Questions about Oticon More Battery Life

Hearing Aids
#1

I currently have Oticon Opn S 1 hearing aids, which I got in 2019. They are working well and I have no reason to replace them. However, there is a 35% promotion that that can be combined with extended benefits, which means I can get Oticon More 1 hearing aids for a relatively attractive price.

I’m currently using replaceable batteries. In the Opn S, the model with replaceable batteries is a bit more compact than the model with rechargeable batteries. In the More, they are the same size. I wear my hearing aids typically for 16 or more hours per day, a lot of which is streaming, using Microsoft Teams or my mobile. I’m wondering if anyone can comment on the battery life of rechargeable batteries for this amount of usage? Replacing batteries can be inconvenient, but not as inconvenient as having to recharge during the day.

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#2

I have the More1 aids that are rechargeable, I wear them between 14 and 16 hours a day on average. I don’t do much streaming, I haven’t had issues with battery life. I also don’t use the ON app with my iPhone and that saves the batteries of the aids and iPhone. I use the connect clip for most of my streaming as it uses less of the hearing aids battery than straight streaming from iPhone to aids. I also use the Oticon remote as the replacement for the ON app. Most days have at least 40% of my battery life left.
Understand I don’t do a lot of streaming maybe an hour to two hours. I don’t use the hands free and normally down stream directly to my aids I use the connect clip.
I don’t have but one recommendation for you, if you decide to get rechargeable More aids get the smart charger so you can charge on the run with it. It will charge the aids without the charger being plugged into the wall or computer.

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#3

@cvkemp: My experience is the same.

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#4

It’s true especially if you’re still working that replacing depleted disposable batteries can be inconvenient, especially at an inopportune time like when you’re in a middle of a meeting or don’t have the new batteries on you.

It wouldn’t necessarily be inconvenient as having to recharge during the day, however, as long as you are in control of when to recharge. Most likely you wouldn’t deplete your rechargeable batteries in the middle of the day if they’ve been fully charge from the night before. If anything, it’d most likely occur by the time you’re home from work in the evening when/if the rechargeable batteries are depleted.

If you don’t want to see your rechargeable batteries run down to nothing even when you’re at home, a 30 minute top up (at least 6 hours after you start wearing them) will give you an additional 6 hours. This means a 15 minute top up should give you about 3 hours more.

So if you have a portable smart charger with its own built-in battery power source (a la Airpod style) that you bring with you to work, anytime you have 15 minute alone-time at your desk or during lunch or whatever, you can flop it in your smart charger and get 3 more hours for only 15 minute in the charger. And YOU can control this place and time at YOUR convenience, so it wouldn’t really be an inconvenience in the first place.

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#5

@Volusiano: You just put the SmartCharger in the nice Oticon backpack they give you to haul all your recharging paraphernalia around with you. It fits into the elastic pocket right between your dehumidifier and the place for your backup HAs.

#6

Yes, this brings up a good point, actually, that even if you don’t have the Oticon portable battery-powered Smart Charger when you bought your More originally, it’s probably still not a bad thing to throw your plug-in charger into your backpack to be able to use it on the run wherever you are. That portable battery-powered Smart Charger is nice to have, but expensive if you have to buy one on top of the plug-in charger that you may already have.

But for brand new user, didn’t I hear somewhere that they give you the choice between a plug-in charger or a portable batter-powered charger? It’d be a no brainer to pick the later if you have a choice anyway.

#7

I also have the rechargeable More1. In the past couple of months or so since I bought them, in one occasion I felt like I needed an afternoon charge. I was afraid the aids could die while I was in a party later at night. Other than that, I put them on first thing after waking up and take them off at bed. I stream phone calls, podcast, music, and videos up to 4 hours/day. When I put them to recharge they still have around 30% of charge.

That said, I would have purchased the disposable battery option if I had the chance, which I did not have. I have just purchased the Oticon smartcharger and I guess things will be a bit more flexible. If you consider buying the More you may ask for the newer version of Oticon’s charger. It is worth it even if you have to add a little extra cash.

Edit: I do shower daily :blush: . So the HA stay in the dryer for about one hour, which is the time they need to go through a drying cycle and my ears to get dry. Similarly to the other forum members, I have my More1s on for up to 14-15 hours daily.

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#8

@e1405: Or, alternatively, you may buy an external battery pack (make sure it will stay on even with only a small current draw), and power your standard charger with that.

I live in the country, and we get fairly regular power outages. I charge my battery once a week and then power my charger for a full week while the two sit safely in my night table drawer.

It’s not as compact as the SmartCharger, but it’s $300 cheaper. The only catch is that you have to remember to turn on the battery when you put the HAs into the charger.

A couple of strips of double-sidsd tape and yer HillBilly ShineCharger®️ is good to go!

#9

@SpudGunner: Yes, good call!

I think version 2.0 (smartcharger) will eventually replace version 1.0 (standard)… when Oticon is done with the stock of the terrible-decision-they-made-of-a-charger.

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#10

@e1405: I agree. It looks like a half-assed ashtray, the way it is!

#11

I actually like both of them, they both have their uses. I keep the desktop charger on my office desk for a quick charge or a place to place them if I decide to wear my backups to insure they are still functioning properly. Also the desktop charger is to only charger that works with my backup OPNS1 aids.

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#12

Thanks everyone for the replies. I’m still on the fence.

I think if the hearing aids with the replaceable batteries were smaller than the rechargeable batteries or if the replaceable battery was larger than the Opn S, I would go for the replaceable batteries. Neither is the case, so it’s as easy a decision.

My use-case is a lot of streaming through the day, because I work at home and use Teams to talk with colleagues. I also tend to stream on youtube or watch a movie in the evening, so I probably stream more than most people.

When I’m at home, it’s trivial to replace the battery when necessary. I tend to leave the batteries in until they go dead, because I don’t like to waste the charge. At home, it’s very easy to deal with this.

The times when it’s not convenient is when I’m not at home. If I’m on a trip, I am usually in a place where it’s not convenient to recharge. I could probably work around this by replacing the batteries before they go dead and just accept that I have to occasionally waste some charge.

Has anyone noticed the rechargeable battery capacity diminish over the time that you’ve had the hearing aids?

I was informed by the audiologist that they are only offering one “free” device now, so I would have to pick which charger I wanted. I would lean toward the battery powered charger, not the plug-in charger.

I was also informed that ConnectClips are not available, due to the “global integrated circuit shortage”. I’m currently on my second ConnectClip. The original one stopped holding a charge a few months ago, so it lasted about 2 years of daily use.

I’m happy that the Oticon More hearing aids support ASHA, but my current android mobile doesn’t. Unfortunately, as far as I know, Oticon doesn’t have a device driver for Windows, so I will still need a ConnectClip for my laptop.

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#13

You will need the connect clip for any laptop or tablet unless it is an iPad or maybe an Android that has the ASHA standard. I have had my More1 aids just over a year with no noticeable lose of battery life, I also have the OPNS1 rechargeables that are about 3 years old that aren’t showing any lost of battery life. I do switch back and forth so that my backup aids, OPNS, stay in good health.
But to be honest if I streamed a lot I would more than likely prefer the disposable batteries. But when I got my More1 aids there wasn’t a choice between Battery types.

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#14

@darylm → there are a few threads on this forum about buying replacement battery from eBay to change out the bad battery in the ConnectClip. It’s not trivial to do, but it doesn’t seem that hard either.

If I were you, I’d take the battery-powered charger over the plug-in charger as well.

If I solely work from home most of the times like you, and if I have a decent backup pair of HAs, then I’d go for the rechargeable version over the disposable battery version. You need to remember, too, that the More rechargeable batteries are fairly easy to replace, albeit you still need to source the batteries from your audi as they’re not easy to find from a third party. So the turn around time should not be like with some other brands where you need to send the HAs in for battery replacement. As long as your audi has them in stock, it should be simply a matter of getting it done in 1 office visit.

#15

I forgot to update this thread after I got the More hearing aids. I ended up deciding to get the rechargeable hearing aid batteries and the battery-powered charger. I was initially cautious about the rechargeable hearing aid batteries because I stream a lot, but I’ve found they almost always last the entire day, even with charge to spare. I’ve only run out of charge on one occasion.

Thanks everyone for the input. I really appreciate it.

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#16

I should also add that the right side with a 105 dB receiver has only a minor increase of battery consumption (a few % per day) compared to the left side with a 60 dB receiver.

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