Rather than rambling on as I did, I think a much shorter reply would have been better. That is, we should average over the experience of all reported Costcos and user experiences with the M&RIE receivers rather than rely on a particular Costco or Costco fitter or me for advice. On the forum, there certainly has been a wide range of experience at Costcos, audis, and with users, e.g., different Costcos favor the Phillips vs. the Jabras, or vice-versa, etc.
The M&RIE mics reside just inside the opening of the ear canal on most users, so undoubtedly, the filters are there to guard against stray wax, especially in inserting and removing receivers. But in my experience, the worst opportunity for wax to spread around is in my Omnia plastic case, which is provided for disposable battery versions of the Omnia. I think it must be from static electricity as I walk across the floor holding the case or maybe just the vibration and rubbing of the receivers on their wires as I walk. After overnight air drying, wax debris is all over the place in the case when I go to open the case at my cleaning table. But since the M&RIE mics still basically point down with the receivers pointing up in the air on their wires, the mics remain very clean, I vacuum up as much wax as possible with a consumer-version Jodi-Vac (bought on Amazon), but then I have a blower that I bought on Amazon (to blow dust out of computer insides when I take the opened case outdoors). https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B082XR3987/ I wet our kitchen sink bowl with the sink sprayer and try to blow out any remaining wax debris from the case down into the wetted bowl so I’m not blowing it all around the kitchen (too much of a hassle to go outside as for a computer/electronic device cleaning). (using a can of compressed air might be an alternative to the blower).
