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Opinions on Phonak Lumity, especially battery life and how it handles background noise

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I currently wear phonak virto B power hearing aids (bought 2018) and due for an upgrade. Have been waiting for Phonak to extend their Lumity product line to include replaceable batteries or CIC for awhile as I always want the cutting edge. Have moderate-severe hearing loss and here’s my audiology report85 in case you’re curious.

One of my major hesitations when it comes to trying the rechargeable RIC is the battery life. I’m a bit of an insomniac and have young kids so regularly go to sleep around 1am and get up at 6am. The thought of charging before the end of each day is of no interest to me. I also travel internationally 1-3 times a year so have 48hr stretches with limited sleep (need portable recharging option) and critical hearing moments as I go through immigration and see family for first time in awhile. Battery degradation is also a concern over the 5-6 year lifespan.

I was going to continue waiting but the other night I was at a networking dinner and really struggled with the restaurant noise and background music. Was very frustrating as I have some developing vision issues (Usher Syndrome) which compounded the challenges.

Wanted to ask for any thoughts on the reality of the battery life and if changing form factors from CIC to RIC would make a meaningful different in the challenging hearing environment. Thanks! :grinning:

9 people in this conversation7 min readJump to latest

@Conndor

I got Phonak audeo paradise p90’s and I’m delighted. I had concerns about battery life. My charger has a USB cable. No battery back up. But I can carry a little brick battery.

My regular use is 17 hours. I usually have 20% battery capacity left; start at 100. Battery life? Mine are 2 years old. I don’t stream. I did find that battery capacity dropped more quickly using saved programs from the myPhonak APP. I did have to recharge before dinner time.

My first two sets of Phonaks had replaceable batteries. I always carried spare batteries. Just in case.

Hope this helps.

Background noise? Great once you get used to Autosense 5.0.

Battery life? I had the Lumity Life and stream a lot. During the trial I lost power a couple of times since I’m a power user. So I went for a with a 312 battery.

My friend has Ushers and our UK NHS tried to give her rechargeable so she didn’t have to fiddle with batteries as she’s totally blind.

She hated them, battery didn’t last long enough and really weren’t powerful enough. They were Phonak Marvel technology.

She has since got Cochlear both sides.

She’s says rechargeable on CIs are much easier to deal with and aren’t so unpredictable if you listen to too much Bluetooth.

I realise your hearing is not bad enough for CIs yet. Just given a full story to my friend.

I have the Lumity life hearing aids and the battery life for me is touch and go, meaning if I put them in around 7am, by 10 or 11pm they will more than likely be telling me to recharge them. Thats with using the tv connector for a 3 to 4 hrs. in the evening. If I put them in the charger in the afternoon for about 30 mins than they do fine.

user1228, I coulda written EXACTLY what your concerns are for myself. I totally and completely get where you are coming from! Like you, I dragged my feet getting a rechargeable hearing aid. My Marvel battery aids were pretty good, but I was looking for something to help speech comprehension.

I ended up getting TWO pairs of Phonak Lumity Life aids. The reason is that - like you - I often need aids to go beyond the 17.5 hrs I get from these rechargeables. I also wanted two identical pairs of aids so I could swap them in seamlessly without having to re-learn how to hear or (even worse) recall the program lineups of each one.

Also, before the worldwide Covid pandemic, I’d make a couple int’l trips that required HEARING and no mucking about for at least 22 hrs straight. Only battery aids give me that even to this day.

Flash forward to now: I’ll forever more keep the Marvel battery aids cuz I hope to travel abroad some fine day … but in the meantime, the Phonak Lumity Life aids have delivered on ONE promise: that of improved speech comprehension. This actually acrues over time, cuz as you lean in to it, gain confidence with hearing speech better, comprehension increases.

These aids are BY NO MEANS WATERPROOF - so don’t get them for that reason. But if you can get by with 2 pairs or just one pair and have a battery pack for travel, it can work out.

I almost forgot to add: would a Roger device work with your aids? I’ve read these are more “open” working with more than even Phonak brands and older models.

I hope to have a demo in a week or so, but supposedly, these can BEAM sound (like people talking) into your aids. Perhaps check that out?

@Conndor said:

One of my major hesitations when it comes to trying the rechargeable RIC is the battery life.

I have theLumity. We changed the TV transmitter to be manual instead of automatic and my battery life went up. I currently put them on around7am and they last past midnight, with 2, 3 hoursof tv transmitter plus anoth couple of hours of phone and tablet Bluetooth use. I have absolutely no complaints about the Lumity battery life or sound quality. Best aids ever.

@Don said:

We changed the TV transmitter to be manual instead of automatic

Don, what does that mean? Do you actively SHUT OFF the Phonak TV Connector when not in use? I have mine all wired up in a “wizard’s closet” of electronics, and I keep it ON. All aids I wear are paired + connected forever more to this device. I hadn’t noticed if it drained battery life on my rechargeables … what I DO notice is that if I’m in a dedicated program (like Speech in LOUD Noise) the battery is drained much faster.

I’m curious about “manual” TV transmitter, cuz I tried to swap out the Phonak TV Connector with a snazzy B03 transmitter receiver. It was NO GO on steroids to my ire.

@1Bluejay said:

Do you actively SHUT OFF the Phonak TV Connector when not in use?

The program for TV Connector can be set to manual. Nothing to do with turning the TV Connector on / off.

Even the Roger program can be set to manual as well.

In reply to @1Bluejay

@1Bluejay said:

Do you actively SHUT OFF the Phonak TV Connector when not in use?

Turning it off is always good. Reason why the V2.0 has a on/off button. Saves electricity as well. Also means the TV Connector won’t fail so quickly as it’s not being ‘used!’ 24/7 as well.

I’m just approaching the 1 year anniversary for my Lumity L90-RT hearing aids and they are easily the best hearing aids I have owned. Rechargeable battery life hasn’t degraded one bit and I still consistently get 17-18 hours a day of battery life with 3-4 hours of streaming. Trick to extending battery life is to turn off Bluetooth on devices you are not using while just keeping your iPhone connected at all times. The other trick is to pop the hearing aids into the charger for 15-20 minutes a day when you take a nap, shower, etc. gives you an extra few hours on days when you stay up late or have heavy streaming. Also make sure you use Phonak’s TV Connector for watching TV vs connect directly to the a Bluetooth enabled TV. The Phonak TV Connector chews way less battery vs other Bluetooth devices.

Happy to answer any questions.

Jordan

In reply to @JordanK

Yep! I’m on that page! Pop the aids into the base when swimming, taking shower, napping, etc. I also have OFF on my laptop, so the only other device with BT on all the time is my Android cell phone.

There’s just no time when a call comes in to turn BT ON … blahdy blahdy, select BT devices nearby … “Row! Row! Row! your boat!” … then pick the Lumity on the list … “Everybody does the Michigan RAAAAAAG” … and finally turn both Calls and Audio on while crooning “My Country 'tis of thee!” till the dang thing streams calls.

On the other hand, since caller would’ve long ago HUNG UP, I can always go to “Recent” and dial them back.

I totally agree these are THE BEST aids for music and speech comprehension I’ve ever owned. And whatever BT 4.2 is on them, I can stream music from a completely different level of my house.

Compare that to the ol’ Phonak TV Connector that craps out if I step outside the TV room. Ah whatever! I’m singing to the choir. :notes:

In reply to @1Bluejay

@1Bluejay

IMG_20230831_120254

Here’s the screen where you change from Automatic to Manual or Manual plus beep. Once done, you just have to cycle through to find it.

Personally, I have a smart plug on my TV Connector, so I can disable it that way. The same with the one in the bedroom.

Peter

In reply to @1Bluejay

I meant to say we changed the settings on my hearing aids so they dont connect to the tv transmitter automatically. I have to press the program change button on my hearing aids to hear the tv. Battery life of the hearing aids went up the day we did that.

In reply to @PeterH

@PeterH said:

No, thats the Phonak Target software, that the audiologists use

AH! Thanks for clarifying. I don’t have Target software. Looks pretty NIFTY!!! I could get me in a lotta trouble if I had access to it. :wink:

In reply to @Don

@Don said:

I meant to say we changed the settings on my hearing aids so they dont connect to the tv transmitter automatically.

AH SO! Now I get it! I’ve got my aids set to automatically go into streaming mode when the TV is on. My TV Connector is always left ON, too, so I’m right at the start gate when a show begins! :grinning:

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