I was wondering about converting my old back-up HA’s to rechargeable.
Is this just a case of buying Accu Plus 312 batteries and a charger for them? Or are there complications?
Thanks
It looks like the cost a a charger and 4 batteries is well over a $100 … for that you could purchase several years of 312 batteries and not have the hassle of recharging them .
If you are using them for backup that would probably be 10 years worth of batteries for your $100
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I’m curious to ask why you would want to make them rechargeable. Seems like there’s a lot more complaints on this forum about rechargeable aids
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I would expect possibly more issues with aids not designed for rechargeable batteries.
Which would compound the problem. But I’m curious why the conversion idea to start off with.
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I don’t even think it’s possible in the first place. Different battery chemistry, different sizes and a lot of hassle.
Also, I don’t get the hate about rechargeable HA… They’re really handy to me!
I didn’t say hate. I said complaints, problems etc. I don’t want to start a debate over which is better. We already have that debate elsewhere. I was just curious as to why. And as was stated, maybe you can’t switch them over. I don’t know.
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@OpenFitted: Wait until you have to attend the Emergency Room at 1:30am for a cardiac arrhythmia and your HAs aren’t sufficiently charged to survive the wait and permit you to talk to the ER
staff when your turn comes …
Then, maybe you’ll “get it”.
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ACCU Plus 312’s have a capacity of 21 mAh, compared to 180 mAh for regular 312’s. That’s a factor of 1/9. So if regular 312 batteries last 3 days in your aids, ACCU Plus rechargeables will last 1/3 of a day on a charge.
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As long as the voltage and current capacity are compatible that would not matter. The need a charger to match the chemistry though.
I just looked up the Accu Plus batteries and see this warning.
IMPORTANT: These batteries are only designed to work with a PowerOne Pocket or Pen Charger. These DO NOT WORK with Oticon Hearing Aids or Z Power Chargers or with many build in hearing aid chargers. If you have not used this hearing aid battery in your device before, please check with your audiologist or device manufacturer. NiMH Rechargeable Batteries have significantly less capacity than a disposable. You may need more than one battery to last an entire day. Please purchase accordingly. These items are not returnable or refundable after opening!
Batteries
https://www.amazon.com/Power-One-Size-312-Rechargeable/dp/B00371E8XO
Charger
https://www.amazon.com/Power-Pocket-charger-ACCU-Capacity/dp/B0042ZJ17C
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Chemistry is precisely the thing that determines the voltage. That NiMH battery provides 1.2V, while regular disposable 312 Zinc-Air battery work at 1.45V…
But yes, a 312 form factor compatible rechargeable battery does actually exists. I’ve been proven wrong.
Nevertheless, this is:
- An nderperforming product (ridiculous battery life)
- Not really compatible due to that chemistry/voltage difference (see the manufacturer’s disclaimer)
- A quite pointless product.
But I agree: let’s keep the rechargeable/disposable discussion for another thread.
In response to haas:- I like my rechargeable HA’s because I never run out of juice during the day and if I go out in the evening then I put them in the charger over dinner to top up. With the disposable batteries it seemed that I always needed to change batteries at an inconvenient moment which put me off-line for a few minutes whilst I fumbled with my ears.
I see now that converting my old HA’s is not really practical.
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It’s all completely possible depending on model of HAs you have, Z-Power has already been and gone on this subject, they were horrendous, you only need to use the search button to see how bad things got!
You can still get them god forbid (don’t do it)
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Currently I sometimes change my batteries early if I anticipate an important situation I do not want to miss.
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I change my batteries when I take the aids out, on the evening before the day I expect them to run out based on past experience.
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For a backup set of aids it makes sense to me to just keep some unused batteries with the aids. That is what I will likely do after I get my More 1 aids.
The Accu Plus is NiMH type. Beside the much lower capacity compared to Zinc Air disposable which will likely run out of charge in the middle of the day that someone has already mentioned to you in an earlier post, NiMH batteries also tend to self discharge if left unused. Granted, they’ve tweaked the chemistry of NiMH AA and AAA batteries a bit to solve this self discharge issue. But unless it’s stated so clearly, you can only assume that they will self discharge.
And the Accu Plus literature never mentioned anything about a low self discharge rate (they only mention about having no memory issue like with NiCad). So unless you use it on a daily basis (possibly 2 or 3 fully charged pairs needed in just 1 day), the self discharge thing will be an issue for use in a backup situation only. You’d get it all fully charged up, only to find out a few months later when you grab it for use in your backup pair, it’s already all self discharged to nothing.
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