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Costco News: KS10 discontinued

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I don’t know as I can’t get past paywall. I thought it was interesting that it was getting a broader audience than the hearing aid community.

In reply to @WhiteHat

Not really. It mentions the hearingtracker site. It does say:

“ While this timeline might have been slightly disrupted by the pandemic, there are no signs indicating that Kirkland Signature 10 is about to be replaced with a newer device.”

In reply to @4mulch

@tenkan, @MDB, I didn’t think it did either. But when I went in for a hearing evaluation they mentioned they come also came in a disposable battery version. And when I called back to inquire, another representative shared the same thing. That said, I agree with you - I don’t think they come in anything other than a rechargeable version.

It’s not a regular paywall, because you can get a free trial membership without a credit card, and your trial isn’t converted to a paying membership automatically. I signed up. The CEO of Sonova is quoted as saying "I won’t comment on Costco because we never comment on individual customers. But we are currently discussing rechargeability with a larger client. We haven’t met the same reaction from other clients with the same type of product, however,” This seems significant.

In reply to @x475aws

@x475aws said:

We haven’t met the same reaction from other clients with the same type of product, however,” This seems significant

It is, and not just for the issues mentioned, but confirming KS10 is the same as Paradise (P90)

I purchased a set of used KS10s a few months back. When I first got them I had issues with charging, probably the reason the previous owner let them go. I felt it was the contacts inside the charger. A careful cleaning and application of a “electrical enhancer” has kept them trouble free from that point. I will note that a lot of microprocessor devices hate power “noise” such as from dirty contacts, often requiring a reset afterwards. Somehow that confuses the crap out of the processor. This could be happening as the aids are inserted into the charger. Are they contacts dirty? poor coating? Hard to say. Mine are working well for now.

Yeah too true, lucky for you it wasn’t degraded batteries, as yet we haven’t been able to confirm the battery swap is possible with 3rd party one’s, although we should know soon enough as one member is giving it a go

In reply to @robert.vanburen

I always take a tech wipe and wipe the bodies down before I insert them into the charger. Easier to clean that than the charger. And that is much easier than trying to get the to ship me another one.

WH

Do the KS10 have charging contact points showing? My Resound’s have what seems to be induction type of charging, no contact points showing, but must be placed correctly in the charger to.get the green light showing charging.

I think the ReSound charger (for the Quattros), though, must have some sort of photocell to trigger induction charging. There seem to be two lenses at the bottom of each body bay on opposite sides. If they get dirty with HA gunk, it’s sometimes hard to get induction charging going. So every type of rechargeable has some degree of “finickiness” to it.

My One’s don’t have evidence of charging contacts on either the aid or charger, and yes, picky on how inserted into the charger to get the green light.

My guess is that if it’s true that they ‘have more than the usual number of problems with the KS10’s’ it’s because they sell more of them.

I am having an issue with my KS10 right hearing aid. I pop it in the charger overnight and recently it has failed to charge come the morning. This has been happening every week and more recently every 2 to 3 days or so.

Anyway, the reason for posting is that I rang my local costco here in the UK and they eventually got back to me and said that they were pretty sure what the problem was, I needed to hold down the lower volume button on the aid for 15 seconds, which would force a hard reset of the aid. I was then to pop the aid in the charger and that should resolve the issue.

I have just tried this tonight. Will report back in a few days on whether this has worked or not.

I don’t know if this is related to the reason why KS10s have been pulled, but I thought I would mention this in case anybody was having the same problem.

If that doesn’t work, some things to consider:

The holes the aids fit down into should be the same. If you swap sides (put left on right and right on left) does the problem move?

The aids charge by contacts on the aids mating up to contacts in the charger. Is there gunk on the aids or the contact in the hole in the charger?

Hope the reset helps…

WH

I changed the bluetooth side via Target. All the charging quirks moved to the new side. So in my case at least, the charging quirks are related to the bluetooth link. I’m hoping that Android 13 will cure the excess drain issue.The other quirks are easy to ignore.

I have a power aid and custom mold in my right ear; a custom mold in my left. The right is heavier than the left. When I put my aids in the charger, the left (lighter) aid always gives a consistent green blinking light. The (heavier) right will initially show a green blinking light, that most often will stop after a few seconds. the weight of the mold will unbalance the battery connection and stop the charge. I’ll most often (!) have to fiddle with the balance to keep the right aid charging. For example, I’ll put something under the mold to hold its weight. then, it charges as normal.

I wonder if something like this isn’t behind the issue. It’[s not the charger. it’s loss of contact with the aid with the charger. The magnet holding the connection isn’t strong enough. Users see the green light when they put their aids in the charger, and don’t wait to see the connection has failed.

In reply to @jeffrey

I was told straight up by a fitter that they sell the hearing aids at a loss to build up membership and sales in other areas (he mentioned optical but not sure that was his real point, just an example). He also said that they did the same thing with the hot dogs and rotisserie chickens. There are a few things that they will always keep cheap because it keeps people remaining as members and buying other things that are profitable. Of course, he’s low on the Costco totem pole but he does work there.

In reply to @ctreenmn

I bought KS10s in January with the “Kirkland Charger Case” a few months ago (substantial improvement over my old Phonak Brios) and have had no problems, so it isn’t affecting everyone, however one has detailed the problem and it is right to consider the whole system when troubleshooting. Could be a quality control issue.

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