I got my first HA two days ago. Oticon OPN S1 Mini Rite. Great so far. I was told I could exchange them within 30 days for rechargeable version if I like. Is that just a personal choice or do most people prefer rechargeable?
I trialed the OPN 1 with the battery and with the rechargeable, I preferred the battery ones.
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I think it depends on you, do you travel a lot, or Camp if so I would say you donāt want rechargeable. But if you are home most of the time then rechargeable may be the better choice seeing the OPN-S doesnāt use zpower batteries. But you lose the option to use batteries.
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@bmk18c, I tried both versions of the OPN-S, and I settled on the rechargeable, only because I think it makes sense if you stream a lot or use a smartphone. Itās nice to not have to change batteries every 3-4 days. However, if the rechargeable wasnāt available (or if ZPower was offered with OPN-S1 and it worked as designed), I would have stayed with the 312 battery version. Be aware that the rechargeable OPN-S is a little bit bigger and slightly heavier behind the ear than the 312 versionānot by much, but try it out before you switch just to compare the feel. Hope this helps.
Thanks, can you tell me why?
I believe my model is OPN-S1. ZPower is that just the name of the charger?
I am new to all this so I have a lot to learn.
Thanks
Zpower batteries were used in the original OPN aids and was a huge problem due to early failures and not holding a charge. OPN-S use batteries that are basically the same as smartphones
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@bmk18c, @cvkemp pretty much summed it up, but let me make myself clear so as not to confuse you any more than I might have already. 
The first-generation of OPN hearing aids offered a 312-battery version, which could also be converted to a rechargeable using ZPower batteries and the ZPower charger. The beauty of that system is that you can use either regular 312 batteries or rechargeable ZPower batteries, and you can switch back and forth. If the ZPower batteries run out, you can put in a regular 312 battery until you get some new ZPower batteries. The ZPower batteries are supposed to last one year under normal use. However, many people have found that this is not the case, and some have had problems with the ZPower batteries dying too soon or the ZPower charger giving confusing signals with lights blinking when they shouldnāt etc.
Therefore, when Oticon released the second (and latest) version of OPN, the OPN-S line of products, they no longer offered the ZPower optionānow they only offer 312 versions, a size 13 battery version, and a lithium-ion rechargeable version.The new rechargeable OPN-S is designed to give about 24 hours of battery life before needing a recharge, depending on an individualās hearing needs and usage. The lithium-ion batteries are sealed within the hearing aids (no battery doors to play with), and they are supposed to last 4-5 years. When the lithium-ion battery dies, it can be changed in the audiologistās office (which is nice, because some rechargeable hearing aids have to be sent back to their manufacturers to have the lithium-ion batteries changed).
So, in summaryāI used to wear first generation OPN1 with 312 batteries and ZPower option. I loved the hearing aids, but I did have multiple problems with the ZPower system. When the new OPN-S1 came out, I decided to upgrade. The OPN-S1 rechargeable has been good so far in terms of the rechargeable battery life. When I used disposable 312 batteries with first-generation OPN1, I only got 3-4 days of battery life. Now, with the new lithium-ion OPN-S1R, I still have 50-60 percent of battery life left after 12-14 hours of wear time. I donāt have to worry about changing batteries every few days, but I do have to hope that Iāll always have an electrical outlet available to charge my hearing aids. So itās a trade off, and you have to decide what works best for your needs and lifestyle. Hope this helpsā¦
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Apologies for bumping an old thread, but does anyone know if the old ZPower door + batteries would work on the Opn S1s even if not officially supported? I know the lithium batteries are overall superior to the ZPowers, but the ability to use standard 312s in a pinch if I forgot my charger or need to use the aids for more than 24 hours straight was very useful to me.
I assume that you already know how horrible the reliability of the ZPower batteries are in terms of lasting the whole day for a whole year as advertised. Most people on this forum seem to say they last the whole day only for a few months then they no longer last all day. My personal experience on 2 pairs of ZPower batteries says the same thing. They only last all day for about 2 to 3 months for me.
Anyway, even if both the original OPN and the OPN S non-rechargeable use 312 size batteries, itās possible that the 312 door designs are different between them. I donāt have the OPN S so I canāt tell you if the OPN S is compatible with the ZPower system or not. I can only tell you that economically speaking, itās probably cheaper for you to use disposable batteries than to use the ZPower batteries. The ZPower batteries will cost you $100 for a pair, and if they only last you all day for 3 or 4 months (instead of all year) like most people have seen, youāre talking about $300-$400 worth of ZPower batteries a year.
On the other hand, if you use disposable batteries, itāll cost you about $33 of Costco Kirkland batteries a year, since they only cost about $0.18 each battery, if a pair of disposable batteries lasts you 4 days like they do mine. Thatās 1/10 the cost of the ZPower set up. This is not even counting the initial cost of the ZPower system in the first place, which can run for about $400.
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Iāve had my Zpower OPN1s for about a year and a half now. They might not last 24 hours for me anymore, but they usually last the 12-16 hours I usually need them to. And I havenāt had the charging issues many complain about. When Iām on a 28 hour shift, then I switch to the standard 312s and they work fine for me.
Reason Iām looking at a new pair is I had a mishap recently where one of my receivers failed and I couldnāt get a replacement without an appointment with my audiologist. Iām a soon-to-graduate medical student and this made it much more difficult for me to hear my patients. So I figured I need to have a second pair in case that happens again during residency as getting time off will be much tougher then.
I could probably work fine with just the standard 312s. They do last longer than I anticipated, and the prices online are much more reasonable than retailers.
After reading many posts on this forum about rechargeable hearing aids I have come to the conclusion that rechargeable hearing aids might not be the best choice for actively working people with flexible schedules.
On the other hand rechargeable hearing aids are great for people who are on a consistent daily schedule. This is for reliable rechargeable hearing aids.
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A back up pair of hearing aids is crucial for me as I have profound hearing loss. I carry backups aids with me most of the time. They are the previous generation of Oticon.
Before I had a back up pair, I bought extra receivers, a right and a left to keep on hand. I learned how to change them (easy) until I could get to the Audiologist.
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Well, if you already own a pair of OPN fitted with ZPower, and want to get another pair, this time the OPN S, then if I were you, Iād get the OPN S with the Lithium Ion option as my primary new pair of hearing aids. Then the ZPower OPN can be set aside as the backup pair. So whenever you need more than 24 hour use and donāt have time to recharge the OPN S, simply switch to the ZPower OPN.
I donāt see much value in trying to retrofit the OPN S with a ZPower solution when a Lithium Ion solution on the S is more superior. You can always revert back to your OPN backup to get either the ZPower or disposable battery option if your OPN S canāt be recharged soon enough.
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Yep thatās my plan for now. Only reason I hadnāt before was cost (and well I just hadnāt considered the receivers failing). Second pair, whatever I buy, will probably have to be used or gray market and just copy the settings of my existing ones to the ānewā pair. And even then I might just have to suck it up and ask my parents for some financial help.
Yeah the more I think about it, at the cost of these things itās not worth experimenting with hardware mods even if Iām pretty confident itād work. Iām leaning towards just sticking with the standard 312s - even at a conservative estimate, the battery cost just isnāt that significant and it does ultimately offer more flexibility as long as I keep some spares on hand.
Receivers usually cost between $40 and $100 a pair on eBay. Having a spare set is pretty easy. Replacing them is a 5 minute job once you know how.
As a DIY person I have done this many times. Do your research and know exactly what you have so you can replace it in kind.
So for whatever itās worth, my lightly used OPN S1s came in, and after seeing them it was apparent the dimensions were identical to the original OPN. So I swapped the battery doors with my Zpower OPN 1, and everything works properly. Fits in the charger properly and the hearing aids turn off properly when placed in the charger. So for now the OPN S1ās will serve as my daily drivers and my original OPNs as a backup.
Curious to see if these do any better in noisy environments. I have the rest of today and tomorrow off, so thatās still TBD.
Thanks for sharing this about the ZPower on the OPN 1 fits just fine in the OPN S 1. Thatās good to know.
My understanding is that the S has a better feedback prevention technology, but the noise reduction technology is still basically the same. So as long as your hearing loss doesnāt benefit from the additional advancement in the new feedback prevention technology, you will probably not notice better clarity in noisy environments.
Having said that, the OSO white paper mentioned that in certain dynamic hearing situations (like listening on the phone or giving someone a hug), the extra 6 dB in the OSO can help with preserving the gain wherein the original OPN does not have this extra gain to preserve. Also, it says it may help prevent sound quality degradation if the OPN S ever approach feedback instability situations.
So itād be interesting to hear from you whether you find much difference between the original OPN and the OPN S with your type of hearing loss or not. Conventional wisdom says probably not, but it remains to be seen.
The improvement claims of the S (over the original) in terms of signal to noise are slightly marginal.
Iād say the best improvement is the feedback manager - this is streets ahead of the previous version. Unfortunately youāre not really pushing the window on this with your loss.
The other big improvement is the S āRā which youāre sort of doing by the homebrew method, which is great.