Hearing Aid Reliability

Hearing Aids
#1

Hi Everyone
I am new to this forum and a new hearing aid wearer (less than 1 year).

Last October I purchased a pair of Seimens Pure 500, with the Tek controller.

In November -December, I had to have the Tek replaced because it would lock up, and the only way to get it working was to pull out the battery (much like a smart phone).

In May, my right hearing aid failed, they couldn’t even read it to get the data from it.

In late June, my right aid failed again. This time they tried to read the data from both aids, but they were only able to get the data from the right one, but not the left. The tech recomended having the left one replaced once the right one came back.

I was also having problems with my Tek. Ocassionaly I would have problems hearing so I would check the Tek to make sure I was on the correct program, and I would find that it thought I was in a cell phone conversation. Again, the only way out is to pull the battery. When I went to pick up my left hearing aid from being repaired (last Friday), I dropped off my Tek so they could send it back. The program 2 button had also stopped working.

I asked the hearing tech to talk with Seimens about upgrading me to the new aquarius aids because they are water proof and I sweat alot, even in air conditioning.

Seimens said they would sell me the new Aquarius for $1495 apiece, and if I wanted to give them my old hearing aids, they would give me $200 apiece for them. He also told me that they hearing aids only had a 1 year waranty (I thought he had told me 5 originally), and that it would cost me another $250 a year for the pair to carry the waranty for another year, and I could do this for a third year for another $250.

So, after spending over $4000 for 2 hearing aids, and the Tek, I will need to spend another $500 to cover just the hearing aids for another 2 years. When the Tek fails, I will just have to buy a new one.

What I would like to know is, is this common for all digital hearing aids? Are there other brands with better reliability?

Please reply either to this thread (so we can all learn form each other), or to my e-mail if you don’t want to make something public.

Thank you in advance for your help.

#2

I don’t think that’s common for any brand, including Siemens. When I tried the Rexton (a Siemens brand) at Costco I got a 36 month warranty. I assumed it came from the factory.

This is not really relevant but when I was trialing the Rexton Insite I accidently dropped it in a full glass of water. It took a couple of tries to fish it out of the glass. I took the battery out, rolled up the end of a piece of TP, and stuck it in the battery opening to try to wick away any water I could. Then I put it in the dryer (an open top Audio-Dry) and the next morning it worked fine.

I had one hearing aid that went out, a Starkey Destiny, just after the one year warranty expired. They fixed it for $140s and gave me a 12 month warranty from that point. They said it was caked with wax although I don’t see how that would actually damage it.

Anyway, I clean mine every night now (Resound Future), and brush the dried, flaky wax off the receiver end every morning after being in the dryer all night.

#3

Aids should be stored every night in a Store and Dry to sop up the moisture…particularly imortant if you sweat a lot. Ed

#4

I don’t think digital aids are as reliable as analog aids. The more bells and whistles they contain, the more likely they are to fail. Plus, the chips they use are all made in China or Hong Kong, so who knows how good the quality control is? Analog aids tend to be more robust and reliable, which is why I prefer them to digital aids. What good is spending thousands of dollars for digital aids if they spend most of their time out for repair? This is just insanity. Gerald

#5

Gerald:

If you can provide the MTBF data that backs up your assertion above, I’d love to see it.

I’d start by asking Knowles or the Manufacturers if they agree with your statement first though.

#6

Well I don’t know about the reliability issues between anolog and digital. What I do know is that problems diminished greatly when I switched from ITE to BTE aids. As far as the warranty issue you should have gotten something in writing when you received the new aids. I would think the TEK came with a warranty also even if only one year. Not lecturing but when you are shelling out this kind of money why would you not get all your questions answered ahead of time and get it in writing? You may be able to get insurance for your devices, online, at a cheaper price.

#7

[quote=Um bongo;65878]Gerald:

I don’t think digital aids are as reliable as analog aids. The more bells and whistles they contain, the more likely they are to fail. Plus, the chips they use are all made in China or Hong Kong, so who knows how good the quality control is? Analog aids tend to be more robust and reliable, which is why I prefer them to digital aids. What good is spending thousands of dollars for digital aids if they spend most of their time out for repair? This is just insanity. Gerald

I agree with this I am still have my Phonak super zoom and it’s 11 years old and still works and I get my new Phonak Naida III UP and it’s less than a month old and it’s program change button is on the fitch and sometimes it’s works and sometimes it’s don’t. I don’t have alot of faith in the new old and it only has a 1 year warranty what a joke.

#8

One problem with the reliability issues with the new Digital HA is they more than likely use RoHS standards which means no lead based solder used in the circuitry. By leaving out lead in the solder it leads to whiskering which shorts out components. Back in the 20’s and 30’s they didn’t put lead in the solder and they had all kinds of problems with components shorting out; this was solved by adding lead in increasing amounts until the whiskering stopped. Unfortunately, we don’t learn from our past mistakes and our unreliable electronic devices are living proof of it. Just one possible reason for unreliable Hearing Aids.

#9

The overwhelming majority of failures in hearing instruments are the receiver and the mics, which will be in both analog and digital instruments. The failure within an integrated circuit is extremely rare.

#10

Zafdor is right.

Digital aids with everything on a sealed chip should be more reliable than old fashioned analog discrete components and just as reliable as a chip based analog. Anyway most failures of all aids are due to moisture/sweat or abuse. Most often it’s the transducers or the battery doors that fail and that’s the same whether analog or digital.

Incidentally, TV failure rates dropped precipitiously when they switched to chip based architecture. Ed

#11

You are ignoring seb’s comment. The issue is not likely within the chip but the soldered connections to the chip and other components.

#12

seb said " Just one possible reason for unreliable Hearing Aids".

I have seen others talk here about sweat related failures as ed121 mentions.
This echoes what I think has been my biggest complaint regarding HA failures.
I’m sure both opinions are valid.

#13

One thing I failed to mention about the whiskering issue is it seams to happen faster in moist environments so HA are going to have more problems due to operating in a moist environment.

#14

my digital hearing aid well my 3rd set of them has very good realibilty cause one, they’re good with music and BG around me. :smiley:
I have Oticons btw.

#15

Can you post a link to whiskering being a problem with lead free solders? I have never heard of that. Lead free solders do require higher temperatures and that can be a problem with some components. An analog instrument will have at least as many solder points in the hearing instrument as a digital one so at the end of the day I still see no reason analog instruments would be more reliable.

#16

This link might pertain to seb’s comments?

There are no shortage of articles on the web regarding whiskering.
Here’s the search terms I used “whiskering being a problem with lead free solders”

#17

Damn! I’m getting dated. I didn’t know they were using lead-free solder in aids.
What ever happened to the silver soldering technique? I don’t remember it growing whiskers.

Just a little ancient history. When I was working my way through engineering school, I worked part time at an aircraft radio manufacturing plant. My job was to inspect each lead soldered connection in the radios and dab it with red paint. No whiskers there. Ed :smiley:

#18

Environmental concerns mandate the change to lead-free solder :mad: and planned obsolescence…

#19

Environmental concerns mandate the change to lead-free solder :mad: and planned obsolescence…
Yet states are mandating the use of compact(mercury filled) fluorescent bulbs…go figure!!! which one will be found more readily in a landfill hearing aid or light bulb!!!

#20

Not to mention lead and mercury are natural elements of the Earth. What lead you have now is what you will have in the future. The problem is we don’t learn from our past mistakes; we went down the road of whiskering in electronic components in the 20’s and 30’s and found out how to stop it and now the environmentalist are causing us to go down the same road again!