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Dear Phonak, your Lumity battery isn't good enough

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In reply to @DJ11

I have Philips MiniRite rechargeable and purchased their optional portable charger. It works a lot like the charger for Apple Air Pods. It contains a battery that can charge the for three days while it in turn is charged by any 5V USB-C supply and can charge with the HA in them or while the HA is in your ear. I have had the HA for a year and a half and have never had them run out of power even after wearing them all day. In fact, when I checked, they had 30% charge left after wearing them for 18 hours, which was after a transatlantic flight. I suspect one charge would last a lot longer than you can stay awake.

I have had the same experience with my Oticon Moores. I only ran out of charge once at the very beginning, and that was caused by a firmware issue. When this changes I will just bring them back to the audi to have her replace the batteries. I know this is the opposite of a lot of people here, but I have a lot less battery stress with the rechargeables - don’t have to worry about them dying in the middle of something important because I can check the charge and if needed (hasn’t happened yet) I could always do a quick top up.

@Chirp said:

I have a lot less battery stress with the rechargeables - don’t have to worry about them dying in the middle of something

True that the gauge for conventional batteries doesn’t give a lot of warning before running out. But you can learn how long batteries typically last for you, and make a habit of changing them in the morning of the day you expect them to run out, or the night before. Batteries are so cheap in bulk that the cost of the wasted energy is trivial.

In reply to @x475aws

True, but for me it wasn’t about the money. I know I’m weird, but I just don’t like the electronic waste associated with the little batteries. I don’t feel right about just throwing them away, so I always had them sitting around my house waiting to take them somewhere to be recycled (which to be honest I’m not sure how great that is either). Plus I’m not that organized so I always had them all over the place. I know this is a ‘me’ probelm and pretty minor in the grand scheme of environmental issues (even within my own house, I’m sure) but one that always bothered me.

I was talking about both “sides.” Both have pluses and minuses and most of the minuses can be mitigated. At present neither rechargeables nor batteries seem in any danger of disappearing. Reminds me a great deal of Apple/Android debates.

In reply to @x475aws

I think on this forum there are a lot of people with strong opinions, but in my experience (just with people I know) most of us don’t really care. I’ve had both rechargeable and disposable, and given the choice (which I was) I would continue to choose rechargeable. But if they suddenly stopped making them and I had to go back to disposables it really wouldn’t bother me. Everyone I know in real life has rechargeables and likes them but the only people that I think would really care if they had to switch to disposables are the elderly with dexterity issues (I am relatively young at 50) so not there yet

Nothing seems to get everyone in this forum more riled up than a battery vs. rechargeable discussion.

In all honesty, I only care about one thing: Hearing with confidence.

Lumity gives me that. The battery type is just a process thing…

Jordan

In reply to @MDB

Changing batteries the morning of the day you expect them to die is kind of ugly in comparison to a good battery gauge. Workarounds often are ugly. But if someone mentions batteries dying unexpectedly as a reason to prefer rechargeables then I bring it up. If they don’t use it, that doesn’t mean they deny the existence of a workaround. They just don’t choose to use it.

Of course there are workarounds to the challenges posed by using rechargeable batteries rather than conventional. It’s just that IMO the workarounds are invariably ugly and inconvenient because the conventional system of “precharged” tiny inexpensive high energy density batteries is so elegant (not to deny the challenges it poses to some users).

Phonak releasing their flagship aids without a conventional battery choice certainly seems like a first step toward disappearing conventional batteries. Judging from the rumors, maybe they’ve concluded that it isn’t acceptable, not yet anyway.

In reply to @dacuttler

@dacuttler said:

the world wide market for batteries will probably be there for many years into the future.

OK … whew! Cuz I was just in today asking my audi if she’d heard anything about even the 312-battery Lumity Life? NOPE!!! Not a peep! She did say that often it seems they are the last to know.

My thought is: 312 availablity is the LAST priority! Folks getting older will have need for more powerful aids needing size 13 battery. Younger folks with better hearing can adapt to rechargeables like a duck to water. And I do get that many older folks have dexterity needs …

But if anyone comes out with STATE-OF-THE-ART battery-powered hearing aids of the future, please make 'em POWER aids that require a size 13 battery.

In reply to @JordanK

@JordanK said:

The battery type is just a process thing…

Except that the “process” becomes a CLUDGE when a person can’t get through one full day on a pair of rechargeables. Then the person (well, hey, let’s just admit: it’s ME!) needs TWO pairs of rechargeables for those emergencies when I need to hear 24x7. Both aids need their own charging base. And cuz I’m deafer than cinderblocks, I need the Roger device for streaming outside the house (and TV at home). So now I need TWO Roger devices cuz Phonak only allows one license per pair of aids. Now I’m tumbling A$$ over tea kettle with the domino effect of my rechargeable aids.

Funny aside: Today I got in to see my audi and make changes on & gain. Since I keep both pairs of rechargeables up and running, she had to make the software changes on ONE set, see what I liked/didn’t like, then copy that over to the OTHER pair. We both had a good belly laugh at one point cuz I was changing JUST the streaming program MPO, but moving the higher freqs across the board on all programs. It got confusing what’d been changed on which pair of aids.

But we persevered and got both pairs of Life aids all set up with the minor changes in MPO. Whew. I told her if I’d come in with ONE pair of battery-aids … and that’s all I had to say.

In reply to @Dusty

The problem still remains that during the time someone is charging the hearing aids in the car, they cannot hear. How many hours is that? Too bad you can’t charge the hearing aids while you are wearing them.

In reply to @Skip

Or you can simply pop in a new battery, no need for extra chargers. No worry of power failures. No being without hearing while waiting for your aids to charge. If rechargeable is what you like, go for it. My issue is that I am not given the choice to have a high technology hearing aids with disposable batteries. The Hearing Aid Specialist only push the hearing aids their companies want them to. The people new to hearing aids are getting rechargeable hearing aids because that is what their is presenting to them. I am just asking for the option to select what works for my lifestyle and my hearing needs.

Hello! I’m testing the Lumity 90 for the second time. I would get it for 1650 euros, which I find a pretty good price. It’s supposedly a new device, supposedly unpacked when they gave it to me. However, according to the app, the battery doesn’t discharge all at once. As I see it, it’s around 78% - 72%. Is this a common deviation? At lower percentages, it’s consistent, like 48% - 47%. Is this a problem, or should I overlook it and confidently make the purchase? The battery energy is sufficient for me anyway because I don’t like wearing it for more than 8 hours a day. Unfortunately, I bought a regular used Roger On device, but my audiologist can’t pair it with Lumity. I’m selling it on eBay for around 250 euros. I hope someone buys it because I want to try the Roger On In device. In short: Does the slight difference in battery percentage matter, or can I still buy it? Thanks for the response.

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