Phonak Sphere battery charging

Hearing Aids
#1

I’m pushing my luck with 7+ year old Oticon OPNs, and am thinking about making the jump to Phonak Spheres. Have been holding out for replaceable-battery Intents, but that doesn’t seem to be imminent. I’m impressed by what I’ve been reading here about Spheres.

I have severe-profound cookie-bite loss. My great fear is dead batteries – without my HAs, I’m pretty much deaf. And so I am wondering about worst-case scenarios with the Spheres.

I can imagine long days (16-17 hours) with a few hours streaming. Maybe a conference situation: noisy restaurant lunch, presentatations, a noisy reception/dinner that could go 4+ hours, and then getting home or to a hotel afterward. So – conceivably long periods of the Spheric mode speech-in-noise program. And I know that’s a battery eater. I’ve heard that severe loss is also a drain on batteries, though I don’t know if that applies to Spheres.

So what might be the work-around? Is it possible to charge one HA at a time, so I would retain some function? How long does it take to get enough juice to get through a few more hours?

And other than looking at the app, do you get any warnings on batt level? Phone apps are OK – but I know a lot of people feel they seem rude if they whip out their phones to check or adjust apps while they’re at, say, a dinner table or a meeting.

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#2

Have you considered BTE such as the Phonak Naida? You can get them in disposable battery. Naida may be available next year with Infinio platform, but they are available now with Lumity, and reviewed quite fairly positively by folks here.

Hope this helps.

WH

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#3

It does matter how the hearing aids are used, but the Phonak Sphere lasts for over 36 hours for me. So far I’ve never had less than 50% in a day. The new BT uses a lot less battery than the old one, the only problem would be the Spheric, this needs to be tested, if you’re too worried you can turn it off and select it as a second program. All I can say is that the Spherics aren’t used as often as you may think.

Yesterday I stopped the time and it charged from 57% to 97% in 48 minutes.

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#4

Along the lines of White Hat’s suggestion, could you ever afford TWO pairs of aids? Wear the Spheres as your go-to, but keep the Naida’s as backups IN CASE one of your rechargeables goes down.

I honestly don’t see any benefit at all to charging just ONE aid cuz the minute you take that one out, it will LOSE CONNECTION with the other aid you still have in your ear.

#5

I have moderately severe to borderline profound hearing loss. I’ve used my Spheres for 13 1/2 hours today, including 4 hours in noisy environments and 2 3/4 hours streaming. My HA’s are at 53%. The charger is small and could easily fit in a pocket. It has enough charge to completely recharge the HA’s twice. You can charge one HA at a time if you wish. I don’t know if it’s necessary, but I would turn off the HA being charged so it fills faster.

#6

i agree with this, i’ll never abandon my naidas with disposable batteries, considering my profound hearing loss

#7

Sorry if I’ve missed it anywhere on the forum, but is there any way to use the charger just as a carrying case without having the HAs charge when they’re in it? With my ReSound Quattros, I could put them in the central bay normally used for the receivers so the bodies wouldn’t be in the charging docks and charge. I don’t want to charge to 100% to preserve long-term battery lifespan for the most years. Sounds like there is not enough room in the Sphere GoCharger bay to do that, so perhaps I’ll invest in a separate little carrying case (or use my Omnia case, which is nicely designed for carrying my disposable battery-powered Omnias about).

#8

I get it…I’ve been in the no-how, no-way camp when it came to rechargeables. But I really need to get smart about upgrading before my antique Oticons give up the ghost. I’ve been holding out for disposable battery Intents.

Because I don’t upgrade that often, I also feel I should go with the best tech available. I’m kinda jazzed by what I’ve been hearing about Phonak Spheres. I’m trying to figure out how I might be able to get through a long high-demand day.

Bluejay seems to say that I couldn’t charge them one at a time, but Silver seems to say that it’s doable.

If it is doable, how much charge could I expect to get from, say a 15-minute recharge?

I’m very grateful for all your help and comments! I’ve been so long in the anti-rechargeable camp that I’m having trouble imagining life on the other side and knowing if it’s feasible with my degree of loss.