Hearing Aid Vacuum Cleaner

Hearing Aids
#29

Great suggestion! I’m using an iPhone 6S running iOS running iOS 14.4.1 and the magnifier wasn’t turned on by default. To get it turned on, I had to go to Accessibility and find it under the Vision group. Once turned on, the magnifier showed up in the Utilities folder on my Home Screen (haven’t figured out how to add it to my Control screen yet - am an ignorant iPhone newbie).

I don’t think that the iPhone 6S has any significant OIS (optical image stabilization). It’s amazing how much I can magnify stuff even on an iPhone 6S - I wonder if the iOS magnifier is even better on a newer Pro Max iPhone with super-duper OIS? (looking forward to finding out come September/October!).

Edit_Update: The iOS Magnifier can be turned on and added to the Control Center independently of turning it on under Accessibility settings. To just add to the Control Center and not to the Utilities Folder, go to Settings, Control Center, scroll down the page to the list of available functions not added to the Control Center (the ones with green “+'s” in front of their labels in iOS 14.x). Tap Magnifier and it will go up the group of functions that appear in the Control Center (the ones with red “-'s” for removal, if tapped). By tapping and holding on the “stack of plates” to the right of the Magnifier label in Control Center, you can move the icon higher up in the array of functions that appear on the Control Center screen when it’s launched, if you want.

I’ve only been an iPhone user a little under 5 months. My wife has been an iPhone user since the iPhone 3G in September of 2008. The other day about something else I was like, “You know, open the Control Center…” She had no idea what I was talking about! I said, “If you have a Touch ID iPhone you swipe up from the bottom. Face ID, you pull down from the top right.” She’s like, “Oh, yeah. I might have accidentally done that a time or two but I always ignore it.” So I mention how to access Control Center if there is anyone else out there like my wife who sticks to the very basics.

#30

A beautiful beast! Looks for sure like Man’s Best Friend, who’s very happy because he/she is well-cared-for! Hopefully, after a thorough cleaning, doggie spits out your HA’s in better shape than they went in! As a cat lover (reformed dog lover), I would think HA’s would receive far better care from Canis lupus familiaris than from Felis catus! When KK was still around, I never left my HA’s lying about as I didn’t want to find out what sort of treatment they might get from her.

#31

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These are the culprits that would pop my More3s out of the charging cradle and into the Lavabus Canis Intestinum, jim!

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#32

Thanks for this information as I will now try out my bulb suction “solder sucker” on my hearing aid receivers to vacuum out any small stuff that has accumulated inside.
(A solder sucker is used in electronic work to suck molten solder from the joints on a printed circuit board - I am talking about the manual versions)

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#33

FWIW, @paul.cleary.nz, I am of the same mind as you are. Depending upon how small a tip your solder sucker has, in principle, at least, it should work fine.

#34

Let us know how it works!

#35

I bought the Serene Innovations HC-200 on Amazon a few month ago. Although it is somewhat heavy and big, it works very well for me. It cost me only $52 and it saves me trips to my audi.

#36

Here’s my update on the rubber bulb solder sucker I bought to use as a vacuum cleaner for my BTE RIC hearing aids.
I have used it about 3 times now when I noticed sound volume was very low in one of the HAs.
It clears away whatever blockage was in the domes, but not in the wax guard.
How I apply it is to first squeeze the air out of the rubber bulb, put the nozzle up against the end of the dome and then stop squeezing the bulb so air rushes into the bulb. I do this 1 or 2 times and then the HA volume is back up to normal.
Here is a link to a picture of the solder sucker that I bought:
https://www.jaycar.co.nz/solder-sucker-blower-bulb/p/TH1850?pos=1&queryId=fecb2db5cd8797a68ec796c18fc38b65

#37

Inspired by Jim lewis’s comments on the Jodi-Vac and using the iPhone magnifier to clean it, I ordered one this morning. It does cost us Canadian a lot more than it costs Americans. The $100 US proce becomes $140+ after currency exchnage, and then $56+ more for “international” shipping to Canada, and with the 2=1/2% currency exchnage add-on, it becomes $200 + change Canadian!

Jim G

#38

Not sure where the “iPhone magnifier” comes from. What I use, I bought in 2015 from RadioShack when it was going out of business. It was described by RadioShack as “Helping Hands with Illuminated Magnifier,” for soldering. I don’t use the built-in LED of the magnifier because it is relatively weak. I wear an extremely bright Energizer headlamp and use Panasonic Eneloop rechargeable NiMH batteries and I recharge the batteries every day or every other day, switching to another set in the interim (never mix batteries between sets with rechargeable, removable batteries). Unlike Li-ion batteries, NiMH batteries last longest if kept close to 100% charge. I’ve been using the Eneloop batteries since 2012. They don’t have the capacity they once did but they easily last long enough to clean my HA’s.

Here’s what a similar “Helping Hands with Magnifier” looks like on Amazon. On mine, I removed all the things that were getting in the way of cleaning my HAs.

https://www.amazon.com/Helping-Hands-Soldering-360-Degree-Illuminated/dp/B01M1J23X0/

#39

Someone pointed out that the iPhone can be used as a magnifier. I tried it, but it is not nearly as useful as a real magnifying glass mounted ina frame like the one you showed on Amazon.

Jim G

#40

Been using Jodi consumer grade vac for several years about once/week. I find the iPhone magnifier helpful to check before and after, and freeze the image so I can examine leisurely. I think vac also sucks up skin oil that is still moist or has dried. FOr the mics, I usually try to hold the HAs above the vac so that the mic is pointing downward and so gravitygives minor assist to the process - this is probably overkill as regards technique, but one were into that gravity approach lying down might make it easier to manage.

I don’t have much ear was - actually my ears aree very dry and often itchy. Therefore I often use olive oil in my ears overnight, or a tiny amount of moisturizing cream. I do have custom molds so some ear canal irritation is usually slightly present. Between the oil and the cream in addition to any wax, after vac HA performance does seem to be better.
Be careful with any HA vac to avoid putting pressure on the mic area. When I first got the Jodi vac and because the needle of the vac is very small, I practiced using vac on a finger so I got a sense of how much pressure was being created. The first time I used the vac it probably took me 20 minutes, now it is <5.

#41

How often do you need to change the Jodi filter? Which size needle do you use?