I’m back at Costco on Saturday to trial and hopefully order a black set of KS9s. With my loss I’m fairly sure I should have custom molds, but have been getting away quite successfully with closed domes on my Brio 3s for the past year. So, to help me prepare for my appointment, can anyone with experience let me know if I have any options with the molds? Such as vent size, style? I still use tiny iic aids sometimes, so am hoping I might be able to get a mold with a similar size, but maybe that’s wishful thinking on my part. If anyone can share a picture of their Costco mold then that would be very interesting. Thank you in advance, Bob
I have the select-a-vent molds. They have a large vent hole and you get a selection of vent plugs in different sizes, so you can pick the effective vent size you like best. Changing the vent size is as easy as popping out one vent plug and inserting one with a different vent caliber.
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This is a pic of one of the molds I got through Costco for my Rexton Trax 42s. Got the aids about 4 years ago, so the molds probably 3.5. Sorry couldn’t get a better pic, but I think you can see the line of the vent running through the mold below the receiver. The software recommended what I remember to be a 1.3 mm vent for my loss, and that’s what the audi ordered. She recommended getting the mold from Westone instead of Rexton, said more of her customers were happy with the Westone molds.
There were some choices of how they’d be made. They could have come with various configurations for the outer ear to hold them in place better, but we decided to try without those at first and see how it went. Also color choices, which didn’t really matter much in my configuration.
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After a year of domes popping out of my right ear I had Costco make me a set of custom molds. My right ear I always used a power dome which isn’t vented and an open dome on left side. My molds both have the largest vent possible. I have had no issues after about a year of use. The only issue is forgetting they are in and almost getting in the shower with them! They are hard silicone I believe. The Specialist explained the soft silicone would feel like putting pencil erasers in my ears and eventually could possibly rub which made sense.
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Costco in the US uses Westone for hearing aid ear molds. You can see their current offerings at Westone
I suggest you explain your needs to the whoever makes the impression for your molds. Follow their advice. If you have problems, Westone will remake new molds upon the return of the unusable mold by Costco. It is likely they will require a new impression for remaking your mold.
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My immediate thoughts with your loss is that you may not need molds. I just came back from a fitting session with Costco today. I returned my molds (the third set of them), and went back to closed sleeve fittings off the shelf. If the off the shelf closed fittings just do not work for you (too much feedback) then I would go to molds. Costco will take them back if they do not work, and they told me remake them any number of times. They did mine three times, but they still did not work. I found them too uncomfortable, but they sure did eliminate feedback. In the end I traded comfort to having some feedback occasionally.
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Thanks for the feedback on this…had my fitting today, and the audiologist thinks I should stick with closed vented domes for now, perhaps trying a mold if the dome isn’t successful. I was a bit surprised, but maybe I’m borderline…KS9s on order, so looking forward to starting the journey.