Most of us who own/wear hearing aids (HAs) are familiar with taking them in for repair, and the fact that for a week to 10 days we may have to live with only one hearing aid. For some of us (me!), that could present a serious handicap, because the binaural function is vital to hearing and understanding. We each need to have some kind of backup hearing device. For many, it may be an “old hearing aid”. But first-time users won’t own such a thing. Or maybe your old one doesn’t work either! I recommend that any hearing aid user who depends on their HAs for getting through the day buy a high quality personal amplifier, or cheap hearing aid, to hold in reserve. Or, at least, be aware that you may find yourself in this situation. Make a plan for surviving a week without your hearing aids!
I do have backups and have had for years. When I get new aids my old ones become my backup. I make sure before they go out of warranty to get they gone through so they are good to go for my backups. They may not be able to reach my full prescription but they are much better than being totally without my aids.
Very good idea to have them looked at and repaired, if necessary, before warranty expires, so that they can serve as a future back-up device! Thx for sharing!
You could ask your audi/HAD to check Prairie Labs. They sell reconditioned aids quite reasonably. You may be able to get your same model (or close to it) used/reconditioned to keep as a spare.
When we send out our clients hearing aids for service, we set up either loaners or demo hearing aids so that they are not left without. It’s part of our service.
I know their not all the same but. The Costco I use has always given me a loaner to use. I have used the same Costco for the last 9 years.
You are lucky! I love my Costco, but they don’t make loaners available!
Whenever I had to send my HA’s in for repair my Aud always lent me a pair of loan aids until mine came back…
You are lucky. It is not a universal practice, by any means.
Every HA company have “trial aids” that they lend out to Aud practices. Ask your Aud for a loan of a pair.
Here in the UK 
It’s not normal to get loaner HAs even for private HAs.
Many folks are in a situation where no loaner is available, despite what a few people have responded here. You know by experience what I mean! Therefore, I recommend have some type of back-up device, a personal amplifier or such, in case your HA needs to go in for repair. Good luck to you!
As a hearing aid self programmer spare aids have never been an issue. Never bought aids through an audiologist. I do feel for those that don’t have spares.
This Covid has really affected those without spares. Reliability has become more important owning aids. Using a hearing aid dryer could help some.
I am on a path to getting cochlear implants if all goes well. The concerns of being tied to a professional for assistance is on my mind. A bit scary after being so self sufficient.
For me I have seen my hearing aids, and my hearing loss issues to be a team affair. It over the years I have come to see that finding that right team is the most important thing. I have had a great team when I was at the VA clinic in Austin, Texas. And when I moved from the Austin area I was wondering if I would ever have my team again. Well in November of 2018 I found that team at the newly open VA Audiology clinic here in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
You do not make that team work if you are always too demanding, and you will never make that team work if you are a negative person. You have to be able so say thank you so very much, even at times things don’t go the way you want them to go. You have to build that team one day at a time.
I can imagine! Good luck with that!
I’ve been lucky and unlucky during my 20+ years of wearing HAs. I’ve learned a lot along the way. My ‘team’ at Costco are wonderful to me, as far as they can be. They’ve given me many advantages (no charge when they could have etc), but they can only do so much. Loaners are not possible. No matter how supportive our team is, we all need to be prepared to do certain things for ourselves. The rise of high quality PSAP (personal sound amplification products) offers new avenues for self-support.
the PSPA don’t work for me, I have to understand speech the best I can, and haven’t found any of that over the years that can be tuned to help my understand speech. It even took my Audi at the VA clinic here 15 adjustments and 2 sets of hearing aids to find that sweet spot. I do have backups even if they don’t give me as great a speech understanding as my main hearing aids, but at least it is better than PSAP or nothing. So look at my hearing loss and try to tell me I should have an easy time getting aids to work, but it hasn’t been that way for me, my Audi I have now explained it is because my word recognition is as low as it is, and he has worked what I call a miracle in helping me to understand speech.
mystuart has a relatively flat hearing loss, you do not. Knowing this she would benefit from over the counter hearing amplifiers but you would not get much help from them.
As you have said, we all have different hearing losses. Thanks to this forum we can each understand that.
I do my best if they really read it that I say what does and doesn’t work for me. If it works for them then it is so great. Yes we are all different with different experiences, I have even seen it at the VA clinics with people with like hearing losses, they have different experiences with the hearing aids. I have also seen so many that go in to it with a negative attitude and they never are happy with anything. When my Audi and I talked over the remote session on Thursday he made a point to say that a person attitude is sometimes more important than the hearing aids, and the fitting. Yes in the beginning I was one of them, and I had a terrible time with my first pair of hearing aids. But by the time the VA said yes to my needs I was ready to hear better and I was ready to do what was needed to hear, and it has been a long rocky road, but slowly it has been for the best.
Thanks for this reminder, Rau! For most people, having an older hearing aid in a drawer will work for ‘back up’. I’m unlucky in not having such–for various reasons.