Multi-day iPhone battery management strategies

[mdfabbrini]

I'm going on my first backpacking trip in 10 years next weekend (3 days/2 nights). I'd like to use my iPhone 6/Route Scout to track my activity, but I don't want to spend a couple hundred dollars on batteries to get me through the weekend. At this point I just want to log the tracks, not view maps. I have the large mophie case. Has anyone got through 3 days by turning off cellular data and other apps running location services. Any thoughts?

Or should I just go get an eTrex 10?

[RowdyandMe]

@mdfabbrini
I would stay in airplane mode the whole time and keep your screen dim.

[chumley]

In airplane mode my iPhone 6 will record tracks in Route Scout for 12-15 hours on a full charge (usually 2 days of hiking plus all my photos). I carry an Anker battery pack as a backup. They're not terribly expensive and actually quite lightweight. I have two different ones that I carry for different trips. I have an astro mini ($10) that charges my phone completely one time plus a little more, and a larger capacity one that charges it 3 times fully. I highly recommend the anker backups.
http://www.ianker.com/External-Batteries/category-c1-s1

[mdfabbrini]

@chumley
thanks, I just ordered the PowerCore 20100 (go big!)

[chumley]

@mdfabbrini Holy crap. That thing is one pound and can recharge a laptop! A little overkill for something I have to carry with me in a backpack for a couple days!

[mdfabbrini]

@chumleyWell, jeez, you said "larger" - what size do you have, the 9600?

[chumley]

@mdfabbrini
They don't make the model of larger one I have anymore but 9600 sounds right. 3 full charges. At 2 days per charge that's 8 days away (assuming I leave home fully charged to begin with)

[mdfabbrini]

@chumley OK, I rethought the 12 oz of weight and am attempting to cancel the order at Amazon. I couldn't find the weight of the 9600 unit, but I'm assuming that's it's around 6 oz. My only concern is not missing out on even 1 foot of AEG ;)

[Thoreau]

On my last big trip in the Blue Range area I carried a LOT of electronic crap, and it's a halfway good thing I did.

First up was my rather antique Garmin eTrex Vista HCX. Aside from the paper maps and compass we had, this was to be the primary route tracker, nav tool, etc. That went out the window about 2 hours in when the batteries died. Odd, so I popped in another set of Eneloop AA's (everything was charged up before leaving home) and got about the same until those too died. Later determined that the cells were simply old and worn out and didn't hold any meaningful charge anymore. So out the window THAT plan went.

I had my phone with me though, as I like the maps and layers available in the Gaia app, so everything was pre-cached as a backup anyway. Samsung Galaxy S5 in airplane mode with GPS and bluetooth turned on, and a fairly bright screen setting, and it easily lasted the rest of that day and was getting extensive use (trail disappeared on us constantly) for both nav and satcoms via my linked Delorme InReach. (that bugger is fantastic btw.)

The phone then played music into the night at camp as drunken karaoke commenced to celebrate not dying. Got it down to about 30% and finally plugged it into this beast:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AANQLRI?tag=hikearizona

Similar to the Anker devices, but a little cheaper. I'd been using that battery pack around town day to day for months before and it didn't let me down. It managed to keep the S5 going for two more days plus the InReach (which also uses the same micro USB charging port) which was beaconing at the shortest interval (10 minutes) the entire time and burned through easily more than 200 messages over the course between two people using it to chat.

That battery unit didn't even drop to the 33% mark, while the devices were always topped off and under heavy use.

Coulda probably gotten away with the smaller one:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AANMVNQ?tag=hikearizona

But now that I've got a phone, InReach, and Petzl Tikka RXP that all charge from the same micro USB connection, I'll probably keep the bigger Jackery around. (And I did acquire some of the new Eneloop Pro batteries for the Garmin so that's back in service as well.)

Up until that trip I would've laughed and mocked anyone using a cell phone for backcountry navigation, but I'll be damned if it didn't save our bacon. (I trust it a bit more than most phones given the obscene storage capacity, efficient battery use, and the fact that it's waterproof even before adding a case. Sure wish Samsung hadn't butchered the new S6 lineup.)

[CannondaleKid]

I'll probably keep the bigger Jackery around

After trying out a number of other/smaller charging packs and finding them not up to a longer term task, I got a Jackery Giant, which worked great for us in Tanzania and continues to be a great value.

[big_load]

@Thoreau
That's why I no longer use rechargeables in my stand-alone GPS. I've had too many of them go belly-up after only a handful of charge cycles. I wish they more reliable, since I'd rather recharge than recycle. I use a lot of rechargeables at home, where I can just grab another one when they are unexpectedly dead. My home use has been useful in tempering my expectations of shelf life of charged batteries and life span.

[CannondaleKid]

I no longer use rechargeables in my stand-alone GPS. I've had too many of them go belly-up after only a handful of charge cycles.

After the same experience with a few brands of rechargeable batteries I struck gold with Tenergy 2300 mAh AA's. I bought a dozen of them in in October 2011 and still have all 12 in use today, in a GPS, two remotes, a camera and blood pressure tester.

The batteries in the GPS get the most use and they are still good for 15-16 hours of on-time before requiring a recharge. Whether I run them only as long as a 2 hour hike or 2-3 days of individual hikes, as soon as I get home they immediately go on a fast charger which has them fully charged within 5-10 minutes.

Since I have a number of other devices using AA's and I'm tired of buying them over and over (and this thread brought it back to my attention) I think it's time to get more.

[mdfabbrini]

I ended up getting a 9600mAh Anker. I ran my iPhone 6 on airplane mode, and the internal battery lasted all day. I ran my phone part of the next day on my mophie pack. I recharged both the internal battery and the mophie the 2nd night of the trip, as well as fully recharging my buddy's Galaxy Note 5. The Anker still has about 75% left on it. It was light weight and easy to use. The bottom line is that I feel I could get about 5 days of hiking and photo use out of this combination. Sweet!