Oticon More models with disposable batteries

Oticon More Hearing Aids | Reviews and Prices3

The Oticon More hearing aid utilizes a Deep Neural Network (DNN) on the Polaris sound processing platform to enhance speech understanding and reduce listening effort, offering features like hands-free calling, iPhone and Android streaming, and a...

See the paragraph regarding future
Development. I hope this link works. If not, I will send a screen capture.

Glad to hear you are getting them today. My decision is on Tuesday

Was at the doctor today and had trouble hearing her because of the air conditioning. Thought my brain would have learned by noq. Slow learner I guess. Lol. Glad I had backup ha. Power outage middle of night.

See the 2nd paragraph re: disposable battery reference. Is this referring to the More?

Ah… I’m not resistant to change. I test software which constantly changes and have worked with Fortune 500 companies in new product development. But, I am practical and that should come into consideration. I don’t want to be dependent on an item that can fail which hardware can do. I can always replace a tiny battery. I will need to wait for delivery of a recharging unit. I am fortunate that I have backup hearing aids. When the recharging units are available at Walmart, I’ll be first in line.

Yeah, that’s why I said that you’d want to have a second charger as a backup so you’ll never be dead in the water. But I don’t want to beat this horse to death again so it’s enough said.

It remains to be seen how long a 312 battery lasts in the More. It used to be around 7days before the OPN days, then the OPN came along and you get down to 3-4 days depending on how much you stream and how many hours in a day you wear it. The More has a more powerful platform (the Polaris) compared to the Velox for the OPN and the Velox S for the OPN S, so who knows if the 312 can hold up to 3-4 days like the OPN anymore or not. It’d be nice if they change it to take the size 13 battery instead. Maybe they will, we’ll have to see.

Volusiano: You are correct, particularly in that the consumer doesn’t determine hardware requirements. My guess is that the the new platform requires a more robust charger. In that situation, the disposable battery ha mentioned in the article may offer slightly different features. But i know nothing about ha chargers.

You have helped me make the choice today. And I thank you.

Several years ago we had similar discussions on this forum, and it came down to battery life. As I recall, battery life expectancy of rechargeables was around 16 hours. I work a 12 hour shift. With getting ready for work and for bed, and travel time, 16 hours was cutting things a little too close.
So, how do today’s rechargeables perform in that aspect?

For More1s with ~3.5 hours of streaming.

@Bucco said:

(3) my previous hearing aids become a backup should I need them and rechargeable batteries don’t do well when left for long periods of time of inactivity.

I think with Lithium-ion batteries, if your keep its charged state at 50% charge, that would be best for storage. You don’t want it to be either fully charged or fully discharged for a long time.

If my back-up hearing aids and my current hearing aids are both of the lithium-ion rechargeable type, and if they use the same battery system (battery and charger), I would store the back up ones at 50%, then once a month, I swap the batteries in the current ones with the backup ones so that both sets get exercised regularly. Of course the batteries in the spare hearing aids are always set at 50% charged state. I would even leave them out of the backup hearing aids so there’d be no unnecessary drain.

Oticon claims 5 years of coverage on their batteries.

@cvkemp said:

Oticon says to fully charge the aids then power them off, and recharge every 4 to 5 months. But like your suggestions better

Yeah, Oticon is operating under the assumption that the users don’t know or don’t want to bother knowing how to open up the battery door to remove the battery (which is an easy thing to do with a small pointy tool like a paper clip’s end). So if you leave the batteries in and turn off the hearing aids, I assume that there’s a small drain, enough to discharge the batteries completely in maybe 6 months. Hence the recommendation to fully charge the aids, power them off, then recharge every 4-5 months.

I’d rather take out the batteries and store them at 50% charge under no load, however small, because if I forget to recharge every 4-5 months, the batteries will be totally depleted at some point and no longer operable/rechargeable.

I plan on using my OPNS1 aids as backup aids and I also will use them at least once a week to ensure they are kept up.

@miket said:

Nobody in this thread mentioned the fact that rechargeable batteries have a lifespan of only 2.5 to three years. Then you have to spend mega dollars to replace the batteries.

The PowerMax 312 disposable sold on Amazon f

or about $0.26 per battery if you by an 8 pack of 8 per pack. Assuming that you use up 2 batteries every 3 days on the More, which I think is a fair assumption, That comes out to about $316 worth of batteries for 5 years (the advertised coverage by Oticon. Or $190 for 3 years (the warranty period).

Actually, if you go by common practice and have both your hearing aids including their batteries replaced by brand new replacements under warranty just before the 3 year warranty expires, you’ll effectively get another 3-5 years of coverage on top of the original 3 years. So that’s 6-8 years of coverage, or $380 to $506 worth of disposable batteries respectively.

Many other brands’ rechargeables require you to send them in to the mfg for battery replacement. The Oticon rechargeable system can be done by the audi or even by yourself, as long as you can get the replacement batteries from your audi. So the cost of battery replacement for Oticon should be MUCH lower than for other brands’ systems due to this.

I don’t think there’s an official replacement price for the Oticon Lithium ion battery, but I’d venture a guess of maybe $50-$80 per battery if you pay retail price to your audi. But then this is only for out-of-warranty hearing aids. If your original hearing aids and their replacements give you a 6-8 years of coverage for the batteries already, then that would have been equivalent to $380 - $506 worth of disposable anyway before you have to even worry about shelling out another $100-$200 for replacement batteries. By then, most likely you’ll have moved on to another newer model already anyway.