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Costco - seemingly a poor option for severe to profound loss

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In reply to @user777

Yes. I am not discounting Costco overall. I am just posting my recent experience. I think because I have severe low frequency loss, this is optimally dealt with by high powered . But at the moment, for whatever reason, there is not a lot available at Costco right now in that form factor.

In reply to @bob

Hi Bob, these are Ultra Power & Super Power ’s (Behind The Ears) These aids have enough power to deal with severe/profound losses, they usually require disposable batteries as Li-on batteries aren’t powerful enough at present, they use custom molds, and tubing… I hope this helps, cheers Kev :wink:

In reply to @astrohip

@astrohip said:

Costco is fine for slight to moderate loss

This is incorrect information, why would only this be?
You might mean mild to severe, the only reason I wouldn’t add profound (this is from 90 -95dB onwards) is because Costco no longer stock the UP type of hearing aids, so if you need this in the lower frequencys, there’s a problem.
The Jabra, Rexton,and Philip’s models sold by Costco have no problem being fit to severe loss, so now we get to how good is the person setting the standard for fitting this, one could say Costco or a private clinic could get this wrong, you’ll find many on this very forum complaining about both!

In reply to @astrohip

@astrohip sometimes finding a “good” audiologist is very difficult. I thought the one I was working with was good… I have severe profound loss in both ears. My sold me Bolero SP aids. They were useless to me they didn’t help me at all. So $7500 later totally wasted. Sadly even good AuD’s make bad judgement calls…

In reply to @Deaf_piper

@Deaf_piper said:

AuD sold me Bolero SP aids.

Bolero SP despite being a SP Aid is really only suitable for a max of 90 apart from 8K which goes to 110 dB.

All these SP Phonak Aids sure isn’t easy to understand.

Think Phonak have made it more simpler by having Audeo as and Naida as Aids and there’s no different power levels of SP Phonak Aids now. :slight_smile:

Rotating between More 1 and Xceed. 5 days on Xceed and 2 days on More (weekend)…Still love Xceed more! Easy to handle and cleaning. 675 battery last for a long period of time and no need to bring charger in the bag while traveling. More 1 rechargeable if fully charge, will show up as 100% in the Companion Apps but 675 battery will never be 100% in Com Apps. 60-80% in Xceed then remains 50% a week or more before you hear a low battery sound in a week later. Overall, 675 battery last about 15 - 20+days.
More 1 is discrete on the ear but never bother about it for Xceed.

In reply to @Zebras

@Zebras said:

Bolero SP despite being a SP Aid is really only suitable for a max of 90 dB

Well that explains exactly why they were useless. As my hadn’t changed much in the last 6 years to what it is now. The aud even questioned why I had these aids Now I know why! Thanks Zebras for your explanation.

It is better to go for the UP or SP - models for severe to profound . If it is too loud, we can lower the volume rather than you could hear loud enough.

I don’t have experience with so can’t comment on that piece. But as it pertains to significant hearing loss and Costco aids I personally have found the aid to be comparable to an independent good audiologist.

My loss is significant and hard to fit as it is pretty flat. Currently -85 to -90db across all levels. Every audiologist has said the same thing - very hard to fit; aids are not geared towards such a significant flat loss. (Single ear loss; need to update my here)

That said, I have a Philips 9030 from Costco; also an Oticon More 1 from independent. Both aids use the same baseline hearing test at my request. I have a custom ear mold as well. Both have the 80 power receiver - at some point may try the 100. For me, the 9030 seems to have a slightly more balanced sound but the More brings in more of the lower levels/bass sounds which is nice too.

The fitter makes a huge difference. I am fortunate that I have several Costco’s within 30 miles so I switched locations two times until I got the best fitter.

Because of my type of loss I have accepted that my will help but likely won’t be perfect. So keeping in mind that my aid from Costco was (at the time) under $1k but the More was $3300 I definitely believe that even for significant loss Costco remains a good option. At least for me.

We do not have Costco here. Started with Bose and is not suitable for Profound . Returned and bought a pair of More 1 (100dB mic) online for USD2600 but still find difficult to hear in noisy environment/restaurants. With the help in this forum, bought a preowned Xceed UP 1 and it works much better than More 1. Still need some time to fine tune by the Audi to get it better for my type of HL…
It is better to trial Oticon Xceed or Phonak Naida BTE ultra power for Severe to Profound HL. Look out for preowned before you decide to buy a new pair or new released models. Check it out whether it helps or not.

Edited

I have a problem with the terminology of “severe to profound loss” because although it’s quite specific in the amount of decibel loss, it doesn’t mention anything about frequency. I have a “severe to profound” loss from 3000 Hz up in my right ear, but I consider my loss pretty moderate and Costco RICS with medium receivers suit me pretty well. If I had a loss that was severe or greater in the 250 Hz to 1000 Hz range, I could see that UP might be a good idea. Just wanting to make the point that just because somebody has a 90 loss at 6 kHz and 8 kHz doesn’t mean they have a profound loss. If they have normal hearing up to 4 kHz, they likely don’t even need hearing aids.

So looking at your shows a mild to profound on your left and moderate to profound on your right, so if it’s more then 90dB then it’s considered “profound” regardless of the frequency, it’s common for this to be in the higher frequencies, and yes definitely if you have this kind of loss at say 4Hz and under, this is definitely going to need UP, but I’m not sure I could go along with saying people who only have a loss from 4Hz and over don’t need if they have normal hearing otherwise.

This is how UK NICE guidelines show you have a severe/profound loss.

Find it quite interesting. Don’t know if these are important frequencies?

IMG_0565

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