Agree with most of your sentiments @Psocoptera, I do believe this planned obsolescence for rechargeable aids is factored in, and absolutely nothing to do with carbon footprint, and everything to do with increased overall sales… I am extremely fortunate to have 3 good sets of aids, all have replaceable batteries, all are Phonak, I also like the Phonak sound… I am fairly optimistic a new Phonak Ultra Power/Super Power aid is in the pipeline, so I will wait until whatever appears, if not I am sure other manufacturers will take up any niche in the market… As I have stated on many other occasions, I am not interested in rechargeable aids, other folks love them, each to their own… For me, life is about choices, lifestyle, and personal preference, I could easily adapt to rechargeable aids, if they gave us easy access to swap out these rechargeable batteries, then we could carry spares, until that happens, I will be giving them a wide berth… 
Just based on what I can see, I feel pretty sure that this idea of sealing is pretty much a bunch of hooey.
From what I can see inside the battery door, the ONLY thing that’s not sealed away is the battery itself and the contacts, + some little 4-pin jack that looks to be a service connection… so 6 little electrical contacts are exposed…from there it’s sealed, and no more water is getting to the circuit board innards than would be with rechargeable.
And even if I’m wrong about that, it certainly could easily be sealed that way.
Not sure I agree with any of these various conspiracy theories. There is no planned obsolescence. When your rechargeable batteries go, the hearing aid manufacturers all provide service to replace the batteries for a flat rate. In some cases your audiologist can do this in their offices. Moisture is a huge problem with hearing aids and having them completely sealed up definitely improves reliability and reduces service calls. The pro’s on this site can confirm. And I honestly don’t think audiologists get kick backs for selling rechargeable hearing aids. Most patients just want them for their ease of use.
Just humbly sharing my 2 cents…
Jordan
I agree that a disposable-battery aid can be sealed as well as a rechargeable aid, with the exception of the battery compartment. But moisture in the battery compartment can be an issue, judging from various threads here.
One issue is corrosion of the battery contacts. You might think that gold plating would take care of that. But there are different grades and thicknesses of gold plating, so perhaps the manufacturers should revisit their battery contact specs.
At least one user’s aids have stopped working due to moisture clogging the air holes in zinc-air batteries. That’s definitely the problem in his case, because he was able to get around it by using the rechargeable 1.2V silver oxide(?) batteries when he was outside.
I’m very pro-zinc-air, but I do think that rechargeables might be the better choice for users who are active and/or live in humid climates. Fortunately there doesn’t seem to be reason to worry that rechargeables for those users will go away.
And battery door replacement and hinge issues are the number one problem with battery aids from my experience. All I know is I’ve used both and I would never go back to batteries
I wonder if there’s a psychological aspect to this. For some, when things change in the world, they assume it’s for the worst…and aimed at them. “Someone” is conspiring to take away their familiar environment. That makes them uncomfortable and seems bad, even evil. And so now, battling against the spread of evil becomes a moral crusade. An ‘us’ versus ‘them’ mentality sets in.
After all, we’re talking about hearing aid batteries. Somehow, I’m accused of pretending to be another member in this forum who accepts rechargeable batteries. The highly moral crusade against the spread of rechargeable batteries and the deprivation of the rights of disposable battery users requires and evil villain working behind the scenes. No one is to be trusted, even–especially?–folks on a hearing aid forum.
whew! that mind set must be exhausting.
Yup…everything changes and sometimes the changes are annoying. There is a big crusade up here in Canada to ban all kinds of things because the environmental crusaders don’t like them. Plastic shopping bags and straws were their first victims. They are now trying to ban gas ranges/stoves and gas powered gardening equipments (lawnmowers, trimmers and snow blowers).
Disposable hearing aid batteries aren’t on their radar.
Jordan
Ahhh, moisture, humidity, hot weather, sweat, etc. All the enemies of hearing aids. So glad I have HA’s that I can cook in a dependable aid drier every night or several times a week. And I’m talking Global 2 Dry and Store. Last I checked there were not many aid driers for rechargeable aids and my guess is the few that exist are pretty weak and might not get the job done, drying an aid properly.
??? Really? There are plenty of dryers for rechargeables. if by “weak” you mean that they don’t heat up as much as trad aid dryers, well, yes, rechargeables require a lower temp for the same reason that they’re more resistant to moisture in the first place: they don’t have a battery door that opens. What evidence do you have that properly designed dryers for rechargeables “might not get the job done…”? I’ve never heard that.
Personally I use a an old school Hal-Hen ‘mini’ jar full o’ drying beads. My audi approves.
Manufacturers do not support their hearing aids forever. If you take care of your aids and they last then you will eventually reach a point when the manufacturer will not support replacing that rechargables battery. Rechargables have not been sold for long enough for this to be a problem yet. That does not mean that they will be supported forever and looking after your aids will not stop them from needing a change of rechargables battery. Even if you then buy new aids you will not have the old ones as a backup.
??? what makes you think that manufacturers will refuse to provide new batteries for your aids? Sorry, that sounds wrong. Of course they will.
Sheesh, at this point I think people are just making things up to discredit rechargeables. It’s fine if you don’t want them, but for heaven’s sake, don’t make untrue claims about them.
I had an opportunity to spend the night recovering in hospital. My biggest stress was my rechargeable hearing aid batteries…I didn’t appreciate that. If I bought new hearing aids today Iwould want replaceable batteries.
DaveL
Assuming your aids are still supported when you need new batteries: What do you think is a fair price to pay, and what do you think it’ll actually cost you?
I’m getting new batteries free under warranty at two years if I need them, and at three years just before my warranty expires. So, no cost. At year five or six, I’ll pay for new batteries–who knows what the charge will be by then. Now I think it’s $200.00 for the pair. That/'s less than what I’d spend for five or six years of replaceable batteries.
I have a carrying case that holds three complete charges for my aids. And of course the case itself can be recharged. easy enough to take it I’m away from home for any time. Charging my phone is pretty routine. Same with my aids.
Same here, I had rechargeables until my loss became profound. Then they simply weren’t powerful enough nor lasted long enough battery-wise when I did use them. I had charger and battery issues from the start with my hearing aids and never had one for more than 6 months without it breaking for seemingly no reason. Once I switched to disposable and powerful hearing aids, I’ve had zero issues. I’m definitely skeptical about the future of hearing aids if manufacturers keep going this route.
Battery replacement at $200/pair sounds like a great price, compared to the info in the following resources/threads on this site:
Your nifty charging case also has a rechargeable battery that may need replacement sooner or later. Or maybe it’ll be cheaper to buy a new one at that point, if the currently available charger works with your aids.
You want to compare rechargeable aid maintenance to the cost of disposable batteries? My standard for pricing is the shop here on Hearing Tracker:
It’s a reliable source for batteries, because they’re drop-shipped from one of the big audiology supply companies. I’m not citing the much-cheaper Costco because not everyone belongs to Costco. And I’m not citing Amazon because (while I love Amazon for many things) it’s hard to judge the reliability of the seller who sent the batteries to Amazon’s warehouse.
In the shop, Duracell size 13’s cost $21.99/80 = 27.5 cents each. A week’s use seems to be a common figure for size 13’s. So a year’s worth is 52x2 = 104 batteries, costing 104*27.5 cents = $28.60. 6 years is $172, still less than the $200 you quoted (and, again, other cited prices are higher).
I don’t recall you mentioning a spare charger, so I guess you don’t have one. For me, once I’ve spent the money and effort to get a good pair of aids, if they’re rechargeable there’s no way I’m not getting a spare charger. On Amazon a Signia charging case is $134 and a Phonak is $175. Say it costs $150 for a spare charger. That’s the cost of 5+ years of disposable batteries just for a spare charger. So, sorry, the cost of disposable batteries doesn’t offset the extra costs of rechargeables, or for that matter the possible aggravation one could endure from them. Glad that you’re pleased with your rechargeable aids. Some of us, more and more of us it seems, don’t want them.
The charger and travel case charger came free with my aids. As for the travel case charger needing a new battery: I use it very, very rarely. And of course, it also plugs in. The damn thing will outlast my aids by a decade or more. So, total cost for charger and rechargeable travel case for charging my aids…$0.00.
I’d call the cost of replacing my rechargeables versus paying for batteries a wash. If it costs me $26.00 more for the rechargeables over six years, it’s worth it to me for the convenience.
Again, it’s perfectly fine if folks want replaceable batteries! Some seem to go out of their way to present disaster scenarios for rechargeable aids. They’ve been around for quite some time now. It’s true that some brands have had charging issues, or one brand anyway. One poster above was caught out at the hospital worrying about running out of juice for his aids. Bringing a rechargeable charger, or having someone deliver it from home, would have fixed that. After all, one might be caught in the same situation without disposable batteries. So again, it’s a wash.
If one is streaming online for 18 hours a day, as another poster says, then yes, rechargeables aren’t for you. If you live where batteries are readily available but the power might go out often for a week, ditto.
I manage to charge my phone just fine. I don’t hear a big brouhaha over having to charge phones.
The new starkey genesis AI can last 45-50 hours on a single charge, depending on the version of the hearing aid. I think that rechargeable hearing aids will not be a problem, if the battery lasts that long. The same will happen with other brands when they make a new chip with low consumption
You can get super power receivers on the Phonak Lumity, and I’m sure many more brands. My new Lumity aids are getting around 18-19 hours, and i never have to do a 15 minute fill in charge, but i would be fine with that.
Opinion: Rechargeable are obviously the present and future, as long as they can provide adequate uptime. I will never go back to disposable if i don’t have to.
Manufacturers do not support old aids forever. Even if they were my spare pair I would still want the battery to work. Time will show what is expected vs what is delivered with rechargeable aids and support for replacement batteries but I cannot see the manufacturers continuing to replace the batteries forever even if the aids work otherwise. Perhaps an aftermarket supplier will fill in the gap but that will depend on how easy they make it to replace the batteries.