Oticon Smart charger vs. Desk Charger

@Mago said:

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 (VA, etc) , the channel of distribution, and support from the Oticon reps at the different levels, starting with support from the Audiologist.

I suspect that you’re right about the HCP being the place where a warranty replacement decision is made. If the HCP is easy and wants to please their customers for repeat business, they may be more prone to accommodate warranty requests more leniently than others.

The SmartCharger hasn’t really come out that long ago, so the fact that 1 had already been returned for replacement so far from just that one HCP is actually not a good sign, in my opinion. But overall, it’s just too new to have enough data points to form any conclusion out of it. Now if you hear about it from everyone and their brothers after about a year, like with the ZPower battery debacle, then it’d be a clinching conclusion to make.

@cvkemp Thank you, thank you, Chuck Kemp!! You’re 100% correct - if I disconnect the battery from my desk charger after the HAs have achieved a full charge, the HA LEDs blink once, and then the devices “go to sleep”.

This is a BOON for me - I never liked the notion that the hearing aids never got any real down time! You’re a smart cookie for a Tar, Chuck!

Oticon Smart Charger vs Desk Charger?

Well let me put it this way. I have been using the Desk Charger for yonks…perhaps 5-6 years whenever it the Oticon rechargeable hearing aids became available. Never had a problem with the Desk Charger.

When the Oticon More came out I bought a set and a Smart Charger.

But the first time I visited another city the Smart Charger went dead. I do not mean it just wouldn’t charge…but the power bank was completely dead as well. No charging…no powerbank backup. Just me with dead aids.

To survive the Christmas Season vacation, when I was away from home, my son was able to get a loan of a desk charger from a nice audiology clinic.

When I got back home I used my own old home Desk Charger until I was able to get a replacement Smart Charger under Warranty.

But some 10 months later (right this last two days), this replacement Smart Charger has just failed again and I have reverted to wearing some Oticon OPN hearing aid back-ups with disposable batteries to tide me over until I can take delivery of a new Desk Charger for my Oticon Mores.

Can I get another Warranty again on my now dead replacement Smart Charger? Who knows…but I am very much less than impressed with the reliability of the so called “Smart” Charger.

I could be just incredibly unlucky to suffer two failures from two Smart Chargers or there may be a significant design fault…only time will tell. The statistics indicate that there is a serious design fault with the Smart Charger or I am an incredibly unlucky person.

If you want reliability, I would advise to stay well away from the Smart Charger until such time Oticon can identify the fault and re-design the unit to make it reliable.

@member45: Good luck! Remember that Oticon is just an anagram for TiCoon - who run the jernt, but don’t seem to care about things like Value and Reliability.

All companies and corporations have their warts. And now days they all seem to believe we as their customers are their beta testers. But I for one choose to use what best works for my needs. By the way I turned a Oticon VA rep’s face bright red when I said basically what I said above. Then we had an interesting and honest conversation.

@cvkemp: Thanks for that, Chuck. So, there was no indignant denial of the Guinea pig accusation?

Sure, all corporations have their warts, however, the good ones try to take corrective measures when they’re pernted out.

I have talked the rep and several of the audiologist/developers. They all seem to understand the frustration of their users.

All corporations and companies are being pushed by investors to produce faster and faster. They are being pushed to produce cheaper and sale at higher cost. I remember when a number of companies I worked for were independent and didn’t rush to market, but as soon as they had investors they all rushed too fast to market. It is said but true that greed rules everything now days.

@Volusiano said:

I would think that you can get as many replacement for it as necessary during the warranty period.

@Mago: I Automatically assumed that the warranty period began on the original date of purchase, and ended three years thereafter. The anniversary date is never “evergreen”.

@Mago said:

When I received my replacement Mores, I asked if the warranty started over (I already knew the answer) - Nope!
The warranty is from the original date, so I would think the warranty on the replacement charger(s) works the same.

Yeah, it’s fully understandable that the warranty would not start over again. It would simply be from the original purchase date like @SpudGunner said above.

But @member45 has a valid concern on whether it’d be a “one-time-only” warranty replacement, or as many replacements as necessary DURING the warranty period only. So it’d be wise to ask up front an not assume, although you’d think that accessories warranty should be similar to HA warranty.

For example, I think the HAs are covered with a loss warranty. Sometimes it also includes accidental breakage as well, although just a loss warranty alone can be all encompassing without saying because people can still use the loss warranty to claim for accidentally broken devices by just claiming them as being lost. Anyway, the loss warranty is a one-time-only replacement warranty, and there’s usually a $300/HA fee to cover for a replacement as well. So it’d be wise to ask for clarification on the accessories warranty and not just assume, I guess.

@Volusiano said:

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.

I took delivery of the Smart Charger in July, 2022.
I had so many issues with the More’s that I started using the OPN S R’s, until a few weeks ago.
When I opened the lid to insert the Mores, all 3 LED’s came on, and did get 3 nights of charging, so that baby will hold a charge for at least 3 months, if not longer.

@SpudGunner said:

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 HAs from the charger and put them in my ear. The green LED is only extinguished after the fanfare has played.

I disagree.
The moment you drop your HA’s in the charger, they shut down.
The green LED’s indicate the devices are charged, and ready for use.
They only turn on when removed from the charger.

Matter of fact, most AuD’s shut them down, and restart them using the charger when connecting to Genie2.

Hey V, that is very astute!
Win/Win, vs Win/Lose. LOL

WELL, I realize now I have “More 2’s” Maybe that’s why mine don’t turn on when power is cut to the charger.

@jcisbell: Naw, that wouldn’t affect it. I may be mistaken about how my aids work. I need to consult my manual and read more carefully … I may be all wet about how the charger works … or not!