Replaced my Inreach Mini battery

[Jerry Adams]

As discussed in another thread.  Started this just to be easier for someone to find.

My Inreach Mini is about three years old.

It started misbehaving.  I’d charge it.  Let it sit unpowered for a couple weeks.  Take it on trip and it was only 50% charged.

Or, it would say that it was 0% charged but if I powered it down, then back up it would say it was 60% charged.

Googling and info here led me to believe the battery needs replacement.

Video how to remove old battery:

I had to get a T5 torx screwdriver from Amazon – $10 for a set of T3 to T10.  Those are useful to have anyway.

Got the battery from Amazon.  My battery was #361-00114-00.  Amazon sold #010-01879-00 which it said was equivalent.

I replaced it.  Sent and received a message so it seems to work.

I’ll report back after my next trip to verify it really works for an entire trip.

[Jeff McWilliams]

I think it’s great they didn’t hermetically seal the unit so that the battery can be replaced.  I have a Delorme Inreach SE that’s still going strong.

[Jerry Adams]

Maybe a consequence of making a mini so small is the battery doesn’t have as long a lifetime.  Smaller battery or something.

I probably use mine more often than the average user so maybe mine wore out sooner

[Rex Sanders]

Lithium-ion battery design, like those inside the Mini or SE, involves many tradeoffs between capacity, charge cycles, volume, weight, and other factors.

Battery lifespan is usually specified in charge cycles – the number of times it can be recharged from 0% to 100% before dropping to about 70% of original battery capacity, with each fractional recharge (e.g. 50% to 100%) adding up. In my research, I’ve seen battery packs specified from 200 to 2,000 charge cycles. Usually it’s around 500.

And as you pointed out, the more you use a battery, the shorter the calendar lifespan.

I don’t know the charge cycle specs for the Mini or SE. Those numbers can be buried inside manuals, obscure web pages, or even more obscure regulatory filings – if available at all.

And besides – who keeps track of battery charge cycles? (Well, Apple sort of does for iPhones) The good news is you figured out what was wrong, and replaced yours for less money than buying new. Bravo!

— Rex

[Jerry Adams]

I sent and received a message successfully

Left it on for about 18 hours and it went from 83% charged to 15% charged – that’s probably good.

I recharged it but it didn’t charge at all.  Hmmm…

I put back the old battery, same thing, wouldn’t charge.  Took it apart several times.

Finally, I took the foam strip off the old battery and put it on the new battery at the same location.  This pushes against the connector to keep it connected.  I carefully pushed the connector in place to fully set it.  Then it started charging okay.

I’ll try it on a trip and verify it totally works.

[Jerry Adams]

On that other thread K said they called Garmin, then sent unit back and they fixed/replaced it.

One might conclude from my experience that replacing the battery is too much of a pain, just sending it back to Garmin is better

[Brad W]

Also, the disparity in battery quality of 3rd party vendors is too much to chance for such a valuable piece of gear.

[YoPrawn]

Also, the disparity in battery quality of 3rd party vendors is too much to chance for such a valuable piece of gear.

This. There are a lot of crummy 3rd party batteries on the market. For something that needs to save a person’s life in need, it might not be the best place to cut that corner. Thanks to Jerry for at least giving it a try and reporting on it. Maybe he might find it actually works very well and stays reliable.

[Jerry Adams]

Good points.  I’ll report back after I use it for a while, so far so good.

[YoPrawn]

Just curious, but how do you store your Inreach when not in use, Jerry? Do you ever let the battery go completely dead or does it always have a 40-60% charge in storage? Letting them go too low for too long causes resistance crystals to form in the battery and greatly affect the output and charging. I have some small Camera batteries that are over 12 years old and still hold a good charge due to keeping them stored at optimal charges.

[Jerry Adams]

Good point.  I try not to discharge it totally.

I always recharge when I get home.  It usually has at least 30% or 40% at that point.

Then, my next trip is usually a few weeks later.  It discharges down to maybe 80% so I charge it again.  It seems like the inreach slowly discharges even when it’s powered off.  You can’t remove the battery or anything.

If I was a better person, I wouldn’t charge it above 80% or so – that’s supposed to preserve battery lifetime also.

[YoPrawn]

Looks like you just plain, flat-out used the thing so much it died, eh?

It’s too bad not enough electronics are built to virtually eliminate all parasitic drain on the battery. I have a DJI Osmo Action camera than can sit with a battery in it for months and only lose maybe 10% charge, if that. Which isn’t far from what the spare battery loses outside of the camera unit. Where as I had a Sony a6300 camera that would drain 20% in an hour when turned off.

[Ray J]

I just noticed something on the Mini Owners manual.  When you plug in to charge it, it turns it on.  I charge at home so that’s not an issue.  The manual says after you plug it in to charge it, you can press and hold the power button to turn it off while charging.  Handy out in the field if you are charging off an Anker or Nitecore.  Plus it should charge faster since it’s not “running”.

[Jerry Adams]

I did not know that.  I’ll do that in the future.  Thanks.

Although I normally only charge it at home, but occasionally I have to charge it on a trip off usb power bank

[Rex Sanders]

https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/inreachmini/EN-US/GUID-739F2268-94BF-4F05-B775-17B87238AC0E.html

Very different from the setting for “Automatically Turning Off the Device,” which you might want or not.

https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/inreachmini/EN-US/GUID-3FA733B1-B61A-4732-A43D-C81FC4F92108.html

Same thing happens on the iPhones around here – plug them in, they turn themselves on. Must completely power off (not sleep), after plug-in, to conserve power while recharging, but they’ll still show a battery gauge on demand.

— Rex

[Jerry Adams]

I’ve now used this on several trips.  Recharged twice.  Sent and received messages.

Seems to be working okay.

It has the same problem it’s always had.  Charge to 100%.  Wait two weeks.  It now says it’s 85% charged.  Even though it was off all the time.  Typical of other electronic devices I’ve used.

[Roger Caffin]

Hi Jerry

That is ‘normal’. You see, ‘modern’ electronic devices can NOT be really switched OFF. To be sure, there is an Off button, but all that does is to power down some parts of the device. The electronics is still running and drawing power, so that when you press the On button it will spring back into life.

If you really want to turn the device OFF to save the battery, then you need to isolate the battery. Either an insulating strip at one of the terminals, or just remove the battery.

Um – if the battery is an embedded rechargeable one which can not be isolated, then you are stiff out of luck. The designers of the device have not given you that option.

Cheers

[Brad W]

Slight drain is normal. The battery even if isolated would self drain very slowly. The mini seems to lose bit more than the larger SE inReach-that will lose about 1-2% per 2-3 weeks powered off.

 

[Jerry Adams]

Yeah, not a big deal.  Just charge it within a few days of going, or charge it in the car on the way to trailhead.

For one trip, I noticed the day before it was low, so I charged it up completely overnight.  Then forgot to get it and bring it with me.  I now have the muscle memory to not forget it : )

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