Not using filters - On Phonak Sphere cShell Molds

Since I said I was, I have been filter free.
NO problems.
When I remove my HAs for a short time… like doing wet or noisy stuff… I lay them atop one of my heat producing computers…
Occasionally, I wipe the speaker tips in the cShell molds against my clean shirt.

As I had been doing with my prior HAs.
Working fine this way…

And I just updated the tile of this Thread to better reflect the subject matter.

With all the talk about tariffs affecting sales, I am reminded about one of my favorite topics: SALES and of course Sales Training.
And that relates to this topic of filters. I don’t know how hearing aid filters evolved. Did they exist from day one? If so, then ear horns must have had mosquito netting to keep insects from clogging the brass!
But I imagine that in the early days of hearing aids, or as hearing aids, moved from speaker tubes, to actual speakers themselves being inserted into the ear canal, the very first aids did not have any filters. Eventually I guess some users gummed up the works. And thus filters were born. Filters probably evolved through various materials, frames, holders, etc. Speakers themselves too I am sure developed with varying front grills and build solutions to deal with the stress of survival within humid, hot, hairy waxy ears.
Eventually someone came up with a very saleable suggestion: filters!

For some people, filters probably were life savers then. With only a bit of maintenance, an occasional visit to the professional, they kept hearing aids humming. Eventually the visit to the hearing professional became a regular necessity if nothing else, than to change the filters.

Frequently in my history going to professionals, the staff would routinely schedule a visit, and also would give out hearing aid filters and batteries… just enough until the next visit. Uh-huh.

Over the years, even for those with cleaner ears, and even with more robust and cleaning capable speakers, the mantra of filter necessity persisted.

Filters have to fit within the speaker’s grill. so they **
are narrower than that which they fit into. They also have very fine latticework, so they clog more readily in addition to clogging due to them just being narrower than the speaker, and of course, right upfront at the speaker, not recessed as the speaker grill often is in practice, when in an earmold.

Since they attach to the speaker, one can understand that they can become unattached… Then what - where they go then?
Being so tiny, they are even more awkward to handle than the batteries people complain about. In fact, to address these situations, they are provided with specialized tools to hold and to insert and remove the filters - small items that too require negotiation with the filters themselves for them to be of any use.**

All that leads to many requiring help. Read service! Meaning service appointments - to change the filters. That just possibly are not always needed in the first place nowadays!

I believe that with the high power speakers, and the sophisticated engineering, it should be possible to enter cleaning mode. In that mode, which can only be entered, when the aids are NOT in the ears, so this could be a reason to sell a hearing aid holding frame, or to add a switch to the charging case…anyway the cleaning mode, causes the aids to vibrate - or to produce full power sound at just the ideal frequency to help shake off the grime that might have gotten adhered to the speakers!

But I digress. I believe that with a small bit of self grooming awareness, today’s instruments do not require filters. Having a filter BELOW a dome, is bizarre - it is so far from the wax, and protected by the dome. Just remove the dome, soak it in warm water and dry it, (while wearing other domes - they so cheap). Having a filter at the front of a mold, is asking to be gummed up! My older hearing aids actually had filters on the speakers below the molds, and filters at the outside of the mold. Ridiculous! Once I realized that, I yanked both off. Problem is that the molds originally from the factory, are best fit to the speaker, and never fit the same way, after unearthing the filter hidden needlessly below.

So my bottom line is that this whole filter thing, while probably needed by some high waxers, for most it is just an industry approach that makes sense by giving yet another reason to schedule visits - and then at the visit the “handholding service” experienced in the cleaning and changing of filters - leaves little time remaining to actually have to do any serious work beyond what the basic “customer support technician” can do.

All that is yet another way of dumbing down the service, and making it mostly about sales!

I went to a weekly meditation & exercise with a Zen Monk. Most of us were seniors.

There were at least 40 people every time

Whenever I saw a senior with hearing aids I asked how they liked them. And I asked how often they changed the wax guards. During a two year period only one other person knew they could change their waxguards. That was in the Burlington/Hamilton area.

DaveL

Obviously - if they were not changing the wax filters, they would have experienced at least as good results, without the filters to begin with.

@Bimodal_user said:

Yes, there is a shiny one coming out through a hole and another shiny one inside the earmold. The plastic insulated wire is rather OK.

Uhhh, that’s not right. There should be no exposed wires outside of the shell. Is it just the photo? It certainly looks like there’s an exposed wire coming out of a hole in the shell, I just can’t really believe it.

You probably mean the clear plastic grab handle/retainer which can be cut off if not wanted.

Looks to me like someone was cleaning or something and left a wire in place.

WH

@IGZO said:

And figure you all would be interested in how my practice of not ever using any filters in my molds might have worked out.

The short answer is GREAT!

I wonder if differences (with filter vs. no filter) would be noticeable in REM verification. Perhaps in the highest frequencies?

@IGZO said:

not ever using any filters

I make wax in the summer and not so much in the winter, if the filter clogs up I just pop it out and blow compressed air trough it and put it back in, after doing this many times I just replace it, if I would not have those was guards in, then the speaker hole would clog up making it impossible to clean, My Audi told me that removing the speaker from the custom molds has a very good chance of braking the speaker assembly, so in order to keep my life simple, I keep those wax guard IN at all times.

Good Question!
And I asked the AuD, who never questioned or tested it, or knew for sure.

BUT long before I had the REM with these units, I yanked off the filters, as I always do, having learned the hard way.

It amazes me how Receivers and wax guards and domes/moulds adversely affect the performance of our hearing aids.

I had 2 care providers who regularly ignored them or left the open dome setting in Target for 6 months after prescribing power domes.

One was the gentleman who prescribed my current hearing aids. Audeo Paradise P90R’s

I no longer see him.

DaveL

It probably is not best practice, but if REM is performed does the dome or vent size setting matter?

@user490

Well..I’ve received help here. I’ve been advised that the domes or inserts setting must be properly set in Target.

And REM is good practice

I believe the most important factor is the person who sets up my hearing aids. Just my thought.

I figure an update is due on my not using any filters. So its been over fifteen months.
About six months ago I purchased a second set of speakers - just to be prepared.
Those have never yet been needed. I am still using the original pair of speakers, WITHOUT ANY FILTERS. I had posted in detail how I clean and maintain my aids without filters, so won’t repeate that again. BUT for all those who worried about not using them… I have had no worries here!