Oticon More: Rechargeable vs. disposable batteries

[Volusiano]

@kwilson

Further, unlike previous hearing aid models, the More requires the App to change programs. This is a HUGE design flaw. No App = no program control. The hearing aid buttons should also control this essential function, as they did before. Again, a design and implementation failure.

Did you ask your audi about enabling the program change and volume control onto the More buttons? Or did you just assume that it can’t be done?

Below is the screenshot of the More 1 miniRite T (the non-rechargeable version) Operate Buttons page. As can be seen, you CAN enable the buttons to be used for program changes and volume changes. You can do the same for the rechargeable version of the More as well as far as I can tell.

I’m guessing that your audi didn’t bother enabling them for you in the Genie 2 programming, and you simply assumed that it’s not available. Go back and ask your audi to turn them on for you. And chastise him or her if he/she told you before that it couldn’t be done because it CAN be done.

It’s one of those things that “if it’s too bad to be true then it ain’t that bad” (the reverse of “it’s too good to be true”). You gotta ask why would Oticon be stupid enough to not make program and volume changes available on their More buttons anymore if they had it available on the OPN and OPN S and even older models. So if it seems “too bad to be true” to you, the next logical thing would be to ask your HCP about this, instead of assuming the worst. But if your HCP gave you misinformation on this in the first place, then shame on them.

The only thing you can’t do as far as I can tell with the More (and also the OPN S, too, I think) is that you can’t use the hard buttons to mute them (although you can cycle down the volume to zero to effectively mute, although this requires more button pushing). I think that one has to be done either via the ON app, or if you have an iPhone, it can probably be done via the iPhone MFI interface as well. I don’t know if the newer Android ASHA stuff has an equivalent with the iPhone MFI interface or not.

[Volusiano]

@kwilson

I initially used the rechargeable ones (the only ones available at that time) for 4 months. I did not like the recharge at all and switched to the battery model when available. That said, they are NOT optimized for battery life and eat batteries in 3 days. Oticon clearly treated this models as an after thought and put little effort into it.

I wouldn’t be too hard on Oticon about this. I have the original OPN which is not as advanced as the More, and my disposable batteries already only last 3-4 days only with moderate streaming. So the fact that you get 3 days out of your disposable batteries on the More is nothing surprising that you need to be disappointed about to be critical of Oticon.

That’s why they offer the rechargeable version in the first place, to try to alleviate the issue with shorter disposable battery life. The WHOLE industry is moving forward with rechargeable batteries because of this, it’s not just Oticon. Modern HAs are just too advanced and it takes a lot of power, and they just can’t keep up with optimizing power consumption forever to continue to give you a week out of disposable batteries like in the good old days, especially not with streaming going on on top of everything. The rechargeable version is their answer to the power hog issue, and if you don’t like that option, just be thankful that they gave you an option to go with the disposable version.

I think 3 days of battery life for the disposable version is about what I’d expect from the More with moderate streaming. I think there has been a few other posters who went with the More disposable version, and their reports range anywhere from 3 to 4 to 5 to 7 days. You can search the forum for more details on this. I think it comes down to how much streaming you do, how many hours in a day you wear them, AND also how bad your hearing loss is which can require more juice for more amplification power, too.

[cvkemp]

Yes my OPN1 aids would go through batteries ever 45 to 50 hours, at 15 hours a day three days was about it and I didn’t stream that much.

[flashb1024]

@Volusiano

The only thing you can’t do as far as I can tell with the More (and also the OPN S, too, I think) is that you can’t use the hard buttons to mute them (although you can cycle down the volume to zero to effectively mute, although this requires more button pushing). I think that one has to be done either via the ON app, or if you have an iPhone, it can probably be done via the iPhone MFI interface as well. I don’t know if the newer Android ASHA stuff has an equivalent with the iPhone MFI interface or not.

The OPN S & More Rechargeables do not have Mute function from the hard buttons.
You need the Remote, or ConnectClip, or the ON app.
ASHA is a very basic function, as it has no interface like Apple’s MFI.

I personally find my good old ConnectClip is the best for it’s hands-free phone control, streaming, and remote control functionality.

[jeffrey]

I just bought rechargeable HA’ s and so far like them a lot more than my old dispoable battery aids. I’ve often read that folks are reluctant to get rechargeable aids in case they travel and forget to bring the charger. True. However, how is that any different from having to remember to bring back up batteries?

I love not having to remember to buy and carry batteries.

[gkumar]

The More disposable version has hard buttons that can mute outside noises with a long press