How Long Does the WHISTLE™ Health & GPS (GO/Explore) Battery Last?

Last Update:Oct 14 2022 8:24pm • Est. Read Time:Est. Read Time: 2 MIN

What affects the life of the battery?

The battery life for WHISTLE™ Health & GPS (GO/Explore) will vary depending on your environment and use of the product. For example, if you have a large property with limited Wi-Fi coverage & limited AT&T 4G LTE cell coverage then you will likely have a battery life of 2-3 days. However, if your Wi-Fi covers your property and you have great cell coverage, then you could see up to 7-10 days of battery life (or more) - it really depends. Additionally, frequent location updates and Find My Pet sessions will use more battery power. 

 

Below is a further breakdown and potential solutions to help improve battery life.

  1. Wi-Fi range. One of the great features of Whistle Health & GPS (GO/Explore) is the ability to connect your home's Wi-Fi network instead of utilizing a base-station for battery-save mode. When your pet is within range of your Wi-Fi network, your Whistle tracker assumes your pet is at Home (safe) and therefore goes into battery-save mode. If you have spotty Wi-Fi or if you have a large property where your pet(s) roams (without Wi-Fi coverage), your Whistle device can be in/out of Wi-Fi range & trying to connect to the cellular network (see below) in order to get a location (and confirm your pet is safe) via GPS. If the device is frequently seeking a cellular connection (when not connected to Wi-Fi), this will definitely have an impact on battery life. You can see how much time your tracker spends in range of WiFi versus cellular on the Pet tab, under battery and device settings

  2. Cellular reception. How good is AT&T 4G cell coverage in your area? Having limited cell reception where your Whistle tracker is can severely impact battery life. Just like your cell phone, the more frequently your Whistle device attempts to find a cellular connection, the more battery is used up in the process.

  3. Frequently locating your pet. How often do you use "Find My Pet"? While this is undoubtedly the most important feature of your Whistle tracker, it also takes up the most battery. We recommend using the "Find My Pet" and "Update Location" features when your pet is truly lost & you're trying to find them. 

 

Ways to improve battery life:

  1. Set up additional "Places." Adding additional Places with Wi-Fi networks where your pet spends time will greatly improve battery life (as noted above: when in range of Wi-Fi the Whistle tracker will go into battery-save mode). If you travel, you can set up Places on the go to conserve battery. 

  2. Only find your pet when they are lost. We recommend relying on our "Trips" feature to keep tabs of where your pet has been and only utilize the "Find My Pet" and "Update Location" features when you need to find your pet(s).

  3.  Wi-Fi extenders. For pets who live on large properties with limited Wi-Fi range, we recommend adding Wi-Fi extenders so that your coverage can extend to areas where your pet spends a lot of time (for example, large yards).