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Replacing Phonak ActiveVent receivers

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Just saw my hearing aid professional yesterday about the new Audeo sphere hearing aids. Phonak told him that the active vent receivers “should be replaced” every 6 months. I did see this in some of Phonak’s documentation. Has anyone who has had this feature for awhile had to replace theirs? He was also told that the Audeo sphere requires an ear mold. All the demos I see on YouTube are using a dome. Anyone have one that can confirm or deny?

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I run mine until they start gumming up from ear wax. It prevents the valve from opening, typically. One ear usually goes longer than 6 months. One ear I feel pretty good if it makes it to 6 months.

I use titanium slimtips with my activevents. I started with the universal slimtips until I thought I wanted to stick with the activevents.

Need for a mold is in part depending on your loss and in part a balance between how occluded you’re willing to feel vs how much you want to be able to hear in noise. If you go with open domes, the noise will leak in and reduce the effectiveness of the sphere. The loud noise I expect the sphere will close the activevents (my p90s do) so noise can’t leak in.

WH

The business end of the activevent is shaped differently from regular receivers. I don’t know how you could use the titanium slimtips with conventional receivers. I suppose there is a way. I don’t know it. There is a rubbery tube that goes between the activevent and the titanium slimtip. Maybe they have one for regular receivers? You’d be fully occluded. There’s no vent in the titanium slimtip besides activevent when it is open.

WH

Phonak just tested the active vent out to six months. If it last longer it lasts longer. It’s the active vent that requires the earmold not the sphere. The active vent receivers are a bit different in size/shape than the regular receivers, so the mold is not interchangeable.

Thanks. I actually saw an interview with one of the developers who said that when it failed, it could normally be attributed to user error. The users weren’t changing the and cleaning the hearing aids as they were supposed to. Frankly, if it does what it boasts, $160 every 6 months would not be a deal breaker. It breaks down to less than $1 a day. I can think of a lot less important things to spend a dollar on.

@Deb630 said:

$160 every 6 months

It’s twice the amount for the pair ($320) every 6 months. Over five years of usage, you’ll spend $3,200 on receivers alone.

It depends on your hearing aid provider. Mine told me it would be $160 for each receiver. Phonak says the 6 month replacement is a "Recommendation, not a mandate. A lot of people don’t take care of the hearing aids properly. They don’t clean them or change the like they should so the receivers get gunked up. I guess we’ll find out. Since nobody’s had them long enough to know, I guess we’ll be the guinea pigs.

@WhiteHat do you think it is ok to use the universal slim tips long term… My Audiologist just put me in the new active vent with the proper connector for the sphere and a universal slim tip. When I asked if we would be doing a mold down the road after i decided if i liked it or not, she was very apprehensive and seemed to treat the Universal Slim Tip (I’m in a D size) almost like a dome. She said she really didn’t want to go to a mold because it limits control over the programing. I took her word for it since i do have reverse slope loss and I know it’s a little different to treat, but everything I’ve read says you need to get a titanium mold for long term use of active vent. So far other than the really weird feeling of the universal slim tip, i am liking the active vent, it makes sphere mode work way better for me than the vented dome i was using before.

Thanks in advance for you opinion. I’ve been struggling if i should ask for another in this practice as my current one seems to not know Phonak at all (she really pushed Widex at the beginning). They have my money now on bundled services so I don’t want to go somewhere else and pay even more.

I was given the option. I figured I could go back to the universal tips if I didn’t like the mold.

I haven’t done programming, but there was a difference between the settings for universal vs mold. The temp audiologist caught that it had never been changed when I came in last month. I can’t tell any difference though. I don’t see how the tip would limit them from a programming perspective, but then again, I’m not an audiologist.

WH

I’m interested in doing a trial with active vent receivers. I currently have cShell with 2.5mm vent but find them to be uncomfortable during everyday use (ears fill full and sounds appear mutted) but work great for streaming and with headphones.
My question is during Phonak Target programing does the Audiologist do this for Open or Closed (occluded) active vent setting? I assume that programming would be done with active vent in Open mode since that would be the most common use condition. Does Phonak then automatically adjust the target programing when the vent changes to the closed (Occluded) setting. Does anyone know if this is correct?

@TimMac said:

cShell with 2.5mm vent but find them to be uncomfortable during everyday use (ears fill full and sounds appear mutted)

That’s strange,a 2.5mm vent and those are basically an “Open” fit anyway, but just be aware that AV are for certain losses which you seem to fit ok, you can use AV with a slimtip as well so that’s probably the set up for you, so AV is controlled by the programming in AutoSence, target does the calculations, but as your not just let your Audiologist sort everything out for you.

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In reply to @joeabecker

Activevents provide occlusion when using the Spheric speech in loud noise program, but they are only M level receivers. If you are using higher power receivers, they may not be a good choice for you. If your domes provide good isolation, you’re already getting what you’d get from activevents as far as noisy places. What you’re not getting is ambient noise directly, so if your lower frequency hearing is still relatively good, and you don’t need P or higher power receivers, activevent may be a good choice.

WH

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