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Oticon Smart charger vs. Desk Charger

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Edited

In reply to @Volusiano

When I picked up my new Smart charger, I asked about reliability and warranty - I was told by the Audi only 1 had been returned for replacement so far, and it was recently.
I believe much of the decision to repair or replace lies with the Audiologist Office - Private vs Gov’t issued (, etc) , the channel of distribution, and support from the Oticon reps at the different levels, starting with support from the Audiologist.

That is what my aids are too. They made the change because of the smart charger.

Interesting because my aids stay off when the power stops. But I always let it happen once the aids are fully charged.

Edited

@cvkemp: I’ll try that …

Addendum: Just to be clear: my aids never turn themselves off once they have achieved full charge. The LEDs show green and stay lit until I remove the from the charger and put them in my ear. The green LED is only extinguished after the fanfare has played.

In reply to @SpudGunner

That makes sense. However I’m powering my charger with my battery, that doesn’t happen. Since I’m traveling now I can check what happens after I place them on charge without powering down. I can make other tests when I’m back home We’d night.

@Volusiano said:

Lithium-ion batteries don’t like to stay at full 100% state or at nearly depleted state for a long time. It’s only in its happiest state when it’s around 50% charged. If you keep the SmartCharger plugged in all the times at home so that you can have a max of 3 day charging when you’re on the go, then it’d be in a full state of charge day-in-day-out in order to be all full on the ready → not good for its battery. So you’d want to keep unplugging it when it’s full, use it for 3 charges, then plug it back in, in order to cycle through the uses to maximize its battery longevity. Or even go to the extreme and charge it to only 2 out of 3 dots, then recharge again from 1 dot to 2 dots (which would require timing the charge), if you really, really want to optimize its battery longevity.

Thanks for this advice. I have not had a chance to ask about this, but I did find the technical data sheet and user manual on the website, and they say “The SmartCharger is designed for charging
miniRITE R either at home connected to a power source or on-the-go using the built-in rechargeable
lithium-ion battery as a power bank.” which implies (to me anyway) that you can leave it plugged in. It also says that you must charge it fully at least once a year, and charge it fully before storage for a period of more than 14 days. Would you guess that there is a reason (something in the design) that makes them recommend 100% or do you think 100% is better than dead, and a more detailed explanation and instruction like the one that you have provided would be just overly confusing for the average user (and they are hoping for the best if this is the case)?

Edited
@Chirp said:

Would you guess that there is a reason (something in the design) that makes them recommend 100% or do you think 100% is better than dead, and a more detailed explanation and instruction like the one that you have provided would be just overly confusing for the average user (and they are hoping for the best if this is the case)?

@Chirp: I offer my amateur opinion for your amusement only ! I think the quoted text sums up Oticon’s rationale.

(Addendum: Perhaps Oticon has incorporated a self-discharge program into its chip that will quickly bleed off the top 20% of a full charge and then manage the idle power bank so that it won’t dip lower than 20% even after 12 months of mothballing.)

In reply to @Chirp

@Chirp said:

It also says that you must charge it fully at least once a year, and charge it fully before storage for a period of more than 14 days?

Many electronics powered by Lithium-ion batteries when go on stand-by still draws a small amount of current. I have an older laptop that got replaced with a new one, so I just relegate it as a backup laptop. Even though I shut the laptop down completely, it still consumes a trickle amount of juice from the battery for some reason. So even if I store it at 50% charged state, a few months later when I pull it out and power it, the battery has been depleted to zero.

So this instruction from Oticon is indicative that even in storage state, the SmartCharger is still trickle-draining its battery by design for some reason, and therefore must be fully charged before put to storage of > 14 days. I’m guessing that after 14 days, its battery will have been drained to almost nothing, hence the instruction to fully charge it before storing.

I’d be curious as to what its state of charge would be after 14 days. If I were an owner of a SmartCharger, I would do an experiment and fully charge it and after 14 days, see how much charge is left. Then based on this information, I would devise a plan to ensure that it will never be depleted in storage. Or else, just use it as a primary charger to avoid all this hassle, and resign myself to the fact that eventually I’d have to toss it out and buy a new one.

Regarding the instruction to charge it fully at least once a year, I’m guessing that this is for calibration. This will allow the circuitry inside the SmartCharger to be able to determine what the remaining usable capacity is, whether it’s 90% or 80% or 70% of what used to be from day one. Laptops give you instruction to fully charge their battery during the conditioning process for the same reason. Without having a full charge, it wouldn’t know how much the battery has deteriorated for real. It may use this information to adjust the charge cycle accordingly to optimize the charging and avoid overcharging.

In reply to @x475aws

@Volusiano said:

maybe it’s not delivering the full 3 charge cycles anymore, like maybe you can only get 2.5 charge cycles out of it by the end of 3 years

@x475aws said:

A related question: In the 3rd year, does a full charge of the aids, which have diminished battery capacity themselves, require the same amount of energy from the Smart Charger as when they were new?

It’s a good question. Common sense tells us that if the batteries have diminished capacities themselves, then a brand new SmartCharger may be able to provide you with more than 3 charging cycles, a slightly deteriorated SmartCharger may be able to continue to provide 3 cycles just the same if its deterioration is inline with the HAs’ batterires deterioration. A badly deteriorated SmartCharger may be able to provide you with less than the original 3 charge cycles, by how much depends on how badly deteriorated it has gotten, I guess.

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