#58

According to page 16 and 17 of the manual as seen below, there is no indication that in the plugged in and charging of both the SmartCharger and the aids in parallel will cause any kind of limitation such as reducing the ability to fully charge the aids.

The 3 LED indicators on the back of the SmartCharger as indicated on page 17 of the first screenshot below are for the battery inside the SmartCharger.

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The second screenshot (page 12 in the manual) shows that each of the aid charging slots inside has its own single LED charging indicator that can be orange and green.

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It’s not really clear how Oticon designed the charging process to be during a plugged in charging situation when both the SmartCharger and the aids need to be charged simultaneously. But according to page 16 above, charging the power bank battery alone can take up to 4 hours, and charging both the power bank battery and the aids together simultaneously can take up to 8 hours.

So apparently they’ve already allotted for extra time to charge both. A depleted power bank battery takes 4 hours, and a pair of depleted aids on top of that apparently can take up to another 4 hours, totaling 8 hours.

But if you look at page 14 below, the normal charging time for a depleted pair of aids should only take 3 hours. If you do the math, 4 hours for the power bank, and 3 hours for the aids here only adds up to 7 hours. Yet on page 16, they allotted a total of 8 (not 7) hours for both.

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The reason I’m pointing this out is that:

  1. There’s every indication based on the conservative math above (8 and not 7 hours) that implies that there should be no limitation for combined simultaneous charging of both the SmartCharger’s power bank battery and the aids together. Both should finish in 8 hours and both should be fully charged.

  2. There’s no indication at all about any kind of limitation explicitly stated in the manual.

So we shouldn’t speculate that there might be any reason to excuse Oticon of anything. We should hold Oticon accountable for the performance as indicated in their manual and demand a replacement SmartCharger that lives up to this stated performance.

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#59

@Volusiano: Just to be clear: I don’t believe that either Bruce @prodigyplace or I are accusing Oticon of anything. Quite to the contrary … we are just trying to square previous explanations given with respect to parasitic loads on a charger with the OP’s unusual charge observations.

Thanks for your parsing of the Oticon guidance.

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#60

My only comment would be that, in general, it’s not recommended to charge a device at the same time you use it, e.g., your cell phone. It’s a bit more stressful on the battery as you’re heating it two ways, via charging and using its charge simultaneously. IIRC, Apple specifically recommends not doing so for one’s iPhone. So, although HA OEMs may have somewhat allowed for the likelihood that users will do both simultaneously with their HA chargers, one might get a longer battery lifespan out of the charger if you refrain from doing so as much as possible. Besides the heating effect, I vaguely recall that it’s not supposed to be good for battery longevity to be removing and replacing Li-ions from an electrode simultaneously as opposed to just going in one direction at a time, but that may be a spurious, “fake” recollection.

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#61

It’s no problem, Jim. I do remember that I made some kind of analysis before to guess how it works when doing parallel charging of both the power bank and aids together, based on a question that might have come from you. However, that was not based on reading what the manual has to say about it. It was based only on guessing how it could have been done depending on how Oticon designed the SmartCharger.

This time my analysis is strictly based on their manual, so it has a different outlook on it because we wouldn’t have to guess what Oticon claims in the manual. This is a more black and white analysis without having to guess anything.

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#62

@jim_lewis: Thanks, jim. I’m sure you have already read what @Volusiano has posted. What’s your theory about how Oticon has worked their way around this heating phenomenon (or have they just decided to live with a marginally shorter service life?)

And thanks, @Volusiano , for your additional comments. Some of Oticon’s engineering trade offs don’t make sense to me - a layman - hence my further query to @jim_lewis . No offense to your excellent analyses.

[Addendum 1.: I believe my past questions have centered on why I shouldn’t charge my power bank at the same time that it’s connected to the charger and charging up my HAs. In my mind, my getup is the same principle as the SmartCharger.]

[Addendum 2. : Except the only differences between my getup and the fancy Oticon are the a.) price, and the b.) duck tape!]

#63

Wow. Lots of comments.

To be clear. In my use I plugged the Smart charger into the wall and waited until all the charging of the charger battery was finished. Then I left the Smart charger plugged in and not in use for an additional 24 hours.

Then I put my More’s in to charge. 12 hours.

So, any co charging was minimal, if any.

I have never used it unless plugged into the wall.

#64

Keeping the charger plugged into the wall and at 100% SOC all the time will shorten its long-term battery lifespan. I think HA OEM makers probably figured it was too complicated to present users with a long list of Do’s and Don’t’s. Most OEMs have probably made a charger and a rechargeable HA that will last at least 3 years and just expect their users, whether buying rechargeable HA’s or disposable battery-powered HA’s, to buy new devices every few years. That’s the way American automakers used to work. And way back in the good old days, useful new features were coming along for cars every few years. At one point, it was almost socially unacceptable to have an old car. Used to be the same impetus, too, to buy new computers, and new cell phones, every few years. So, perhaps HA OEMs are tuned into that wavelength. And maybe nothing will change much any time soon until they can’t convince anyone that the newer than new stuff is better than the HA’s you got three years ago…

1 Like
#65

If this is your preferred mode of use for your SmartCharger most of the times, then you’re probably better off using a standard charger. This is because you’ll just keep the power bank battery at 100% ALL THE TIMES, which is not good for the power bank battery at all (like @jim_lewis has pointed out to you above). The power bank battery will probably die within 3 years in that situation.

Then the question becomes whether you can still charge your aids via the SmartCharger plugged in despite its power bank battery already dead. I vaguely remember that perhaps this is the situation @SpudGunner asked about which I might have done an analysis on.

If you still want to own a SmartCharger instead for the few times when you travel or maybe for when you lose power supply at your home and can’t charge your aids, then an alternative is to switch from a wall outlet to a third-party power bank (like @SpudGunner 's setup with his standard charger). Otherwise, in the first year or year and a half, while the SmartCharger’s own power bank has not deteriorating too much yet (due to being kept at 100% all the times), maybe it’ll work for you. But the next year or two may prove to be the unreliable years for you.

If you’re going to own a SmartCharger, you don’t have to “co-charge” if you don’t want to. But you should charge the aids with the SmartCharger unplugged every 2 nights if you have 3 LED dots on it (fully charged battery). Then when there’s only 1 LED left, charge the power bank up to full first, then repeat the cycle.

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#66

Then, what’s the point to having a SmartCharger if you never use it as it was designed to operate ?

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#67

I never wanted a Smart Charger. If you read my posts you would know that I left my Standard charger in a Hotel room. When I realized that and called them the charger could not be found.

Someone here suggested that I contact my Audi and see if it was insured.

I’m a Veteran and the VA sent me the Smart charger.

It does not work as well as my old Standard charger, in my opinion.

I contacted the VA center today and asked about a Standard charger. They no longer stock them. Only Smart, so I stuck with it.

The VA offered to send me another unit.

That takes 2 weeks.

So, now I wait.

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#68

How do you know this, considering that you have never used your SmartCharger in the way the manufacturer intended?

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#69

What you could also do to prolong the life of the smart charger is, when it only shows 1 LED lit, find out approximately how long it takes just to charge it up until the third charger LED light goes on. Record that time. Then just use the smart charger until only 1 LED is lit. Just recharge the amount of time it took before to reach the third LED being lit. You should be oscillating between ~33% SOC and ~67% SOC, which should help maintain the charger battery as long as possible. My ReSound “smart” charger is still going strong after four years.

A more sophisticated way to do this is to buy a USB digital multimeter on Amazon. Find out what the battery capacity of the charger is. Then use the digital multimeter to add enough charge to go from 1/3 charged to 2/3 charged. If you like the idea of doing that, I can provide you with further details. You can even use this method to track the overall charge capacity of your smart charger as time does by, something just fiddling around with timed charges won’t easily let you figure out.

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#70

@jim_lewis: C’mon, jim …

#71

I remember this now. Just too many posters and situations on this forum to remember to tie whom to which event that easily.

I now understand better why you want to use the SmartCharger like the standard charger and keep it plugged in only.

If you’re curious enough, maybe just try to charge your aids with the SmartCharger unplugged to see if you get any better result (16+ hours use). It doesn’t make the SmartCharger any less defective, but at least it’s another data point to see if it’s defective only in certain mode (plugged in mode), or all around (both plugged-in and power bank mode).

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#72

I am curious to know the capacity of the Smart Charger’s built-in battery.

Not that it matters much, other than to satisfy curiosity. I’m heading tomorrow a.m. to the ENT for my More 2 set, and I imagine I’ll be handed a regular charger. Fine and dandy for me, as I already have a little 10 Ah 5V battery bank that I can plug it into if I’m traveling. Knowing the Smart Charger’s battery capacity would give me a clue as to how many charges I might get out of my battery bank, is all.

#73

Below is a partial cut out of the spec with the relevant info. Assuming that the SmartCharger draws all of the rated 1A current from its power supply unit, with the output = 5 Vdc, and power bank charging time is up to 4 hours max (if fully depleted), then the math says that it’s 20 Wh per full charge.

Let’s say you buy a 10,000 mAh capacity Lithium-ion external power bank to charge up the SmartCharger instead of using the included power supply unit. That’s the total capacity of the internal battery at 3.7 V for the battery cells, or 37 Wh. Or let’s round it up to 40 Wh to keep it simple.

Then you will be able to fully recharge the SmartCharger twice (for at least 6 rounds of charging the aids in Power Bank mode) using that 10,000 mAh external power bank.

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2 Likes
#74

Perhaps they want the aids enclosed while charging the heat from the charger can provide some drying of the aids. I believe the standard charger has the aids exposed.

#75

I believe they say it is good for 3 charges of the aids.

#76

@prodigyplace: You’re not reading/understanding that the OP is not using the SmartCharger as a battery-powered charger → the use for which it was designed. The product was meant to be used to charge the HAs without being connected to the mains: therefore operating this unit out-of-spec is just inviting performance anomalies that have nothing to do with the serviceability of the OP’s unit.

I could be wrong, but I believe that the heat to effect drying of the HAs comes from the discharge of the Li-Po batteries, and not from the fact of being plugged into the wall.

#77

And I made that point earlier this thread without the shouting. @Volusiano then posted from the manual to refute me. Apparently that charger was just what the VA supplied because they do not stock the desktop charger separately.