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Traditional battery vs. rechargeable

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Can you use your aids while charging them?

I just ordered Oticon OWN1 and they only come in 312 battery format. Backup aids and a USB power block are a good idea, and I would use that for my phone. Which I can use while charging.

Somewhat related, there are replaceable rechargeables (for some hearibng aids). Not sure how new this is. I saw them in either a Phonak or Oticon document. I should have made better note of it.

The demand for disposable powered battery phones is…nil. Zip. Nada. And rechargeable phones are subject to all of the perils that rechargeable aids are. I’m sorry that Spud couldn’t get the aid he wanted in a disposable battery version. My preference for rechargeable aids comes after having used disposables for decades. for me, anyway, and for a large amount of other users (I haven’t done a scientific survey to determine the precise percentage but it’s a large number) they are not “a horrible idea”. Live and let live!

In reply to @grantb5

I have just been this last Friday requested a set of OWN1 aids. While I like the More1 aids for the sound and speech understanding I prefer aids. They just sound more natural. My thoughts and hopes is that the OWN1 aids can be programmed with the same settings as my More1 aids. My audiologist says that Oticon claims that they can be.

In reply to @jeffrey

I know that the is pushing rechargeable aids, and a lot of audiologist do. The problem is the hearing aid companies don’t talk to us the end users. I have finally gotten to talk to the Oticon VA rep and explain my thoughts and issues and I pitch out to them the thoughts of the ones on this forum too.

Edited

In reply to @jeffrey

@jeffrey, I’m sorry if I offended you by saying that rechargeable aids are a horrible idea in their current state of development. But the statements by some rechargeable advocates, saying in effect that there are no valid reasons to resist switching, are certainly no better than what I said, and I could argue that they’re worse. I’m glad you’re happy with what you’re using.

I recall that your rechargeables have been trouble-free. If that’s correct, would your opinion be different if you had experienced problems of the sort that are specific to rechargeables?

I’m not aware of any phones with disposable batteries. Given zinc-air’s greater power density compared to lithium, a replaceable zinc-air battery in a phone could power it for perhaps a week? If that battery could sell for $10, I’ll bet plenty of people would be willing to pay for it. Lack of a meaningful battery gauge doesn’t have to be a problem, because the phone itself could keep track of how much power it’s drawn from the battery, and present SOC based on that.

It is the same as the government and auto industry shoving electric vehicles down our throats. I guess they are okay for around down or if you don’t do long distance trips. But it is ridiculous for cross country trips.

Sorry, but as someone who has been closely following EVs for over 20 years I know you’re just flat wrong on that. I built my own EV long ago, and I’ll be getting another soon that will specifically be used for long trips. It’s no longer an issue.

And “shoving electric vehicles down our throats” is not AT ALL what’s going on. Responding responsibly to a climate crisis that even the oil companies no longer deny is what’s going on, and EVs are only one of many necessary responses to that crisis.

Of course you and I both know this is all totally off-topic, so I will leave my comments at that. Just be aware that there is no EV hater or climate denier I haven’t been able to embarrass yet. This is crucial, even existential stuff.

Well until I see the proof and the fact the common person can afford it I call it a bunch of BS. Sure we have climate change, that is what the earth is all about. We have caused it more by destroying the rain forest and the prairie grasses. And we are causing it with all the toxic it waste from mining and and waste from production of the batteries. You want to help Mother Earth then put all of the trees back and the prairie grass and remove all of the pavement and concrete that is the real cause of global warming.

@cvkemp. Actually, the ultimate cause of global warming is that the human reproduction rate is such that our population is ever increasing. If we all just had 2 kids on average, the population would slowly and continually decline to a level everyone could live happily with (it takes 2.2 kids on average per couple to just sustain the population because for various reasons, some children never reproduce).

Melvyn Bragg is a famous British cultural icon, and he had a BBC 4 podcast on the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh, a story handed down over thousands of years as it was preserved on clay tablets. I was astounded to learn that even several thousands of years before the Christian era, the Babylonians were worried about all the forests that were being cut down in their environs and how nature was disappearing.

That is a part of the program, but not as much in this country. But still I stand by deforestation and destroying the prairie grass. This has taken away earth’s capability to take care of CO2. The forest and grass lands use to be able to use all of it. So we have destroyed the earth’s defense system.

People, engineers get way to focused on one thing and make thinks so much worse by not looking at the big picture.

I find battery to be a hassle to deal with, i don’t wanna buy battery anymore. I charge my resound rechargable every night… until it end of it useful life. 3-4 years. i’ll buy a new hearing aid…

What happens when your batteries don’t hold their charger for your whole day. Or if you are traveling and forget your charger. Or there is a major power outage that takes the power down for days or weeks at a time. I have rechargeable aids, but I also keep my backup aids ready for me to swap out for my main aids. I believe that rechargeable aids are okay but my hearing is such I can’t take a chance on not having the capability to recharge them. I am planning on getting myself a set of aids that use disposable batteries as a defense against the possibility of the major outages.

In reply to @cvkemp

I have an Oticon dynamo with me at all times… Due to work, i have to carry a durable backup at all times, I do a lot of conference call at work as i’m working with a bunch of hearing engineers…

In reply to @cvkemp

@cvkemp said:

I believe that rechargeable aids are okay but my hearing is such I can’t take a chance on not having the capability to recharge them.

I think that use disposables are OK too. This debate seems like it’s an either/or when it’s not. I seriously doubt the HA manufacturers are going to willingly kill a product category that is needed by some people. If you need to use your aids a full day and your usage drains them before that, it’s not a product that’s useful. That won’t last in the marketplace. Audiologists and patients won’t stand for it. I just can’t see how disposable battery HAs are going to disappear before rechargeables can do everything they need to do. That would be just too stupid. Are the manufacturers stupid? I’m not being cute here. I’m new to all this, so I really don’t know. Are they?

As far as lasting a full day is concerned, the dual battery approach would seem to be a sure-fire fix for HAs. I don’t know how to solve the issue for .

As far as power failures are concerned, I don’t see that being an issue. Let’s say rechargeables improve to the point that anyone gets a full day use and then some. And the whole industry goes with rechargeables. Power failures can be managed with a power pack. They aren’t that expensive and many will keep a mobile phone running for a week. That’s probably equivalent to three or more weeks for a pair of HAs. You’d be hard pressed to recall an emergency that kept you from power that long. If you want a belt-and-suspenders approach, get an extra charging cradle too. (I’ll bet some here already have more than one.)

I’m not trying to be flippant here. I totally get that being able to hear is a critical issue for many here, and not one to be trifled with. But there is more than one solution to the problem. If rechargeables become the norm, well, that’s workable. Different, but workable.

Edited

@ctromley: Let’s say that - as is my case - you wear your for 18 hours and have 18% at the end of the day. You turn in at midnight, but at 01:30h, your old dog has a medical emergency (or you do, for that matter). Your rechargeable HAs are only half charged. Your choice is to wear them or your fully-charged backups.

Neither of these choices is optimal nor does either address the fact that you may be in for a 12-hour-or-more stint in the emergency department. With disposable batteries, you just pop in a new cell, and in 30 seconds, you’re now juiced up for days. In a situation like that, disposable batteries win, hands down!

Rechargeable hearing aids aren’t the best option for me, but they may suit your situation to a tee.

Edited

In reply to @ctromley

There is more that one way, there is the issue of size. The complaints I read about and a few I have myself is charge time, charge left time, and also a huge one with a lot of people mostly females and that is the size and heavy weight feeling behind the ears, then there is the issue that hearing aids behind the ears has to share the space with glasses. And your solution is actually enlarging the size to get the battery life, the acceptance will only come when you have the battery life and size mastered. And that will be smaller wise with longer battery life. Most females and some males don’t want anyone to know they wear hearing aids for hearing loss, but they gladly wear earbuds to stream, but most earbuds don’t have much of a battery life between charging.
That is your real challenge, smaller size and longer battery life.

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