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Rechargeable vs non-rechargeable

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Edited

In reply to @jeffpa

@jeffpa said:

mine spend 98% of their time in Calm no noise. Whether that matters, dunno

Well, it matters, it is relatively less battery drain for mild hearing losses. However, there are people on this forum who have similar working time of their Spheres despite poorer hearing and therefore requiring more gain.

Another factor that may affect energy management is the more frequent use of earmolds in people with moderate-to-severe hearing loss, which causes less feedback and a lower incidence of active being turned on.

In reply to @jeffpa

Actually this is meant for the original poster.
Please read all the previous threads on this topic as it has been covered well. The choice between rechargable and nonrechargable really depends on your needs:
Ask yourself-
How long is your longest wearing time?
How easy would it be for you to top up the charge during the day?
How dexterous are your fingers - would you prefer not to fiddle with little batteries?
Do you have young children around for whom disposable small batteries would be a swallowing hazard?
Do you have electricity blackouts regularly and would it be likely to have prolonged outages and have difficulty recharging hearing aids. Be aware that there are portable chargers to cover outages of a day or two.
How much streaming will you do?

@Psocoptera said:

Do you have young children around for whom disposable small batteries would be a swallowing hazard?

Zinc-air batteries aren’t an ingestion hazard according to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. Kids could swallow a zinc-air but it’ll go right through, I guess. They could cause some trouble by sticking one in their nose or ear.

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/09/21/2023-20334/safety-standard-for-button-cell-or-coin-batteries-and-consumer-products-containing-such-batteries6

True, but there are an infinite amount of small objects and we don’t require that they all be in packaging requiring a tool to open. One can even request that medication not come in a childproof container.

Reese’s Law is intended to protect small children from the unique ingestion hazards of button batteries. Namely, a kid can swallow them and show no symptoms initially, while the electricity produced by the battery is burning internal tissues. This isn’t a concern with zinc-air batteries for whatever reason. Maybe because they stop generating voltage once swallowed because there’s no air?

Keeping small children, especially the “3 years and under” cited on countless packages, from trying to orally sample small objects is an integral part of taking care of them, as anyone who’s raised or babysat children knows.

Edited
@x475aws said:

This isn’t a concern with Zinc-Air batteries for whatever reason. Maybe because they stop generating voltage once swallowed because there’s no air?

  • Little to no oxygen
  • Mucus blocking the oxygen holes on the cathode

**If you have access to oxygen: **

  • smaller voltage - my implants 675s have 1.45V vs. 3V in lithium CR2032

  • smaller discharge rate - less potential to make alkaline hydroksyl anions in high local concentration which may lead to liquefactive necrosis → sores → perforation

(keep in mind that non-battery small pieces can cause pressure sores due to block capillary flow in the lining, but more time is needed for this compared to action of alkaline burn+pressure)

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