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Beyond microphone brushing for the non professional. How to DIY deep cleaning the Oticon Mini Rite Mic ports and case like a professional

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I searched Oticon, Google and the Forum but failed to find anything helpful. You would think I should know this after forty years of hearing aid use but don’t. With my loss and poor word discrimination minor changes to my devices lead to major difficulties in hearing and comprehending. I recently experienced degraded distorted sound from my Real 1 miniRITE R’s. I changed out the on the 105 receivers encased in unvented acrylic power molds. I brushed out the two forward and one rearward mic ports then cleaned everything with Zeiss lens wipes. I noted minimal improvement. I took another look at the mic ports and noticed what appeared to be light shining through the opposite side of the front mic ports. I have a small wire like tool that was intended for clearing wax from the mini vent on my old power molds that I no longer use. I gently pushed it through both of the two forward mic ports and was able to clear out more debris and now can verify seeing light straight through the ports. Improved device sound was noted but I’m worried about damaging the microphones. Any concerns tips or suggestions would be highly appreciated.
Thanks, Tony

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The cleaning recommendations I have seen always said not to stick anything directly into the ports because you can push the microphones out of place. If they are out of place you can expect exactly what you described for the sound. Maybe your Audi can examine them to see if they are okay.

I have Phonak hearing aids and was wondering the same thing. I found this video from Doctor Cliff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTNWZ4tVmbc27

My Phonak/Sonite R (Costco) came with a brush so I looked in the User Manual to read about its intended use. The brush has a curious metal tip that I discovered was a magnet to help remove batteries. (mine is rechargeable) There was no mention about using the brush to clean the microphones or anything else for that matter. They did talk about using a lint-free cloth to clean the “surfaces”.

So for now, I’m not brushing the microphones for fear that I would be pushing dirt into the delicate filters.

I would be interested in any comments about the Doctor Cliff video and whether you agree with the technique Doctor Rachael Cook demonstrated at about 7 minutes into the video.

@MidairView said:

So for now, I’m not brushing the microphones for fear that I would be pushing dirt into the delicate filters.

I have brought many a hearing aid back to life with very aggressive brushing.

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