Phonak Marvel battery life

Given the difficulties reported elsewhere about switching between Bluetooth sources, eg iPhone to iPad, one advantage of the tv connector, in my experience, is that the switching is automatic. When you go into a room with the tv and streamer on, you automatically get the signal streamed into your hearing aids!

1 Like

I’m up around 5AM everyday & have my Phonak M-70R HA’s on by 5:30… I’ve got music streaming during my daily 1.5 hour exercise and probably another hour or 2 of streaming music throughout the day I make 2-3 phone calls during the day with them. When I take them off for bed around 10PM, I’ve got 15% battery left according to the app

My audiologist just told me that 30 minutes of charging will give me 6 more hours of use. So now my routine will be to put the HA’s in the charger while cleaning up after exercising.

3 Likes

Changing batteries regularly is a good idea, but I recommend having extras handy too. Every once in a while you run across a lemon or two.

1 Like

I have the 90 R if I’m not mistaken. Some days I’m wearing them for 16 hours or more. Mostly just hearing, but some phone calls and maybe a few hours of audio streaming. The only time I wasn’t able to hear through one so far turned out to be that the wax shield needed replacement.

Yes, bluetooth with an LG G6. I have paired them with my windows 10 laptop, but it’s too involved to do it very often. I seem to recall battery life estimated at about 15 percent towards the end of my longest day.

1 Like

I work in a group home with developmentally disabled adults. My typical Sunday is a 12 hour shift–but occasionally it goes longer. Plus I have the aids in for a while before and after work.

PVC, here are the last two days with my Marvel M90-R for your chart.

16 Hrs Used
0.5 Ph Hrs
0.0 BT Stream
0.0 TV Connector
60 % Battery

16 Hrs Used
0.25 Ph Hrs
2.0 BT Stream
0.0 TV Connector
40 % Battery

I’ve now had my M90-R’s for two months. If I don’t BT stream any music from my Google Play Music subscription I can depend on 60% battery remaining at the end of the day. If I BT stream for several hours it does make a dent in battery percentage but I’ve never depleted the battery. In my experience every hour of BT streaming seems to require about 10% of the battery. I’m ordering the TV Connector, so I’ll report back on what the battery use is.

For the way I use my Marvels, I’m quite pleased with rechargeable battery life and I’d definitely buy the rechargeable M90-R again. If ever needed, I always have a power bank and the new Phonak mini charger in my bag and the power bank will supply about a half dozen charges if ever needed when I’m away from AC Power.

1 Like

I’m very pleased with mine too. However, only time will tell about battery life as the aids get older.

If the Marvel Rechargeables are using Lithium Polymer they will probably do the 6 year battery life that Phonak advertises. And yes, only time will tell. But as I’ve said before, I undoubtedly will have moved on to the next technology before the 6 years is up.

Personally, I don’t care much for TV these days–not the sound–the programming. Fortunately I can watch the old stuff online; when I decide. Or just listen to some Old Time Radio. (Although, I do find myself listening to music more often lately.)

1 Like

So I am also thinking about ordering the Phonak TV Connector. I’ve see prices as low as ~$150 on eBay. Who are you buying yours from if you don’t mind me asking? Are you planning to use it with a laptop computer?

P.S. Phonak actually says the battery driven charger will actually deliver 7 full charges although I haven’t yet tried it.

Here is my battery experience with the 90Rs, (I just got my 13Ts so more to learn there).

DA Marvel-90R 16, 1, 0.5, 2, 0%
DA Marvel-90R 18, 0, 0.0, 2, 50% (NO BT CONNECTION)

Leaving my phone connected, (Media/Audio + Phone) with 1 hour or less of Bluetooth actual streaming resulting in a dead Primary ear Marvel after 16 hours. I was never able to get it to go beyond that without shutting off the connection between the Marvels and my phone. When disconnected I averaged between 40% to 60% battery remaining after 18 hours of use. That’s zero Bluetooth usage. I haven’t ever used the TV Connector streamer for more than a few hours per day only 4 or 5 times so far and I can’t tell that it has made a dent in my battery life. I think the TV Connector uses very little power from the Marvels.

Ouch! Was this a consistent experience? And with only an hour or less of streaming? I have the M90-R. I always have my phone connected. My day is also 16 hours. I can stream music from my Google Play Music subscription for 2 to 3 hours and still have 40 to 50% battery left after 16 hours. Something is certainly different between our M90-R’s. What do you think it could be?

I use the M70-312, my phone is constantly connected (14-16h per day) and the battery alarm comes almost exactly after 4 days.
I stream every day 4-6h, either via the TV Connector or directly from my phone or from the notebook (playing games) via SoundWire. On vacation, I had only streamed about 1h per day; I just had to change the batteries every 5 days.

In my limited experience with a rechargeable device, I think that average sound level also makes a difference in discharge rate - you can get more battery life in a quiet environment as opposed to a very noisy one - so that may make a confounding difference in comparing results between users and between the same user on different days - perhaps too it makes a difference if the user twiddles with volume control as I sometimes do. Then there is the inherent average amplification for different hearing losses - so if one were going to do some sort of regression and figure out (approximately) the influence of various variables, one might want some sort of input variables to reflect “average sound level” and “degree of hearing loss” (in each ear?!).

I’m up to 4 days on my new Marvel 90-13T’s and I haven’t changed the battery yet. I’ve left the phone “connected” to the Marvels for and average of 18-19 hours per day and they are still going. Eventually I’ll start swapping the right and left battery each day to even the battery wear, but I’m really curious to see how long they’ll go. I’m streaming on average of 60-90 minutes per day so far.

3 Likes

Any update on the 13’s?

Marvel 90 13T with 2-3 hours of streaming a day with 16-17hr days. BT connected to iPhone XS at all times of day. Ultra power receivers. 5.5 days. Left died first (left side needs more power). Right aid is Bluetooth connection.

2 Likes

I just barely did my 2nd battery swap on my primary ear. Here are my stats with the 90-13T’s.

Primary ear: 5.5 days and 5.75 days for my first two batteries
Secondary ear: 6.5 days for the first battery. Still waiting on the second battery to die, but likely still has 2 days left to go.

I’m thrilled with 5+ days of battery life for the primary device. That’s with Bluetooth connected 17+ hours per day and a few hours of streaming as well. At that rate, I could swap the batteries between the left and right after a few days and probably get away with changing them out ever 6 days on a recurring reminder.

1 Like

Update: 5 days is my max. I’ve had a couple of instances where I was out and about and they died at 4.5 days. I’ve set the reminder in my phone for 4 days and had no worries since.