Clogged earhook filters on phonak naidas?

@cgull said:

I’ve had a pair of Phonak Naida V UPs for a couple of months now, and they’ve been mostly good, but there’s one problem I’ve run into: both hearing aids have gone silent because a small filter or fiber screen in the earhook gets clogged/blocked somehow.

The first time was at the end of an evening contra dancing (being able to hear a dance caller well enough to have fun is pretty amazing), and I had an appointment with my audiologist the next day. I left it in a dry-aid jar overnight to no effect. At the audiologist’s, before we tossed it in the box and sent it off, we tried taking off the earhook, and the hearing aid started squealing away. We discovered a tiny filter in the earhook; removing that cleared up the problem.

The second time was just yesterday, on Mount Washington while riding a bicycle to the top, a suffer-fest of aerobic endurance. The other aid died, in much the same way as the first one. This time I was wise to the problem, took off the earhook and got rid of the filter, and I could hear again.

So something about heavy exercise gets this going, but it’s not easily clearable on the spot, unlike water condensation in the earmold tubing (which I also have trouble with).

Has anybody else had something like this happen with recent Phonak aids? Does anybody know the purpose of the filter, whether it’s an acoustic filter to tune the sound, or some kind of environmental filter to keep moisture, oils, etc. out of the hearing aid?

Generally, the filter in a BTE hearing aid is for acoustic purposes. There are often different colored filters designed with different results in mind.

On many hearing aids you can order ear hooks without a filter, and with any good hearing system the computer software should be able to compensate for that lack of filter by making a programming adjustment to the aid. If this is not possible on your model you should simply have your hearing professional order up a bag of ear hooks for you so that you can replace them yourself if they become blocked. An ear hook should cost no more than a couple of dollars, if that. Replacing them is just a matter of unscrewing it from the body of the aid, and pushing the tube on to the new ear hook.

With regards to the problem of moisture in the tube, you need to ask your hearing professional to obtain some stay dry tubing. It is available from Hal Hen or any of the major hearing aid parts supply companies. The tube is specially designed to cut down on condensation and other moisture collecting in the tube. It should take care of this problem instantly.

If the condensation in the earmold tubing is excessive, I wonder if the condensation is working it’s way through the tubing to the earhooks, saturating the filter and plugging up the sound. With water resistant hearing aids (as the Naida’s are), I think dry tubing should be required. In fact, it should be required on all hearing aids. I’m not sure why they even make the other kind as there is always condensation in them by the end of the day.

I’ve used “moisture proof” earmold tubing since the late 80’s/early 90’s and it has never failed me.

Moisture proof tubing might take care of all of your problems.

@ZCT said:

As for why regular tubing is used as standard, it is probably half the price of stay dry.
.

Do you know what the cost difference is? I can’t imagine twice the plastic tubing would be more then a couple of dollars?

@xbulder said:

the solution to your problem is call
global by
dry and store
it is all that

I have the dry and store with the UV light. It is plain awesome. I haven’t had any more itchy outer ear bacterial infections since I’ve had the unit. The molds and HA’s seem to love being dry which makes me a happy user.

@adgraham said:

Do you know what the cost difference is? I can’t imagine twice the plastic tubing would be more then a couple of dollars?

I have the dry and store with the UV light. It is plain awesome. I haven’t had any more itchy outer ear bacterial infections since I’ve had the unit. The molds and HA’s seem to love being dry which makes me a happy user.

Yes you are right , the Dry and store is awesome , i also bought one and its work great , ,

@adgraham said:

Do you know what the cost difference is? I can’t imagine twice the plastic tubing would be more then a couple of dollars.

Just for you I looked it up. From one of my suppliers:

A 25 pack of pre-bent tubing is $11.00.
Cost per unit is 44c.

A 10 pack of pre-bent stay dry is $11.10.
Cost per unit is $1.11.

Believe it or not I once had a boss get annoyed because I was only ordering stay dry for my office, and he told me I was wasting money.

Consider too that there are shipping costs too, which makes the prices a little higher. But in any case I was pretty close when I said it was more than twice the price to buy stay dry. Personally, I think it’s worth the extra money, but not all hearing professionals agree.

So I just went in for a followup with my audiologist and the local Phonak audiologist.

Turns out that they’ve redesigned the ear hook and filter because of this problem; she promises me some once they come out. Anybody seen the new ear hooks yet?

It took me a while to figure out that the clogged filters not only completely stop sound from getting through. They can also make the hearing aids sound really bad, and have very variable sound quality, without necessarily knocking the volume down much. So, if your Naidas sound bad or you’ve had trouble getting them tuned right, go bug your audiologist for some new ear hooks, and try different things about your hearing aid storage (for me, things improved when I stopped using a dry-aid jar-- very weird).

Phonak are coming out with new earhooks? Hope it works.
My audiologist have taken out the acoustic filter from the earhook back in May cos the filter gets dampen and the sound goes reaily quiet. Never have the earhook replace with new acoustic filter ever since. (audio was told by the Phonak rep to remove it and thats it) Might have to e-mail to Phonak to double check with them if acoustic filter is ok to be remove.
Will update once hear back from Phonak.

9/9/08 Have not heard back from Phonak since.

Quote:
Originally Posted by adgraham
If the condensation in the earmold tubing is excessive, I wonder if the condensation is working it’s way through the tubing to the earhooks, saturating the filter and plugging up the sound. With water resistant hearing aids (as the Naida’s are), I think dry tubing should be required. In fact, it should be required on all hearing aids. I’m not sure why they even make the other kind as there is always condensation in them by the end of the day.

I’ve used “moisture proof” earmold tubing since the late 80’s/early 90’s and it has never failed me.

Moisture proof tubing might take care of all of your problems.

@ZCT said:

adgraham is quite right, excessive condensation can saturate an ear hook filter thus preventing it from working.

As for why regular tubing is used as standard, it is probably half the price of stay dry.

It’s like the question as to why ABS disc brakes are not standard on cars. Thousands of lives could be saved.

So you have been having some issues with sweating and the earhooks? It seems that seems to be my issue with my Naida FM aid going crazy. After a sweat session, I seem to see the foam in the upper body about saturated with moisture. My hearing volume seems to increase and start warbling in sound. Any resolutions here? Will the moisture proof tubing work for profound losses?