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Hearing Aids and Baking

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That might sound a silly question! Could the heat from the oven somehow affect/ damage the hearing aids?

I love baking and I regularly bake. Every time,I open the oven to put a cake or to check on what I’m baking, I’m faced with a wave of heat.
Usually, I don’t remember to take off my hearing aids before starting baking.

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I used to work as a baker when I was at college and the heat didn’t affect them.

I was more concerned about the flakes of croissants and stuff that used to come out in the air as well. The oven was head height which didn’t help.

This thread got me thinking: what is the operating temperature of a hearing aid? So I looked this up for the Oticon Intent.

(Note: I don’t bake, but I do cook and grill)

Here’s what I found:

Screenshot_20250819-064651

This is a surprisingly small range.

I can imagine that the hearing aids, nestled between your ear and skull, may not drop below 40°F, but today’s high in Phoenix AZ (someplace hot I used to live) is hotter!

Screenshot_20250819-071245

For baking, you’re probably not exposed to 104°F temperatures for very long, so you’re probably fine, but that “outdoors in Phoenix” thing seems odd.

Any desert dwellers care to comment? Do your aids work well in the heat?

In reply to @bpeckham

All engineering designs include something called “factor of safety”. This buffer ensures the system can handle unexpected loads or unforeseen circumstances without failure.
But yes, if you leave them under the sun, inside of a car, in Phoenix or Miami-- that could be a problem.

LOL man… of course it can ruin your toys! If you are loaded is not a problem but if you considering them hearing aids expensive, then maybe you should bake without them in thy ears. The hearing aids are very sensitive to anything. Mainly humidity and dust. Oh by the way, you are from Luxor. If you go and take a trip into the dunes, maybe you should protect those hearing aids even better. Most of them are “monoblock”. Expensive also to fix.

Tucson AZ temps have been well over 100 for a while, 118 on our patio one day. , both KS10s and Widex Moments, have been ok for moderate exposure. But… If it’s too hot for me to be out for long, it’s too hot for HAs!

In reply to @tori.naess50

@tori.naess50 said:

100 for a while, 118 on our patio one day. HAs, both KS10s and Widex Moments, have been ok for moderate exposure. But… If it’s too hot for me to be out for long, it’s too hot for HAs!

This is the sensible answer, however if you’re working somewhere dusty and likely to perspire into the aids you can certainly run into issues with them getting flooded with that material which will ‘cake’ on the device filter. Years ago I had this issue with a guy that needed his aids flushed/cleaned out monthly: he worked in an industrial greenhouse in the U.K.

@Um_bongo said:

working somewhere dusty

When I worked as a baker at college, the oven used to push out all sorts of pastry debris when I opened up the oven. That was more of a concern than the heat as you say.

I ended up wearing Ear Gear.

Dust and moisture are worst enemies of ’s. Just open the oven’s door and let the heat escape first then take the delicious cookies/roast meat a minute later.

If the oven heat is too hot, maybe the ears get “roasted” first!

In reply to @bpeckham

I usually take my glasses off, open the oven door, retrieve whatever is in the oven quickly, and then put my glasses back on. I haven’t baked anything since getting my , but my wife has, after getting hers. She didn’t report any issues with her HAs due to debris from making orange-cranberry muffins, or as a result of steam or heat.

You’re probably fine if you try to keep your head averted a bit - stand to the side of the oven door when you open it so the blast doesn’t hit you HEAD-on. You don’t want to expose the aids to high heat for more than a few seconds.

When I go to the beach, I sometimes put my aids in their hardshell case and place them in a picnic cooler. I use Yetti ice bricks - NOT water-based ice cubes in the cooler.

I worked in electronics for a long time and understand how heat and humidy affect things. In general, you should be fine with that blast of hot, humid air, but don’t stand there for more than a few seconds. Your skin will be injured before the hearing aids.

As others have said, humidity is bad, especially condensing moisture. That’s when the humidity is high and causes drops to condense on the hearing aid. It is more likely to happen if the hearing aids are cold.

Rechargable batteries are known to permanently lose capacity if left for a prolonged time at high temperature. But a few seconds won’t matter in the many-year life of these batteries.

The fact that the hearing aid is in direct contact with your body helps keep it close to body temperature.

In reply to @samyaza

@samyaza said:

If you are loaded is not a problem but if you considering them hearing aids expensive, then maybe you should bake without them in thy ears.

I’m not loaded, unfortunately! :))

@samyaza said:

Oh by the way, you are from Luxor. If you go and take a trip into the dunes, maybe you should protect those hearing aids even better

We don’t have dunes in Luxor. You can find them far in the Western Desert or the Eastern Desert. Luxor is located on the Nile, and has a lot of temples.

Thank you all for sharing your experiences and insights!

I wish you all were close, I’d share my cakes with you! :)))

Forgot to mention, if I’m working outside long enough to get very sweaty… which doesn’t take long in Tucson… those go right into the drier as soon as I come in! Typically, I forget to put EarGears on…

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