Opinions on disinfectant dryers

Oooh that Zephyr looks really good. 8 hours! maybe I wish that I’d bought that. My essential cheapskateness kicked in and I bought the Kapak for about half the price–but still, that’s probably fine. It’s not that humid here in the SF bay area (although I’m near the bay with the fog.)

My frequency of hearing a id repairs was greatly reduced by the use of a dryer.

Terost I presume someone else looks at your ear canal with an otoscope.

Nope. I have a small round mirror, scope and the bathroom mirror. I put the scope with the large optics and led light in my canal with my left hand, l hold the small mirror next to the scope optics toward the bathroom mirror where l can see my ear canal with my right hand. There are scopes with separate lcd display and costs 115 dollars, made in japan. My solution is cheaper and it works.

It was just a sample photo.

Was at audiologist today with Mom. She was looking in Mom’s ears and I commented on the video otoscopes that worked with smartphones. She said they’re great. They have a $400 one at the office, but she bought one for $40 that she uses with her family. Works with smartphone, tablet or PC (or MAC)

I am a new hearing aid user. I was just fitted for ReSound Quattros, in the rechargeable version. ReSound says that I should use a dryer every other night, though their customer service person said it wasn’t absolutely necessary because I live in Michigan, where humidity isn’t a problem except for a some parts of the summer. My audiologist might not have mentioned it if I hadn’t asked. Anyway, you can’t put these sealed rechargeable hearing aids in any “electric” dryer, says ReSound’s customer service. I’m supposed to use a “desiccant” type. I gather that’s something like this? https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OQR4X8I/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A15SLCCJ9EEA8I&psc=124

So, how do I manage to recharge them every night (it only takes 3 hours but…still) and use a drying unit every few nights, which I gather takes quite awhile? Do people just skip days of HA use in order to dry their rechargeables? (That seems kind of goofy.)

She did here in the thread about the Quattro.
https://forum.hearingtracker.com/t/gn-hearing-introduces-resound-linx-quattro/37562/55?u=teejayess (member archive)

Just noticed that. Thanks, teejayess.

I am such a newbie I don’t think I’d know premium plus sound quality, unfortunately. I streamed some music this morning and it sounded great. I am a tad (audiologist said something like “two clicks” ??) away from my prescription as set by real ear measurements. When she set me at the full prescription, it sounded very tinny and echo-ey, so she moved me back and I see her again in a week. My only other hearing aid experience was a recent one-week trial of Oticon OPN 1. I will post my initial impressions in the Quattro thread and maybe people can educate me about how or whether I can offer something useful to the community.

On the drying unit issue, I can’t see anything in my manuals or on the recharger that tells me who manufactures the recharger. So I don’t know if a ZPower combo unit will work, eventually. To recharge, you just put the over-the-ear part into the slots. Nothing in the aids plug into anything. The slots are ear-specific. The aids only go in one way. It’s very intuitive. The receivers sit in a little bin in the middle of the thing. I think what I’ll do is buy one of the desiccant jar “thingies,” to have on hand if I were to have some sweaty/watery disaster. Maybe for now I’ll just try to get used to the aids and to caring for them without using a dryer. Recharging them in one unit and drying them in another just seems like it can’t happen. Thanks for the help.

Bluejay, the similarly priced (cheap) Kapak unit that I bought seems to work fine too. It does have a warning: ‘UV light can destroy the shells of HA’s that aren’t UV resistant’. Whaaaa??? I called my provider and asked about this. They already think that I’m…eccentric. They sell an expensive UV dryer. “that doesn’t make any sense; why would anyone sell a unit for drying hearing aids that destroyed hearing aids; we’ve never heard of this etc. etc.” I said, yeah I was just doing due diligence.
All I know is the Kapak stays of for 3 minutes or so with a UV light and then another 3 hours drying my aids out…I hope!

p.s. I forgot why I was writing this…I wonder if somehow the rechargeable hearing aids, that seem to be completely closed, don’t take to dryers because any moisture inside would expand as steam in a dryer and be trapped…???O.K that seems unlikely But Noreen mentioned that her supplier nixed the idea of a dryer for her rechargeable aid.

I just got hearing aids for the first time and bought the Kapak this week. My hearing aids are Starkey brand. I didn’t see the warning on the UV destroying the shells of the HA if they are not UV resistant. I asked the the place where I got my hearing aids if I need a dryer and he said it wasn’t necessary, but in Googling for info, it looks like a good idea so I got one. Now I’m concerned about the UV doing damage. Any suggestions?

I have a Serenity Hearing Aid drier which has a UV mode. I keep the UV light off because of the potential damage to plastics. As for cleaning out the flexible tube, I regularly unthread the tube at the receiver end and use a can of compressed air to clear the tube of moisture and any other crud that has accumulated.