GARMIN INREACH EXPLORER+ REVIEW

i hiked all 2653 miles of the pacific crest trail in 2019 using this device it's the garmin inreach explorer plus if you're looking at purchasing this device or shopping around and comparing it to other things out there on the market then this video is for you because what i'm going to go through is all the features of it as well as how i used it and what i liked and also disliked about it these handheld satellite communicators are designed for the outdoor enthusiasts whether that's on land in the water or in the skies it provides communication location sharing navigation weather reports sos functions and peace of mind for your loved ones i will be completely honest i was reluctant to purchase something like this before heading out on my trip i didn't want the hassle the extra weight the expense and i thought i'd be okay without it but i went out on a training hike and sprained my ankle pretty badly and it kind of got me thinking that if something like that happened to me while out in the wilderness away from civilization away from being able to contact anybody what would i do i mean if i'm lying there with a broken leg and i can't call anyone or if i've fallen off a mountain and got myself in a situation it got me thinking about that term you cannot put a value on your life also loved ones were worried about me being out on my own without being able to contact anyone so i decided to take the plunge and i purchased one and i am not sponsored by garmin i've not got anything free it's not one of those videos i am just here to tell you about it and tell you i am so glad that i decided to take it with me inreach was originally made by delorme and then garmin bought it the body is tough durable and impact resistant the rubber around the device helps protect it from drops it has a waterproof rating of ipx7 meaning it can withstand incidental exposure to water of up to one meter for up to 30 minutes so it can handle rain snow and splashes without any problems the antennae is at the top which ideally needs to point to the sky to work it operates quicker in a clear line of sight but i find it does still work in tree coverage but it is noticeably slower garmin recommends to mount it high on your pack it's not a touch screen and it does not have a keyboard there are tactile buttons on the front and they are tough so it's not easy to press them in error the power button is at the top of the device and once you press it you're then prompted to scroll to turn on and then tick it to confirm you have the menu button showing as three horizontal lines the zoom buttons are indicated by a minus and a plus the preset button directional buttons the tick is the confirm button and the x is cancel or reverse the sos button is on the side and you need to physically open this to be able to get access to the button this is to prevent accidentally hitting it the bottom flap is where you charge it using a micro usb and it comes with a carabiner clip and the weight is 213 grams let's have a look at this in a little bit more detail and i'll go through some of the features so it is a satellite phone that sends and receives text messages not voice messages and it's also got navigational tools built into it why would you want such a communication facility well when you are off grid in remote areas or out in the wilderness it's quite common not to have mobile phone service so what you need is some kind of device that doesn't work through those towers now satellite is much higher above the earth and doesn't rely on them which is why it is more appropriate to have a satellite phone in those types of areas because it will work now why would you want to be able to communicate with people there's a number of reasons one of them is to reassure friends and family back at home that you're okay you could also be finding things out about your expedition that's ahead of you or just liaising with other people that are on the trail or more importantly if you get into a situation where you're in trouble and you need to call for help this acts as an sos device as well now let me show you how you can do this you have the ability to send unlimited preset messages on any of the plans and you get three available presets i had these set up to just setting off for my hike for the day arrived at camp for the night and also checking in to let you know everything's okay other ideas are things like i'm running late you have to set these up on the website and then sync them to your device the preset messages and the recipients cannot be changed on the device they have to be done online and then what you do is you sync it to the device now when you send a message the coordinates of your location are sent every time which i thought was a fantastic feature of this you can also send ordinary messages so literally just type out another message that you want to somebody else now there will be different cost incurred depending on what plan you're on so i'll explain that in a little bit more detail but i did use that facility quite frequently because obviously sometimes you want to talk a little bit more or explain things in more detail or ask questions and receive different information you can do this by either using the device or on your mobile phone via bluetooth it's easier on the phone but bluetooth does drain the mobile battery so i tended not to do this too often you enter contacts on the website and then just sync them you can do it directly on the device but they are not synced with your online account also there are quick messages not like preset but just quicker than typing you can define them on the website and again sync them if you wish you can also message inreach to inreach so if someone else has gotten in reach on trail you can message them directly on that and i did this on a few occasions when we were liaising with where lunch spots were or where we were going to camp for the night and just to check in to see how people were getting on as i showed earlier there is the sos button which can be found on the side or using the menu when it is pressed it goes to a center called geos who will coordinate your rescue they are a global organization that deals with many different devices this unit works all over the world and your rescue is included with the device however please note this basic coverage does not provide any insurance or cover any costs incurred from an sos activation and in some countries it may cost you if you are interested in purchasing additional coverage for your inreach account information can be found on explore.garmin using the sos function it avoids search and rescues searching huge locations for you because it does pinpoint your location using the gps a word about using that feature it's only to be used in real emergencies i have unfortunately heard of people using this when it hasn't been needed such as a poorly tummy or aching feet now i have not got first-hand experience of using it despite falling off a mountain having to for rest and then later falling on some ice and breaking a couple of ribs i still was able to manage to walk and hike and get myself out of those situations so i didn't need to use it so i don't want to come across as preachy but just bear in mind that when you press that you're contacting the emergency services who may potentially be putting themselves at risk just coming out to rescue you to make sure it really is an emergency okay i'll stop preaching now now one thing that is very good about this because it's a two-way system is the fact that when you do have to contact the emergency services and press sos they can then ask you questions about what's wrong with you if you're able to answer obviously if you're unable to answer and you just press the button they will still come out to you but it also gives you that reassurance that they have got medical professions there that can help you and talk you through certain situations they can also advise you about how far away they are give you kind of an estimation of when they're going to arrive and if they've got any problems getting to you and that is what's good about this because a lot of other ones don't have that facility another thing you can do is press it for somebody else that hasn't gotten in reach and you will not be financially responsible i did check that out on the website that is something that is the responsibility of the person that is injured to deal with but you can call for help using this now let's look at the maps there is a lot of pre-loaded maps on the device already but you can get access to more all you have to do is go on the website download them and then sync them over to the device the compass is straightforward and has its own separate icon i like that it shows your elevation as well just to point out there is another version of this device called the se plus which is a little bit cheaper but it doesn't have the pre-loaded maps the inreach se plus uses gps to provide basic grid navigation and allows you to drop waypoints marquee locations and track your progress as well as breadcrumb trails to lead you back to base inreach explorer plus provides full-fledged gps with on-map guidance and pre-loaded topo mapping and waypoint routing viewable directly on the unit the explorer plus unit also comes with a digital compass barometric altimeter accelerometer and an extra two gigabytes of memory both devices pair with a free earthmate app for additional map data that syncs with your phone via bluetooth the app isn't just for messaging it also has on there the maps waypoints weather and also you call for help using sos as it was only 30 to 50 pounds different i just thought the explorer plus was better suited for me now you can use this as a navigation device however i didn't really do that very often i found it not as user-friendly so i decided to mainly use an app that i downloaded for the trail instead i just found that a lot easier and after speaking to a number of people that have used this device it seems to be a common theme that they tend not to really use it for navigation but it does work it's just a bit clunky i did use it regularly though to check i was on the trail as it's easy to glance at without having to get a phone out as well as saving battery life it was also good as a backup there was one occasion before i had the other app when i was with a group of friends and their apps weren't working but mine got us back safely to the trail i did have a go at creating routes on it but i found for me doing a long distance hike it wasn't very suitable but i can see it being useful for some people what you have to do is go online not on the device and create a route and you do that in the form of waypoints and then what you do is you sync it back to the device so when you're out in the field you go to it and navigate it press start and you basically follow an arrow but because you're following all these different waypoints if your trail is very twisty and turning it can be quite cumbersome and that's where it gets a little bit tricky also there is nothing on here to tell you that you've gone wrong it doesn't beep and tell you to do a u-turn or anything like that but you can have a look at it see where you've gone wrong and then reverse yourself and follow the line back again so you can kind of follow your own breadcrumbs using this if that makes sense now i did use that on a number of occasions when i went a little bit wrong and it did work but you do have to physically hold it and check it constantly um but but it can be done it does work what i did like was the tracking element of this device so you literally start tracking on it and then you can share that with friends and family just turn on the tracking function and choose to send the position at specific intervals the interval will send every 10 minutes for example and tracks every one minute you can invite friends and family to follow along using the map share portal on their devices on mobile phones or laptops however they want to do it and you can have this set as private so it's password protected and that means that when they're logging on they have to put a password in to be able to access where you are to be able to track you you can also have it set to public and even share it on social media platforms but as a solo female hiker that is not something i wanted to do and i would highly recommend nobody else doing it if you're on your own because you just don't want people knowing where you are all the time now it is a fantastic thing because they can kind of check in at any time and see that you move in and see where your location is which i thought was a really nice thing to be able to have now looking at weather it is such a useful thing out in the hills and i know this sounds crazy when you're out in the wilderness you can kind of see what the weather's doing but if you know you're going to be out for say a week without communication and you're heading into the hills you kind of need to know a little bit about what you're going to be prepared for so you need to know if it's going to all of a sudden start snowing badly or be really windy or if you're just going to have lovely conditions and you can kind of tailor your expedition accordingly now the weather works through a text message system click on the weather icon and select get forecast you can then choose if you want it to use your location or manually set coordinates you send a request and it replies with a weather report it costs the same as a text message if you request the basic one or you can pay an extra pound for the premium once you have the report you can go into a lot more detail by scrolling down to a time and then clicking on it there is also an optional marine forecast if you're over water it gives things like wave high and winds etcetera trip information gives you information about your trip it's a good gauge of what you've done but it's not 100 accurate i use the data use to keep an eye on how many messages i had used in my plan now what about battery life i hear you ask well garmin says that it will last up to 100 hours on a 10 minute tracking mode or three years switched off i would say mine realistically lasted about five days six days at a push and that was me using it for 14 hours a day for tracking and also sending messages which is why it didn't last as long as they recommended now there's plenty of different ways that you can prolong battery life first of all if you don't need the tracking you can just turn it off using preset messages is much quicker and easier than hand typing every single letter turn off the auto check-in message feature you can set this to manual and then when you're ready you can just check for messages you don't have to keep it switched on all the time if you don't want to i always turned mine off on an evening and just to know it charges using a micro usb cord so you can easily charge this with a power bank one thing i did notice that was different to mobile phones was the fact that when this gets cold or hot it doesn't seem to affect the battery life which is a real positive in my eyes because normally a little bit of cold in your mobile phone normally just dies so how much does it cost well i check the garmin website there's two things to bear in mind with cost first of all is that you've got to pay for the device and you've also got to pay for the satellite contract the device is currently on the website for 450 pounds for this model for the se plus it's about 400 pounds however i did do a quick check on amazon for this one and it was 415 pounds and that's august 2020 i will put the link in the description box for you so you can have a little look but it usually involves a setup fee whether it's either a monthly contract or an annual contract so you can take out an annual one which works out a little bit cheaper or you can have their freedom plan which is their monthly contract and all it is is a 30-day commitment and that can be cancelled at any time you do pay a little bit more for it but it is perfect if you're just a seasonal user or you're just using it for a short trip or something like that it is really useful you've also got three different tiers that you can pay for so you've kind of got like the basic one then you've got the recreation one and then you've got the expedition one and they all have different features and benefits and different prices the main difference between these are the amount of text messages that are included in the plan on the safety you get 10 on the recreation 40 and on the expedition option you have unlimited also tracking interval on the expedition plan can be two minutes rather than 10 and the weather is unlimited now the plans probably differ so please check them out on the website if you want to know a bit more details about that but looking at the current costs the annual safety plan is 15 pounds recreation plan is 25 and the expedition 50 plus the 20 pounds activation fee for the freedom plans it's 15 pounds on the safety 35 pounds on the recreation and 65 pounds on the expedition also an additional 25 pounds fee my experience with it was overall positive however there were a few things that were little bug bears but it's to be expected with something like this the messaging feature sometimes worked a lot slower than i expected so if i got to camp and i wanted to send a message it would sometimes lag and take quite a while to send i'd often find myself putting it outside the tent on a rock just so it had better visibility and i'd just usually leave it there but it would always eventually send it just sometimes took a little bit longer than i expected also the trip information so when you're having a look at the trip details that was quite often off it always made it out like i'd done more that day so it can't be fully relied on it did seem to over exaggerate the amount of miles and distance that had done the device itself did take a little bit of a beating being outdoors for nearly seven months so physically the screen got a little bit scratched which i think is quite a common issue to prevent this you could perhaps get a spare screen protector but it is my own fault for forgetting it was on my pack a lot of the time and then leaning my pack against rocks there's also some discoloration around the rubber casing this is probably just due to the fact that i was using insect repellent and antibacterial gels and lastly the navigation it was just a little bit too cumbersome to be user friendly it was okay for the odd day bits or the odd little bit of navigation but i wouldn't use it as a primary device right the positives of it the main thing was the reassurance that i had something with me that if i got stuck or in a pickle i could get access to help and that was worth its weight in gold not only for me for my reassurance but also family members and loved ones they were able to know that i could be contacted if need be and i got into a situation where i was hiking solo i was near the end of my trip the snow was extremely bad and i'd heard some rumors that there'd been some problems where i was heading and i was out in the middle of nowhere i didn't have internet access i couldn't find this information out so i was able to liaise with my partner at home who checked on the avalanche conditions for me so i was able to make a get out plan and re-route myself around a certain part of the trail and that to me was just such good information to have because if i didn't have this i wouldn't have known what i was walking into and i'd have had to probably make the decision to completely get off trail and end up taking a lot longer so things like that it's just extremely helpful for i also like checking my elevation on this i love the fact that you can just go in see where exactly you are and also what elevation you're at it was so good having such a long battery life on it there's not a lot of devices that give you all this but then will last a good week or so if you're very careful with it so that was very good and it was just i just loved it i loved having it with me now a little bit of tips here if you want to take any advice from me is when you get one of these get it before you need it so you can go out and practice with it but when you go out and practice with it put yourself in a situation where it's a little bit tricky a little bit challenging but make sure that you've got a backup device such as a mobile phone so you can check yourself or paper maps which is what i did i mean that was the whole reason i got this it was like a backup rather than a primary device so go out and use it if you're leaving your bag and heading off to get some water make sure you remove it from your pack and take it with you because you don't want to get stranded if you've fallen down when going to collect water from somewhere else also if you're crossing rivers it's advisable to take it off your pack and attach it on your person just in case you get separated from your bag it's also not a magical device it doesn't give you special immunity so don't go off and do things that you wouldn't normally do just use it as something that is there if you get into a situation not thinking it gives you magical powers also make sure you always tell somebody where you're going where you expect to be how long you think you're going to be all those types of things that you would normally do if you didn't have something like this it's always good to let people know where you are other hikers on trail had other types of devices that they took with them so it wasn't just this one that i saw out if i had to say the top three that i saw personally i would say the inreach mini which is a smaller version of this without the screen you use your mobile phone more to pair with it and to use information through it and they do talk to each other so this larger one will talk to the mini one i like this more because i could just glance at the screen whenever i wanted without having to get my phone out or turn my phone on so yeah the inreach mini this spot device was another popular one and i'd say the third popular one was a plb the rescue link so they're the top three that i saw out there that seem to be most commonly used obviously there's probably so many out there on the market but i'm just saying what i've been seeing so i would highly recommend getting this device or any other device when you're out in the wilderness especially if you're going out on your own um never if i can give you one bit of advice if anyone wants to take any advice from me is never go out on your own into the wilderness or even with other people with just one form of navigation because if that fails you could end up in a very nasty situation and that would just be awful so always make sure you've got a backup that is the main reason i got this i knew i didn't want to just rely on maps and i didn't want to just rely on my phone i ended up having three backups so yeah always going with a backup i would definitely use this again if i was heading out on my own i would definitely get straight back in touch with garmin and call them up and get myself back on the freedom plan to use as and when i would always use something like this in future it was definitely worth its money it really was i hope this video has been useful today and if you have any questions feel free to put them in the comments below or if you've just got any comments feel free to share them also share what kind of devices you use so other people are watching the video can also see what else is out there that i don't know so much about and if you want any further details that i can't answer then check out the garmin website which i will put the link in below for you as well i hope it's been useful and i will look forward to seeing you next time goodbye [Music] you

Channel: Mary Mansfield

Views: 8,001

Rating: 4.9725399 out of 5

Keywords: Garmin inreach review, Garmin inreach explorer+ review, garmin inreach explorer+, Garmin explorer, Garmin inreach mini, spot device, plb, Garmin inreach explorer plus, garmin inreach satellite communicator, satellite gps communicator, satellite communicator, satellite phone, zoleo, gps navigation, delorme, Bivystick, somewear global hotspot, Personal Locator Beacons, spot x, SatPaq, compass, sos, ACR ResQLink, PCT, Hiking

Id: fe7Qx_cbE1k

Length: 24min 3sec (1443 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 23 2020