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Thread: Hearing aid battery life.

  1. #1
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    Hearing aid battery life.

    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

  2. #2
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    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.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Becker View Post
    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.

  4. #4
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    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

  5. #5
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    I have Miracle Ear hearing aids. Typically my batteries last around 100 hours of use.
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  6. #6
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    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.
    Last edited by Ken Fitzgerald; 12-27-2020 at 9:06 PM.
    Ken

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  7. #7
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    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.
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  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bob Coates View Post
    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.
    Lee Schierer
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  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lee Schierer View Post
    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.
    Last edited by Ken Fitzgerald; 12-28-2020 at 11:35 AM.
    Ken

    So much to learn, so little time.....

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ken Fitzgerald View Post
    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.
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  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bob Coates View Post
    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.
    --

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  12. #12
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    1 week. When you peel the seal off, the timer has started.

  13. #13
    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.]
    Last edited by Mike Henderson; 12-28-2020 at 2:00 PM.
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  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Becker View Post
    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
    Last edited by Mike Henderson; 12-28-2020 at 5:34 PM.
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

  15. #15
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    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

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