My audiologist had numerous complaints about Rayovac batteries that he sold a while ago and switched back to Power One. I myself find no difference between them since I get 8 days of power in my HA’s with both brands. One caveat is that when I use accessories such as the Compilot, it tends to cut the time by a few hours.
If your question refers to h.a. performance over the lifespan of the battery, the discharge curve for zinc-air batteries is very flat. That is, their output voltage remains quite constant until they give out completely.
Open-circuit battery output voltage is a function of the chemical reaction that makes them work. So all zinc-air batteries will have the same open-circuit voltage, regardless of manufacturer.
I have been wearing hearing aids for 35+ years and while battery technology from my first aid to now are vastly different when looking at modern batteries, be it 13 or 312 I have found little difference between the high priced models and the cheap Chinese Ebay batteries. My aids are on 16+ hours days and are high powered models. I get a week of life out of most batteries, be it high cost name brand and cheap Chinese batteries.
Failure rates are about the same regardless of who’s name is on the package. For $12-15 I can get 60 batterys to meet my needs for a year.
I think your math is wrong - unless you only have one HA. If a battery lasts a week - you would need 50-60 for ONE for a year. Two HA would take twice as many. I agree - not much diff. between "no-name" and expensive branded - not enuf to make up price diff.I only have one HA…
Please feel free to point out the error to my logic here, but has anyone tried using different brands at the same time? I.e. Use Rayovac in one HA and Duracell in the other. That would give a mostly similar side by side comparison. Then take the “winner” of that one and compare it to a different brand.
Of course if you only wear one HA this wouldn’t work :rolleyes:
One hearing aid could be set to a different volume and use more power.
How about switching HA’s each day until one runs out of power?
How are you disposing of dead batteries?
I collect mine (all sizes, not just HA batteries) in a Ziplock bag and recycle them when the baggie is full. The audiologist office, electronics or big box home supply stores, public sanitation or fire departments and some tool suppliers are possible drop off sites for earth-friendly disposal alternatives.
Since many HA batteries have mercury (or had mercury), I saved all the ones I have replaced at home (hundreds) in a small box. 6 years worth. Don’t know what I’ll do with them. We do save the AA, AAA, C and D batteries and drop them off at BB.
Do HA batteries still have mercury? Even off brand ones?
Current hearing aid batteries do not have mercury. They are made from zinc.
Have been using Costco brand batteries. Last ones I bought had 4 dead ones in one pack. Was getting 6 days out of them. Had my free powerone batteries I received for filling out a suvey and got 10 days out of first set. Size 312. # 0f days more helpful than hours
Can you share the link for the power one survey? I too use Costco batteries and have had multiple cases with just dead batteries.
uhear
Jul '14
clifford
Cliff, reading your post got me thinking about altitude. Knowing that the batteries use Oxy to activate and generate electricity?
anyone with this experience at high altitude?
Just checking some batteries and was getting ready to ask a question you just answered. I had some older batteries, was checking the voltage and noticed they were little over 1 volt. Getting ready to toss them and decided to remove the TAB and measure again. The voltage had crept up to 1.5 volts. I barely noticed the VENT holes. So air does the trick.
I read the earlier post from Oct. where the poster was using the Costco batteries and got 6 days use out of them. Then he got the PoweOnes he received from Hearing Tracker for completing the survey and posting audiogram results and getting 10 days out of those.
I’ve used Ray-O-Vacs, say the reccomendations for Durocell, used those, got better battery life. Recently, I received my PowerOnes from Hearing Tracker, thank you for them. I put those in on Thursday to see how those performed and have to say, I’m pleasantly surprised at their performance in my OPN 2 HA’s. Three days and I’m still above 50% power left, better than the other batteries at 3 days use. I’m taking the batteries out of HA’s at night and rotating them between aids each day. I think the PowerOne brand might be the best for me. When my battery supply runs low, I’ll check out the Hearing Tracker store.
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I’ve been using the Costco batteries and when HearingTracker sent me free PowerOne batteries, i tried them out on my OPN 1 and they didn’t seem to last any longer than my Costco. I got about 5 days out of both.
I don’t rely on the battery life indicator on the iPhone because it’s notoriously inaccurate. I wouldn’t extrapolate how much is left based on the iPhone indicator to guess how much longer life it has. I would just see how long it last totally and ignore the battery life indicator.
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That is how I’m going to judge my final opinion. I’ll see when I get the dead battery chime. I’ll know how many days I get out of them. I’m waiting to see.
Here in Aus pensioners are covered under a Government scheme, we pay $45.00 annually, this covers batteries, domes or molds, and all other accessories that you require during that year. As a result most of the Auds are having a cheap zinc air/mercury free battery put into packaging with the company name they work for on the label.
That said so I can’t tell you what brand of battery I’m using, but I’m using a size 13. I also using a streamer for phone calls with the HA’s. My L) aid I changed on the 27/12/17 then again on the 19/1/18
that’s 24 days for the left aid. The R) aid did better still, it was changed on the 27/12 also but not again until the 21/1, so I got 26 days out of the R) aid.
I put these aids in at 7.00am and take them out at 8.30 pm every day. So I’m not complaining about the performance I’m getting from these batteries. It will be interesting to see if I get as long out of all of them or I just had a very lucky packet of batteries.
You’re getting good battery life. I believe Phonak improved the battery life starting from the V platform and including the new B platform.