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Dear Phonak, your Lumity battery isn't good enough

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I have a moderate loss, but struggling with the 12 hours my Lumity work. Love the sound but….
Would Nadia be overkill since they are power aids or could they be toned down somehow to give us a battery option

No battery option in the lumity I don’t think.

When was the last time that right ear was aided?

I got Lumity aid and couple of weeks ago. Have used a CROS SYSTEM FOR ALMOST 6 years
The CROS side doesn’t run down. Just the aid after 12 hours.
Was teaching a class and ran out of juice. It’s such a bummer as the hearing quality is amazing.

Were you wearing a hearing aid in the right ear consistently prior to that? No benefit from hearing aid? Not a cochlear implant candidate?

The paradise has a 13 battery.

In reply to @1Bluejay

I agree with you! I am so frustrated by the lack of compassion by the hearing aid companies, audiologists and those without hearing loss who insist that rechargeable hearing aids are better than disposable battery hearing aids. I can go an average of 8 days on a disposable battery while streaming hours every day. My friend has to recharger hers every night. If there is a power failure or for some reason the aids did not charge fully, she can’t wear them. Luckily for her she has a mild loss in one ear, so she can get along. I have a moderate to severe loss and cannot hear people speaking. I have been trying to get top of the line disposable battery hearing aids. This is almost impossible because hearing aid industry has abandoned those of us whose lifestyles require disposable batteries for our hearing aids. I get it, the companies make more money requiring us to buy new chargers or hearing aids every 3 years. I’ve been told by a person, who does not wear hearing aids, that rechargeable are better because his 80 year old mother loves them. Well I am not 80. I don’t want to hide my hearing loss. I have an active lifestyle and love to travel. I don’t want to worry about changing my hearing aids. A cheap pack of batteries will last a month. They are easy to carry on your person, in your carry on, and in your luggage. You can purchase disposable batteries in many countries, If one dies in the middle of a concert or play, it is easy to change during the performance. You can’t say this about rechargeable hearing aids!

Welcome to the forum, plenty of us that totally agree with this!

In reply to @DJ11

@DJ11 said:

I have been trying to get top of the line disposable battery hearing aids.

Other than Phonak Lumity , they’re all supposed to be available with disposables. And reliable sources say that a 312 version of Lumity RIC will be available in a matter of months.

In reply to @DJ11

@DJ11 said:

If one dies in the middle of a concert or play, it is easy to change during the performance.

Really?! I wouldn’t like to be sitting alongside you as you fiddle in the dark :wink:
Before going to a performance, I simply pop my in the charger - no more putting in fresh batteries in case, and later swapping them back to make sure I get full value from my batteries. In four years with my Phonak P90Rs, I haven’t once wished to go back to the fiddly days of batteries.

In reply to @DJ11

@DJ11 said:

This is almost impossible because hearing aid industry has abandoned those of us whose lifestyles require disposable batteries for our hearing aids.

I agree entirely with your entire post, but you just brought up a sobering reality: if batteries are NO LONGER available for my Marvel aids, I’m SUNK in any kind of situation calling for more than 17.5 hrs a day of being able to hear if there’s no alternate power available. Even battery packs need recharging.

I think the industry - and the media that props it up - are pushing rechargeables by conducting studies that show “More people use rechargeable aids than battery aids!” Like it’s everyone’s favorite thing.

But NONE of these surveys ask the simple question: If given a choice, would you rather buy/use/own/wear a battery operated hearing aid or one that needs daily recharging?

Those with dexterity issues may prefer rechargeables (even tho the aids need careful seating in the base!); but many MANY others would rather have battery operated aids that last DAYS, are cheap to keep running, can be taken virtually ANYWHERE without as many issues about being charged up. Yes, I even contemplated scenarios when I’d be overseas in a place where I couldn’t buy batteries for a while, but then I’d travel with one month, up to 3 months supply of batteries!

Ah, I’m preaching to the choir. There is some kind of money-motivating reason why nearly NO company is offering battery operated aids anymore. We are being walked down the plank with these rechargeables and tough luck if we face myriad issues and scenarios when we’d be better off with battery operated aids.

This is not horse & buggy vs rocket ship here. This is about safety, peace of mind, longevity, simplicity and even cost.

In reply to @DJ11

Well said.
I’m 77. I never had issues with or replacing batteries until I got my Phonak Audeo Paradise P90R’s two years ago. Both are severe issues for me.

Welcome to the forum.

In reply to @Neville

@Neville said:

…say manufacturers have “abandoned” traditional batteries… [is] …just counterfactual.

And counterproductive, IMO, because it discourages buyers from looking for them and contributes to erosion in their market share. Here’s a post from last month detailing traditional battery availability in aids:

https://forum.hearingtracker.com/t/phonak-l90-sometimes-red-led-after-charging-what-does-that-mean/81378/24?u=x475aws

Since then there was a post in another thread saying that Starkey and/or Signia, I forget exactly which, had released traditional battery versions of their models cited in the linked thread. And as we know, Phonak is said to be readying a traditional battery version of Lumity RIC.

@x475aws said:

And as we know, Phonak is said to be readying a traditional battery version of Lumity RIC.

Despite a Phonak rep saying a battery version was in the works back in Sept, my own audi who sold me the 2 pairs of Lumity Life aids has heard absolutely nothing about Phonak’s plan to release a battery-operated Lumity . I guess I’ve become a bit jaded about these rumors cuz I coasted on an Oticon rumor years ago about them coming out with a ConnectClip for TV streaming for the OPN? Nine frustrating months later with NO streamer, and I was lucky to trade them in for Phonak Audeo B-Direct. The TV Connector was the next thing I bought on that same day.

In reply to @DJ11

I have the P90L 90R. I love the rechargeable battery. I have been wearing since the only ones available were analog. So, I have had a lot of battery experience. I hate them. But to each his own. I have a mobile battery I keep handy to charge any device (including HAs that need to be charged in a place where using an electrical outlet is not very handy. BTW, I’m waiting for the delivery Starkey Genius which will also be rechargeable.

It is a big change. I have trouble understanding speech especially in a crowd. I hoping this will help. If not I will try Oticon next.

My apologies for a very late arrival which may have been mentioned:

My Beltone, and others I discovered during my search for a very thorny issue, offers backup-power rechargers.

That is, they’ll go several days’ worth of charging without mains connection. In the case of the Beltone unit, you can get 3 days’ recharges from a recharged base.

That doesn’t address masochists who have their aids in, with high power drains, for 20 hours a day, as to recharge would still involve putting the aids in the charger (30 minutes to fully charge in the case of the Beltones). But I’ve had, in my two years of my Beltone Imagine 17s, only a single instance of running out of juice on an extremely long day, and that was only one ear.

So, this is really about the concern for power failure at the mains. Another hack would be the 10-20kmAH portable batteries used with cell phones; my Beltone unit uses a USB-C input. I have (though I’ve not used it to that end) a 12000mAH brick which has both USB-A and -C ports. The -C is both charge or dispensary port; the -A is power-out only. But that’s just my particular brick. They all do about the same.

So, e.g., if you were away from the grid, that could be your backup - use the battery-powered recharger for a couple of days, and recharge it via your brick (typical US $20-25).

As for myself, for the rest of my life, I’ll never replace my aids with ones using disposable batteries, nor rechargeable replacements. BUT - that is a possibility for the OP; get a rechargeable set (well, two) and a recharger (and maybe a brick for the long-term-away-from-mains), and carry a recharged set with you (instead of packages of disposables)…

Hope that’s useful :relaxed:

L8R

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