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Seeking advice on backup hearing aids

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I have severe hearing loss.
I’m looking for advice on buying a backup pair of hearing aids. I currently have a set of oticon more. I tried the oticon real, thinking I would get the latest oticon hearing aids and I would make the more1 my back up pair. But after trying the real, I found that there wasn’t that significant an improvement to warrant spending 7000 dollars on them. I personally don’t care about the wind and sudden noise suppression feature that are available in the real.

My next thought was the Phonak Lumity, but they only come in rechargeable batteries. I love camping , hiking and canoeing in the wilderness.

I tried the new resound omnia, but for me they were not clear, and my word recognition was not good.

I wanted to try the Phillips 940, called 4 different costco centres, they were all booking for February. I asked the sales person what the wait time was for people that had issues, he said they were long as they don’t have enough audiologist to service the demand.

Unfortunately the 940 can’t be programmed by anyone else than Costco audiologist.

Does anyone have the Phillips 940 software , I was thinking this might be an option? And I would program them.

I asked my Audi about Widex, but they said their flagship hearing aid is somewhat outdated and not the best for severe hearing loss.

Any suggestions?

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14 people in this conversation16 min readJump to latest

Are you looking for a back-up pair that is the latest and greatest, or a back-up pair that would simply be functional in the case that your current hearing aids had to go for repair? There are many options depending on your needs/wants.

Many people purchase new hearing aids before their old ones die and use the recent old ones as back-ups.

It might be possible to ask your provider to sell you another set of the more1 with reduced service fees given that they do not need to refit them, they can just transfer settings from your current ones. That being said, if you are not eligible for ADP it might not be that much of a savings.

You can ask your clinician if they can fit you with some old generation/entry level/refurbished at a lower cost to serve as your backups. Many clinicians might have this kind of old stock available.

I just checked the price of the oticon real at ZipHearing. $4,798 with one year of unlimited service. Still expensive but quite a bit less than $7,000.

In reply to @Neville

I don’t want to be compromised if my hearing aids go down. Last time I sent them in for repairs . I did not get them back for two weeks. I had to use an old resound set. They were horrible. It was two weeks of frustration!

If you are flexible, I would place my name in the queue, and have them notify you if there is a cancellation.

Personally, I would try the Jabra Pro 20 at Costco since it now comes with .

In reply to @Tony3

Well if you want to go down the path, then you could easily get a back up pair on eBay, but you need to be sure what brand you intend to use, the Phillips don’t come up that often tho, could you post your as that would help others to offer advice on what could be suitable, there’s nothing wrong with Widex, they do have models that are suitable for profound losses, but the “Real” issue is you’d need to trial models before making the decision, can’t understand why Costco can’t do a quick demo in house for you?

In reply to @raylock1

I love the ziphearing.com11 outfit. I have a set of Oticon Real 1s on order for fitting next week tor replace some OPN S1s I got from them four years back. I figure it’s going to be some time before Oticon has a generational change in its hardware. Having said that, sure as shooting a newer version will come out in the spring. Just my luck!

Even with the limitations of rechargables, the Lumity Life wouldn’t be a terrible choice to use while canoeing. I don’t know if Oticon has anything with the same level of waterproofing. Depending on how long you like to go camping for, there are workarounds.

In reply to @tenkan

I actually called and asked to put me on a waiting list, in 6 different stores. Got an appointment for January 21st. They don’t have any hearing aids at the store. After the test you have to buy them. 999 per hearing aid. Canadian If you buy rechargeable it is included in the price . The disposable battery ones are the same cost. And they don’t include the batteries.

Wow what a bummer, yeah not good that they don’t have any demo’s in store, as for the disposal battery’s, these are really cheap to buy at Costco anyway so shouldn’t be a problem long term.

It would be very helpful (and hopefully not too intrusive!) if you shared your audiiogram here. You say that you have “severe” hearing loss, but seeing an may give us some ideas on the “backups”.

I am very happy with Phonak’s Lumity Life aids - so much so, that I bought an IDENTICAL pair about a month after the initial purchase. For the first time in 67 yrs (a year ago) I had virtually identical go-to and backup aids. I realize that budget plays a part, but the reality is that hearing is so nuanced, and it takes a pretty considerable investment in time, money and persistence to get even ONE pair set up that I simply didn’t want to fall back on using a many years older pair as backups.

The settings, features AND program lineup (default, speech in loud noise, music, acoustic phone, etc.,) would be completely different as not all of those are available in older models. I just got tired and stressed from using my backup aids (which I typically have to rely on at least a couple times a year) when the SOUND and features were SO different that it was like I had to re-learn HOW to hear.

So, first priority would be the MAIN, go-to aids. Next, if you can negotiate a discount (mine were bought a month apart and I got a few $100 off) or afford the IDENTICAL pair to use as backups, that’s as good as it gets.

I totally utterly empathize with your preference for BATTERY aids. They are simply not available for the most recent Phonak Lumity Life. You could possibly get away for a weekend on rechargeables, but that is the choice Phonak FORCES on us - ridiculous! Where are we supposed to plug the chargers in out in the boondocks? Even a long international flight of 20+ hours is a challenge if you can’t just have batteries that last a week.

I’m hoping that kind of lifestyle “tradeoff” won’t last forever in the hearing aid world. No cigars yet, tho.

In reply to @1Bluejay

I will try the Philips 9040 , as they are probably the closest ha to my oticon more 1. They cost 2000 at Costco in Canada. What a price difference. The only downside is the service is poor. And you need to wait at least 2 weeks for service appointments.

Does anyone have a software program for the Philips 9040 . This would solve the service program. ?

@Tony3 Not sure why you would go with a Phonak Naida?
Philips HeaLink 9040 will be much closer to Oticon More you already have, and much cheaper, me thinking!
Check the section for Philips HearLink program, someone might be able to help you.

In reply to @Tony3

Ooops! So you did - my bad! It takes a bit of time, but you can also add your audiogram right on your profile, so folks can click on your avatar and see it every time. :slight_smile:

As for the Costco purchase of the Philips 9040 … think twice about it. You say the service is POOR, and the wait time is LONG. Even with a generous trial time, you may burn through it without having had your aids adjusted to your liking. If you ever have issues with the aids, again, LONG wait for app’t and clueless person tinkering with your aids.

In reply to @Tony3

@Tony3

Where are you in Canada? I think that it’s going to be determined by the person you match up with.

I used to think same as you. Now I hear more and more people are happy with Costco hearing aid supply and service.

I’m in Toronto, close to Oakville…I’ve dealt with independent suppliers. Even so they hand out domes two at a time. And supply one container of .

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