Phonak Lumity Life Rechargeable DEAD after 1.5 years use

The same happened to my Lumity RT and it wasn’t due to the reiceicee. The HA could still turn on and off and tura the volume up down but no sound went into the HA and no spare receiver worked. Just failed. Hope it’s not your case, Phonak took 1 month to replace the aid…

@Neville said:

The life model doesn’t even have a pin, it’s just friction fit.

That is GOOD to know! I asked my audi yesterday about having a couple speakers on hand in case one of them fails? She said they’d go for $150 each … and the LEFT speaker with wire is not the same as the RIGHT speaker with wire, cuz those wires are pre-bent in shapes to allow the speaker to be inserted into either the RIGHT or LEFT ear. That should’ve been an obvious point to me beforehand, but I hadn’t thought about that: you really DO need the wire bent to the right or the left already attached to the speaker.

If the wire is only friction-fit to the BTE unit, it should be EASY for folks like us to swap them out. I guess I opted for the easy solution: just send that dang things in to Phonak for them to replace the part that’s not working.

For me, I think that was the BTE unit. The audi swapped in a new speaker, but the aid was STILL dead, even tho that BTE unit would turn ON and OFF (with the lights to prove that). She suspects it’s some component inside the BTE unit (mic?) that has failed.

I was EVER so lucky that she had a pair of Lumity Life “trial” aids on hand. She copied my programs and settings over to that, and that’ll be my backup pair in case my OTHER pair of Lumity Life aids fail. Of course we forgot to consider the Roger ON iN, so that license was not xferred over (temporarily) to the loaner aids.

AH NEVER MIND! Life is so redundant and complicated with rechargeable aids that only last 14 hrs a day but need unique license for Roger.

@DamonHill said:

Phonak took 1 month to replace the aid…

Y I P E S ! If I had to wait ONE month for a simple swap and send back I’d scream! My audi thinks my Lumity Life aids will be back in about 10 days. But still: redundant devices needed that cause redundant failures is simply not optimal.

Nooooooooo. I learned my lesson after swim #2 back in 2022.

Speaking of “waterproof” aids, I just wanted to clarify that the Lumity Life 312 aids are NOT. Probably obvious to everyone, but the battery door would render them NOT waterproof.

My audi knows I’ve been PINING away for battery Lumities, so she told me about the 312s now out, but said, “They’re NOT waterproof!” And then we both looked at each other and burst out laughing cuz the rechargeable Lumity Life aids I bought (TWO PAIRS of) are also definitely and emphatically NOT WATERPROOF.

I can’t trade my rechargeables in for the battery version cuz I’ve had them 1.5 yrs now. But I feel like a DONKEY for having bought the pitch back in 2022: lock, stock and barrel. I couldn’t wait to jump in the pool with them. Then realized that with my non-custom power domes on the speaker how in HECK can these ever be waterproof?

Phonak may assume that everyone who buys the Lumity Life (NOT) waterproof aid wears a custom molded tip over the speaker that seals water OUT, but my guess is that even those molds are NOT waterproof.

I’m going to send a rubber crutch to the Prez of Phonak and see if that’s of any use.

$150 ?

Jeebus.

They go for £60 in my shops.

@DamonHill said:

Phonak took 1 month to replace the aid

Maybe it has something to do with the location of the service center or the relationships of the Audi with Phonak but the few times I have needed service under warranty from Phonak everything was done via overnight mail. I never waited more than 3 days

$40 -50 for a pair of them on Ebay.

You need to know what size receiver’s you have…

Yeah, it was handled by the reseller and not by Phonak, that’s why it took so long unfortunately…

@raylock1 said:

Did you check to see if your Roger On would connect? Some (most/all?) “trial” aids have receivers/licenses installed.

No I didn’t even think about that! I didn’t take either of my two (redundant!) Roger ON iN sticks with me to the audi’s the other day, cuz I just assumed that the license for my Rogers were unique to each one. So the hearing aids have to have the license xferred from the Roger to the aid.

That has been a BIG BEEF of mine with Phonak: they sell the Roger ON iN that has a unique license to work with only ONE pair of aids. The old TV Connector could be paired + connected to any hearing aids compatible with the accessory.

@1Bluejay said:

: they sell the Roger ON iN that has a unique license to work with only ONE pair of aids.

Actually, the Roger On, Select and Table Mic will work with any aids that have licenses installed. I have a pair of L90-RLs and a backup pair of P90s (Trial) that I bought on Ebay. I installed licenses in the L90 from the Select iN but the P90 (Trial) already had receivers/licenses installed. My Roger On, my Roger Select and my table Mic II each work with both sets of hearing aids. I just have to connect them now and again by holding them near the aids and pressing the connect button. I would give it a try with your Trial aids and see what happens.
Good luck
Ray

@Zebras said:

You’ve also spent more money then you had too regarding this Roger license business.

Yes, because I do NOT want to DIY a daily licensing issue on my two pairs of aids. Others may get through the day with one pair, but until I get my pairs back up to 17.5 hrs use a day, I need TWO pairs to get through the day. That means I either transfer and remove Roger licenses all day long watching programs, or “mothball” one of the aids and use just one pair of aids.

See what I’m sayin’?

@1Bluejay said:

But my two pairs of Lumity Life aids EACH had to be licensed to SEPARATE Roger ON iN devices.

I will not argue with your experience Some things are different in different parts of the world. In my case I have 3 Roger On iN units which work with both sets of hearing aids. None of the licenses in either set came from my Roger On iN’s but they all work together in a seamless manner . In any case, I hope the trial aids work well for you and you get your own aids back soon. It can be a pain dealing with a different set of aids.
Good hearing,
Ray

@raylock1 said:

If Roger On licenses are paired with one set of hearing aids initially, I wonder how it worked with the Roger ON (no iN) when the licenses had to be purchased separately.

What happened is that I was at my audi’s a few months back. The Phonak rep was also there - expressly to ensure that both pairs of my aids had cross-licensing in order to work with either of the 2 Rogers they SOLD me.

Now, did I get a snow job cuz they wanted to make money off me? Prob’ly! But it was a procedure that took a good half hour. The Phonak rep had me turn off my aids, then she had me turn them on, and she pressed a pin under the belt clip that’s on the back of the Roger. That was ONE and DONE. Except it took about 2-3 tries for the xfer to work. I knew it was working when I could stream sound from that Roger device.

Same procedure had to be duplicated with the 2nd Roger stick and again, it was 2-3 tries to get the accessory to stream. Done yet? Nope! We had to go through the entire operation with the OTHER redundant pair of aids I’d brought in, cuz I was determined to walk out that door with TWO pairs of aids cross-licensed to TWO Rogers. The Phonak rep literally said, “I’ve never had a customer that needed this kind of redundancy.” But she also confirmed that I needed a SEPARATE Roger license for EACH pair of aids.

Now I’ve got complete flexibility and can grab either pair of aids and they’ll stream with either Roger ON iN.

You can hit me over the head with a frying pan if you’re tired of the rant, but if I’d been sold ONE PAIR of battery-operated Lumity Life aids 1.5 yrs ago, I’d have used them ONLY. My backups would’ve been the older BATTERY Marvel aids. I’d have had ONE Roger device for multiple uses, but likely kept the reliable TV Connector in place for nightly TV streaming.

My life would’ve been simpler. But Phonak chose to release only a rechargeable version of their latest and greatest aids. Only 3 yrs in to that release comes the 312-battery version. No word of a 13-battery version here. It’s that kind of inflexibility and refusal to meet all customers’ needs that I hold Phonak responsible for. I’m a rare (?) senior who actually has great dexterity, prefers batteries, and miss being able to travel with something that gets me thru 6 days of use instead of 13 or so hours a day.

No frying pans today, not even a feather:) It sounds to me like they sold you the second Roger so you would have a second needed pair of licenses. That probably is the normal procedure for audiologists and especially Phonak. Other procedures would have been to buy a cheaper Roger on Ebay just for the licenses or better yet use the procedure someone posted on the forum which is the ability to reclaim additional licenses on your iN once licenses have been transferred. Phonak is never going to tell you about that :(. In any event, you have two working Roger On iN’s which you should be able use with either pair of hearing aids and remember they can be connected. If connectrd to each other one can be worn by someone (a speaker or someone else at your table in a restaurant) and the other one can be placed on the table like a Roger Select or Roger Table Mic II. That can be a big help in situations where you are eating with a larger group. So the second Roger can be a big help.
Good Hearing
Ray