I’ve been using my Resound Alera 9’s for almost six years now. I’ve gone through a lot of batteries in that time, and in the earlier years I had a lot of batteries die on me after just 8 to about 30 hours and replaced as needed but then that threw the pairs out of alignment unless I replaced both when one failed. I’m a tightwad, and didn’t like doing that.
One night one quit on me when I was out and I didn’t have replacements with me, not having replaced the ones I had in the van the last time they were needed. When I got home, I put the aids in the dehumidifier and the next morning I put the aids on forgetting that one had died on me the previous night.
When I realized finally that one should have been replaced but now apparently doesn’t need to be, it made me wonder how many others I’ve thrown out that might have had the same situation. I’d never have known if I had replaced the one that died when it died.
After that, I made a point of just getting by for about 10-12 hours with the aid turned off, and they always came back with power again, not dying until after the other one that hadn’t had the problem.
I experimented with shorter out of service times, but when not waiting long enough, the batteries just wouldn’t work for more than minutes then. Leave them for the longer time and then they again worked just fine.
This doesn’t happen with every box of batteries but it happens with most of them. Company says they don’t understand why I have the problem.
I get a box of 40 at a time, and since my 3 year warranty plus the paid for 4th year after that, I’ve had to pay for them although they ARE cheap to buy at the company I purchased the aids from.
I switched to another companies batteries after the fourth year, but ended up around the third batch, the same thing started happening but these batteries were 3 times the price, so I went back to the old ones again.
The company is trying to tell me that they aren’t aware of others with this problem, but as it comes and goes depending on a new box of batteries, I can’t see it being the aids. They said it might be because when I pulled the tab off I put the batteries in the aids right away when the preferred method was to remove the tab and wait five minutes for the batteries to properly activate. They NEVER told me that when I bought the aids though.
Anyone else have this experience?
Batteries are pretty darned reliable; hard to imagine it’s a problem with the batteries. More likely the aids (e.g. battery connections or some such).
This problem though has been happening on and off for almost 6 years now, starting soon after buying the aids and even after the aids were replaced under warranty ~1 1/2-2 years ago.
The only thing consistent is that it can change when I start a new box of batteries.
Also when a battery stops within the first day like that, it still doesn’t work in the other aid when I switch the batteries in both aids, until that battery has rested about 10 hours.
It could have been you were not giving enough time for the batteries to activate and that was causing batteries to die prematurely. You’re supposed to give at least a minute after pulling the tab to allow the battery to activate properly. Also, I would always replace batteries in pairs and swap right and left day by day to get consistency between your aids in terms of battery life.
Thank you for your posting.
For years, as I mentioned, I removed the tabs and then put them in the aids. However, since they told me to wait 5 minutes, I’ve been doing that, but it hasn’t made any difference.
I wouldn’t have though about switching the batteries on a daily basis. Usually though, when there are no problems, one battery usually quits within a few hours of the other.
I’ve only switched the batteries when a problem battery quits on my left ear (worst one) and then it’s to be able to use an aid in the worst ear and let the better ear do what it can without until the problem battery comes back to life.
Sometimes Zinc/air batteries stop functioning temporarily if the air supply to them is cut off by moisture. Could this be the problem?
I certainly do have a sweat problem so I can’t rule that out. However, my sweat problem doesn’t just happen in about the first 24± hours of installing new batteries when the problem normally surfaces. It never happens after say 3 days or 4 days, but the sweat problem is almost every day.