I’m still on a trial period with Oticon Opn2 hearing aids. I’m pretty happy with the hearing insturments themselves, but I opted for the ZPower rechargeable option, and I’m having some issues with it. The first set of rechargeable batteries wouldn’t hold a charge, and the charging indicator lights would blink and not blink, so there was no way to know if the batteries were ever getting a full charge. My audiolologist was able to get another (replacement) charging kit from Oticon–the rechargeable battery doors, charger, and batteries were replaced.
While I haven’t yet had a low battery warning like I did with the first charging kit, I am still having charging light issues. Sometimes the lights show a full charge after one hour, and sometimes they are still blinking many hours later. My wearing times don’t vary much, so this shouldn’t cause the variation in charging. When the green lights show a full charge (solid green) and I take the hearing aids out of the charger and put them back in immediately (reposition them in the charger), the blinking green lights start up again. If they had a full charge, why do the lights then continue to blink for hours after the aids are securely repositioned in the charger? I’ve even had one light on the charger go out completely, while the other keeps blinking, and a red light came on as well.
I’ve changed electrical outlets to be sure, so I know it is not the outlet–it is a problem with the ZPower charger or batteries. This is really disappointing–to have two charging kits give me problems right off the bat. I’ve read that others have had a “bad batch” of batteries from ZPower, but, if this is the case, why are they still shipping defective products? In addition, why can’t the hearing aid wearer purchase the rechargable zinc-air batteries online, without having to go through the audiologist? I was told that these batteries would be available direct-to-consumer, but no one carries them.
I think that ZPower is aware of the problems, because I read some comments from one of their VPs on another HA web site, and he babbled on about how ZPower is growing as a company and they can’t keep up with demand or with staffing their production line. Really? Sounds like poor executive-level excuses for poor quality control. I think I’m going to return the charging kit and get a refund. I otherwise like the Oticon Opn hearing aids, but they need a more reliable charging system. The price paid for the charging kit should ensure better quality and reliability–this is not the case in my experience so far. Has anyone else experienced issues with the ZPower rechargeable system? Thanks.