When do you replace your tranceiver batteries?

^^^^The voice of reason.

We use 50% as a rule of thumb at the WSDOT and in the avalanche classes that I teach.

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^^^^The voice of reason.

I guess Aaron it comes down to.... even if you COULD justify touring with a 10% battery....... SHOULD you?
In touring in avy terrain we rely upon our partners for our mutual safety and much of that is based upon trust and mutual respect .
For me a partner turning up for a tour with a low battery (and just as bad IMHO.. a plastic shovel) does not send the right message no matter what nerdy scientific proof they provide.

I just drilled a hole in my beacon to hang it on a lanyard with my rfid season pass.

Apparntly it's the new PNW slack country protocol.

I guess Aaron it comes down to.... even if you COULD justify touring with a 10% battery....... SHOULD you?
In touring in avy terrain we rely upon our partners for our mutual safety and much of that is based upon trust and mutual respect .
For me a partner turning up for a tour with a low battery (and just as bad IMHO.. a plastic shovel) does not send the right message  no matter what nerdy scientific proof they provide.

I would start a tour with @50% but would not at 10%, depending on the length of the tour I would feel comfortable somewhere in between with my beacon given the facts. I think people changing their batteries at 70-80% is a bit illogical given the facts and the manufacturer's recommendations. This type of thinking would have me second guessing their whole decision making process. Changing you batteries out of "respect" seems like some kind of peer pressure and that could lead to all kinds of trouble in the backcountry.

I think people changing their batteries at 70-80% is a bit illogical given the facts and the manufacturer's recommendations. This type of thinking would have me second guessing their whole decision making process.

Well, I said from the start that it wasn't logical. Having never looked too deeply into the manufacturer's recommendations, I changed at 80% because it was prudent and couldn't hurt (plus, I have other non-critical things that use batteries).

Given the info that's been presented here, I'll probably have more tolerance to go lower, but you're really going to second guess my entire decision making process based on the fact that I'm too conservative with putting new batteries in my beacon? That makes no sense to me. It's an awfully thin piece of data to build such a broad conclusion on, don't you think?