Introducing - me. Phonak "Naida" hearing aid battery life

Kilrymont

I'm not sure just how "disabled" I am exactly, maybe I don't meet whatever standard is applied normally. In my early 70s, with NHS hearing aids and osteo-arthritis might cover it. I'm a widower living alone, so these hearing aids are used quite intensively.
I haven't claimed for any added benefits, and at present suspect I'll not qualify for such.
My main interest for joining up is - NHS hearing aids and very short battery life with the pair I'm currently using - they're Phonak "Naida" with Bluetooth, which I use heavily, because the audio received via those is so good. As well as standard hearing assistance, I use them primarily for listening to Audible audio books, streamed via Bluetooth link mostly from iPad or Android phone.
I'd be interested in hearing how other users of these same model of aids find them in practice. I've found that the clinic's audiology staff aren't very interested in feedback about battery life being so extremely short.
Driven by curiosity, I've carried out some simple voltage tests on these cells and found that the Ray O Vac size 13 batteries don't seem able to develop the voltage they're supposed to produce, (which is shown on the card as 1.45v) I have some details in case there's any other patients who have ID'd this concern; can't imagine I'm the only one to noted this aspect of performance. Sometimes I get a low battery chime after as little as 3-4 hours, sometimes a day (at most) but without using Bluetooth they last much, much longer - maybe 2-3 days at a guess. That's vague because there's not a period that long where BTooth isn't used at all.
That's about it!
K

skyesr

HI @Kilrymont - I'm a fellow Phonak user of the Paradise model (it sounds similar - bluetooth, connection to smartware etc).  Mine are 4 years old now and I haven't had very much trouble with them.  

I use them all day long (from 5am-ish or whatever time I get up until 11ish when I go to bed).  I recharge overnight and they've only ever chimed once to signal a low battery, and that was at about 11pm when I'd worn them from 1am (ill parent who went into hospital).

I'm early 60s, retired from teaching at 58, and classed as 'moderately deaf'.  I don't consider myself disabled (hadn't even considered it until just recently) and haven't ever claimed for anything.  I guess the hearing aids 'correct' the problems that I/we have - without them I'd certainly struggle.
S

Albus_Scope

Hey there @Kilrymont and welcome to the community.  I hope you're doing great today? 
Sorry to hear you're not having any joy with the feedback on the battery life, what a pain!

I'm just moving your post into a different category, so more people in the know will be able to see it.  I hope that's ok.

Kilrymont

Thank you for the comments. Id guess that when you're designing an aid with an inbuilt rechargeable power source, than it'd be sensible to base its power store capacity to meet the needs of the most intense-possible user, IE many hours of bluetooth streaming and a shortish period of recharge in prep. for the next day's auditory needs.

But when designing for existing batteries, you're stuck with the capacity of these batteries - which spec was developed long before the high drain of bluetooth aids had to be coped with. As I lack the income needful to buy my own personal devices, I've always needed to take what's on offer by our statutory health service provision- which has always been a quality service. But these batteries sometimes chime a low volt signal as soon as maybe 2 hours after installation. Rebooting the aid can result in some more hours of adequate service, which seems very strange. So I wonder if these devices have an unreliable low-voltage sensor?
Anyway, I'm very glad to have them - but wonder if the next generation in the series might have addressed this matter? Hope so.

egister

Phonak hearing aids are Bluetooth 4.2 certified.  Too old, sorry

Kilrymont

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/761707#Comment_761707

You’re comparing chalk with cheese, these aren’t rechargeable devices. I see that someone at the foot of this thread very briefly commented that the bluetooth in these aids is v.4.2. But said no more. Is 4.2 held to be guilty of excessive draining to the extent outlined?

To me there’s only two possible choices here.

1. the batteries may be faulty in that they never achieve the full voltage printed on the card supplied - 1.45V. After leaving them to gain full voltage after removing air seal, they typically fail to achieve even 1.40V. With the drain of maintaining a radio link to the transmitting device as well as to bridging between the two aids. it rather looks like the batteries are too weak to maintain an adequate feed to satisfy the drain imposed by this radio technology.
2. The Aids may be faulty in that they might be detecting a non existent low voltage from the battery.

This evening I just fitted the third pair of Ray O Vac type 13 cells, expiry date June 2027. These aids give next to no warning of low battery to shut-down.

I had hoped that other UK users of this exact aid (Phonak Nadia) - issued by the NHS, and using the same type 13 cell might offer experience - of any sort, either saying his behave similarly or differently to how I’ve described mine.

In the absence of such I mentioned this to the supplying clinic, whose response was to send out the big standard battery-education printout, which looked like they hadn’t troubled themselves to read the info supplied.

I’m not a hearing aid technician, but am familiar with radio comms as a licensed radio amateur. So d9 have some awareness of battery behaviour, even though these ones use a simple form of zinc-air reaction