^^^ LOL!!! Thanks for the translation! We speak in alphabet acronyms, and this is a good one to add to my vocabulary.
My Audi uses a heated device (like a heat gun) to mold the wires. Ureout pic is like my fit except mine also turns. It may take a few visits. PITA After it cools, the shape is permanent unless reheated. My experience with damaged receiver wires thru the years, occurs when I have ill fitting wires - that constant jamming the receivers back in the ears is hard on the wires!
I want no loops sticking out at all.
^^^ Very good advice! If I have to bring my own curling iron, I will. I really need to nail this down … FLAT!
I wouldn’t nail it down. That could be quite painful.
Bluejay,
There is a youtube on how to re-mould receiver wires. It is an instructional video for hearing professionals from either Oticon or Siemens. I can’t lay my hands on the link just now.
In essence, simply heat the wire with a hair dryer (120 deg C) for 10 seconds, refit to your ear and hold the desired wire shape in position for 20-30 seconds. Voila, a perfect fit!
Do use a towel to protect both the HA body and also the receiver itself from the heat when using the hair dryer. Solder melts at 180 deg C!
^^^ WOW! Much appreciated! I’ll surf up to the net and see if I can find the link. If I can re-shape these wires to fit snugly, I’ll re-post a picture of the result. I’ve been concerned about over-heating the actual receiver and mic parts of the aid, but I have one of those HA “socks” I can put over the mic that I slip over the unit when getting my hair colored. I’d need to find a similar little towel or cover for the receiver.
Stay tuned!
Not going in nearly far enough. Domes or custom mold? If domes then maybe they are too big?
Just wrap the ends, both receiver and the HA in an ordinary bath towel and hold towel between finger and thumb. Allow only the receiver wire to protrude. Aim the hair dryer with your other hand so that the edge of the hot air covers the exposed wire. Ten seconds on high temp. Be careful not burn your fingers that are holding the aid!
If somehow you damage the receiver, most audiologists will just replace it for free. In the worst case a replacement receiver wire costs about $50, or buy it yourself on Ebay.
I found a solution for my protruding ear wires - at least in the short term! I tried heating the wire with my hair dryer, but it just isn’t HOT enough to truly soften the wire and re-shape it.
So, I cut a narrow, 1/3" long piece of clear packing tape and now literally TAPE the ear wire to my ear. It sounds goofy, but if I do this for a month, the wires may re-shape on their own. Plus, it makes the wires lay FLAT and not get caught in my fingers, glasses, comb and what-not.
Another benefit is that the tape keeps the soft silicone double-domes snug IN my ear canal, as they tend to slip out a million times every day. I’m happy!
3M makes a narrow skin safe medical tape also available as a store brand at BB&B and drug stores. My experience reshaping the wires is they have memory and taping them will not eventually make them take shape—but taping them to your ears for your Audi visit should make the needed PIA statement. You might try some colorful washi tape for the appt.
If anybody in the UK wants a low power heat source for re-shaping wires, Amazon in a bout of unusual kindness recently duplicated my order (for modelling heat-guns) and weren’t interested in getting them back. I’ve got three unused on the shelf which I’ll happily post domestically. FOC.
Pay it forward etc.
just for info I have been able to shape my receiver wires without any heat… just keep bending them in a small curl just above the receiver it will take several tries but they will stay
This is exactly what I’ve found out! Dang wires look/fit fine for about 10 min after the tape is lifted off, but then like a MULE go right back to their irritating shape of poking straight out from my ear enough to dangle a Xmas ornament on.
Well, I bet it would give my aud-guy a chuckle if I stroll in next Friday with some zany charms hanging right off that goofy wire eh?
I have an appt to see if I can trial the Phonak Marvels … FINGERS crossed he will get a pair for me by the 16th.
Stay tuned!
bluejay … check to see the thickness off you receiver wire… I know in the past when I got new HA’s from a different audi they had a thicker wire on them and they were very hard to shape … i went back in and requested the thinner wire
^^^^ WILL DO! I’ve got an app’t scheduled for this coming Friday. Would I love an ear wire that BEHAVES!!
just for info. I measured my wire and it was .039 in thickness
My guess is the dome is not seated properly in your ear canal if you have that much loop out of the canal. Also I didn’t see any concha locks on your hearing aids either. Have you been fit with domes or ear molds? If you have domes it could be the hearing aid starts in the correct position, but backs out after the aid has been in with normal ear canal movement. Throughout the day your ear canal will move up and down from chewing or talking, without concha locks keeping them in place your aid will continually loop or back out. When you first put them in do they fit any better? Generally you will know the aid is in all the way when the wire is flush to the head.
Here are the things I tried to get the bent part of the receiver to stay fully in my ears instead of idiotically sticking out from both sides of my head.
I thought earmolds with canal locks would solve the problem but it didn’t. I did manage to purchase a longer receiver - a #4, but when the receivers were inserted it into my $80 custom molds, I discovered that the molds were so (poorly?) designed that they did not “swallow” up the right ended bend in the receiver wire! It still stuck straight out into the air from the mold instead of being inside the part of the mold that went inside my ear canal. Not only was this very annoying and continued to look ridiculous, but it perpetuated the intermittent feedback screeching problem.
I then tried heating the right angle wire and flattening it against the custom mold but the flattening would only last a couple of days and then return to its right-angle bend, just as others who had tried this reported.
I then bought some “tulip” tips on eBay that were supposed to allow me to implant the right angle bend fully into the ear canal but they kept slipping out just like the standard dome tips, and after slipping partway out the feedback screeching would return every time I turned my head to the right or left!
I then decided out of desperation to try one more thing, and it worked! I found a kit called “Hearing Aid Domes - Universal Domes for Hearing Aids - Sizes Small, Medium, Large & X-Large Earbud Replacements” on Amazon" 39 pieces in different sizes for only $12.99. Despite the claims of hearing aid dispensers that, supposedly every brand of hearing aid requires custom fittings, these include many different sizes and several shapes and claim to be a “universal fit.”
When I got them and tried out various sizes and shapes, I found that the internal tube into which you insert the receiver is very snug and quite deep, so that it accepts not merely the metal end of the receiver but also the right-angle bent part of the attached wire, thus allowing me to comfortably fit the bent part fully into the ear canal (encased inside the soft tube) where it is meant to go, and it stays there, does not slip out, and totally eliminates both the feedback screeching and also the goofy look of having the right angle bend of the wire sticking straight out of my ears into the air!
Problem solved!:
In addition, my subjective impression of my hearing with these tips is that it is equal to or possibly even a little better than it was with those custom molds.
Works great! https://tinyurl.com/yx9natfr