Disposable batteries

Sconato, odd observation … but your audiogram is like several I’ve seen for happy Oticon rechargeable wearers. What brand were you looking at?

Now me? I’ve got a snake-belly audiogram and opted for Phonak Lumity Life rechargeables 2 years ago. Way back then, I got a scant 12 hours per day of use. Yep, not even a full day’s worth! So I’d swap in my old Marvel 13-battery aids for TV viewing at night.

I talked hubs into letting me buy an IDENTICAL pair of Life rechargeables so I’d have the same aids with same settings & programs in case one pair fail. I have literaly zero margin for hearing without aids. Now I could switch from one pair of rechargeables to the other. Even better, after Samsung released OS 13, I was getting up to 17 hrs per day of use from a SINGLE pair of rechargeables.

Not to digress, but I then bought a pair of Roger mics so I never had to mothball either rechargeable. I could put in either pair and use either Roger mic. Still only got 17 hrs a day of use.

I felt constrained by the whole rechargeable clutter-puck tho. I now had 2 pairs of aids, their 2 charging bases, 2 Roger mics and their 2 bases. If I traveled, camped, or even took a long flight, I’d face two serious hurdles: 1.) would I find a place to plug my aids’ bases in? 2.) if both rechargeables lost their charge, how would I manage unless I brought along a third pair of battery-powered aids?

Well I recently decided to de-clutter. I bought a single pair of 312-battery Life aids. My backups will now be an older pair of 13-battery Marvels. I will NEVER travel with rechargeables, and I look forward to clearing the clutter off my nightstand. I will only need a single Roger mic and I get more than SIX days of use on tiny 312 battery aids.

I will likely sell my 2 rechargeables, their bases, and a Roger mic and its base.

You may get just about a FULL DAY’s use from new rechargeables, and there will likely be improvements. But I doubt rechargeables will last 6 days like my tiny batteries. You’ll need to travel with charging base and power cord. I’ll put a single pack of 8 batteries in my purse. You won’t be able to hike or camp for more than a few days - coasting on your rechargeables base and keeping fingers crossed it doesn’t die mid-trip.

Some motels, cities and countries simply do not have convenient options for plugging things in. You may end up putting your rechargeable base on the floor across the room and hope you don’t step on it or trip on the cord.

When things go sideways with rechargeables, you’ll have both the base and aids to trouble-shoot. I can eliminate one of those with a change of batteries. Plus your aids AND their base need firmware updates that you’ll never know about cuz even audis aren’t informed in a timely fashion.

I could drone on, but I DO appreciate the many folks who prefer rechargeable aids. I’m just in another camp with batteries and VERY glad Phonak finally released the Life aids in 312 version a couple months ago.

@1Bluejay said:

What brand were you looking at?

I’m not willing to pay the price that I’d have to pay from an audiologist, so I’m testing the Rexton BiCore C R-Li from Costco. Not being able to decide between rechargables or disposables, I opted for the rechargeable telecoil version. It’s slightly larger, but it has a nominal 39 hours of battery time vs 28 hours for the standard model. My only goal with hearing aids is to understand human speech under any reasonable circumstances. Overall sound quality is not a major consideration for me. The Rexton/Signia app has two features which can help with my goal. It has a Mask Mode1 which provides a gain increase in the 4K-8K frequency range. I’ve been leaving that on at all times. It also has a manual directionality control which is useful when riding in the car with somebody sitting next to me.

Before my Costco 180 day trial period is over, I expect to also try a Jabra Enhance and a Rexton Reach2 (Signia IX) if the Reach arrives at Costco before the end of my current trial period. I’d prefer not to abuse Costco’s generous return policy, so I can trial the Jabra directly from Jabra1. The Jabra app has a Speech Clarity button and a Noise Filter button, both of which could be useful for my purpose.

I cannot imagine that disposable batteries won’t be around for a loooong time. If they aren’t in the stores they will be on line. You can even buy audio cassettes and DVD discs on Amazon. I suspect before too long one of the hearing aid companies will come out with a battery case like those in ALDs that can be used with charged batteries or replaceable ones. We could now be seeing amazing things in hearing aids if the manufacturers stopped thinking that all we care about is how small a hearing aid is.

I would say you will have no problems obtaining batteries for your new hearing aids for their lifetime. Rechargeable devices are getting more popular but there are still plenty of battery models available so batteries will continue to be produced for them.

Rumor mill input is telling me the list of features only available on the rechargables grows in the next gen platform.

WH

@Sconato said:

The Jabra app has a Speech Clarity button and a Noise Filter button,

The ‘speech clarity’ option in the Jabra app simply drops bass a few dB and boosts mids and highs. It’s not magic. The app also gives users some control over general noise and wind noise, but I usually find it difficult to find the right combo. It’s not magic, either.

My reco is to ask Rexton/Signia or your Costco guy if the Rexton has settings that are analagous to Jabra/ReSound’s.

@philbob57 said:

The ‘speech clarity’ option in the Jabra app simply drops bass a few dB and boosts mids and highs. It’s not magic. The app also gives users some control over general noise and wind noise, but I usually find it difficult to find the right combo. It’s not magic, either.

Actually it The ‘speech clarity’ option drops bass a few dB and boosts mids and highs and it adjusts the general noise and wind noise.

I find it can be a challenge to find the right combo of all these on my own as well. This is why I like these fast options as a starting point. Personally I like to use the default which leaves the EQ flat. Then just turn noise reduction to considerable from automatic. I find automatic too loud for me. I would likely need to go into the fitting software to adjust that behavior…where the magic happens.

I don’t think there’s any chance that disposable batteries will become unavailable in our lifetimes.

I tried both Phonak Lumity and Oticon Real rechargeables and was very disappointed with the daily charge not lasting long enough for my frequent streaming audiobooks and nightly Netflix watches. I was so happy that Phonak finally came out with the replaceable Lumity aids which I now have. The “peace of mind” in being able to pop in a small battery on-the-go is well worth the price of new batteries every 3-4 days! Hopefully they will come out with better rechargeable options in the future.

@carolagate said:

We could now be seeing amazing things in hearing aids if the manufacturers stopped thinking that all we care about is how small a hearing aid is.

AND that it be rechargeable! If HA makers think they’re making an environmental statement by getting rid of disposable 312s and 13s, they should be lobbying about the disposal of rechargeable car batteries. I don’t even want to think about the landfills with those in them.

All that said … One more reason I LOVE LOVE LOVE the new 312 Lumity Life aids is that they really are small and lighter than my bulkier NON-waterproof rechargeable Life aids. I wear glasses, and the arms fit better. I also have to put those EarGear sox on my aids when getting my hair colored. With the rechargeables, the sox make those aids as big as a BRAZIL NUT behind my ear. The stylist is forever hooking those BIG NUTS on her comb, fingers, or blowing them horizontal away from my head with the hair dryer. Drives ME nuts. The sock-covered rechargeables are as big as wrecking balls bangin’ behind my ears.

@carolagate said:

I take off my hearing aids when I get my hair cut.

I do as well. Too risky otherwise.

Nothing wrong with disposable but rechargeable are so much more convenient, and no, zero, times of dead batteries just at the wrong time. My phone gets charged at night, my ears get charged at night, and i have both running all day. I have Lumity 90 and i get about 18 hours with moderate bluetooth usage, and 2 hour tv transmitter time.

Next gen will probably be more battery life, which i think Phonak underestimated this time around.

Rechargeable won the market but im sure batteries will be available a few more years. I dont think CI processors will be all rechargeable until a few more years, so there will be similar zinc-air batteries still being produced, which would make it more feasible to keep making batches of all sizes.

YES. And it kinda annoys me. It’s not that I’m anti-social, but it seems to be my fate to end up with chatty stylists. I start out utterly passive - not unfriendly, but not starting a conversation. I guess the stylists may get bored, so THEY start the conversation with non-stop questions.Then - lo’ and beholds! - we have a “relationship” going. From that point on, they ask about “What ever happened about …?” and then there’s no going back unless I move or the stylist finds another job.

When it’s time to rinse out my hair, I always tell them “I’m DEAF as a CINDERBLOCK when these aids come out, can’t even hear a fire alarm going off.”

So of course they have to put it to the test! They’ll lean over and mouth some question in my face. So I look apologetic and say, “Seriously. Not hearing ONE word.” They look disbelieving at me. Whatever.

Final icing on the cake is we return to the chair and I have to put my aids back in - utterly SLIMED in hair dye with the EarGear sox on 'em. Grrrrrrrr… Fingers stained brown as my mustache, I get 'em in, only to have them immediately yanked OUT with the blow-dry. In that respect, my old ITE aids were safer - but they’d be slapped silly with BROWN hair dye if that’s what I had to wear.

I know. My fault for not wanting to go GRAY. I’d seriously dye my own hair but can’t do the back of my head.

If only the manufacturers started building more devices with the 13 batteries again - double the battery life with barely any extra size!