New chime from Opn aids

Hearing Aids Manufacturer Support
#1

My Opn hearing aids have just started making a chime I’ve never heard before. Actually, there are two different chimes:

My left aIf will chime do-fa-mi-re, followed by the right. Then, a few seconds later the left aid will chime fa-mi-re-do, again followed by the right. Does anyone know what those chimes mean?

This coincided with two other problems:

  1. The left aid’s button sticks on, causing random volume decreases and program changes.

  2. If I turn on the left aid, both aids cannot connect to my phone (or rather they connect and disconnect continuously).

I’m taking the aid in tomorrow for service, but I wondered if anyone had heard these chimes before.

I have to say, although these Opn aids are great for my hearing, they’re far more fragile than my Alta2’s; I’ve had my right aid replaced three times now due to moisture damage causing microphone failure, and now the left aid seems destined for replacement. Ugh.

#2

Sounds like the start up chime to me.

My Oticons make that noise when powering on but I think it’s optional.

There’s another when they power down following battery depletion.

The program and volume beeps are mostly single or double tones.

#3

It is neither of those chimes, nor is it any of the usual volume or program beeps; I’ve been wearing Oticon for three years and I’m very familiar with all of those sounds. Nor is it the 8x4 tone alarm for microphone failure. This is a chime that I’ve never heard before and which as far as I can see is not described anywhere in the manual.

#4

There are only 2 chimes that has 4 notes only for the chime. You’re probably familiar with the out-of-battery chime. The other one is the flight mode chime.

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#5

It’s the flight mode chime, which makes sense since the button is sticking and I’m losing my Bluetooth connection. I think that the difference I was hearing between two tones is between ears; the chime actually has harmony, which I’m hearing differently between ears: I’m picking up the fifth with my better (right) ear, but only the root with my left.

In any case, it’s clear that the issue is the button. I am not looking forward to a week without my left aid.

#6

I’ve heard that chime too recently. I described it to my audi and he wasn’t able to tell me what it was. He said Oticon told him to send the HAs in for repair. I did send them and received them back quickly. They seem ok now.
What is Oticon’s flight mode? And how does a user normally put their Opn’s into fight mode?

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#7

Flight mode
When boarding an airplane or entering an area in which it is prohibited to radiate radio signals, e.g. during flight, flight mode must be activated. The hearing aid will still be working. It is only necessary to activate flight mode on one hearing aid.

To activate and deactivate
Press the push button for at least 7 seconds. A jingle confirms your action.

Opening and closing the battery drawer will also deactivate flight mode. See chapter “Quick reset”.

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#8

With some more experimentation, I’ve verified that it was the flight mode chime and that there are actually two different flight mode chimes: one for flight mode on (do-fa-mi-re), the other for flight mode off (fa-mi-re-do). With the button stuck on on my left aid, it was cycling back and forth between them: three seconds of normal operation, four seconds muted, flight mode on chime, three seconds in flight mode, four seconds in flight mode muted, then the flight mode off chime.

A night in the Dry and Store II seems to have helped. I also suctioned around the button last night and got some sludge out of it. I’ll keep my eye on it for now; I’ve got another 18 months under warranty.

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#9

Thank you, Volusiano and Latinist for solving my mystery.

#10

My Custom ITE hearing aids don’t have flight mode, that is I don’t have any way to put them in the flight mode. When I asked my Audi about it, he smiled and said the aids don’t emit enough cause any issues, just make sure to put me iPhone in flight mode.

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#11

You are the first I know if who has had the exact same issues I have had with “moisture” and needing to have the OPN 1 aids replaced. 3 times last summer and now 5 times overall in the past 1.5 years. Oticon lreplaces instantly do obviously there is a known issue. Also they have sent me different dryers to use.

Same exact chime experience as well.

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#12

Sorry I didn’t respond sooner. There has to be something different about the microphones on the Opn aids. I used regularly to drown my Alta2’s in sweat working out and a quick wipe down and new batteries always had them back in working order. These are supposed to be more water-resistant, but they certainly don’t seem to be in practice.

#13

I have the OPN1 ITE hearing aids and have no issues at all with sweat. I live in a very humid area and hike along the streams I sweat buckets with hike even in the winter. I just place my aids in the dryer while I am showering and cleaning up and they are fine.

#14

Since your aids are of a completely different design from my miniRITEs, though, that isn’t really relevant to the reliability issues jfenton and I have been having.

#15

My point is that I have had the mini rite aids before and had the same issues as you. And I changed back to the ITE hearing aids and have no issues now

#16

Unfortunately, such a closed fitting is not appropriate for my loss, nor would its performance be acceptable to me.

#17

You can have all of the venting you need and the performance to me is much better than any Rite hearing aids I ever tried. My aids have the same capacities as any BTE or MiniRite aid available.

#18

I don’t think you can possibly know what my needs are, nor can it plausibly be claimed that any ITE aids can match an open dome RITE’s transparency.

#19

Not saying you what you should doing just giving options. But personally I have had open dome Rite aid setup for 4 years and to be honest that was the second worse hearing aid experience that I have had. My worst was my first set of aids that I bought on line and then found out no one new how to set them up.

#20

Adding to the list, have had multiple Opn 1 (mini-RIC w/ custom mold) replacements over the past 2.5 years due to moisture, specifically sweat. Seems to start becoming problematic each summer, as I spend a lot of time outdoors working around the house, and I sweat like a pig, even on a cool day. Left aid has been replaced 3 times, recently as last week. Right aid has been replaced twice, and will be heading in for replacement #3, once Oticon fixes its hacking issue and can schedule an appointment.

While my audiologist has been somewhat accommodating, beyond the condescending “have you been using a dryer? Every night, you say? Hmm, I’m not sure what could be causing this issue…why do you think it’s moisture-related?” every time I go, I’m getting a little frustrated with having to take time out off of work every 3-4 months so that I can drop off, again to pick up, and again when the audio doesn’t pair my ConnectClip correctly.

Are there any other HAs that are known to be significantly more reliable for those of us who “sweat it out” each summer?