do all the different brands of HA’s use different receiver wires? or can these click sleeves be used on HA’s other than Signia?
No, if I understand the c-shells, they are custom molds for the physically larger ultra power Phonak receivers. That is totally different than the Signia Sleeves. The sleeves are off the shelf and made for the three lower power receivers. Unlike a custom mold, they are very light and flexible. I think the first ones were a clear silicone and now they are smoky color. Here is an image of what may be a clear one and you can kind of see through it. They are like a tiny flared cup with the walls being very thin and flexible. The standard receivers click into them. They are not symmetrical and that little tab you see on them goes on the side of the receiver that has the size and power specified like 3M.
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The sleeves are independent of the receiver and wire. They fit the Rexton and Signia S, M, and P receivers. They snap (click) quite tightly into the sleeve. I don’t know if they could be used by other manufacturer receivers. Your would have to compare what the end of the receiver looks like compared to the Signia/Rexton ones.
I think there is some de-facto standardization, or at least enough similarity in the exit diameter of the receivers (it’s hard to make them any other size/shape) and combined with the pliancy of most of the domes, there’s some interchangeability.
For instance, I’m using Widex tulip domes on my Phonak Audeo/Marvel receivers.
You’re right. I was mistaken. I found a more informative document that we might find interesting on this thread. It’s a fitting guide for HCPs. It has better pictures of all the domes, molds, and shells. It also specifies the measurement process that the HCP uses for physical fitting.
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Interesting. What they are calling the “cap dome” looks somewhat similar to the Signia sleeve, but it appears to only come in one size.
@Sierra, the cap dome is a very tiny thing that just fits over the tip of the RIC receiver to make it a little less scrapey and wax-hungry as you insert it. I’m going to ask for some of these from my audi to see if I can get stable deep insertion with an open fitting (I’m tuned now for open domes but the medium open dome doesn’t really work right and I lost my sample of the small open domes).
I have forgotten. Is your fitter Costco? If so they probably would give you some Rexton/Signia sleeves to try to see if they fit. Or, they may know there is no hope of them fitting. The Rexton receiver is about 0.083" in diameter, in the area where they click into the fitting.
The responses to my post about “domes,earmolds amd wires” have been extremely
helpful - it is useful to know this is a common problem,
and to hear about possible solutions.
I can not quite visualize how the click sleeves can
be inserted deep enough into the canal. The shape seems too wide to sit in the
canal. As others have stated the receiver hanging out
just at the entrance to the canal does not work;
I wonder if this click sleeves would work with starkey LIvio or resound aids–
Also I would like to know if the RIC insertion tool by jrhaggis is available
Many thanks!
They come in 4 different sizes. I tried the XS, Small, and Medium, and decided on the Small. On the XS size the vent comes out the side of the sleeve.
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Unfortunately, not Costco. It’s Kaiser Permanente. But I’ll ask them about Rexton/Signia sleeves.
I happen to have a caliper here. I have a Phonak 3M receiver, and the outer diameter at the fitting flange is 3.25mm (0.128") where the inner diameter below the flange is 2.25mm (0.088"), so it sounds like they may be compatible.
They may work. The Rexton receivers make quite a firm feeling and loud click when they snap into place, and are also somewhat difficult to remove. You have to be very firm to get them out. Not sure if there is metal or some hard plastic in the sleeves that they “click” into.
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Two observations:
- It looks like most users in this thread are using RIC aids, while I am using large tube BTE. But since I posted here before (Nov 14). I’ll follow up with this.
- It is evident that everyone’s ears are different. Different dome retention solutions work for different people.
My post: After making custom tube elbows, with a non-standard angle, dome retention was greatly improved, but not perfect. Using the same technique, I make some custom “S” shape elbows, which solved the problem for me.CustomElbows-S.pdf (102.4 KB)
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@david3, you’re absolutely right. And whether it’s BTE or RIC, the geometry is extremely important.
I really liked your document and your custom modification.
What I finally found after weeks of messing around with oto-endoscopes and bending of the wires is that the retention works a whole lot better if your tubes/wires are naturally pointing into your canal. If they aren’t, the domes will keep popping out because the supporting structure puts lateral tension on them.
What pisses me off is that Phonak plays dumb about this, and gives me a single wire shape that is completely at odds with my anatomy. Even my audi wasn’t aware of this. It took me months to figure this out on my own.
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Phonak evidently has a one-size-fits-all for geometry. We were fortunate to be in the one size that fit! 
However they do have different wire lengths that evidently all point in the same direction. My audiologist measured both of us carefully and the length and direction fits each of us perfectly.
I’m somewhere between the 1M and the 2M size wires and have bounced back and forth with them.
My fit of the wires is also dependant on which pair of glasses I wear. Some seem to fight with my hearing aids for space at the top of my ears. 
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OK FINALLY! I have tried heating, bending, re-shaping, anything to get my ear wires to lay FLAT so they don’t stick out like big loops catching on combs, fingers, etc.
Today I had a brain-fart! I simply twisted the ear wire ONE more time before putting the dome in my ear canal. Very low tech method, but it seems to make the wires lay FLAT now. From the side, you can see that the dome sticks out quite a bit - I don’t want to jam that TOO deep into the ear. It appears to give me a good seal right here.
Slightly angled view shows … NOTHING! No ear wire poking out like a goofy loop anymore.
Now, I may end up damaging the ear wire with that single extra TWIST before inserting the dome, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. Wanted to share these shots here to give folks an idea. My audi didn’t want to take the time to get the aesthetics of the wire JUST SO for me. So be it! I’ll do it myself. 
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here is a post of mine from last year on keeping receiver wires hidden…
I have soft molds and I put a little twirl on the receiver wire and it helps a great deal… the wire stays inside instead of sticking out for all to see
^^^^ Thanks for sharing that shot! I tried in vain to put little twists, bends, heating, just any kind of shaping of the wire - utterly useless! The wire has a “memory” longer than an elephant’s! It goes right back to the original shape in minutes.
In fact, a couple days into my nifty double-twist-and-insert strategy that I employed to get the wires to lay FLAT, would you believe that both aids would literaly FLIP up in the air like some kind of winged BUG and by golly that same 'ol stubborn wire would go right back to jutting out of my ear.
I didn’t even touch the aid at all! It would just HOP like it’d been swatted. It would lift up through my thin hair like “S P R O I N G !” And then land in the same old position, with the ear wires poking out away from my head. Oh well.
do different brands of HA’s use different materials in making the wires?? I have resound HA’s and have 3 mp wires about once a week I would give them a little pinch to tighten the curl and they were good to go
about 6 months ago I changed from wearing domes to custom molds and where I had the twist is actually now inside the dome and that made a huge difference in the wires wiggling out… I’m retired but very active playing softball and tennis many days a week … I now put my HA’s in and they usually stay put all day