The Truth About avalanche transceiver Servicing
Complete Avalanche Transceiver Servicing Guide: Like stretching, all my clients and ski buddies know they should do it, but rarely do! Here’s why it matters – and how to do it.
By Martin Chester
I asked a few of the most knowledgeable industry experts from all the leading brands (and UK service providers) to combine their collective wisdom on the subject. Initially, I expected to motivate you financially, with tales of extended warranties and keeping your avalanche beacon transceiver in service for longer. But, after a few tales of avalanche transceivers that had been sent to the experts by coroners (after a ‘very bad result’) the message could not be more important: if your avalanche beacon doesn’t work (and there are lots of reasons why it might not) you could be toast.
We ask a lot of avalanche transceivers: to operate from -20°C to +45°C. We crash them, drop them and soak them in rain, snow and sweat – yet we expect them to work faultlessly, every time, for decades.
Hence, avalanche transceiver health is a shared responsibility between manufacturers and users.
Follow this simple but essential checklist to keep your avalanche beacon transceiver on track and make sure your beacon behaves, when your (or your mate’s) life depends on it.
Register your device
With the manufacturer. Why? Well, you’ll get an email as soon as there is a new software update, and be the first to know of any relevant safety info, issues and/or recalls. Register your Barryvox S avalanche transceiver and you get a three-year warranty extension.
Thereafter, check if there is a new software update for your avalanche beacon transceiver before every winter season.
Buy only the best batteries
Put brand new, top-quality batteries in your avalanche transceiver at the start of the season. Why? We’ve known for a while that cheap batteries may not fit as reliably. But it gets way worse: in a batch of batteries there is always going to be a percentage failure. The cheaper the battery, the greater the percentage failure rate. Avalanche beacon transceiver batteries work in series, so one out = all out, and the unit fails to work. If and when you next change them, change them all, at the same time, using the best you can get.
Self-test
Every modern digital avalanche transceiver has some form of self-test that will run every time you turn it on. This will check basic functionality like interference and battery suitability, so pay attention, says Dieter at Ortovox: “This is like the lamps that light up when you start a car. But, like with a car, it does not replace a comprehensive check by a mechanic!” If you get a consistent error message, get a service booked for your avalanche beacon.
An important paradox is that if an avalanche beacon transceiver is faulty, the self-test may also be faulty! Just when a device needs a check, the self-test could be unreliable. So . . .
Do proper group checks
- Be sure to do a proper group check of all avalanche transceivers, at the start of every trip and tour.
- Modern electronics are more reliable than ever. So the greatest risk of failure now comes from human error (the most common is failing to turn on your avalanche beacon!). A group check reduces the risk of human error.
Check for updates
Regularly! Why? Updates provide performance and user interface improvements or, in rare cases, eliminate safety issues. Recent avalanche transceivers can be updated via Bluetooth, using the respective apps for Ortovox, Pieps/Black Diamond. Barryvox users can update the firmware of their avalanche beacon transceiver using device-to-device connectivity.
Take your batteries out for storage
Ideally at the end of the trip and especially at the end of the season. This is the simple one – that everybody mentioned, without exception. At best, Will at Facewest explains: “Corroded battery contacts will mean that your avalanche transceiver fails its service and is no longer covered by warranty.” At worst, Manuel points out: “NO engineer can tell you if the avalanche beacon transceiver will fail in five years or on the next ski tour. If the batteries have leaked, the device is done. Retire it and buy a new one.” Every single person and brand was consistent: corroded terminals risk lives. End of . . .
Get your avalanche beacon serviced
ASAP! In the summer, or well before the first powder alarm is on the horizon, so you have your checked avalanche transceiver back before winter.
Why?
Over to Giang at Pieps: “People want to use avalanche transceivers for many years. We still receive, and carefully service, avalanche beacon transceivers that are more than 15, even 20, years old. Reliable function depends upon sensitive electronics, some sensitive mechanical parts, and the housing. All these parts suffer from ageing processes.” Qualified specialists will test all aspects of your avalanche transceiver – under controlled conditions in a shielded chamber – detecting defects that are not visible to users (e.g. when electronic components are ‘wandering off’) before they cause a critical problem; and repair/correct them professionally. Pre-Bluetooth avalanche beacon transceivers can also get their software updated.
What?
A service involves over 15 tests: check SEARCH mode, speakers and microphones, motion sensors, light sensors, battery consumption and all the other features that make modern avalanche transceivers so fast and responsive. Manuel explained the need to check that the direction indication is accurate. Just think about that for a moment: your avalanche beacon may be pointing you in the wrong direction and you’d never know (until it was too late).
How (and how often?)
Ortovox recommend your first verification service for your avalanche transceiver five years after purchase, then every two. Noble Custom handle this service in the UK, with all the info here: help.ortovox.com/hc/en-001/articles/9613660528285-Service-requests-how-to-book-a-service-online.
Mammut users in the UK can send their avalanche beacon transceiver to FaceWest. If you purchased your avalanche transceiver from them, they offer a service every three years and regular updates for free, see facewest.co.uk/Avalanche-Transceiver-Software-Updates.html.
Pieps/Black Diamond recommend a service for your avalanche beacon every three years when your device should be sent to them in Austria.
Arva have an online web form. They suggest standard usage (20-60 days per year) every three years; professional usage (mountain guides, ski patrols, ski instructors, or 60+ days per year) every year for avalanche transceivers. More at arva-equipment.com/en.
BCA Trackers come with a five-year warranty and have a website full of useful information about their avalanche beacon transceivers: backcountryaccess.com/en-gb/support/tracker-resources. In the UK, send it to Mountain Sports every two or three years: mountainsports.co.uk/products/bca-tracker-health-check.
Finally, if you do all of the above, and look after your avalanche transceiver, it should look after you for 15 to 20 years. Giang at Pieps points out the ‘total costs of ownership’:
- Consider a Pieps Pro IPS avalanche beacon transceiver for €480.
- In a lifetime of 20 years, it would need to be serviced five times.
- Suppose an average cost of €55, one would pay €275 for services.
- The total costs of ownership would be €755 for 20 years, i.e. €37.75/year.
“Even allowing for inflation, I would say that the cost for having a high-end avalanche transceiver, which might save life in critical avalanche accidents, is very low.”
And I would politely point out that it is less than a third of my annual Spotify subscription. Whereas the potential human and emotional cost of not getting your avalanche beacon transceiver serviced?
Your move . . .
WITH THANKS TO…
- Manuel Genswein, mountainsafety.info
- Will Smith at Facewest
- Dieter Kotlaba, Product Manager Avalanche Transceivers at Ortovox Sportartikel GmbH
- Giang Tran, General Manager at Pieps GmbH