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Activating zinc air batteries (5 minutes is absolutely not enough!)

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I am extremely skeptical about the 1 Minute and 5 Minutes rules simply because I looked closely at my hearing aids and it is very clear that they do not have an airtight seal on them. I have not seen any battery powered aid that says it has an airtight seal. And even if it did there would still be residual air inside once the seal is closed. Air is inside the aid at all times so air has to be getting absorbed into the zinc mixture. Oxygen is absorbed on the molecular level so that any battery having the tab removed will freely absorb oxygen from the air. also the 1.4 - 1.45 volts is standard for 312 batteries but many sites including Sony and Rayovac mention that it can and does vary based on conditions. I would expect conditions such as moisture content (humidity) to be an important factor on the voltages produced.

In reply to @DaveL

Funny! My uncle worked at 3M in MN his entire life! That is a company with a looooOOOooong history!

Yes, I totally get you on the “adhesive transfer” issue. That’s why I started rubbing the tops of my stickered batteries with a Q-tip dipped in rubbing alcohol after removing the tabs. I also felt like the cleaner the surface, the faster the O2 holes could get the battery ready to go.

Edited

In reply to @don2

@don2
as a has-been pro photographer with equipment that had to work always…I use a coarse eraser. I prefer white Staedtler erasers. Failing that, any eraser on a pencil will do and the size is better

As an engineer who was trained on a drafting board, I’ve always had a pencil size Staedtler eraser. Works well.

Thanks for the reply. I have used erasers that way for many years also. Unfortunately they wont fit into my ks9’s. Maybe somebody should make an eraser in the shape of an eraser. lol

I actually whittle an eraser down to size if I need to…
and I’m careful there’s no eraser dust in the hearing aid battery case.

The only time I’ve had a hearing aid fail because of adhesive on contacts the eraser fixed it. Back in drafting days I carried a mechanical pencil that had a very small eraser under the top. That worked too.

Now I have rechargeable bateries in my Paradise P90R’s. It’s easy to clean the contacts. However, the batteries don’t last long enough.

DAveL
Toronto

Metering the voltage of the 1.4v cell sitting on your table is probably not very meaningful because almost all precision battery powered circuits are designed and regulated to operate at a lower voltage. The op was testing the cell under a no load condition, but as soon as the hearing aid is turned on, the cell voltage will drop. It would be very difficult to measure the operating cell voltage unless you knew the design current load and had a variable load for your bench tests.

Also as the hearing aid gain is increased the current draw will increase too. Those that have noticed a reduction in sound quality as the cell is reaching the end of life, are at the point where the cell voltage under load is fluctuating at or below the designed regulated voltage which is causing the distortion. For a voltage regulator circuit to work properly, the voltage of the 1.4v cell must be somewhat above the desired operating voltage. As the cell voltage under load approaches the regulated voltage the audio sound peaks will drive the cell voltage down to the point where the regulator circuit fails, thus distortion.

some folks seem to need a hobby…

Grandpa what did you do today? I got my voltage meter out and was checking my hearing batteries…

I open a pair of batteries, then I remove the batteries from my aids. I check the filters, run the wire through the vent holes, wipe everything down, install fresh batteries and good for another 4 days.

In reply to @1Bluejay

@1Bluejay

rubbing alcohol works! It will dissolve solvent based adhesives such as those that 3M (used to?) make. I found that just letting the bare battery sit uncovered prevented my problem. My first audiologist emphasized I needed to do that. She said it “energized” the battery. Whatever the reason, it works.

We used to refer to RM19. It was a good cleaner. Whatever it was, someone used to take it home in quantities somehow and did dry cleaning in his basement. Until he did too much. It was flammable.

In reply to @DaveL

@DaveL said:

Wonderful explanation!
Is there a meter that will test batteries simulating load?
DaveL
Toronto

I did a search, but couldn’t find any consumer priced testers that stated that they will test a hearing aid battery under a load. There are laboratory grade instruments available, but they will cost more than your hearing aids. I would stay away from the simple analog meters because the meter itself will become an un measured load.

In my case, this discussion has been of academic interest only, because when wearing my Phonak Bolero V70 aids, I just pull the tabs off the new batteries, remove the old batteries, insert the new ones, place the aids in my ears, and turn them on. I don’t wait for them to get to full voltage, and I consistency average 6 days per battery change.

And as another person posted; yes we all need a hobby, which is one of the reasons I acquired the software to program my own hearing aids.

Edited

In reply to @user955

@user955 said:

As an example, if your car battery is not charging, you will get decreased engine and tranny performance…

Not the same. A car has an alternator that charges the battery and also powers the car once the engine is started.
Once a car engine is running, you can disconnect the battery and the engine will run fine. A low battery in a car may affect the electrical system some, and of course, not start well, but not really the engine or tranny because the alternator takes over once the engine is started.

I downloaded the technical data sheet for a 312 Ray-O-Vac battery, and it states 1 minute to activate a cell after pulling the tab. Also a sealed cell will loose 10% of it’s capacity per year in storage.

This is from the manufacturer, so I would disregard any of the stuff being spread around by others.

Edited

Years ago when I had OPN aids with 312 zinc-air batteries, I looked at battery manufacturer’s documentation and found wait times for activation between 1 and 5 minutes. More recently, the times have changed, possibly with the changes to the chemistry when mercury was removed.

Of interest is another Ray-O-Vac on-line document about performance in non-standard conditions:
https://rayovac.eu/how-humidity-temperature-and-altitudes-can-affect-hearing-aid-battery-life/45

Just for fun I tried exposing size 13 Rayovac batteries for 24 hours and suprisingly got 18 hours better life, ie from 6 to 7 days.
They power Naida M90 SP and are worn for 11 and 3/4 hours.

In reply to @ssa

Just found this thread. Closing it down? What on earth for?
I recently had a change of aids. I reported extreme battery drain that had developed over the life of the Phonak Naida devices I’d been issued with, culminating in one day I changed the batteries for the 3rd time since e wake up time. That 3rd time was about 1800 hrs or 6pm if you rate time on 12hr basis.
This had been a deteriorating thing for months. originally the aids called for batteries roughly daily when bluetooth was in heavy use - as it is with me most days as I listen to audio books, audio from videos and now Im in my 70s am not out of the house much. I found zero interest in my reporting this excessive battery drain, mine are not my own buys - theyre issued by our NHS here in the uk. the clinic sent out my allocated supply of cells despite being told that they weren’t lasting as they had previously done. FINALLY I requested an appt with a tech to have these checked in case they’d gone out of spec. Only to be told that Id been earmarked for rechargeables… At the appt I asked specifically how long was the service time per charge on bluetooth, turns out it’s only 8hrs max. no use to me. I should add that my hearing aids are perfectly excellent performers when in use, their amplification characteristics suit me well enough and Im almost able to seem like a normal hearing guy provided there’s no excessive background noise.
In the event I was issued with a replacement pair of aids, same model. On trying them I find that their cell life is indeed back to how the first pair performed, up to a day with plenty of streaming in that time. The older pair had fallen away to about 2hrs+ or thereabouts. Which indicates definite deterioration in the previous pair, which the technician had no interest in testing or returning under warranty - apparently these have a 24 month warranty period here in uk.
That’s it from me for now. Except to say that I think it highly reprehensible to be over ready to close down discussions because there seems to be disagreement in the ranks. We have different experiences and live in different countries - hardly surprising that opinions differ. knee-jerk reactions only anger participants and lively discussions can yield interesting points of interest.
If someone is in clear breach of standards then by all means issue notice of disapproval - privately. by PM.
which is how ive run things on a couple of forums. different subject areas but with plenty of opinions that often differed widely. PM warnings of possible account blocking for a period never had to be implemented, only mentioned in private so nobody had to be embarrassed publicly.
we here are all deaf to a degree and possibly a bit crusty around the edges. Thread closure shuts down the whole talk shop and is the nuclear weapon of an admin’s tools - should never be used but all know - it could be - only in extremis. I never had to use it even once.

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