My Phonak Audeo aids fail every few months, requiring replacement of the receivers. Now that they have passed the end of warranty, each incident is going to run 5% of the cost of the hearing aid.
My audiology practice thinks this is a failure of strain relief. Can that be right?
I stayed with my previous hearing aids too long. Still, discarding >$6000 worth of electronics after three years seems extreme. Am I nuts?
It shouldn’t cost $300 to replace your receivers. If you shop around you should be able to replace for around $100 for the pair. It’s a simple DIY job. Are you changing your wax filters regularly? My first guess would be a wax issue but it’s possible that the wires are failing from strain.
How do you remove the receiver from your ear?
I’m afraid I pull the wire from the hearing aid to my receiver.
I use HA Locks. I should pull on that instead.
Do you have domes on your receivers? What kind? Open, closed? Power?
How the receiver is pushed in and pulled out can cause strain/damage too.
Are we talking about domes or molds?
Receivers should last much longer.
Closed power domes.
I gently pull the wire. I’ve never been given HA Locks, and wouldn’t like them much,
I’d have thought wax, too, but the tech says it’s the wire. I’m pretty gentle with the devices, and I’d expect any designer would provide strain relief for the minimal forces involved here.
Hm. Probably won’t help you now, but I remove my power dome-tipped aids by pulling gently on the very matchstick receiver - NOT the wire. The aids tend to work their way out of my ear canal anyway, so by day’s end, it’s a easy to just slide the receiver/speakers out and not damage the wire.
It does seem that the “fatigue” issue would be related to the WIRE - where it connects the receiver/speaker to the BTE unit. That’s the most obvious weakest link. So if you find the replacements, just work on how you insert/remove the speakers.
Power domes. I’ve had them. Theresa lot of friction pulling them out. I hated them
What you are describing is a bit unusual. I’ve had some patients, however, who have a very sharp bend to their ear canal and the process of wiggling the wire deeply into their ear seems to damage the wire over time at that bend where it connects to the speaker. This can also sometimes happen to guys with smaller ear canals and bigger fingers. If this is you, investing in a custom tip might reduce this.
Oh, the other thing that comes to mind. . . you aren’t wearing the arm of your glasses on the outside of the hearing aid, are you? That will definitely cause wear to the wire at the top.
my receivers also broke down after 3 or 4 months. The cause is moisture, which is caused by condensation in the ear because there is a lot of heat in the ear. Moisture forms inside the receiver between the filter and the internal mechanism. … I solved the problem by buying two additional receivers, and I replace them every few weeks. When I change, I put them in a drying dish with silica gel and they dry out in those few weeks. I haven’t had any receiver malfunctions in less than 2 years. I don’t want to use a hearing aid dryer because rechargeable batteries don’t like heat.
This is a good idea. For Phonak, pushing the pin can be a bit delicate (push too far and you’re loooking at a repair), and so can threading the contacts into their correct holes. Other manufacturers have an easier switch. But for someone who is confident with this fussy work, roating receivers is a nice solution. I suppose one could also drop by the desk at the clinic and have them swap it out, or get a younger relative to do it.
Wire damage usually starts as fuzzy intermittency. Often you can actually poke at the damaged part of the wire and hear it fuzzing in and out. Moisture damage is less succeptible to manipulating the wire and sounds. . . less fuzzy and more hissy?
At first, I suspected that the wires had broken somewhere inconspicuously. But since I use additional receivers, there are no more problems.
And I always take the receivers out of my ear so that I hold the wire as close as possible with my fingers.
At first 3 receivers broke for me and I had to do something and buying additional receivers helped a lot 
Do you recommend swapping receivers in general, or only as an alternative for those who don’t want to entrust rechargeable aids to a dryer?
No, not in general. Just markoo’s specific type of case or similar, where it can’t be resolved easily in another way and where the user doesn’t have trouble with it. Regular receiver changes are also a potential point of failure, and many wouldn’t need it.
I’m now having difficulty getting clarity from my audiologist on whether the repeated receiver failures are due to (a) failed wire or (b) moisture/wax intrusion.
If the latter is at fault, would prophylactically changing wax filters help? Like the fellow who takes a bath every week whether he needs one or not? Or is that unlikely to help?
I expect that wax would get your attention by blocking the filter completely and stopping the sound, before it got through and ruined the receiver. If you suspect moisture then use an active dryer every day.
Every time I get comments that I’m “Eh?..” too often, I change the wax guards in my
Phonak Audeo Paradise P90 R’s. And I always hear better.
I change mine every week.
Those tiny wax guards are terrible.
I look at them; can’t see any wax or discolouration.
I do. It’s a puzzle; now that receiver swaps cost $200 instead of $25, it’s rather pressing.
My understanding is that some people just don’t do well with RIC (Receiver in Canal) hearing aids due to moisture issues. You may be one of them. You might consider a BTE(Behind the Ear) hearing aid with the receiver in the body of the hearing aid.
I typically got a pair on eBay for around $50-$100 but I didn’t wait until I needed them. I kept spares ready to go if needed.
I second this. Receivers can be had for roughly $25/each or $50/pair. It’s easy to swap them out. If you don’t have the visual acuity or manual dexterity to be comfortable doing it yourself, any random friend or relative could do it in less than a minute.