ChasingOurTrunks
Well-known member
Hi folks,
I'm on my usual month-long journey around Canada, and am just in the last week or so of my trip. Sadly, it'll all be done within a cell network, which is not quite what I planned. I'm posting this up in case others are, like me, depending on a Garmin In-Reach Mini for emergency communications in the backcountry.
We have used this device successfully since purchasing it last fall, and I really liked it. We used it to track our route into camp last night, and did our usual check-in message after tossing it on the dash. I messaged my dad a bit, and then went to bed with it at about a 75% battery. This morning, we woke up to a bright orange brick; I assumed the battery had died so we charged it for the morning while we drove. At lunch, still nothing, so I swapped cables and connected it to a fully charged portable battery pack that I keep handy. An hour later, nada. I then looked up how to do a factory reset (power, down, and back buttons) but no result at all, and I've tried multiple cables (all of which worked to charge it before - it's why I've got them with me; the original cable as well as one from a Blackberry that does both charging and data transfer). After all these attempts were unsuccessful, I've stopped in at a campground with wifi just so I could download the Garmin Express app to see if I could hard-reset it from the computer. All failed; it's a non-working paperweight. And not a very good one of those, either, because it's so small and light!
For nearly $500 for the device, and $30 a month, I expected a bit better, so I figured I'd post this for two reasons:
1) Does anyone have any other suggestions on how to fix this thing? I've tried contacting Garmin but they are closed until Monday and advised that I don't call until Tuesday because "Monday is busy"; also given Monday is a holiday I doubt they will be available and may not be able to get a result until mid-week.
2) I figured I'd warn folks that this happened to me. We used a SPOT device for nearly 7 years, and never had a hardware failure like this even though it was much more "rode hard and put away wet".
I also note - on the website, one of the "top solutions" describes my issue so that tells me I'm not alone in having this experience.
EDIT
I'm throwing this into the thread because Garmin just sent me a replacement device. I was certainly irritated that my original device failed, and honestly that came through a bit in the above so I modified that a little too, because as the discussion below proves, redundancy is best for emergencies anyway and this thread has lots of great info. And frankly, my irritation was misplaced -- as I was transferring to the new device, I found a bunch of messages that I've sent over the years, including during one particularly tricky adventure where communication with friends and family made all the difference for me. The inReach was essential on that trip, and it worked like a charm. Re-reading the messages was a reminder that I've definitely gotten my money's worth out of this device, a thousand times over, and I'll continue to carry one - but I'll also have a backup SOS plan, just in case.
I'm on my usual month-long journey around Canada, and am just in the last week or so of my trip. Sadly, it'll all be done within a cell network, which is not quite what I planned. I'm posting this up in case others are, like me, depending on a Garmin In-Reach Mini for emergency communications in the backcountry.
We have used this device successfully since purchasing it last fall, and I really liked it. We used it to track our route into camp last night, and did our usual check-in message after tossing it on the dash. I messaged my dad a bit, and then went to bed with it at about a 75% battery. This morning, we woke up to a bright orange brick; I assumed the battery had died so we charged it for the morning while we drove. At lunch, still nothing, so I swapped cables and connected it to a fully charged portable battery pack that I keep handy. An hour later, nada. I then looked up how to do a factory reset (power, down, and back buttons) but no result at all, and I've tried multiple cables (all of which worked to charge it before - it's why I've got them with me; the original cable as well as one from a Blackberry that does both charging and data transfer). After all these attempts were unsuccessful, I've stopped in at a campground with wifi just so I could download the Garmin Express app to see if I could hard-reset it from the computer. All failed; it's a non-working paperweight. And not a very good one of those, either, because it's so small and light!
For nearly $500 for the device, and $30 a month, I expected a bit better, so I figured I'd post this for two reasons:
1) Does anyone have any other suggestions on how to fix this thing? I've tried contacting Garmin but they are closed until Monday and advised that I don't call until Tuesday because "Monday is busy"; also given Monday is a holiday I doubt they will be available and may not be able to get a result until mid-week.
2) I figured I'd warn folks that this happened to me. We used a SPOT device for nearly 7 years, and never had a hardware failure like this even though it was much more "rode hard and put away wet".
I also note - on the website, one of the "top solutions" describes my issue so that tells me I'm not alone in having this experience.
EDIT
I'm throwing this into the thread because Garmin just sent me a replacement device. I was certainly irritated that my original device failed, and honestly that came through a bit in the above so I modified that a little too, because as the discussion below proves, redundancy is best for emergencies anyway and this thread has lots of great info. And frankly, my irritation was misplaced -- as I was transferring to the new device, I found a bunch of messages that I've sent over the years, including during one particularly tricky adventure where communication with friends and family made all the difference for me. The inReach was essential on that trip, and it worked like a charm. Re-reading the messages was a reminder that I've definitely gotten my money's worth out of this device, a thousand times over, and I'll continue to carry one - but I'll also have a backup SOS plan, just in case.
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