Oh My - Has Phonak stopped using disposable batteries?

@stevemink said:

Makes No Rational Sense At All, from a company standpoint nor a hearing aid user standpoint.

Can you back up that statement with any data? Because I’m thinking Phonak uses plenty of that to make their marketing decisions.

You’re seriously caught up with this 80% of user, blah, blah, blah. You’re also showing a level of ignorance since I’m not directing posts to HA users with mild to mid range hearing loss. You can’t seem to understand that Mr. Smithster. Care to explain why? Please take your eye blinders off and look at the “BIG Picture” since you keep categorizing everyone with a hearing loss into one big group. Or shall we say the 80% group.

You’re also off base claiming 80% of HA users want rechargeable batteries, since HA dealers do many times push for one HA brand over another, for the benefit of the HA dealer. We’d all like to think someone recommending a HA will do so for good reasons like aid performance, durability, warranty support service, etc. Unfortunately most first time HA users usually don’t have a clue which type aid they should be getting, thus they rely on an experienced professional HA dealer/Audi/ENT doctor etc., to recommend various brands. But many times a hearing aid dealer will just recommend one HA brand and it might just be a brand that dealer has a special financial deal with. Sorry if that upsets a few, but it’s a fact.

And Oh - I can hear those typing now - that’s why you trial a HA fo 30 to 60 days. Totally agree unless you a first time HA user who knows nothing about HAs and what questions to ask before buying. Or you’re someone elderly that is easily taken advantage of, etc. Of if you’re someone that never “googles” anything and just buys expensive things blind.

Most HA dealers do not offer all lines of hearing aids. If you’re lucky you might find someone selling three different brands of aids If you’re real lucky maybe four. But if you happen to go to a HA dealer that just sells Signia or say just Starkey aids - well that is the HA they are going to push or shall we say recommend. Not ReSound, nor Phonak, etc., simply because the don’t sell those aids. Depending on one one’s hearing loss, that Signia aid or Starkey aid might work out perfectly (with rechargeable or disposable battery). Then again those two aids might not be the right match for someone with XYZ hearing loss and then HA dealer has to decide do they still push for a sale with an aid that might not be ideal, or do they do the right thing and suggest someone try other aid brands that the dealers doesn’t offer?

In life sometimes you have to look out for yourself, because no one else will.

.

@stevemink said:

you have to look out for yourself, because no one else will

Previously you were suggesting that the FDA force the HA companies to give you your “right.” But if you’re going to do it yourself then more power to you. What’s the plan?

You guys need to pour a beer and chill. How many times can we go round and round beating a horse to death on this rechargeable vs. battery argument? It always ends in a nasty argument with one or more people getting their accounts suspended.

There are lots of good options out there for everyone. No need to stress over conspiracy theories…

Jordan

@JordanK said:

You guys need to pour a beer and chill.

Exactly.
The thread honestly needs to be stopped.
It’s way off topic.

Streamline is probably the proper word to use as far as direction some HA manufacturers are going. Certainly there’s major consolidation within industry. Yet consumers (HA buyers) like anyone else like choices. Your suggestion to pay more for premium aids that use disposable batteries might have merit. Then again it might also alienate or cause hardship to the hearing loss group that is most dependent on aids.

I’m sure OTC is causing heartburn and lose of revenue for some big HA manufacturers. Still a good quality hearing aid that just happens to cost more, will far exceed the performance of an OTC aid. Short term and long term. With that said - I think we are talking pennies regarding differences in costs to design/manufacturer an aid using a rechargeable battery versus disposable. Am I 100% certain about that? No.

But as well all know there are really two reasons good hearing aids (not OTC) cost so much and that is the cost of Research and Development and the fact that hearing aids in general are not not bought in mass quantity like cell phones, TV’s, laptops, etc. Thus limited demand. But (and I stand by this) the guts of a hearing probably cost not more than $100 to $200. Again I’m not an expert but I bet if you disassembled a HA and put a price figure on each HA component, users would be shocked by how little is spent (on material) to assemble a new aid. So I’m not buying the line - HA’s using rechargeable batteries are way cheaper to make then HA that use disposable hearing aids. From a part/component standpoint both aids pretty much cost the same to make.

As you point out, the sky-high prices of (good) HAs are due to their R&D costs and special software, not the off-the-shelf hardware. In this respect the industry looks like big Pharma, where synthetising medicines is (typically) cheap and easy, while demonstrating they are safe and efficacious (R&D) may cost billions. Still, with a ‘patient’ population that is hugely underserved (and, as you also point out, incomparable to the mass of, e.g. smartphone users), the HA industry should revise its marketing strategies. First, there is the infuriating habit of manufacturers to sell at different prices to different countries (“what the market will bear”). As if poor people do not exist in “rich countries” (and vv). This is a bit like shopkeepers demanding to see your passport before they announce their prices- as if the internet never abolished local distributor networks. Second, the HA business model is too heavily dependent on intermediaries (audiologists), which drives up costs. More should be directed towards (cheaper!) direct-to-customer marketing, along with easy access and support for self-fitting tools (like in this forum!). As this recent study shows (Effectiveness of an Over-the-Counter Self-fitting Hearing Aid Compared With an Audiologist-Fitted Hearing Aid: A Randomized Clinical Trial - PMC), self-fitting is at least as efficient as what audiologists can achieve.
To return to the original topic- if BTE HAs would be just a little bit larger and carry higher-capacity batteries (lasting much longer) that would solve some of the complaints I see here. Sadly, there is the strong, competing force to make HAs ‘invisible’.

I do tear up after reading your previous posts, since they’re basically gibber/jabber and so weakly supported. Handkerchief please.

What did i say that is so weakly supported? I said to buy what aid works for each individual. That 80+ % of aids are rechargeable is fact. That the number is growing every year is fact. That it will cost mfgs more to make battery aids is fact. You can’t make 10 of something for the same price as 100. Your problem is with supply and demand.