Oticon More Rechargeable Severe Uneven Battery Drain

Just had my Mores replaced, because one of the buttons broke.
I am noticing a severe imbalance in battery drain that I never had before with the new ones.
I know the battery numbers can be flakey but the right aid actually shut down about 10 hrs after a full charge.
This has happened twice on days that I was on the phone streaming for 5-6 hrs.

With limited streaming I’m still getting a10-15% difference after 14-16 hrs of use.

Anyone have a similar issue.

Thanks

I have the same issue, which is due to differences in my hearing loss between my ears. It is very normal.

I can understand that but I never had a major difference before.
I was amazed sometimes that they would both die within 10 minutes of one another if I stayed up late enough.

Mike

Maybe more to do with one aid being a master that then streams to the other? The master aid does more work.
Although my aids are Resound, I have really equal hearing loss and never experienced unequal battery drain.

1 Like

Only on Phonak! Oticon are different.

1 Like

Thats right, they use a different format.
Then something isn’t right with that aid

@michael.letizia: I had a similar issue in August of 2021. I suggest that you search my topics for the full story.

At the end of my day my right aid will be about 8% less than my left aid. If I do a lot of streaming TV then it can be closer to 10%. My aids are going on 18 months old and the batteries are show that they aren’t holding charge as long as they use too.

1 Like

@cvkemp: Chuck, I’m noticing a difference in mine after only 13 months of use onto my new battries. I admit, however, that I use my battries hard, dew to the length of my days.

1 Like

Yeah, I hope @michael.letizia 's HCP (or the Oticon support folks) remember to reset and reregister the new HA with the battery in it. That’s the first thing that entered my mind. I wondered if they replaced the HA but re-used the old battery? Nevertheless, whether they re-use the old battery or they use a new battery, it needs to be reset/re-registered in Genie 2, at the minimum for the newly replaced HA.

If they confirmed that they did this, there are more details that the OP can find in @SpudGunner 's thread, like maybe giving it a few days to settle and see. The other thing is it’s not clear whether one or both HAs were replaced. If both HAs replaced, then did both batteries get replaced as well, or just one. And if the later, then which one? There can be many reasons for the imbalance to show up. It’s best to ask the HCP the questions to eliminate possibilities. If the HCP doesn’t know the answer, then it’s best to request new batteries for both sides and reset/re-register the new batteries in Genie 2 to start from a known baseline and go from there.

1 Like

I just had this issue. My aids are 6 months old. And while my left ear has significantly worse hearing than my right, for the first 6 months, the battery life discrepancy between the 2 sides was small. I had no issues getting through long days with plenty of streaming.

A couple weeks ago, left aid started fully draining in about 8-9 hours, right aid would be at 50-60%. Furthermore, it would start changing volume and programs at random, as well as disconnecting from my phone and not being found. Then it simply died after a week and wouldn’t charge or turn on. I got in to see the audiologist, and the original plan was just to swap out the battery to see if it solved the issue. When he opened the aid up, the inside was rusted to quite the surprise of us both. I have never submerged these aids in water, unintentionally or otherwise, or even really gotten them wet at all even with the IP68 rating. The right aid did not have any issue.

I was give a loaner/demo pair the office had while mine are sent in for repairs, and I noticed that my hearing in my left was clearer than I had with my original aids. When I first got my aids, I had commented to my audiologist that sometimes it sounded like the mics on my left weren’t always clear, and after a restart, it would seem to be ok. Now I suspect I had a defective left aid to begin with, and when I got my aids, there was already traces of rust inside and it progressively got worse. When I get my aids back, I am hoping it will be a complete replacement of the left. If not, I may request for it given my observation after sending them in.

So, in your shoes, I’d ask my audiologist to pop open the aid as if he/she was going to replace the battery and examine the inside quickly. I would like to think my case is an outlier, but given you’re having some problems I just had, can’t hurt to check. Good luck.

2 Likes

I don’t think need you to wait to have your HCP pop open the aid to look inside. It does require a little pointy tool, but you can easily find an equivalent tool to open it yourself. Maybe a paper clip or one of those sim remover tool for cell phones.

Below is a YouTube video for the OPN S rechargeable. I can’t imagine that the More would be much different. I can’t find one on YouTube for the More, however.

2 Likes

Thanks for all the replies.
I guess we’ll see what the AuD says when I get them back.

Both aids were replaced, serial numbers were different, can’t be sure about the batteries.

Mike

DIY pin-tool Tip; A Sim Card Tray Pin Eject Removal Tool does not work. It’s too big.

@Volusiano : When you open up the battery tray and momentarily disconnect the power supply to the Polaris chip, are you not then obliged to do the Genie2 reset? (I dunno … just asking.)

1 Like

That’s a good question, Jim. I don’t know either. I sure hope that Oticon designs the More smarter than that → allowing a temporary disconnect without having to reprogram anything, unless it’s a new battery so things should be reset to allow for the new statistics. I personally don’t think it would mess up anything as long as it’s the same battery so that existing statistics just continue on. But that’s just a guess from me.

1 Like

@Volusiano: How would the device know whether it was a new battery or not? All I know is that unless there is a capacitor or tiny buffer battery in a clock circuit, interrupting the power for even a fraction of a second causes a reset to occur, requiring reinputting the initialization data.

(How did you get the neat arrow → never mind. Found the secret!)

1 Like

You only lose the statistical data stored in the battery if power is lost only if you use RAM type memory (stands for Random Access Memory), which holds only temporary data while there’s power. When power is lost, the data in the RAM is gone.

But I suspect that the data would not be stored in RAMs because there can be too many reasons for complete battery power loss (like perhaps a complete draw down, or removal of the battery for some reason), which would make the statistical data too volatile and prone to be lost. Most likely, they store the statistical data in some kind of EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory), in which case the loss of battery power would not wipe out the data because it’s the ROM type (that can be erased and rewritten into).

I suspect the device would only know if there’s a new battery in use if the HCP uses Genie 2 to tell the HA that a new battery is being used, thereby resets the data and restarts the statistical accumulation of usage. That’s why if it’s not done, then things get messed up because the usage data continues to be collected, but no longer on the original old battery that gets replaced.

3 Likes

@Volusiano: Let me take this opportunity to thank you, once again, for your time and effort in explaining these technical details. Your posts are always valuable to me, and are very easy for a lay person to understand.

Well, ROM being the case, you are correct that the OP can pop the battery compartment of his devices without fear … I suppose I react because the idea is frightening to me → too risky (:face_with_hand_over_mouth:).

Picking up my repaired/replaced aids today.
I will ask to upgrade to 1.4 if not already upgraded.
Fingers crossed.

Mike