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One Phonak Lumity aid going dead for a few seconds - problem?

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OK. I’m wearing Phonak Lumity Life aids. Bought them last October, and in 4 mos the receivers had died and needed replacing. Here I am a few months past that replacement and now the RIGHT aid (not the “master”) seems to go completely quiet for a few seconds. It happens when streaming the TV or even in the middle of the day not streaming. It started happening a few days ago, and seems to occur maybe once or twice a day.

Should I be concerned? Perhaps have them sent in for testing? They show as “100% charged” every morning, and I get a good 17 hrs of use per day. It just seems that the right speaker (or could it be the unit?) goes absoltely quiet those seconds.

On top of which, has anyone experienced the phenomenom where ONE aid seems to hear at a much LOWER volume than the other? I’ve noticed that if I just put in the RIGHT aid, I can barely even hear the exhaust fan in my bathroom, but if I put in just the LEFT aid, the sound is so loud I almost don’t need to put the other aid in.

Sorry if I appear to whine over minor issues, but these two things have been on my mind, and if I can get in to my audi (if need be) with a better understanding of what’s causing this sensation, I’d be EVER so grateful!

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@1Bluejay said:

the RIGHT aid (not the “master”) seems to go completely quiet for a few seconds. It happens when streaming the TV or even in the middle of the day not streaming. It started happening a few days ago, and seems to occur maybe once or twice a day.

I had something very much like this happen to one of my p90-r (audeo) last fall. The clinic sent the aid in and it took three weeks. Got it back just in time to leave for family at Christmas time. Got no feedback on what happened.

WH

This happens when you have other Bluetooth devices on somewhere else in the house (i.e. mobile phone, laptop, etc) at the same time and the other device gets a notification. The TV streaming will get interrupted for a second as the notification alert sounds (incoming email, text message, etc) in your main hearing aid and it will then revert back to the TV Streamer 5 seconds later kinda thing. It typically only interrupts one hearing aid and leaves the other alone.

Make sense?

Jordan

Maybe what you suggest is what the OP is experiencing,I dunno. I have every device confined not to do that except for incoming calls.

I have activevent receivers and when an event like this happens, the sounds of the receivers clicking over is very distinct. This was just the aid went silent like it was dead.

I probably let it go too long as it got to the point where the aid was actually shutting off silently. I’d get the tones from the other aid that it had lost contact. And then it came back up as if nothing had happened. I went a little nuts.

Wish I knew what they found. But I suspect they just put my serial number on a new one and sent it out. New battery strength indicates to me they didn’t send back my old aid “repaired.”

WH

In reply to @JordanK

@JordanK said:

This happens when you have other Bluetooth devices on somewhere else in the house (i.e. mobile phone, laptop, etc) at the same time and the other device gets a notification.

I think you just NAILED IT! In fact, my hubs had pointed out to me that my TV streamer was ON (I was streaming a show). These aids are also paired + connected to my laptop and cell phone.

I’ll need to experiment and take notes of what devices are active when (if) it happens again. It seems that I’ve not had this problem until recently, so that’s why I posted the question.

When it happens, there’s no warning beep or sound at all, so I also wondered if my right ear wasn’t playing tricks on me. I should pop the LEFT aid out of my ear and see if any sound comes in that RIGHT aid when the sensation comes on.

In reply to @WhiteHat

@WhiteHat said:

I’d get the tones from the other aid that it had lost contact. And then it came back up as if nothing had happened.

I haven’t had that happen during one of these “silent” spells yet, but that would be a good indicator that the RIGHT aid has indeed gone dead. Thanks for sharing!

I’ve just noticed that with the Phonak Lumity Life rechargeables I’m wearing, only the RIGHT aid seems to go dead for several seconds of late.

But I also asked if anyone has noticed that when wearing only ONE aid (like you put one in first thing in the morning, and before putting the other aid in) the volume is VERY LOW. Cuz I notice that if just my RIGHT aid is inserted. If I start the day putting my LEFT aid in first, I barely need the right one. But if I only have the RIGHT aid in, I’d be doomed unless/until I get the left one in, which seems to boost the volume up to where I can hear “normal”.

In reply to @WhiteHat

@WhiteHat said:

Why one ear only?

WH

Good question. I’ve just noticed that when I’m streaming a Teams call with my work laptop on Lumity and a call comes in from my iPhone, Lumity seems to keep one ear on the original streaming source and routes the new streaming request from the other device to the other ear. Not sure if this is by design or done on purpose. If you don’t know you have another device connected somewhere else in the house, it is really confusing and sorta gives you the impression the hearing aid is messed up.

Maybe it’s done that way to allow you to choose. Who knows?

Jordan

In reply to @1Bluejay

I had an issue with the domes I had on my receivers. Found it by putting my finger in my ear. Volume went way up! So I put my other finger in my other ear! Same thing.

I think that my ear canals are the same size. I use the same size dome in each ear. Now I use a rather than an open one.

Hope this helps…darn little silicone thing can mess up my hearing aids badly.

DaveL

My left aid goes silent for a few seconds from time to time. This is different from the cutouts that one gets with bluetooth; it happens even when bluetooth is turned off on my phone. It is also different from the issue where the TV Connector connects or disconnects; in fact, it happens both in TV Connector mode and otherwise.

I turned off “tap to change program” in case I was inadvertently triggering that, but no difference.

I thought at first the @1Bluejay was having the same problem as me though it seems not. Sounds like @WhiteHat had something similar to me. Anybody else? Any quick fixes? I am reluctant to lose the use of them for weeks just because of what is admittedly a minor issue.

I had that issue a couple of times too.
I left work; went home and read the owner’s manual. I put the hearing aids in the charger until charged. Problem solved each times. Frustration and concern remains.Paradise P90R’s.

Yes that’s it, but also the receiver power level and, if your right ear has a bigger loss then your left side = more power consumption.

In reply to @xyzzy

@xyzzy said:

I turned off “tap to change program” in case I was inadvertently triggering that, but no difference.

Nope. I don’t have that tap control enabled on my aids. And even weirder, the many minutes of utter silence in my RIGHT aids only hasn’t happened for 3 days now. Again, it would only be triggered at night when I’m streaming with the TV Connector. It happened no matter if I was wearing my rechargeable aids OR the battery Marvels. With the Marvels, that silence lasted only several seconds tho.

I have an app’t with my audi for next Thu, but if the problem ceases, I’ll likely cancel it. I’m not positive, but the cutting out may have started after a new home security unit was placed in a computer closet at home. If that was triggering the events tho, why would they now STOP happening?

More swapping and testing needs to be done here at home, cuz there is no other situation, location, or even device I use that causes this to happen.

Updating my post here - days before I get in to see my audi, bringing my RIGHT aids in with me.

Is it possible that a listening device like something here6 could be jamming and interfering with one of my aids? I’m clueless here, but how else to explain several days in a row of very flaky receiver performance? Weirdly, this was happening when a neighbor was home; but that neighbor is out of town and now my aids have been working A-OK for several days.

I don’t mean to sound paranoid … but maybe I could buy a spy device detector2 as a first step?

I had issues when I installed a device to provide wireless apple carplay in my Jeep Wrangler. The instructions said that the dongle I installed had to be the only device paired. My hearing aids are paired; that’s my priority. I use them for hands free operation of my cellular phone. I need that! I returned the device because it didn’t work for me. It was a CarLinKit 4.

The reason I mentioned it was to confirm I had problems because I installed a device that used and it would drop out and quit.

DaveL

@DaveL said:

The reason I mentioned it was to confirm I had problems because I installed a device that used BT and it would drop out and quit.

Yes, that is true! The Lumity Life aids can be paired PLUS connected to a maximum of 2 devices only. So for me, that is my cellphone and the TV Connector.

The dongle you tried to use in the car had a limitation that whatever device was paired + connected to it was the ONLY one. DUMB! Who would invent such a thing? It’s certainly not for the market of us who wear aids that we also - coincidentally! - want paired + connected to our cellphones.

Getting back to my ODD neighbor … he was out of town for about 10 days, during which time, my RIGHT aids were A-OK!! I wore both pairs and streamed with the TV Connector every night for 2-3 hours.

Neighbor just rolled in last night … and my aids were fine. But maybe he was “listening in” with some device when the aid would go dead? It’s a complete puzzle what else could cause my RIGHT aids only to go utterly silent for about 20 min or until I got up and left that TV room.

Is the right hearing aid the master of the two? Or is it the left one. My Paradise P90’s are set up with the Right one being the master controller.
DaveL
Toronto

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