Hi
Has anyone DIY replaced the rechargeable batteries on all their Oticon More1’s? It doesn’t seem complicated, but I’m wondering if anyone out here has done it. Thanks
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Check out the DIY section of the forum. There are threads that talk about where to obtain the More batteries. Replacing them is trivial with a pointy tool to open the battery doors. It’s finding the right battery designed for the More outside of the official Oticon sales channel that’s the challenge.
@Volusiano: And , furthermore, it’s necessary to use Genie2 to reset the calibration of the battery once the physical replacement is done.
Also, unless you do some digging to get price quotes from online sellers that also sell new Oticon More hearing aids, then you will likely pay double the price.
Here’s a clip;
Oticon Rechargeable Battery replacement has four steps;
- Charge the batteries first; The batteries may be in battery protection mode (see Tip below) thus you need to prep the battery in the charger before attempting to use the new battery. After using the charger to disable battery protection mode, then Connect you hearing aids in the fitting software.
- Select which new battery (Right or Left) for entering a serial number
- Enter a new battery serial number, enter anything, it’s just record keeping, I would choose a date (20220101 or similar), then repeat and enter the serial number for the other side.
- Reset battery statistics. This guarantees accurate daily usage Beeps.
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This is a crazy process imposed by manufacturers for replacing something that should be far easier for consumers. This reminds me of the scam of printer ink cartridges back in the day.
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Though it may seem to be a “crazy process” it’s the best in the industry thus far. Just look at the process for other manufacturers that have built-in/non-replaceable Li-on batteries;
And, if you plan to use rechargeable hearing aids as a backup pair of hearing aids;
Thanks for all of your help. Fortunately I have two rechargeable batteries that have not been opened yet. They were shipped with the units.
“prep the battery in the charger” Does this mean put them in the HA’s and charge them up? Or is there a separate charger involved?
You can put them in the charger and then take them out, or you can let them fully charge. Either way works. Here’s a clip and link to a document;
Below is the clip above the Deactivating Battery Protection Mode that explains what this mode is, for reference. What it says confuses me, so I have a few questions maybe @pvc (or anybody else) can help answer if they know:
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I don’t see anywhere on Genie 2 where you can “put” the More into the battery protection mode. Is this done exclusively at the factory only and once it gets deactivate it, the HCP can no longer reactivate it if desired in Genie 2?
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The text below says that “This mode powers the battery down to a minimum level while not in active use”. It’s confusing what this “minimum” level is. I hope it doesn’t mean 0% state of charge because common knowledge is that a 0% state of charge is not good for Lithium-ion battery. Maybe it means at an optimally minimum level (like 20 or 30 or 40 or 50%, whatever it is) where it’s best to store the battery long term.
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Why would the first step be closing the battery drawer? If that implies that the battery drawer is open, there wouldn’t be any drain on the battery, so why would the HA need to be in battery protection mode to avoid unintentional draw down of the battery? Unless they want to make sure that the case where the battery drawer doesn’t get unintentionally closed is covered.
Okay, time to stop guessing. Starting point is batteries at 100% charged overnight;
Yes, there is a Tool that will (Set battery protection mode). So let’s use it;
Upon exit the default is to save the settings in case there are some unsaved settings. In this case there are no changes so I unchecked both boxes.
The instructions say that you should use the charger to get an orange light/(Off) and that will turn off battery protection. While that may be true, I used the manual method of holding down the bottom part of the rocker switch for a very long button press of four seconds and got an orange light/(Off).
Another 4-second press for green light/(On) and checked the battery status and it was still 100%.
So here’s the dealio. After Tool/Set battery protection mode the hearing aids are left in the On state. I suspect (and will test) that the hearing aids will wear down the batteries somewhere in the neighborhood of a 50% charge and then shut themselves off.
She doesn’t know yet that I am using her as a test dummy and that her hearing aids will likely stop around midday. When that happens another 4-second press on the bottom of the rocker switch should get them back on. But I risk getting slapped up side the head.
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Thanks for risking getting slapped up side the head in the interest of HA science experiment, @pvc! 
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Nothing happened. Batteries at 25% and still working as normal hearing aids. Maybe because after Tools/Set battery protection mode I did not save the settings. I will try again tomorrow (saving the settings this time).
Okay, okay, Tools/Set battery protection mode works when you save the fitting session to the database and hearing aids. But I’m not sure yet how it works, or what it is doing??
- The hearing aids are off, and the buttons no longer work, a long press will not turn the HA on.
- I can place the hearing aids in the charger to turn them back on.
- But the batteries are still at 100% after reviving the HAs???
I will need to test Tools/Set battery protection mode for a longer period of time (longer than 5-or-10 minutes) to determine if somehow the battery will partially drain while in battery protection mode.
But it’s a difficult test to perform because she needs to wear the More 1’s. Maybe I can setup a backup pair of HAs for her to use while I leave the More1’s in battery protection mode for a day and then check to see if the batteries have drained??
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Okay, she is wearing a backup pair of Opn1’s and the More’s have been put to sleep in battery protection mode with Battery Levels @93%/92%. I will use the charger to revive them in 24 hours-or-so to see what happens to the battery levels.
Looking forward to the results!
Your wife is a true hero to all us More_Ons’!!
Thx for doing this.
No change to the battery levels after 24 hours. So the (Tools/Set battery protection mode) seems to be nothing more than a Hard-Off that deactivates the push buttons.
If you believe that (storing li-ion battery at full charge) is not a good idea, then you will need to manually discharge the batteries to a level of 40% to 50% capacity by removing the HAs from the charger to get a green light (On), and then wait a half-day or so before applying the (Tools/Set battery protection mode) +Plus Save settings to the HAs and database!
And then, every 3 months fully charge the batteries and repeat the procedure.
That is how I would do it.
ETA-HMm;
HMm; I wonder how much the batteries would discharge each day, after simply using a long 4-second push on the bottom rocker switch to turn the HAs off by getting the orange light? If this method would deplete the batteries very/very slowly then maybe we could use a simple manual procedure for storage. That is, turn your hearing off midday when you have 40% to 50% battery capacity and then store them for 3 months. After 3 months, recharge and repeat the procedure.
So the question is, would the battery levels remain near 40% to 50% battery capacity after 3 months using the button-off method, instead of the battery protection hard/off?? I kinda doubt it. But it seems worth another 24 hour test. Here’s the starting point at 88%;
No need to wait 24 hours. It’s been 8 or 9 hours so I should be able to tell whether there is strong battery drain or little-to-no battery. Wow! Guess what? The battery levels are the same as 8 or 9 hours ago? If someone wants to test this for a month or a few months then feel free to do so.
As far as I can tell the (Tools/Set battery protection mode) does nothing except to disable the hearing aid On switch?
ETA: After 24 hours of using a four-second press on the bottom rocker switch to turn the HAs (Off=orange-light) the batteries levels remain the same at 88%. This concludes my testing, and the More1’s went back to regular duty.
In summary; Oticon Genie’s (Tools/Set battery protection mode) can turn your HAs off and disable the HA buttons so that you don’t accidentally turn them back on. But you can get the same results by turning the HAs off manually, and then be careful not to turn the HAs back on.
Neither of these preparation methods for long term storage does anything about reducing the battery levels to 40%-60%. You will have to reduce the battery levels manually, if you believe that long term storage of Li-on battery at 100%/fully-charged-levels is improper.
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Hi pvc!
New forum member with Oticon More 1 here, and have read your excellent DIY tutorial on changing the rechargeable batteries.
In some recent posts by others on other threads on the forum, I’m seeing that the More batteries can be replaced without resetting them via Genie2/Novalink. Just wondering what your experience may have been going that route.
Many thanks for all your time and energy on this forum!