Hearing aid battery life.

[Bob Coates]

Watched a YouTube about making hearing aid batteries last longer, he put tape over the batteries when he removed them, I though that might leave a sticky residue.

So I decided to use the original covering to put over one of them when I took them out
Result was about 17 hrs. Difference.
I don’t wear them every day and not always all day. Don’t wear them in shop.
Your results may be different, mine were kirkland brand 312.


Daily use table date/hours in use.
14/5 15/2 16/7.5 17/10 18/0 19/12 20/0 21/5 22/5 23/3 25*/10.5 26/6.5 second failed
* the first battery failed.after 49.5 hours of use with no covering. The second failed at 66.5 hours.
Anyone else tried this?

Bob

[Jim Becker]

After all the trials and tribulations my mother had with the replaceable batteries...I got my aids (from Costco) with internal rechargeables. ;). She used the 312s, too, BTW.

That said, your analysis around the coverings is very interesting.

[Bob Coates]

After all the trials and tribulations my mother had with the replaceable batteries...I got my aids (from Costco) with internal rechargeables. ;). She used the 312s, too, BTW.

That said, your analysis around the coverings is very interesting.
Jim, I did go with rechargeables because if they died you had no way to use them until the battery was recharged.

[Bill Dufour]

I wonder if a simple vacumn chamer and a hand vacumn pump would work. My understanding is they are reacting with O2 in the air. Or drop them into a jar of dry CO2, N2 etc. Less likely to damage the speaker that way.
Bil lD

[Clark Hussey]

I have Miracle Ear hearing aids. Typically my batteries last around 100 hours of use.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

My hearing aid uses 675 batteries IIRC. I wear my HA every waking hour. My HA connects wirelessly to the sound processor for my cochlear implant in my other ear, thus if I switch programs on either device, the other device changes to the similar program for it. It also allows me to change volumes on the sound processor and effect the HA yet I chose to have the HA programmed so I can change it independently without controlling the volume on the sound processor for the CI. The reason? The CI provides mainly higher frequency hearing in my left ear and the HA provides more low frequency response in my right ear. By being able to control the volume of the HA independently I can balance the sound between high and low frequency hearing. I buy my 675 batteries at Costco and they last about a week.

[Bruce Page]

I bought my first pair of HA’s last spring. I opted for rechargeable batteries and have no regrets. I wear them all day and still have well over 50% charge when I drop them back into the charger. With my peripheral neuropathy it would be an exercise in frustration to replace the tiny HA batteries every day/week.

[Lee Schierer]

Watched a YouTube about making hearing aid batteries last longer, he put tape over the batteries when he removed them, I though that might leave a sticky residue.



Some hearing aid batteries have vents and react to the air or moisture in the air to create their power. You have to remove the tape when you take them out of the package. Replacing the tape would stop the chemical reaction for the period where they were not in use, thereby extending the useful life.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Some hearing aid batteries have vents and react to the air or moisture in the air to create their power. You have to remove the tape when you take them out of the package. Replacing the tape would stop the chemical reaction for the period where they were not in use, thereby extending the useful life.

Lee, one young college student who belongs to a hearing group of which I am a member, also did a study where he extended the life by removing the battery from the package, removing the tape and letting the battery chemical process happen for at least 5 minutes before installing the battery into the HA.

[Clark Hussey]

Lee, one young college student who belongs to a hearing group of which I am a members, also did a study where he extended the life by removing the battery from the package, removing the tape and letting the battery chemical process happen for at least 5 minutes before installing the battery into the HA.


This was recommended when I got my hearing aids.

[Jim Becker]

Jim, I did go with rechargeables because if they died you had no way to use them until the battery was recharged.

Mine can go easily two days without a recharge but they go in the little magnetic charger on my nightstand every night. I'm not worried about them dying, but even if that happened, my hearing is reasonable, particularly in my left ear which just has "normal" age related reduction. The aids really are to bring my right side back into the realm of the hearing. I shoulda done something decades ago...

As an aside, the units I paid Costco $1800 for (actually Professor Dr. SWMBO paid... :) ) are identical to the devices that other places sell for as much as $6000.

[Myk Rian]

1 week. When you peel the seal off, the timer has started.

[Mike Henderson]

I've worn hearing aids for over 35 years. My current pair are Siemens rechargeable. I'll never go back to hearing aids with batteries.

I have the charger on the table by my bed and when I go to bed, I take the aids off and put them in the charger. The charge lasts more than a day but I charge them every night. I was told when I got the aids that the internal batteries would last about three years but I expect they will last longer.

I received these aids from the VA. I should have signed up for VA health benefits years ago but never did - I always felt the VA health system was for the guys who were a lot more impaired than me. But my wife kept bugging me to do it and I finally did. Hearing aid technology changes fairly rapidly because it benefits from the improvements in semiconductor advances so the VA will give you new aids every three years.

But back to the aids. I appreciate not having to carry a pack of batteries or in having my hearing aid batteries fail at inconvenient times. With batteries, I would often get the beep that the battery is about to die while I was involved in something else - sometimes a social event when I had to excuse myself and go somewhere to change the battery. My rechargeables don't do that because I charge them every night.

Anyway, that's my experience.

Mike

[I keep my old battery aids as fall back in case one of my rechargeable aids fails and I have to send it in for service. In my almost 40 years of wear, I've only had an aid fail maybe three times.]

[Mike Henderson]

Mine can go easily two days without a recharge but they go in the little magnetic charger on my nightstand every night. I'm not worried about them dying, but even if that happened, my hearing is reasonable, particularly in my left ear which just has "normal" age related reduction. The aids really are to bring my right side back into the realm of the hearing. I shoulda done something decades ago...

As an aside, the units I paid Costco $1800 for (actually Professor Dr. SWMBO paid... :) ) are identical to the devices that other places sell for as much as $6000.

Before I went to the VA, I used to get my aids from Costco. They really are the lowest cost provider. [It is really criminal the price some hearing aid places charge for hearing aids. $7,000 for two is not uncommon.]

HOWEVER, Costco requires that the hearing aid manufacturer alter the aid so that only Costco can program them. I learned that one time when I went to another hearing aid place and asked them to adjust the Costco aids. The audiologists couldn't connect to the aids so he called the manufacturer to find out if he was doing something wrong. The manufacturer told him that the software in the aids would only connect to the audiologist's software that Costco uses. [Note: these were ReSound aids.] I wonder if this is to prevent other audiologists from purchasing aids from Costco and selling them at their practice.

This is generally not a problem because if you don't like your Costco audiologists you can usually go to another Costco. But if you want to donate the aids after you get a new pair, the place you donate them to needs to know that the person receiving them has to go to Costco to get them fitted.

Mike

[Howard Pollack]

I use the Costco aids also. Mike is exactly right about only Costco being able to adjust them. Mine are a generation (year) or two old and use 312 batteries. I've found that the Duracell batteries last longer than Amazon own brand, but I like the packaging on the Amazon aids better (it is smaller and thinner). -Howard

[Ed Gibbons]

What made you guys decide to get a hearing aid? My main trouble is in a room with other sounds. In a room with me and 2 others, I am okay. The frequency of me saying, “say again” is increasing.

[Jim Becker]

What made you guys decide to get a hearing aid? My main trouble is in a room with other sounds. In a room with me and 2 others, I am okay. The frequency of me saying, “say again” is increasing.

Honestly, what you describe is a major reason I finally got checked out in detail and got my aids...my hearing wasn't "bothering" me in quiet environments and in general life, but it was very difficult to deal with speech in noisy environments. Restaurants were sometimes the worst. Now part of that with me was that my right side had significant hearing loss, especially in some frequency ranges. That affects spatial perception as well as differentiation with noise and speech a great deal. The hearing test was really "ear opening", as it were. Now I had my testing at Costco as noted and what they do is load the suggested program into a pair and have you walk around the store for awhile to see if one is comfortable with the suggested initial programming before you even pay for the aids. So Professor Dr. SWMBO and I did just that. I immediately noticed I was heating things in the store I had never heard before...little things like some kid on the other side of the store and the air handlers up above. Sound was "sharper" and "richer". But as we walked and talked, I suddenly realized that she was on my right side and I could hear her perfectly in normal conversation. (could be both a good thing and a bad thing...LOL :D ) Seriously, I couldn't wait to get back to the hearing department and order those suckers...

I still really appreciate the difference between with and without. My shop is a good example. I have REALLY good acoustics in my shop because of the ceiling material. When I'm doing normal, non-noisy stuff, my aids are working normally and even the sound system really sounds good including full frequency ranges. As soon as I prepare for something noisy by turning the volume on my aids to zero , it's like I stepped into a muffled pillow tunnel. It's dramatic. Who knew?

[Ed Gibbons]

Jim,
What is an internal rechargeable battery?
Thanks for the feedback.

Ed

[Jim Becker]

My aids do not need me to buy and put batteries in them...they are like a wireless phone. They get set in a magnetic charger at night to be brought back to full capacity. No dealing with those little batteries that this thread originated discussing. Aids that use the little batteries cost a few hundred less, but the convenience is absolutely worth it, IMHO, especially after seeing the challenges my mother faced with the little batteries when she was still alive. So I paid $1800 instead of $1500 and that was a good deal to me!

[Ed Gibbons]

My IPhone charges the same way. Definitely worth it. Thanks again for the info.

[Stan Calow]

My mother wore aids for the last 20+ years of her life. The audiologists all urged her to wear the aids all day long, not just out in public. They said that if the brain gets used to not hearing certain frequencies, you will lose that part of the range permanently.

I must say we watch all TV with closed captioning now, which helps when one can hear well, and the other not.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Stan, I am deaf hearing with the aid of a cochlear implant and a hearing aid.

There is a theory that the brain has a "hearing memory" that can be harnessed to assist those with a cochlear implant. My implant has 16 electrodes that stimulate the auditory nerve in my left cochlea. Those 16 electrodes replace the approximately 21,000 "hairs" believed to stimulate the same nerve in a normal functioning cochlea. The frequencies heard are positional sensitive within the snail shell shaped cochlea with the high frequencies being sensed near the base and the low frequencies sensed near the apex. One can' t realistically expect that 16 electrodes can exactly replace and provide the same frequency response or hearing that 21,000 "hairs" can. Most cochlear implant recipients report a loss of low frequency hearing. I wear what was said to be the strongest hearing aid on the market on my right ear. With it that ear tests at around 16% of normal hearing, however, it does provide a certain amount of lower frequency hearing providing me a sense of directional hearing at certain frequencies. The only reason that ear hasn't been implanted is that I have to sleep without either ear given the aid of my CI sound processor or my hearing aid. In the event one of an alarm such as a smoke detector going off if I was sleeping on left side, which I seldom do, I might hear the alarm. It's a very small chance as that ear tests deaf without the HA.

That being said, when I go a few months without listening to my huge stash of rock music CDs from the mid 60's though the mid 70's, I have to relearn to hear the lower frequencies but eventually do. As deaf person who uses both a CI and a HA, I agree with your Mom's doctors advice, it's important to employ what ever hearing one has to keep it practiced!

[Stan Calow]

Good luck to you Ken. I'd like to blame my rock 'n' roll years for my hearing loss, but I'm afraid it runs in the family.

[Jim Becker]

My mother wore aids for the last 20+ years of her life. The audiologists all urged her to wear the aids all day long, not just out in public. They said that if the brain gets used to not hearing certain frequencies, you will lose that part of the range permanently.

I'm finding that wearing my aids "full time" as much as possible is actually helping my right ear "learn" how to deal with certain frequencies that were missing, but that could be specific to my issue in that ear. I do occasionally take a day off to "air out" my ear canals, especially if I'm going to be in the shop making noise and turning them off anyway most of the time.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Good luck to you Ken. I'd like to blame my rock 'n' roll years for my hearing loss, but I'm afraid it runs in the family.

Stan, I have Meniere's disease which not only robbed me of my hearing but effects my balance as well. I have to take a prescription diuretic pill to hold off severe vertigo attacks. The last time I read up on it, they thought it wasn't hereditary but my brother has it, takes the same diuretic as me I do but hasn't lost his hearing.