Has anyone had Oticon Opn 1 repaired out of warranty?

My OPN 1 HAs occasionally play the dreaded 8-tone x 4 that I hear signifies a pending mic failure. I seldom have face-to face conversations these days, especially in noisy, crowded environments that cause me trouble. So I’m hoping to keep my Opn 1 until the next generation of HAs are released (skipping over the Opn S1 generation).
If I have to get my current Opn 1 fixed out of warranty (they are 4 years old) how much can expect to pay? Thank you.

I don’t have first hand experience with OPN 1 repair, but I remember that 1 of the forum members (forgot his avatar name here, but I think he’s one of the moderator on this forum) had to send his OPN 1 in for after-warranty repair at one of the more popular repair places (sorry, can’t recall their name either, but maybe it was Loyd’s or something like that), and I think he paid maybe $150 or around there for his repair, if I recall correctly.

One other option is to surf eBay to see if you can come across any used or refurbished OPN 1 to get your hands on instead. Of course this will require you to be a DIY who can reprogram the hearing aid to your setting.

I have the same aids, and have exactly the same plan as you do. I started getting 8x4 tones about 2 weeks ago, so mine are at Oticon right now. According to my audi, they will be replaced (I expect with refurbished aids) and returned with a one year warranty for $325 each.

I have loaners right now, and they have much better high frequencies than my originals. By the time hearing aids are doing something like the 8x4 tones, your aid performance may already be notably degraded.

Thank you, Volusiano and xrogers. xrogers, are your loaners also Opn 1? And you notice a significant high-end improvement with the loaners? Hmmm…I first got that 8 beeps tone months ago and I haven’t noticed any sound deterioration. But I’ll bet you didn’t notice any deterioration either until you got the loaners for comparison. Maybe I’ll wait to get mine repaired/replaced until one HA actually dies. We’ll see how long that takes. I have my old HAs as backups.

As long as you don’t notice any deterioration from the 8 beeps, I would not bother trying to repair it. I had the same issue and until I got around to send it in for warranty repair a few weeks later, I never noticed any deterioration either. Yeah, maybe it does deteriorate a little and you wouldn’t notice until you get a new aids, but if you don’t notice it, that means that it is not significant enough and you’re still happy with the performance.

Actually, when I got the replacement OPN 1, I also didn’t notice any difference myself either. So it’s not necessarily the 8 beep warning that caused the deterioration in the case of the other user. It might have been another issue that was incidentally solved by a new aid replacement.

Yes, the loaners are Opn1 with the exact same programming. I took my sometimes-beeping aids out, and put the new ones in, and the high frequency difference was easily noticeable, giving sharper edges on every sound. I suspect it is exactly as you described, a slow unnoticed deterioration that’s easy to hear in comparison.

I just picked up my replacement Opn1 aids. They sound just like the loaners, it’s clear I’m getting more useful high frequency signal. I agree that the 8 beeps doesn’t mean you have any particular performance issue, but now having fooled myself into thinking my aids were perfectly fine, I’ll certainly be suspicious about their performance when they give me any diagnostic beeps.

I wonder what it is that you have lost with hearing aid performance.
Could it be as simple as replacing the receivers and cleaning the mics?

Yes, it could be, and the beeps may be nothing but coincidence. I have no way to be certain what issues the aids may’ve had.

As mentioned many times on this forum, moisture is the number one problem with hearing aid issues.
A dryer is practical hearing aid insurance.

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So what’s the bottom line here for the 8x4 Beeps??
Has anyone had a repair, not replacement, done successfully??
I bought on eBay was fine for a year or so, 1 is giving the 8x4.
So I don’t expect Oticon to be a viable option.

Suggestions??

I don’t think it’s possible to repair the mic that’s already been moisture damaged to the point of giving the warning beeps. If any place does the “repair” per se and not “entire replacement”, most likely they would still replace the mic and leave the rest of the hearing aid alone. I just don’t know if it’s that easy and inexpensive enough to take the hearing aid apart then replace the mic only and put the hearing aid back together, compared to just replacing the whole thing.

Even if it’s possible and less expensive than the entire replacement, I wonder how they would get their hands on the Oticon-specific mic part. What if they replace the Oticon mic with some generic mic and not tell you? Are you OK with it?

But then again, I hear somewhere that some manufacturers use generic receivers from a receiver manufacturer, and not necessarily manufacture their own brand receivers. Don’t really know how true that is… If true, I don’t know if that applies to mics as well?

Maybe some registered HCP on this forum can shed some light on this?

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I tend to agree that some parts are likely generic.
Spoke to Lloyds and they promised if it is a mic issue they can replace it.
Haven’t sent it out yet.

Maybe someone else will reply with additional information regarding 8x4 Beeps.

Thanks
Mike