Oh My - Has Phonak stopped using disposable batteries?

@x475aws said:

How does a 1.2V pill limit you, electronics-wise?

Water proofing. Not having a battery door that opens and closes thousands of times over its lifetime.
Having aids that are completely sealed has huge design advantages.

I know this has been talked about a bunch of times, but here is my two cents.

My current aids are a phonak p90 and a cros. My Audi convinced me to try the rechargeable when I got them. Within two weeks I had her change them to replaceable batteries. Here is why:

1. Cros aids are communicating with the other aid all the time, draining the rechargeable battery. The charge lasted less than 10 hours. Not acceptable.

2. They are impractical. I have in past been in the ER and had my replaceable batteries die. It takes a minute or two to replace them. What would I do if my rechargeable batteries died? Have them write me notes to explain what’s going on?

So no thanks for now.

@Um_bongo said:

we don’t get bent/broken pins, ripped battery drawers, batteries forcibly inserted upside down and split cases any more.

Wow. Is that poor eyesight, lack of dexterity, frustration, all of the above? Rechargeable aids are certainly a boon to the people who do that and to the providers who help them.

Um bongo was replying to a poster who claimed that replaceable battery aids caused fewer issues in terms of maintenance. From what I’ve read, that’s not true. For exactly the reasons he states. Rechargeable aids are sealed from dust and less subject to moisture.

I like my rechargeable aids much more than my old replaceable battery aids. I’m not clumsy or stupid or blind or frustrated, as x467aws suggests. I’ll refrain from responding in kind (“luddite” “h8ter g8ter” etc. ).

Oops!

Yes the rechargeable batteries can be replaced. For most it requires sending back to the manufacturer. Many encourage sending back to the manufacturer just prior to warranty expiration for a new battery (some have questioned if the battery is really “new.”) I think most people should be able to keep a rechargeable aid for 5 years without spending any money on batteries. This is one of those endless debates like Apple vs Android. Both rechargeables and disposables have their pluses and minuses.

I believe, those of us whom frequent this forum, aren’t necessarily a true snapshot of the 1 in 7 whom have a hearing loss worldwide (probably more akin to 1 in 5 in the older age groups?) I was at one time a “A specialist support worker, for Deaf Services”, in my experience, the main problem for HOH, is they aren’t very good at self-advocacy, for most folks, their confidence slowly declines with their hearing loss, probably in equal measure? I think most of us regulars on here, are perhaps the exception to the above rule? That being said, personally I absolutely detest rechargeable hearing aids, by contrast I have rechargeable everything, the vast majority of my main woodworking tools are Dewalt, but I have 6 chargers, and around 15 x spare 4ah to 6ah batteries, I have 4kw of solar panels, shortly to be 6kw… I have 8 x 200ah 12v Lithium Ion Batteries… That gives me approximately 20kw of stored energy… My point is, I have 3 different good sets of Phonak aids, all work perfectly, I occasionally rotate them, to increase their longevity, all are disposable batteries… Now here is the “Rub”, I use Super Power/Ultra Power aids, I haven’t knowingly seen any new rechargeable UP or SP aids yet to hit the market, and I will be first in line to get some if they give us easy access to swap out the rechargeable batteries, I can then carry a spare battery or 3… It surely cannot be difficult to engineer, but more likely the hearing aid manufacturers attempt to create a designed obsolescence, and therefore increase long term sales? As always YMMV… Cheers Kev

HA user for 20+ years, here. Just switched to Signia rechargeables for the first time last fall, didn’t think I’d ever get used to them, but now I’d never go back to batteries. The charger is a tiny thing, 3” x 3”. It actually has its own battery that holds a charge for some number of hours away from an outlet—I haven’t tested it yet but it’s supposed to be at least 24 hours that it can recharge your HAs without being plugged in. In real life it might be more, or might be less.

It’s been such a relief not to ever have to run out and change a #312 battery mid-conversation because one that read 90% full that morning suddenly fails. It was getting to the point that my HA-wearing friends were thinking it weird that I was still living with the guesswork of battery failure.

FWIW Signia also has waterproof HAs. I haven’t seen any indication that they are considering phasing out battery-powered tech, so there may be a good option for you out there if you find yourself out of options with Phonak. My suggestion would be to stick with the brand you know, though, but keep an open mind to recharging.

No one is conspiring to kill your joy, not Phonak, not your audiologist, not some malicious universe. The manufacturers look at what expands their market share, which is what the majority of their customers want. New hearing-aid customers are entering the market all the time, and apparently they’d rather get through the day without a sudden need to change out their batteries. Uncertainty is the real joy killer, IMO.

Meanwhile the recharge tech is getting better and better. What’s been coming out, and what it can do for you, might surprise you. Courage, friend.

My Widex Moment HA’s are rechargeable. Yes, there are some days when I have streamed audiobooks for much of the day and then late in the evening I am getting low on power. My HA’s nicely tell me they are low. I do a quick charge of 20 minutes or so that lasts for quite some hours more. (I do them one at a time so I am not extremely hard of hearing in the meantime.)

I remember helping my 80+ years old mother-in-law with her hearing aid 10 years ago. She had macular degeneration so sight was a problem and she had lost the sense of fine fouch in her fingertips. She found it very, very difficult to replace a dead battery in her hearing aid as the battery size was under 1/4inch (6mm) in diameter.
So I would suggest there is a group of hearing aid users for whom rechargeable HAs are better than replaceable battery HAs.

Same situation would also apply to some young child or pre-teen who wears HA’s and would do far batter changing aid battery once a week or once every two weeks depending on battery size. You know its great that HA’s now can do lots of things other than amplification. Yet I rather have an aid that works 24/7 for ten plus days straight while wearing. Versus watching the clock on the wall and wondering if my aid (or aids) might cut off at any moment due to dwindling rechargeable power.

@stevemink said:

Versus watching the clock on the wall and wondering if my aid (or aids) might cut off at any moment due to dwindling rechargeable power.

I have rechargeables. I never “watch the clock on the wall” to see whether I have a charge. I always have more than fifty percent charge at the end of the day.

It’s possible to pop your aids into the charger during the day if you’re at home and simply futzing around. Twenty minutes in the charger adds several hours. For my purposes, simply wearing my aids for 16 hours a day with a bit of streaming, the rechargeable batteries function perfectly well with no interludes of charging before night.

It’s true that I don’t stream for hours on end. Many of the folks here complaining about rechargeables say that they stream for 12-18 hours a day (!!!). I dare say that most of the population doesn’t do this. For them, rechargeable aids offer many advantages.

I was a reluctant convert. Now, I’ll never go back to replaceable batteries.

I agree. I choose my aids based on perceived quality of sound. the rest is incidental… altho I do like streaming phone calls. still, even this last isn’t necessary for me*. For others, it may be.

A lot of other features don’t really perform that well, if at all.

Frankly, until proven otherwise, “AI” features in hearing aids strike me as being more marketing than reality, at this point. Can’t be left behind, right?

@jeffrey said:

Frankly, until proven otherwise, “AI” features in hearing aids strike me as being more marketing than reality, at this point

Can’t agree more, AI at the moment is just a “buzzword” for the marketing department, however the future is going to be very different, hybrid HA’s i can see this happening!

@stevemink said:

You also have to wonder if an aid dealers gets a higher commission if he/she sells an aid with rechargeable battery versus one that uses disposable?

The mark-up on both types of aids is the same in our pricing. It’s our clients who choose the convenience of the rechargeable over conventional devices over 90% of the time.

People who want a CIC, still want a CIC with a 10 Zinc-Air; no worries, you won’t get any pushback from me.

The CROS only seems to be a real problem for Phonak, who appear to have really dropped the ball on their power/comms requirement. UP aids are another area where rechargeable might struggle to dominate in this generation of tech; the 675 produces a load of power in a reliable package. Having a totally flat aid if you’re profoundly deaf is not just an ‘inconvenience’, it’s a real life or death issue: supplying a rechargeable in this market without some form of occasional boost module is going to be a problem.

That said, a couple of generations of refinement and UP/week long use might be on the table.