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Phonak Select a Vent

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Edited

Took a bit, but I got this in a reply from Phonak regarding my question regarding sizes of their assorted Select A Vents Sorry. Link didn’t work. Tried something else below.

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OK. That didn’t work. What’s the easiest way to share a document?

Good. I was a little surprised I got it. I’ll print a copy and share with Costco as they had nothing. Looks like vents are intentionally oversized. “A” is for 3.0mm hole, “B” for 2.5mm and “C” for 2.0mm They’re slightly below vent hole size at bottom, but .3mm oversized at top. Too bad they didn’t work for me! Should have new mold by early next week.

Question - when you refer to “vents” are you referring to the air passage way in the ear mold or aid body? If so, can someone buying a request a certain size vent of his or her choosing? Or does the aid manufacturer or mold manufacturer determine the size of an air vent?

And if someone was trying to reduce the odds of feedback, I would assume they’d want to smallest vent possible, especially if purchasing a power hearing aid.

Yes, the vent is the air passage, and yes you can request the size of the vent you want. If you don’t request a specific size, they will often pick a size based on your . And yes, smaller vent equals less feedback. The Select A Vent theoretically lets you try out different sized vents. Didn’t work for me as they kept falling out, but I like the idea in concept.

In reply to @hold4triple

@hold4triple said:

Or does the aid manufacturer or mold manufacturer determine the size of an air vent?

One approach is that they do smallest and then your fitter can redrill the hole into a bigger one if needed. Assuming version with straight tube like vent.

I mean, it’s definitely not your job to guess the size of the vent, but you definitely have a right to complain about issues caused by vent size or lack of it.

In my case I’ve worn acrylic custom molds forever and have always had a vent. Last Audi I saw claimed I had to go full custom silicone ear mold due to my severe hearing loss, even though I told her I need a vent to prevent occlusion. Audi said hearing aid would not work properly with a vent so we tried the silicone. Needless to say in one week (for several reasons) aids were returned, but occlusion was one of the issues. In the future when I trial a new power aid I’m going to make sure I request the smallest vent possible and see what happens,

In reply to @Blacky

@Blacky said:

One approach is that they do smallest and then your fitter can redrill the hole into a bigger one if needed.

You’d be lucky to find a audiologist clinic that would still do that,definitely not the norm downunder, plus the canal has a couple of bends that sometimes determines the diameter(vent size) that can be used, they know its the laboratory’s job, and rightly so, here they simply return them to be remade, and of course this is only for the acrylic and not the silicon type.

@Blacky said:

it’s definitely not your job to guess the size of the vent

To right, that’s the audiologists job, they get the correct vent size from the software after entering ones and other parameters, of course they can change this to something bigger or smaller if the customer wishes.

@hold4triple said:

but occlusion was one of the issues.

Yeah its a horrible feeling,
one that’s pretty hard to Ignore for most people.

@hold4triple said:

I request the smallest vent possible and see what happens

This is what I have done in the past, worked perfectly, you just have to find that balance between occlusion and feedback ; )

@MDB said:

The Select A Vent theoretically lets you try out different sized vents. Didn’t work for me as they kept falling out, but I like the idea in concept.

Yep I had the exact same problem! It was a bit of a hassle really.

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