If you mess up, it quite a job to get the domes cleaned again. Silicone sticks to silicone quite well.
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They are indeed tiny! What is it? 3-4mm? You could even do without, I guess. But the silicone would stick to the cap, not the receiver.
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That is amazing!
Thank you for your explanation!
Can you tell us what silicone product you use and where you bought it?
What were the main criteria for your choice?
I would then see what I could get in my country.
Silicone sticks to the receiver:
I would imagine it would be easier to pull it off the receiver if you first wrap the receiver with a tiny piece of PE plastic foil. The kind you use to store food in the refrigerator.
PE is almost impossible to glue
The foil can then be easily pulled off with tweezers.
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Nope. It sticks to the silicone dome. Exactly, as if planned.
Look at art stores. It’s for making molds. It’s called poly-addition 2-component silicone paste. I bought mine here.
The reasoning was quite simple: I had to handle it with my hands and put it into my ears.
Normal silicone takes 24h to cure. And I really dislike silicone even when I have to use it in the bathroom or kitchen take make things watertight. I mixed some with cornstarch, but it still takes more than an hour to cure. This is extremely cheap, easy to get your hands on and clean. It cures in under 10 minutes. You’ve got about 2 minutes to work with it. It’s nice.
You could paint it with a finish if you want them to be a bit more durable or if you want it to be a bit thicker, so that it blocks the ear bit better. However, those are expensive.
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Today the Vented Domes 4.0 M arrived and I went ahead and put silicone paste around them. As the hardest part yesterday was removing the domes from the old receiver to the current receivers, I skipped this step and immediately used the current receivers.
I mixed 2x 0.50g and made a roll of about 1mm in diameter ( 9.5 + 2x1 is approx. 11.5.) That was too thin, as it broke to easily. Next time I’ll have to make the roll about 2mm thick.
I put them into my ear canals and let them harden. I twisted the plastic rods around the wire and put some cellophane tape on them to fix them to the casing. This way they didn’t slip out.
I cut the receivers free. You can see that there is a gab between the rim of the dome and the receiver at the back. In front both the vent and the receiver holes are kept free from paste. As expected the M domes are more bouncy than the S domes. Oddly enough, they result in ovals, with the smallest diameter 0.5 mm smaller than the M domes.
The result: The piano sounds like a baby grand!
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Ok and sorry, I got that wrong
Thanks, I’ve seen some there but was afraid it would be a mistake
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Have you ever had any problems with skin irritation and that silicone?
I found this stuff and I thought that I might give it a go:
No skin irritation.
However, anything I put in my ears starts itching within days if I don’t clean them properly.
The HA wipes work. Isopropyl alcohol works. Peroxide works. Cleaning alcohol works. Basically everything that I tried when I ran out of the previous fluid works.
I use a cotton swab and clean both the ear canals and the silicone. 30-second-itch-solution.
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Take a very very small amount of your wife hand moisturizer to apply into the ear canal with the cotton bud after cleaning with alcohol (provide your ear is not oily type).This help in my ears canal irritation.
My first silicon DIY molds!
I have used power domes because I had some at hand.
After three days (still) no problems with itching.
Leakage from low frequencies is about identical.
But feedback limitations are noticeably reduced.
I will take further attempts with different ventings in the next few days.
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Nice! Didn’t know that there were brown domes. We only get greyish domes.
I found that the vented medium domes could rotate if you cut them back too far. Good to see that you cut them allmost at the end.
How is the sound block when you disable the mics? Also about the same as power domes?
How do you assess leakage? With an AudiogramDirect measurement?
They are the original Phonak domes. The picture is a little too brown in color.
I wanted to make the moulds as long as possible so that they should seal better. The downside will then be removing them from the receivers.
Leakage is about the same as with the domes.
Yes, I made a comparison with AudiogramDirect.
Is there any point in having the DIY ear moulds then?
For me yes!
I am a DIY-er and I like to tweak.
And I did not expect miracles from the first attempt.
I suspect a few places where the leakage could be caused. I’ll try to be a little more careful there next time. (Spreading the silicone mass under the dome, giving a little more pressure after insertion into the ear, etc.).
Then I would also like to investigate the influence of different venting diameters. And find the one that works best for me.
In the end, it may just lead me to know exactly what I want. Perhaps I will then order a mold from the professionals according to my specifications.
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Comfort
If I want to reduce leakage a custom mold won’t help. I will have to wear one with a shield that covers the outer part of the inner ear shell (according to my audiologist). After I turn 50, I’ll consider it.
However, I can’t wear power domes, because they become painful after a few days. I can’t wear large vented domes for the same reason. Medium domes are not as good for leakage, but at least they are not painful.
So for me custom molds is exactly what it says: customized domes somewhere between medium and large.
Piano
There is interference between the amplified sound of the piano and the piano itself. It’s probability the same audiologically as that what causes feedback. However, instead of a whining sound you get a piano that sounds off key. (So contrary to normal feedback, even with lower amplifications, the volume of the acoustic piano interfers.)
For me this is the reason that I started tinkering with custom molds. And every time I get a new aid, I have to experiment to get it right.
Of course you could get custom molds made for you, too. However, after less than a year the hard ones get less comfortable for me. Soft custom molds weren’t available yet. The price in the Netherlands was 140€ for a new set.
Anyone knows what’s available in the Netherland, nowadays?
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I did not understood your question…What are you looking for? Soft molds?
Then is it not possible to have for instance the soft silicone Pluggerz and adapt them to the receiver you want to use if you take out the filter…
(Sorry I do not know how to insert a picture in my post)
Thank you Zebras!
To @Markismus
The upper ones are soft silicon PluggerZ custom made molds.
The gray ones are my Phonak M90 one time my set with normal receiver and one time with the hard Phonak custom mold.
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Price ranges from 130€ to 170€. So a bit more expensive than the Dutch hearing aids chains, s.a. Beter Horen, Schonenberg…
Do the chains offer soft silicone molds nowadays?
I have the cap domes because the open small domes were way too big for my ear canals so maybe I’ll get a good result playing around with making my own molds.