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Replace Both Batteries?
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| richard48@webtv.net 2005-06-04, 5:54 pm |
| When wearing two h. aids, and one aid sends the signal that the battery
needs replacing, do you replace both at the same time.........figuring
the other aid will also go bad very shortly?
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| No
<richard48@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:19066-42A210EA-71@storefull-3234.bay.webtv.net...
> When wearing two h. aids, and one aid sends the signal that the battery
> needs replacing, do you replace both at the same time.........figuring
> the other aid will also go bad very shortly?
>
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| avoiding batt, failure at important meetings
That was a thread years ago about the way batteries always seem to fail
when it is most inconvenient. So you might put in new ones for such
occasions, sticking the tabs from the replacements on the holes in the
old partly-used batteries so as to use them up later. You can search
the group for that thread (which I started).
I find that batteries differ markedly in their life so that if you
replace both the odds are that you are throwing away up to a week's
hearing.
Someone made the point that you should learn how to replace batteries
even in the dark (say at the movies). I gave up movies a decade or two
ago but the point is valid. You should be able to replace batteries
quickly and easily any time.
Over a year the waste involved in replacing both batteries is unlikely
to be big $$$. But many people dislike waste on principle. And
occasionally the replacement battery will prove to be a dud.
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| Bruce Coryell 2005-06-04, 10:57 pm |
| I've popped my aids out and changed the batteries in meetings, right in
front of everybody (with normal hearing). No biggie.
Ken wrote:
> avoiding batt, failure at important meetings
>
> That was a thread years ago about the way batteries always seem to fail
> when it is most inconvenient. So you might put in new ones for such
> occasions, sticking the tabs from the replacements on the holes in the
> old partly-used batteries so as to use them up later. You can search
> the group for that thread (which I started).
>
> I find that batteries differ markedly in their life so that if you
> replace both the odds are that you are throwing away up to a week's
> hearing.
>
> Someone made the point that you should learn how to replace batteries
> even in the dark (say at the movies). I gave up movies a decade or two
> ago but the point is valid. You should be able to replace batteries
> quickly and easily any time.
>
> Over a year the waste involved in replacing both batteries is unlikely
> to be big $$$. But many people dislike waste on principle. And
> occasionally the replacement battery will prove to be a dud.
>
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| <richard48@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:19066-42A210EA-71@storefull-3234.bay.webtv.net...
> When wearing two h. aids, and one aid sends the signal that the battery
> needs replacing, do you replace both at the same time.........figuring
> the other aid will also go bad very shortly?
Different folks, different strokes. I replace them both when one goes.
My seven years of HA use has indicated that all the batteries in a batch are
pretty uniform. If one goes out, the other usually fails later the same
day. After the usual 10 days of use, the minimal saving does not seem worth
the fuss. More effective frugality can be realized by using one of the
online sources for battery purchases.
SJF
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| richard48@webtv.net 2005-06-05, 8:51 am |
| After raising the question, I think I have to agree with SJF, especially
considering that the price of the Icell batteries I just bought comes
out to only 29 cents each.
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| Martin 2005-06-05, 8:51 am |
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"SJF" <SJF@nospam.com> wrote in message news:Umwoe.1144$xr.43@fed1read05...
> <richard48@webtv.net> wrote in message
> news:19066-42A210EA-71@storefull-3234.bay.webtv.net...
>
> Different folks, different strokes. I replace them both when one goes.
>
> My seven years of HA use has indicated that all the batteries in a batch
> are
> pretty uniform. If one goes out, the other usually fails later the same
> day. After the usual 10 days of use, the minimal saving does not seem
> worth
> the fuss. More effective frugality can be realized by using one of the
> online sources for battery purchases.
>
> SJF
>
I've found it useful to stagger battery replacement. I initially let one
battery run down faster than the other by not turning it off overnight for a
few days. Once that staggered sequence is established when one battery
gives up I still have one HA working and there is less urgency about
replacing the dead battery. Of course, this happens to work for me but
might not be an advantage for someone who has a significantly different kind
of loss in the other ear.
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| Bill M 2005-06-05, 10:51 pm |
| I trade battries from left to right after a few day service. When one
battery starts running low, I replace both.
Running batteries down to zero seems a bad idea. Toward the end, sound
quality isn't as good. Thousands of dollars worth of hearing aids working
poorly because of a few dollars worth of batteries is like have a nice car
running on the worst gas.
Bill M
<richard48@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:19066-42A210EA-71@storefull-3234.bay.webtv.net...
> When wearing two h. aids, and one aid sends the signal that the battery
> needs replacing, do you replace both at the same time.........figuring
> the other aid will also go bad very shortly?
>
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| One of the nice things about zinc-air batteries (apart from the fact
that they gain much of their electrolyte from the litre or so of air
they consume) is that their output is substantially flat and then
plummets. One of the tests we experienced wearers do when we think we
have a flat battery is switch off the aid and see if the battery
recovers in about 10 - 15 minutes. If it does you can hear it fail
again within ten seconds or so and you know the battery has 'had it'.
I suppose experienced wearers should pass on this sort of lore - for
instance, in my experience, most apparent battery failures turn out to
be earwax blockage. Even blockage of the vent in the earmold sounds
like a dead battery. So you ceck and fix any blockages before
discarding a good battery.
If a battery fails very early in its life a possible cause is blockage
of the vent in the battery.
This is very rare but is fixable with a pin.
Another common cause of HA failure is dirty battery contacts. I have
known scraping these carefully with a blade to do wonders (admittedly I
once capsized a canoe in Morea while wearing my HAs - sea water is
pretty corrosive). Now I keep one of those pressure packs of
electronic cleaning solvent which have also been known to fix faulty
switches and volume controls in my Phonaks (but check with your
audiologist - as I did - before trying this).
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| P Pron 2005-06-06, 8:54 am |
| SJF wrote:
|| <richard48@webtv.net> wrote in message
|| news:19066-42A210EA-71@storefull-3234.bay.webtv.net...
||| When wearing two h. aids, and one aid sends the signal that the
||| battery needs replacing, do you replace both at the same
||| time.........figuring the other aid will also go bad very shortly?
||
|| Different folks, different strokes. I replace them both when one
|| goes.
||
I don't - I didn't plan it this way (it came about because I had one battery
that lasted half as long as it should have) but I wait until the second
battery runs down before replacing it. That way, I can be reasonably sure
that both batteries won't die at the same time, leaving me completely
"aid-less" until it is convenient to replace them both.
But as you say, different strokes for different folks...
paul
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| zafdor@yahoo.com 2005-06-07, 8:53 am |
| I think you hit the root of the problem Ken. I find by the time I get
my low battery warning, it's too late, you're already losing gain. We
need a battery warning that gives you a few hours. I wonder if there
is some type of (very short!) load dump that could be done to test
remaining capacity?
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I don't detect any loss of performance until the battery fails
completely - maybe your aids are more sensitive to voltage than my old
Phonaks. And I would kill to have ears which can detect the reduction
in performance which yours can! For me discrimination means knowing
whether there is a sound or not.
The neat battery tester I have (and which I use as an alternative to
the test I mentioned) includes a load so that that a battery which is
losing voltage usually fails. I agree that, if your aids are sensitive
to a small drop in voltage then the 'low battery' indication should
allow for this.
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"Ken" <kkerrison@ozemail.com.au> wrote in message
news:1118199502.586983.44970@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
>
>
> I don't detect any loss of performance until the battery fails
> completely - maybe your aids are more sensitive to voltage than my old
> Phonaks. And I would kill to have ears which can detect the reduction
> in performance which yours can! For me discrimination means knowing
> whether there is a sound or not.
>
> The neat battery tester I have (and which I use as an alternative to
> the test I mentioned) includes a load so that that a battery which is
> losing voltage usually fails. I agree that, if your aids are sensitive
> to a small drop in voltage then the 'low battery' indication should
> allow for this.
Batteries operate at about 1.2 volts until they are near exhaustion then the
voltage starts dropping rapidly. The aid circuitry is designed to operate
normally at a minimum voltage of 0.9 volts approximately. The warning
signal sounds somewhere in that short period of dropping voltage, say, at
1.0 volts. I've had three aids and never noticed a drop in performance
before the signal. But that's not to say that it doesn't happen with some
aids -- just that it seems it would be unusual.
The voltages cited above may not be precisely right for any particular aid.
I quote them from my memory only to illustrate the general principal.
Incidentally, I think the best battery checker is the one built into most of
the aids since it checks the battery under normal operating conditions. I
use no other, but I always have spare batteries in a case on my key chain.
SJF
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| You must change aids pretty fast - I assume all your three aids have
been digital. Mine are 9 years old analogue Phonaks (Audiozooms). No
battery warning. The hearing aids still work fine and the nature of my
loss (profound, nothing above 1400 Hz) means that, for me, they are as
good as it gets. Or so my audiologist tells me.
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