’m overdue or send an SOS.”

Uh… not that simple. Depends on where you are, alone or with a group, what you do, whether you have redundancy, whether you can abort on comms failure, etc. With DeLorme I can’t even put lack of comms into the “exceptional situation” category.

Just dug my inreach out to reactivate for solo winter hiking. Just tested it and, Wow… that really is easy to trigger. Glad it never auto triggered on the PCT since I sure wasn’t that careful. I will definitely be taping a piece of hard plastic over that button for insurance.

I gotta eat some crow here/apologize to Delorme because I reported my InReach SE as defective, but it’s actually fine.

I thought I had the lock “clicked” into place when I tried it before because it makes a little noise when I slide it, but recently I realized that this wasn’t the real click. There is a much more re-assuring click right at the end of the stroke, and with this properly clicked, I can’t get the SOS button to trigger.

So my InReach SE is fine. I do need to be careful to properly lock it, but with this done I feel comfortable trusting it.

ha, ha, Dan

It sounds like the switch is poorly designed not to be more obvious : )

Just in case you missed this –

The new model has a cover. Imagine that!

That’s a great idea! I’ve often stood around holding my Inreach to the sky, wondering why they didn’t make it with a flat base.

Be thankful for this design feature, otherwise you would set it on a rock or log and hike off without it. -Well, at least I would. 

And predictably, it also got heavier- 7.5oz.

Sigh.

Yeah it’s a bummer the new Garmin version of the InReach doesn’t appear to be better in any way – well I guess the screen is slightly larger. Mostly it seems like Garmin took the opportunity to cut costs by sharing parts with their other devices.

Yep. Mine does it to. Took pretty good pressure though. That sucks.

I’ve never sent a message from mine except with it laying on it’s back. It’s always worked fine. And I’ve always just sent it from wherever I was camped. Often from under my shelter. No issued getting messages out for me.