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Phonak Lumity Life - wonky RIGHT aid keeps squealing

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Edited

OK, I JUST picked up my backup pair of aids yesterday, having sent them in to Phonak to have the rechargeable batteries changed before my warranty runs out. There were no performance issues with them. Before even leaving, I mentioned to my audi that the RIGHT aid keeps squealing. She heard it at one point and said it didn’t sound like “feedback”. We tried pressing that receiver into my ear as HARD as we could, but within seconds, the wailing would start again. She couldn’t hear it, but I heard it almost non-stop in my RIGHT aid.

She ran feedback management on it, but it didn’t seem to make a hoot of difference. In between the feedback noise, that aid has a sound quality that is VERY metallic and unnatural. I absolutely have to take these right back again this week, but does anyone have any idea what part could be failing?

To my non-DIYer mind, it seems like an electronic issue as opposed to a programming one. Some kind of defective part. They were sent in to have the battery changed before my 3-year warranty was up; otherwise there were no issues at all.

Strangely, my OTHER pair of identical aids had the IDENTICAL issue going on with them in the RIGHT aid only - a constant, squealing and metallic sound - the minute they came back from Phonak a month ago. I had them for a month - unused cuz of the feedback - until I got back in to see my audi yesterday.

My audi fixed this pair by running feedback management. One shot and it was done and the RIGHT aid was working fine. It’s as if something is happening to the settings at PHONAK, cuz the problem occured the minute each pair came back with new batteries and supposedly WORKING.

Any ideas would be welcome as I’ll have to ping my audi to give her the news. That squealing, metallic-sounding aid is driving me NUTS. No issues with the LEFT aid on either pair ever.
:thinking:

6 people in this conversation6 min readJump to latest

Putting my production line hat on… It might be worth checking with Phonak on the batch numbers to see if the Lefts had some commonality, such as same electronic components supplier on output circuit, etc.

I would also capture the sound, using a phone to record it, could help Phonak diagnose it. Looking at the recording in FFT would allow your to tweak those problem frequencies for a temporary resolution. I could see how it might be overlooked as feedback to be suppressed if it’s distorted enough - which metallic sounding would indicate.

Is it random, or triggered by external sound?

In reply to @user715

@user715 said:

Is it random, or triggered by external sound?

It’s almost a non-stop whining squeak that gets louder or softer. If I JAM the aids in my ear I may get a respite for a few seconds, but then it comes back. Even when the volume is turned WAY low. So it doesn’t sound like a typical feedback issue, but something is making that RIGHT aid go “wooOooo-WooOooo-woOoOoo” alllllll day long. :face_with_spiral_eyes:

In reply to @tenkan

@tenkan said:

Straight off the bat I’d swap the receiver’s around and see if the problem persists.

How do I pull the receiver off the wires to swap them (left to right)? I don’t want to risk breaking the dang thing.

It would also be interesting to swap the RIGHT receivers on my TWO (redundant) pairs of rechargeable Life aids. (Swap the right receiver on Pair #1 with the right receiver on Pair #2).

It’s easy enough, just check this previous post where posted a couple of videos to show the pull/snap out type.

Replacing Phonak Lumity receivers
Phonak video here for the pull/snap receiver [How to attach or remove an SDS4.0 receiver for Phonak Audéo Life, Audéo Fit, and Slim] And here to push the plastic pin out just enough to remove the receiver which I’m sure you have. [How to replace the receiver on a Phonak Audéo M hearing aid]

I think I’ll call Phonak Tech Support and see if they can point me in the right direction, cuz these aids are simply NOT wearable as they are. Funny thing is that my audi could pop them in her OWN ear! I have a soft, double-dome silicone “power dome” on the receivers. She could literally put that right one in her ear and HEAR the dang WooOoooWOoOO!

In reply to @sterei

@sterei said:

The Lumity Life do not have a lock pin. You just pull the receiver out!

I’m scared to yank it! I know that’s the ultimate test - just swap the right receivers on my redundant pairs of Life aids, but YE GODS, what if I did something to render the WORKING pair wonky?

As it is, I read in the Phonak manual I could do a “reboot” by pressing the down volume button and holding for 15 seconds. Well I did that, and the aids DID NOT START UP again! I was in such a panic that I parked them in the charger, and this morning, they started up. But no amount of pressing that button would turn them on again last night. Never had that happen before.

@sterei said:

You need to put the aids into the charger for a few seconds and then remove them for the start up.

Ah! No wonder. I stumbled across that “fix”, and as you say here, just parking them in the charger got 'em working again.

I’m glad you figured it out

I think hearing aids are designed by young people for young people. For instance the horrible tiny wax traps. We’ve talked before.

I just talked to my hearing aid provider about hearing aids that have the active vent feature. And phonak is saying that the active event receiver should be replaced every 6 months. Wondering if you’ve had any issues with these? Have you needed to replace yours?

In reply to @1Bluejay

Phonak tech support is really just a bunch of people in a call center that don’t know a whole lot. They are not technical. They know only what’s in the computer program that they’ve been given to work from. They can type in your problem and see what the computer tells them about it. But they are not technical. Phonak says that the active vent receivers should be replaced every 6 months. The people at tech support said no that’s not true. It’s the that had to be replaced every 6 months. The wax filters have to be replaced more often than every 6 months. And I did find documentation to support that the receivers are technically supposed to be replaced every 6 months. So if you’re looking for tech support you won’t find much at phonak.

In reply to @Deb630

@Deb630 said:

Wondering if you’ve had any issues with these? Have you needed to replace yours?

My Dear Friend, take a look at my and you’ll see … I’m no candidate for active vent with my snake-belly hearing loss. :wink:

Just a general update here to let y’all know: turns out those MONTHS and MONTHS of the squeaky right aid was fixed by simply having my audi run “Feedback Management”. AUUUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHH! I had no idea that was the problem, but we fuddled through it and voila! No more squeaky right aid on my two pairs of rechargeable Phonak Lumity Lifes.

Incredible, ain’t it?

Edited

Wow.

Proves something I learned long ago working on cars with my friend. Check the simple things first.

Like Batteries. Receivers. Domes. . Feedback management.

My hearing aid life is improved so much because I have workman’s compensation award because I lost my hearing due to noise at work. But it’s made much more difficult too. I had my first hearing test a year after I started with my new expert. Made a huge difference. I had my first with him 6 months after that. And feedback management. That too made a huge difference. Along the way his first hearing test showed my hearing was 10-20 worse than the dispensing audi had determined in my last hearing test with him Absolute incompetence. Another check the simple things first.

@DaveL said:

Another check the simple things first.

SO TRUE!!! I can’t believe I stumbled along for about EIGHT months with the squeaky right aid on TWO pairs of Lumity Life aids. It was cuz the program was copy/pasted over from one (faulty) aid to the other after I had the rechargeable batteries changed.

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