Should I be skeptical about rechargeable hearing aid?

When my Phonaks are 5 or 6 years old and the batteries need replacing they will be long out of warranty and replacement batteries will be cost-prohibitive. That’s when the only option for me will be to attempt to replace the batteries myself.

Nobody’s stopping you, of course. You’re more than welcome to your preference. This thread is critical for those of us where disposable batteries continue to remain our only option for hearing aids and who have been abandoned by manufacturers such as Phonak due to their shortsidedness and BS ridiculousness and discrimination against a protected class.

This thread would make an excellent ‘Technological Determinsim’ case study.

Does anyone on here think that they are being railroaded into typing all this by ‘Big Qerty’ rather than using a far more obvious ABC Metric keyboard? Or is one just a development from the next…

It is always the same Stephen, we have 2 tribes on here, either lovers or haters of rechargeable aids, and never the Twain shall meet… As consumer’s/hearing aid users, we should have choices, personal preferences, and lifestyle usually dictates the outcome of that choice, but it would appear the major manufacturers are gradually eroding that choice, in favour of rechargeable aids, in many ways that also incurs designed obsolescence, and being fairly wary or suspicious of said manufacturers, some of us tend to believe their motives, aren’t in the best interests of the end users, some folks aren’t interested in all the bells and whistles, they are quite happy to keep their aids for 8 or 10 years… If they want to force end users to use rechargeable aids, give them easy access to swap out/replace batteries, so we can carry charged up spares… Or replace aging Lifepo4 batteries as and when required… Problem solved!!! Cheers Kev

I would love to hear from the PRO-rechargeable crowd regarding the concerns I am going to list below. I am needing new hearing aids and I am more than “skeptical” about rechargeable. But my disposable battery options are slim and that is frustrating.

Here are my concerns:

1. What about hiking/backcountry camping? Currently, my batteries last me about 10 days but I can throw a battery pouch or two in my pack and have no concerns about hearing aid dying.

2. What happens if I leave town for 2 weeks without my charger? Same thing, I have battery packs in my suitcase and in my brief case and in my car. Plus, if needed I can pull into Walmart or similar 24/7 to get batteries.

3. What happens if I lose power/forget to charge/etc. right before a big meeting? This happens with my phone all the time. But my phone can be used while charging

4. What happens if hearing aids die in the middle of doing something important? This is related to number 3, but I’m just wondering what happens. I cant hear without them.

I understand that “proper” charging practices can prevent #4 and the accidental #3 (not a home power loss though). But I am more interested in hearing how you manage to deal with the issues in the accidental case. With batteries, in 5 minutes I’m back in business.

Also, I am honestly hoping that y’all have good solutions to the above that I have not considered because that opens up so many more options for me.

Thanks.

What if Frogs had wings so that they didn’t bump their butts when landing.??

We can play “What if” all day to make up
imaginary scenarios where the possibility of all of our rechargeable devices might go low.

#1. Do you go hiking/ backpacking without the ability to recharge your phone in case of emergencies? Almost every manufacturer sells battery packs or you can purchase an all purpose battery pack that will recharge your phone and hearing aid during that trip

#2. Do you actually leave town for 2 weeks without a phone charger? Buy a battery pack…

@mtjarrett said:

not a home power loss though

This is the easy one, so I expect you’ll get lots of answers to it. The rest of your points typically elicit no response at all, maybe because there isn’t a good answer.

I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. I think all scenarios have been answered before, but I’ll revisit. Basically one plans. One brings a charger and a backup power source, just like one checks one’s gas tank before taking off on a trip, one is aware of battery levels. If planning and being prepared is too much hassle, get a hearing aid with disposable batteries. They are still readily available. To be clear, I am not “pro-rechargeable.” I currently have aids with disposable batteries and see advantages to them, but when I switch to rechargeables, I don’t see any insurmountable problems (except possibly extreme cold)

@Chirp said:

Oh, you are stirring the hornets nest here . This topic usually gets very heated - there seem to be a lot of people on both sides of this debate. I think the key is figuring out if the HAs you are considering will last throughout the day.

@Chirp You’ve nailed it, a real can of vorms this topic.

@mtjarrett I am 100% with you on your concerns.

@MDB said:

get a hearing aid with disposable batteries. They are still readily available

In the overall market, yes. But we’ve already heard from someone who has no conventional battery choices under their insurance. People living in areas with a limited selection of nearby providers could well face a similar problem.

@MDB said:

but when I switch to rechargeables, I don’t see any insurmountable problems

IIRC, in the @Zebras discussion you suggested communicating with pen and paper. If you count that as a viable workaround…it’s a way to cope without hearing, not a way to make your aids work.

@MDB said:

If planning and being prepared is too much hassle

This is exactly the kind of dismissive response I keep seeing from the rechargeable crowd. It’s not a “hassle”, there are real limitations with no good solution currently and the field of options that are not rechargeable keeps shrinking so just getting a different HA is getting harder and harder.

At my level of loss the only rechargeable HAs that are even close to what I would need won’t last even a full day which is a nonstarter for me and my lifestyle. If I’m on a backpacking trip I need my HAs to be working at all times and I need them immediately. Outside of backpacking and similar outdoor activities other folks have jobs that work doubles, have on call schedules, or otherwise long hours and have the same problem. My husband works ski patrol and this is a real issue for some of the older patrollers. These are not “gotcha” scenarios we are trying to make up.

Edit: Clarified that I am talking about rechargeable HAs that approach my needs - I am aware that my loss actually requires UPs with batteries.

Your level of loss is best dealt with a UP BTE which only come with 675 batteries. There are no rechargeables that truly meet your needs.

I am very aware and have Phonak L90-UPs now. That doesn’t change anything I said about rechargeables though, my point being the closest option doesn’t even last a day.

@MDB - But Phonak no longer wants me as a customer, though. They made that abundantly clear by eliminating CROS support with their UP line of Lumity NAIDA, Paradise NAIDA, and Marvel NAIDA (near as I can tell…correct me if I’m wrong) hearing aids. There is no CROS - rechargeable or otherwise - in their UP NAIDA lines anymore, that I bought into with their Quest NAIDA UPs and B NAIDA UPs (yes,I bought both lines with CROS capability back then).

Phonak can go to hell.