I’ve had my Costco hearing aids for about 3 months and use the Kirkland 312 battery. It seems that I get no more than 31/2 days out of a set. The cost is reasonable but it is a pain to change them that often. A friend of mine has a different hearing aid not from Costco and he gets at least 7 days out of a set which is great. He then schedules every Sunday to change his batteries so he doesn’t get caught with them going dead. Is the 31/2 days normal and is there a better battery for longer life.
without seeing both audio-grams knowing how long your day is vs his or hour many hours a day you both stream no one not even kenny can answer your question
All batteries are not created equal.
The ZeniPower 312 Hearing Aid Batteries 1.4 V, 60 pack, available from Amazon are the best batteries I found for my Siemen Pures. I get 10 - 11 days. But my aids only talk to each other, so your milage etc etc.
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My Alta2 Pro miniRITEs ran 8.5 days (14.5 hrs/day avg.) on their first set of Duracell 312 batteries. It’s now been almost precisely eight days since I changed my batteries, averaging more like 16-17 hrs/day.
Things to be aware of: I have relatively low gain for my mild loss, and I do not stream or use any accessories. Like KayakerNC’s, my aids talk only to each other.
I’ve got two more sets of Duracells left that my audiologist gave me, but I’m thinking about making my next replacement with the Kirkland Signature 312’s I bought just so I can see how they compare.
Try some different brands of batteries, but make sure you carefully track the life of each battery for each ear over at least thirty batteries per ear. If you do that, you should get a statistically valid comparison. Assuming you are comparing major brands of fresh batteries, my bet is the performance between different brands will be nearly identical. If you do see a difference in performance I am willing to bet it won’t be more than a half a day, which based upon your current 3 1/2 days would be a 15% improvement. When you are down to a 3 - 4 day battery life, it is a PITA, but at least the cost of batteries at major chains like Costco or online makes it financially tolerable. We are all paying the price for removal of mercury from batteries and the manufacturers trying to keep HA’s as small as possible by limiting battery size.
One more thing… When tracking battery life you also need to track how long you wore your HA’s each day so you can compare actual usage hours. I doubt anyone has gone to that level of detail in comparing batteries, but that is what it would take to get a valid comparison. If someone has, I’d really like to see the data. If not the comparison is very subjective.
My experience has been that most batteries last pretty close to the same time when it comes to plain old hearing aid operation, but can vary a bit when it comes to streaming. The Costco Kirkland batteries don’t support streaming nearly as well as the ZeniPower batteries I buy from eBay or Amazon. The Kirklands start dropping streaming much sooner than the ZeniPowers.
Jay-man,
Very interesting observation. That I can believe. There could be difference in the discharge curves between brands especially when the batteries are under load. I wouldn’t expect the difference to be much, but from what I have read, streaming puts a pretty darn high current load on the batteries. That could cause the voltage output to drop more quickly resulting in premature loss of streaming.
I recently read somewhere that Resound has come out with a model of their Linx2 that uses a size 13 battery. I assume that is because they were hearing lots of complaints from customers about battery life. With the number of Kirkland Signature 6’s being sold by Costco I suspect the volume of complaints will increase dramatically forcing them to design a 6.1 with a 13 battery. The availabilty of streaming is forcing techie consumers to choose between wanting that convenience versus keeping their HA’s really small with the inconvenience of a 1-2 day battery life. Frankly, Resound engineers should have seen this coming.
I use powerone 312 batteries that I get from the VA. My ITC aids power level aids seeing I have a severe hearing loss. I also stream 4 -6 hrs a day, TV connect phone connect, music and audio books. I am getting 8 days out of my batteries. I wear my aids on average 15 hrs a day.
I will say that I have had batteries that last longer than others. and I have results as low as 7 days and as long as 10 days. I do keep a log of my battery usage, and I change both batteries when I get the tone saying my battery is low. Normally my right aid battery goes out first and that is due to the fact that it is pushed much harder than my left.
My aids use a size 13 battery. I prefer the larger size. I stream music frequently and get about 5 days per battery. I always have batteries with me. When I get the low battery alarm, I change the battery. No big deal.
fos
The reason why there are big discrepancies in the figures is that there are three or more different types of fitting. Conventional, streaming via local dongle and streaming direct. Assuming everything else being equal, the direct streamers will pull twice the current of the NFMI dongle aids which will in turn pull over a third more than a conventional setup with minimal binaural transfer.
Since I’ve only had my KS6’s for less than a week I got exatly 4 days out of the first set of batteries. I’ve been able to comfortably wear them all day and did a fair amount of streaming while testing them out. I guess I was steaming 4 out of the 12-16 hours I wear them. I might get a little more out of them if I were more conservative on my streaming and volume levels.
I have the new Resound Linx2 with #13 batteries recommended by my audi. Nice upgrade from the Alera7. I stream constantly from iPhone and its apps. Navigation and traffic apps are great. I also listen to YouTube and LiveStream broadcasts. Great in a noisy environment. Battery lasts about a week except with YouTube and LiveStream. I have the HA cranked up high in restaurant/noise mode when in that environment and batteries last about a week. Love it. I was a bit apprehensive getting the larger HA with #13 but I’m happy I did.
With the KS6, I got 4 days with the Costco batteries and about 7 with Duracell. The Costco are just slightly more cost effective. I like the convenience, longer tabs, and plastic case that Duracell provides.
You may of got a bad batch of Costco Batteries. I have used both Duracell and Costco batteries and have seen no real difference in life: 7-9 days with each, seems to differ depending on how much streaming I do.
I have read in a couple of places that: If you wait 5 min., not 1 min., before putting the batt. in the ha, (after pulling the tab), they will last up to 80% longer? Does anyone know if this true or not?
I don’t think there is any basis for this. Everything you wanted to know about zinc air batteries on Wikipedia:
The wait time, usually stated as one minute, is to allow the intake of oxygen to activate the zinc long enough to bring the voltage up.
OTOH, perhaps if you waited a month after pulling the tab, you would never have to buy another. :eek:
I met with my Costco HIS last week and he repeated the 5 minute thing and told me, “They always used to say 1 minute, but I was just at a seminar where they talked about this and now they’re saying 5 minutes.”
Might be legit, but probably only helps a small amount.
I use to be amazed but now just amused…
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Try this… Open the battery, wait a minute, then install. if it lasts 5-7 days, what is the point of worrying about 1 min or 5 min.
You could try 5 min the following week, and see if there is a difference. if it is hours better, not days, the problem should be solved and we will all get 4 minutes of life back each week from not watching batteries absorb oxygen/air - hahaha…
As much as I appreciate the science and frugality of the exercise, seems like an example of tripping over dollars to save nickels; esp if you are buying the batteries at Costco for ~ 22 cents each.
I’m guessing it’s not true because I’ve accidentally left my new, tab-just-removed batteries for 5-10 minutes before inserting them in my HAs on a few occasions, and the batteries have never lasted any longer than they usually do.