Don’t miss out on those magic moments – consider rechargeable hearing aids for Christmas! 

Rechargeable hearing aids remove the need to remember to take spares with you wherever you go for regular battery changes.  Like all electronic devices, hearing aids need a power source to run them. Traditionally this has been a small cell style battery that lasts between 2 and 7 days depending on the product and usage. This fairly short battery life span means that hearing aid wearers need to manage their battery supplies and ensure that they always have batteries with them. Although modern hearing aids do emit a warning beep when the battery is getting low, this may only be as little as one hour’s notice so it’s best to keep a spare to hand in case a battery expires when you need to hear most.

For hearing aid wearers, the experience of changing a battery can range from being straight forward, to a regular irritation or a fiddly, time consuming affair for those with dexterity limitations. So, in this world full of rechargeable devices, such as phones, toothbrushes and vacuum cleaners to name just a few, why don’t we use rechargeable hearing aids?

Hearing aids with rechargeable batteries have been around for some time, the first models came onto the market over 10 years ago. While they were a great step forward, battery charge was limited, often not lasting for a whole day resulting in wearers having to resort to using a traditional zinc-air battery to get them through to bedtime. This type of rechargeable battery lasts less than a year before requiring replacement. Take up of these rechargeable batteries was understandably low and so manufacturers went back to the drawing board to find a better solution.

Lithium-ion Revolution

In 2016, the first hearing aids powered by lithium-ion power cells came to the market. This is the technology that powers Tesla cars, Smart phones and now hearing aids. Lithium-Ion is very low maintenance. Wearers will experience up to 24 hours from a single charge and each Lithium-ion power cell can last up to 5 years before needing to be replaced.

The complete hearing aid is placed into a charger unit overnight and in as little as 3 hours they are again fully charged and ready to go. Some models come with a portable charging case that can itself recharge the hearing aids 2 or 3 times without having to be connected to the mains.

Lithium-Ion hearing aids are now in their 2nd generation meaning that the technology has proven to be successful in delivering a full day usage from a single charge. Wearers have been delighted with the hassle free concept of no longer having to regularly change their hearing aid battery. Instead they simply place it on charge along with their phone before going to bed.

The icing on the cake is that these Lithium-ion products are also packed with the latest in hearing aid features and technology.

To learn more about rechargeable hearing aids, please contact us for an appointment.