Waterproof hearing aids?

@ZCT said:

No. I agree with Amy on this. While I have personally seen then submerged in water and surviving. While I have personally played with tissue paper treated with HydraShield 2, I think hearing aids are a long way from being like a diver’s watch.

all of the divers watches I have seen are labeled as water resistant to what ever depth it set too.

To test your hearing aids for waterproofing, my suggestion is to do the test aftrr one year of ownership, during which time you take them on and off at least twice a day, and open the battery doors each time, so the batteries are not being used when the hearing aids are not being used. Just consider how much wear on the edges of the battery doors and that part of the hearing aid they rub on each time. Do you really expect that tight seal to last? Each summer my hearing aids would stop working whenever I began excessively perspiring and I always would find beads of water on the batteries. I feel certain there must be other places too for other users where water seeps in. But for me it’s always the perspiration on the batteries, no matter how much waterproofing the manufacturer claimed. And that’s over the lsst 20 or 30 years

Battery compartments have to allow air exchange in order for the batteries to function. Very moist air will invariably condense on the nearest cool metal surface. This doesn’t necessarily compromise the rest of the hearing aid.

Augh. I am SO disappointed - and maybe not so surprised to read this. Days ago, I had sent a request for a price quote to Rion (in Japan) regarding their so-called “waterproof” aids. I’ve yet to hear back one peep from that side.

So, to ask a dumb question, why can’t aids be worn when swimming? I’d even cut my lap time to 30 min and stay no lower than a couple feet under water if I was able to wear ANY kind of aid that would not be utterly ruined with my doing this maybe once a week.

Does the actual hearing aid corrode in chlorine/water? Is there any risk to the battery getting wet? I see no reason why a pair of reasonably-priced aids can not be sealed in a molded plastic shell with a vent even, and work in pool water.

In any case, I appreciate your carrying the torch to put an end to misleading product claims. It is discouraging that us with hearing loss are supposed to just give up certain activities cuz there is no aid suitable for these activities.

@corey said:

Final point to this is there is no such thing as WATER PROOF AIDS! yet.

When they say water proof currently its a sales deception false advertising, antitrust.