Phonak Naida P90-UP suddenly drops in volume and speech clarity

I have the same aids for 5 mos. Hopefully, I do not run into that problem like steve mink. I do turn up the volume sometimes and maybe because the speech clarity is low. Luckily no problem but I have run into problem with blockage (aids in dryer every night) so I remove the ear hook to blow off the moisture. Also, bad distortion when making calls so I have an appt with audio in a few weeks. Its not my iphone 12 because I tried it with my previous aids with no problem. Anyone have this issue? Thank you for letting me post here.

So if itā€™s just on phone calls then could just be some additional adjustments needed for that, your audiologist will hopefully sort it out, what about when you stream media or music does this also get a bit of distortion?

Well Iā€™m new to power aids but lets just say you donā€™t wear a Phonak Naida P90-up unless you have a severe/profound hearing loss. As time goes by Iā€™m finding ear hooks (for good or bad) might offer some problem areas for hearing aid users. Can anyone tell me what exactly the ear hook does other then the holding connection between aid and tubing to ear mold. Looks like Iā€™m going to get a new aid from Phonak but just found out that the one that was sent (yea new) had a bad ear hook. Why that wasnā€™t checked before being mailed out baffles me but then again Iā€™m curious to find out the role a ear hook plays in making sure a power aid works properly.

Also my Audi has never mentioned about physically removing a ear hook and I donā€™t see instructions for that anywhere. With that said Iā€™m not going to pull plastic tubing off ear hook every time I dry power aids at night. You would think a good aid dryer would dry the whole aid plus ear hook. As far as Iā€™m concerned the only thing you open on an aid is the battery door to replace batteries. If you start fooling with other things you might lose warranty and will my luck Iā€™ll just end up breaking something. But I am starting to wonder if Phonak might had some ear hook operational problem.

There are no instructions for clients to remove earhooks. I doubt that the hearing aid dryer is able to remove moisture from the hearing aid receiver thru the long earmold tubing. I have steady hands and always careful with unscrewing earhooks. I havenā€™t seen any proof that hearing aid dryers really remove moisture from those two big receivers in my aids thru the long tubing. There are many different tube sizes. Some might have moisture resistant tubing so unscrewing is not necessary. There are tubings that are double walled. I recently replaced the tubing with a bit larger diameter tubing so l donā€™t need to unscrew the earhooks. I will check to see if moisture builds up inside the new tubing.

1 Like

The ear hook is very specifically designed to move sound into your ear.
The little white ball looking sound dampener is bad about collecting dirt and moisture. It definitely effects hearing aid performance.

Maintaining dry and clean aids and their parts is important for the best hearing you can get, plain and simple.

This is because your not actually supposed to do this, the reason is itā€™s so easy to crossthread, you only need to remove the tubing from the earhook, itā€™s pretty easy to do, when the tubing startā€™s getting hard to remove you replace it, when new the tubing is quite soft and easy to pull off.
You should be using the little Air puffer, Phonak has thier own model.

I have the earmold puffer but it doesnā€™t get all the moisture out of the tubing. The reason why l had to unscrew the earhooks is because the tubing is too hard and not possible to remove from the earhook. l know that tubing has to be changed twice a year or more but nearly all audiologists charge a ridiculous fee for a tubing or two. One audiologist quoted 12 dollars for two earmold tubing.
I have been careful not to cross thread.

1 Like

The earhook unscrews. Itā€™s not brain surgery. Just do it carefully

I do this too. I never had issues with drying my analog aids. These are my first digital aids although an older model: Phonak Nadia Q90 UP. They wouldnā€™t get fully dry until I started unscrewing it so the HA and the mold with ear hook were separated.

I too replace my own tubing. I canā€™t separate the tubing the hook without risk of breaking it either. Both spare hooks and tubing are fairly inexpensive and easy to replace as needed.

2 Likes

Damn. My Audi just gives me a bag of tubing no charge. He also gives me spare hooks no charge

Hass5744 - I might need to meet with your Audi, because my Phonak Naida-P90 up has been a nightmare since purchasing. Regarding my initial post, Iā€™ve had three complete failures with repeated ear hooks Iā€™ve received from Phonak. Initially my Audi claimed I might of had a moisture issue with first ear hook two months ago, but that ear hook failed. It was not a moisture issue at all. Then after two repeated trips to Phonak repair shop for aid repair (due to aid not working properly), Phonak finally saw the light of day and just gave me a new replacement aid. Heck old one was only four months old and having problems. Well when my new Naida P90 UP arrives at my Audiā€™s office I get an email. Audi says new aid was shipped with bad ear hook. Audi has no spares so I have to wait for replacement ear hook to be shipped. That was two weeks ago. Aid worked fine until this weekend when I woke up, inserted right aid and guess what - dead as a donut. In that I couldnā€™t hear anything but it gets worse. I check Bluetooth connection which was connected and did have MyPhonak app check which said I was connected to left HA - but not right. So I unscrewed ear hook (first time and its easy) then asked wife ā€œif she could hear aid squealingā€ as I cusped it in my hand. Her reply was ā€œaid sure is squealingā€. So Iā€™m now going to say Iā€™ve had three bad/faulty ear hooks over a two month period with my aid being shut down, more than being used over that time period.

In my opinion Phonak might have a serious problem here - at least with the P90 up aid. Anyone else have repeated problems with ear hook? Also I really like aids when they work but canā€™t keep doing this one step forward - two steps back. Can I demand Phonak send me several ear hooks (for free) in case one fails? Starting to wonder if I bought a $3000 HA only to have a $20 - $30 part continue to fail over and over again.

Any suggestions would be appreciated since Iā€™m wondering if I should ask for a full refund since new aids have now failed four times, only to be replaced with new ear hook and then two weeks later fail again. And I should mention aids are being dried at night with drier and treated with tender loving care.

1 Like

You use HE11 hooks. I also do as well and have never had one fail on me but I do use a dry and store box over night for 8 hours.

EDIT - Phonak do make 2 types of HE11 hooks, one without filter and one with.

Well my ear hook seems to have a white filter near the screw in section. I had dry and store for ten years and got tired of buying bricks. I now have a top of the line Serene Innovations drier which has a high user rating. Ultraviolet light and heat. But moisture is not the reason my ear hook(s) are failing. It some defect within the ear piece to begin with and I think Phonak is aware of the problem, but looking the other way.

I think the ear hook is HE11 680. With the white piece in the hook. When I asked for ear hooks for my old naida marvels my Audi gave me like 10. Not pointing fingers or making accusations but your Audi saying the new aid came with a bad ear hook and then took two weeks to get new ear hook makes me a little suspicious. I now have naida paradise up for two weeks and so far no problem. Knock on wood. Did your Audi lend you loaner aids while you waited for the aids to be fixed or replaced? One last thing . The white piece that looks like cotton in the ear hook is called a damper. It has nothing to do with ear wax or moisture but can be clogged up by either. Instead it changes the way things sound when sound enters your ears. Removal could change the way the hearing aid sounds. Or so the companies claim.

Audi wasnā€™t the delay, since everything Phonak is sending (back) is one bad ear hook after another. Sequence was - two months ago right aid stopped working and aid went to Phonak shop for repair and then mailed back. Only to find out it was sent back with a bad ear hook after I drove all the way to Audiā€™s office. Then Phonak replaced five month old aid with a new Phonak Pardise Naida Up and shipped back again to Audi. Audi received new aid and then informed me (before driving to his office this time) new aid had a bad ear hook. So then two weeks ago I picked up new aid with (supposedly) new ear hook, but then this last weekend my right aid died. No incoming sound what so ever. Yet when ear hook removed - aid squeals so its alive.

So weā€™re talking three, four bad ear hooks one after another which is creating major frustration. Just out of curiosity does anyone know if the ā€œear hookā€ part plays a rolel in connecting Bluetooth between right (alpha aid) to left side aid? My left side HA has worked fine since day one but right side aid is totally undependable. Assuming because of continual ā€œdefectiveā€ ear hooks are being used by our ā€œcustomer friendly - notā€ Phonak repair service.

Just ask for an unfiltered ear hook and your problems will be solved. Phonak do make them.

Use moisture free / stay dry tubing and then youā€™ll have even less problems with moisture.

Moisture is the one thing that kills ear hooks.

Wow yeah thatā€™s so unusual, never heard of this happening.

No not on these, although for the RIC type receivers Iā€™ve heard they are the bluetooth antenna.

Is it possible itā€™s the filter and not something else, seems it would have to be a bad batch for so many times for this to happen, Phonak have pretty good QC in the past.

But he says the Aid works when he unscrews the ear hook.

Thereā€™s been long posts previously on blocked filters within the ear hooks.

Most of them solved the issue by taking the filter out.

Should say, I had a blocked ear hook from my Aids being in the swimming pools lockers for 2 hours. Changed the hook when I got home and never been an issue since.

2 Likes

Well that then leads me to ask. What was it about the hook that was bad

1 Like

Absolutely, just what can go wrong with an ear hook?