Replacing rechargeable batteries in Oticon More

I have seen the hearing tech at the VA clinic change the batteries, giving the battery serial numbers to the audiologist to enter into the Gene2 software, then the aids were put through a diagnostic test then programmed with the saved programs. It took almost 45 minutes

I goggled “re-zero” and I found the screenshot below. It says “fill in new battery serial number” followed by “reset battery statistics”.

Yeah they could well be, ether way I don’t think the software is gonna lock up and refuse to reset the batteries.

Yeah, it’s unlikely that the software is going to refuse a battery if you don’t use the exact serial number associated with it. I’m guessing that it’s more or less to just uniquely identify the battery so that the usage statistics is assigned to the properly identified battery.

But the statistical data collected on each battery is probably going to affect how it’s going to be charged up by the charger to give you optimum result. So if you don’t do these steps of identifying the new battery and resetting the statistics when you introduce a new battery, you’ll probably get whacky results in either or both the performance as well as the reporting data on remaining charge and what-have-you (like @SpudGunner did because he didn’t know).

What’s not clear to me is that if you enter a serial number of a newly introduced battery into your Genie 2 setup, but this is not a brand new battery, but instead is a used battery from somewhere, whether there’s any smart in Genie 2 to “look up” somehow to collect the historical statistics of the newly introduced battery to your system or not. Or whether there’s a fundamental assumption that “resetting battery statistics” always assumes that a new/unused battery has been introduced.

@Volusiano: Actually, Mr V, that exact question had occurred to me … Exactly!

@Volusiano said:

Yeah, it’s unlikely that the software is going to refuse a battery if you don’t use the exact serial number associated with it.

A lot of companies are doing things just like this (printer ink/toner, washing soap) to prevent 3rd party batteries from being used. It obviously requires some communication with the battery to do the comparison with, but I wouldn’t put it past Oticon or anyone else. In our favor the form factor is so small that it might not yet be possible to include such a chip in the battery. On the other hand, Apple has a tiny handshaking chip in many of it’s proprietary cables (or at least has done so in the past).

Smart batteries that can communicate with another device seems implausible. A more likely scenario is that the batteries will not be replaceable at all. And guess what? It has already happened. All the major manufacturers (except for Oticon) have batteries that cannot be replaced except using factory repair.

@ziploc said:

@drdigital1 , I got my Mores right when they came out, in January 2021. Yours couldn’t be any older than mine. Are you having issues after only 18 months that require replacing the rechargeable batteries? Just recently I have had a couple of instances where my Mores started to beep at me indicating a low battery after maybe 14 hours of wear. That never used to happen. How long are these rechargeable batteries supposed to last before they start to deteriorate noticeably?

@ziploc, if I remember correctly, you also trialed for the Whisper system, right? I don’t remember though if you signed up for a lease of the Whisper at the end or not. From the sound of this, you didn’t sign up for the Whisper and continued with your More 1 then?

Sorry for the seemingly off-topic question. But I guess the pertinence of this question to this topic is whether you’ve been using the More 1 exclusively lately until you got the low battery warning after only 14 hours, or whether it’s a sporadic mix of use between the More and the Whisper, if you did sign up for the Whisper.

The subject of Oticon rechargeable batteries has been discussed many times. I read in a couple of places that if the batteries are completely discharged then the life time is drastically reduced. If true, this might be the reason my batteries lasted only 14 months i.e., I experienced a complete discharged quite a few times. And I’ll make sure I don’t let it happen again!

Generally for Lithium-ion batteries, completely discharging the battery is bad for its longevity. Keeping the battery in a fully charged state for a long time is also not good for its longevity, but probably not as bad as completely discharging it.

But it seems like the manufacturer has the discretion to build buffer zones around the charging system to allow the battery not to be completely drained nor fully charged, if they want to. Of course the drawback for having these buffer zones is that you don’t get to utilize the full capacity of the battery. In situations where the full capacity is needed and the battery system can’t be over-designed / over-sized to be able to afford having buffer zones, then the users get the short end of the stick.

It seems like you can probably spend 16-hour day on a More battery with plenty of juice to spare, such that Oticon should be able to afford put in buffer zones to prevent complete discharges or full charges if they really want to. Or at least give the users some option to be warned if they pass buffer zones. But apparently Oticon chose not to do any of that and allow the possibility of run-away discharging to occur. That’s shame on Oticon.

Everyone should be remember to require new batteries just before their 3-year warranty is up, then after that, be very mindful to not allow full discharges if they can.

On my normal day my aids discharge down to 30%. I have had only one time I remember that they discharged down to 15%. I have the smart charger for my More1 aids and if I believe they could get too low I care it with me, it only takes 30 minutes to give them an extra 6 hours. The charger can if needed fit in my pants pocket.

remember to require new batteries just before their 3-year warranty is up
My audiologist is pretty good but she charged me for the new batteries (More1 HA purchased in March 2021. No mention of 3 years warranty.