@medic550: First and foremost - Thank You for Your Service!
I’m retired now, so perhaps I shouldn’t be posting here, at all. I’m delighted with what my new Oticon More3s are doing to help me live with my hearing loss, but I wasn’t thrilled with being forced into rechargeables.
I solved my apprehension about plugging into the mains (which may fail several times a year where I live) by using an external battery to power the charger.
The battery gives me more than a week of charges, and the whole getup is quite compact.
I wear my devices from 05:30h to 23:00h, every day, and they have never shown less than a 35% charge remaining at the end of the day.
I’m a fly fisherman, when my chronic pain permits me sufficient mobility to practice the art. I occasionally get caught in a cloudburst, far from my van. Being an old codger suffering from Drying Brain, I sometimes forget to take my aids out before I hop into the shower, also.
The rechargeable devices are much more forgiving of such situations than battery devices, I understand.
I go snowshoeing, too, and have had disposable 312s crap out on me in the field. It’s hard for me to change the battery and restore hearing with half-frozen fingers. The devices are also subject to loss, under those conditions
No such worries with the More3 rechargeables.
After a couple of weeks living with rechargeable hearing aids, I don’t think I would go back to disposable batteries, frankly.
Perhaps your audiologist could let you try rechargeable hearing aids for long enough for you to judge whether you can adapt comfortably?
You are already aware of the hypothetical puts and takes of rechargeable hearing aids, as was I. But it took an actual, real-world trial to convince me.
Good luck, and thanks for all that you do for us!