The other day I set out with a noble goal–to find and map a better local hike than Ventura’s two trees. Midway in my exploration rats! My low battery alarm went off.
Today’s hard-knock lesson is this: always bring fresh batteries on a hike. Doesn’t matter that you’ve got a GPS unit with the highest rated battery life, sooner or later the batteries will burn out. Sooner, really.
This is a tough lesson for me. I have a hard time remembering to bring my reading glasses to the library or my good manners to the dinner table.
With coppertops costing some $1.20 a pair these days, it’s worth considering battery life when purchasing a GPS unit. My own rule of thumb is to pack a fresh set of batteries for every day hiking. Some other things to consider:
Only Use Batteries Recommended by Your GPSs Manufacturer
I’ve heard horror stories about lithium ion batteries spiking GPS chipsets. I’ll look into this some at a later date. There are menu options on the Garmin eTrex Vista HCx for alkaline, NiCd, lithium and other batteries, but I’m curious about the origin of these woeful tales.
Black and White Displays Aren’t More Efficient than Color
You might think that it takes more power to drive a color display than a simple grayscale display. Truth is that GPS units with color displays typically use newer, more efficient chips than black and white GPS units.
High-end GPS Units Aren’t More Efficient than Simpler Units
Of course the opposite is true as well. High end GPS receivers pack a lot of extra goodies. For instance, the Magellan Triton 2000 packs a flashlight, camera, MP3 player (you’re kidding me, right? You’re rocking to Poison in the great North Woods?) and a voice recorder. If you’re jabbering away into the voice recorder like John Muir watching a Douglas squirrel you’re going to burn up your batteries much faster than with an old school unit.
Here’s a quick run down of manufacturer’s GPS battery life ratings for your enjoyment:
Rechargeable battery pack:
32 hours: Bushnell ONIX400
14 hours: Garmin Rino® 530HCx
Two AA Lithium Ion batteries:
22.5 hours: Delorme Earthmate PN-20
Two AA Alkaline batteries:
25 hours: Garmin eTrex Vista HCx
18 hours: Garmin GPSMAP® 60CSx
17 hours: Magellan eXplorist 600
15 hours: Garmin Colorado 400t
14 hours: Delorme Earthmate PN-20
12 hours: Bushnell ONIX110; Garmin eTrex Vista
10 hours: Magellan Triton 500