Can you depend on your In-Reach?

Mark Knapp

Mark Knapp

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Dec 20, 2009
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This fall, while working in the Brooks Range (guiding), about one week into a one month stay in the mountains my In-Reach quit working. It didn't get wet, it had about an 85% charge on it when I hooked it up to a solar charger to top it off. It was a rare sunny day so everyone was charging the electronics. After a couple of hours I tried to power it up and it wouldn't turn on. It's about 3 or 4 years old and hadn't given me a problem till then.

So, there I was in one of the most remote places in North America and my In-Reach doesn't work. If I was alone (I often am) and got hurt, I might have had a problem. The good news was, on this trip, I wasn't alone and I was able to use the company Sat. phone to call my wife and have another In-Reach sent out.

Just a cautionary tale, if you place all your hopes of survival on an In-Reach or similar product, you could have a problem. The batteries can go bad, they can get wet, the conditions might be such that charging is not possible and, sometimes they just quit working. Carry them and use them but have some kind of contingency plan if it doesn't work, like some survival gear, some knowledge, and some skill. All things break down and one thing is certain, it's going to break down while you are using it, not while it's sitting on your gear shelf in the garage. You might need to take care of yourself or your crew until someone can find you.
 
That's a real worry.

Are you going to send it back and have them tell you what failed?
 
I have heard some reports of problems with those units, but that's also true of competitors. There were more negative reports with the older DeLorme In Reach. I believe that a few more years of improvement by Garmin will turn these devices into real winners.

Dave
 
Always worth the reminder that electronics are fallible.
Right now I've got a gen 1 and a gen 2 SPOT sitting decommissioned on the work bench both with intermittent transmitting failures. When the subs run out on the rest, I don't think we'll be re-upping. We got a garmin due to its higher capabilities, and its always paired with an EPIRB, so we will probably go with those as it allows us to no longer carry a sat phone as well.
Always good to have a check-in contingency and an a response plan, eggs in baskets and all that. The good news is that when I decommissioned two of our expired Epirbs, one two years over its best before date (it had been stashed in the bottom of a filing cabinet, not in use) they both still tested well, though I doubt the batteries would have held for more than a few hours.
 
DWK2 said:
I have heard some reports of problems with those units, but that's also true of competitors. There were more negative reports with the older DeLorme In Reach. I believe that a few more years of improvement by Garmin will turn these devices into real winners.

Dave
Click to expand...

I have the newest version and it's much better than the first one but things can go wrong with electronics. Batteries go bad, the units get wet, sometimes conditions are such that charging is not possible. No matter how good they are or how good they get, I wouldn't want to bet my life on one. Use a GPS, but have a map and a compass and know how to use them. Carry a Personal Locator Beacon of one kind or another but also be ready to take care of yourself if something fails. In-Reaches are great because they are all things wrapped up in one but you wouldn't want to be totally dependent on one if thing go bad.
 
What would be nice to know is whether the manufacturers subject these units to HALT/HASS testing and screening. (I did some of this for my work one year) We buy them expecting that they are life-saving devices which should have a very high standard of reliability. But how do the manunfacturers look at them? Toys? Nice-to-have? Life-saving? It's hard to know.

As always it's best to have a backup plan and to try to avoid being in the situation where you even need Plan A or Plan B.
 
I have a PLB from ACR. When on a lengthy wilderness trip, I often rent a satphone too. A lot of good advice here. ;)

As an aside, our group has agreed to limit satphone use to emergencies. We feel that calling the office, home or friends undermines the wilderness nature of the trip. But that's simply personal preference. Others may feel more comfortable checking in frequently.

Dave
 
unimogbert said:
What would be nice to know is whether the manufacturers subject these units to HALT/HASS testing and screening. (I did some of this for my work one year) We buy them expecting that they are life-saving devices which should have a very high standard of reliability. But how do the manunfacturers look at them? Toys? Nice-to-have? Life-saving? It's hard to know.

As always it's best to have a backup plan and to try to avoid being in the situation where you even need Plan A or Plan B.
Click to expand...

Well, Garmin, the manufacturers of the In-Reach sell it as a life saving device. It has an SOS feature on it and if that button is pushed, helicopters come. I can buy (and do) the service where all medivac costs are paid.
 
DWK2 said:
I have a PLB from ACR. When on a lengthy wilderness trip, I often rent a satphone too. A lot of good advice here. ;)

As an aside, our group has agreed to limit satphone use to emergencies. We feel that calling the office, home or friends undermines the wilderness nature of the trip. But that's simply personal preference. Others may feel more comfortable checking in frequently.

Dave
Click to expand...

We use our Sat. phone only for emergencies too, our hunters however do at times bring their own phones and call the office or wife everyday.
 
I talked to Garmin yesterday. The very nice lady there, Kimberly, asked if I had tried to charge it after I got home. No, didn't. So I did and guess what, it charged and runs like normal now. Apparently, Due to some malfunction, the charger drained my battery instead of charging it. I had tried several different chargers, batteries and cords while still in the woods and nothing worked. Naturally after I bought a new one and got home, the old one started working again.
 
Backup unit. I've had USB cords go bad that way before, so its worth testing them out to see if you had a bad one, or if one of your chargers acts like its charging even if its turned off (had that happen as well).
 
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