PHONAK Sphere I90 - eccessive battery drain on left hearing aid

Has your aids been updated with the latest firmware update? If not that may help. But any way you need to see your audiologist and have your aids checked out.

Gabriel_CAuthor

Belgium

Probably not, that why he mentioned I needed some upgrade to the software but he feared doing that remotely could have some other downside…unfortunately I work in Belgium and I’ll have to travel to Italy to get them fixed…

berettadm1

Bucks County, PA

Gabriel,

I recently had an identical thing happen with my right “Master” Sphere.

I had rebooted my Laptop and the laptop’s BlueTooth turned on during reboot and kept whacking the battery on my right aid every time I used the laptop, or was in the vacinity of it. Once the laptop bluetooth was turned off the aids returned to normal battery drain.

Like you I rebooted the aids, forgot then repaired the bluetooth, etc., etc.

The solution was right in front of me and I stupidly let it continue for a week thinking it was something my mistakenly did during a minor (Non-Ultra) tune-up.

Check for something bluetooth related which might be attaching to your aids.

Good Luck

David

I had a similar experience with my Sphere I70. Out of nowhere, the left drained faster than the right one.

The left HA started having 20%-30% less battery by the end of the day. It got worse every day with each new charge cycle. After a week the left HA wouldn’t last through the day any more and another 3-4 days later the battery was completely drained around lunch time.

I tried clearing out all Bluetooth settings, leaving my phone off, etc. Nothing helped.

The fact that it got progressively worse led me to conclude that this is not a firmware or bluetooth issue, but that the battery must have gone bad.

I’m currently waiting for a replacement unit under warranty.

berettadm1

Bucks County, PA

Sorry to hear your battery failed…My i90 Spheres showed increasing battery discharge over a 5-7 day period. Before I identified the issue my Master Aid showed 50% after 16 hours while the left aid showed 68%.

Now 3 days after shutting off my Laptop bluetooth both aids have returned to normal battery percentages.

Currently my aids show 88% left and 86% right after 6.5 hours usage of which 1.4 hours was “Noisy environments.” This is normal battery drainage - so my batteries have thankfully bounced back to normal.

Hope you have Good luck with your replacement aid(s)

David

In reply to @Gabriel_C

@Gabriel_C, doesn’t Phonak have an international warranty? If the problem doesn’t go away, I’d call them up to see if they can authorize an exchange via a hearing aid clinic in Belgium.

Gabriel_CAuthor

Belgium

In reply to @berettadm1

Thanks you David!

I have not thought about it this way and I will look into any possible issue that might be bluetooth related. In a normal day I have the connected almost at all times with my smartphone and very often with the work laptop as well.

I’ll do a test tomorrow to check if it could be something bluetooth related. Thanks again!

Gabriel_CAuthor

Belgium

In reply to @wtolkien

I’ll have to check that. If that would be the case maybe I can get it sorted out somewhere close…it’s becoming quite annoying to go always back to Italy for these things…Thanks a lot!

I think what happened in my case was that the battery started to show higher self-discharge. This page explains why this can happen:

Reasons For Self-Discharge in Lithium-Ion Batteries - Industry News - News13
Reasons For Self-Discharge in Lithium-Ion Batteries,Industry News

At one year of age, batteries should still run near peak performance. I believe what happened to my left HA is likely caused by a manufacturing defect:

DonRadlauer

In reply to @wtolkien

@wtolkien said:

Out of nowhere, the left HA drained faster than the right one.

How long had you had your Spheres when this began? It does sound like it’s probably a manufacturing defect, but I’m not all that much of a battery expert.

The Spheres were less than a year old.

I’m no battery expert either, but I’ve had a tool battery pack that went bad. When I opened it up one of the 6 cells was drained whereas the others were still fine. I manually charged the drained cell and the pack was fine again - for a while. Eventually the same battery was drained again. I’m guessing that cell had a similar issue: higher self-discharge vs. the other cells.

LeNuageux

France

Does the “stay connected” is enabled on the phonak app ?

I tried this myself and i found thay my right hearing aids had about 12% less battery than the left hearing aid !

Here is a screenshot taken around lunch time… I think this was more than just a ‘stay connected’ issue

cvkemp

Hot Springs Village, Arkansas

I would say you have a bad battery or a bad hearing aid. And I would be contacting my audiologist immediately.

@cvkemp, yes, absolutely. The clinic agreed and I’m waiting for a replacement now.

ready123ca

In reply to @berettadm1

How do your aids work on higher frequency speech (female) in a restaurant environment? My loss is similar to yours which is why I’m asking. I am using Resound Jabra right now and want to know if I am missing out.

JamesD

I had the same problem after 4 months from new with one i90 sphere which got sent back by my Audiologist and repaired under warranty, and has been fine since.

Lcg207

I fought with this problem all summer. My right (Spheric I90) would drain incredibly fast. I tried everything mentioned in these posts. I had purchased the aids on Ebay and the seller was not helpful. Finally got in to see my fabulous audiologist who tested the aid and found it was a defective receiver. He replaced it and the problem was solved. The problem was so stressful– basically ruined my summer. All of my do-it-yourself hacks dealing with bluetooth, chargers, software, etc. were useless in this instance.

tenkanProvider