After close to 8 months with my new Oticon Xceed 1 + CROS Unit hearing aids, I am thrilled with them. The sound quality is unmatched and they sound like hearing aids I used to wear from 10 years ago (which my hearing highly prefers). Clear, sharp, and beautiful especially after some DIY tweaking.
But, this post is about the battery life. Since there is no way in hell I am ever going to rechargeables, I got the battery models of this one.
Phonak lasted 2.5 - 3 days with no streaming activity (my last Phonak aids were the NAIDA B90s, right before bluetooth streaming was included in every aid). So I had to change batteries every 2.5 - 3 day max. I have to wear my hearing aids 24-7. I don’t get to have the luxury of usable hearing with my hearing aids off. So, rechargeables ARE NOT AN OPTION. So Phonak screwed me royally by discontinuing support of battery CROS on their UP NAIDA units beginning with the Marvel models after the B’s, so I had to find an audiologist in my area who dealt with Oticon.
Compared to Phonak, using my Oticons, I can go 7-9 days on a full battery with both devices even with heavy streaming. I do a lot of streaming and listening to audio and music in the background with my ConnectClip while I am working from home.
If you think I’m going to recharge my hearing aids every 7-8 hours…when I can go 7-9 days on separate single batteries before changing them…you are nuts, hearing aid manufacturers. Get rechargeables to 7-9 days without having to recharge, then we’ll talk. Until then, I will never switch to rechargeables.