I know a great place to get hearing aid batteries at a really decent price, better than most stores even. And the shipping is free even. And they have great brands, like the Power Ones. Just click on the link on the top right corner of this page to be taken to our host’s web site, www.localbattery.com . They may not be local to you, except by mail, but you’ll have the satisfaction of not only saving money, but also of helping to keep this great forum ALIVE!
My wife was initially against buying such a small item online, but I told her I wanted to give them a try. She has no qualms about my doing so now. And after two orders, I’m a steady and happy customer.
Interesting study, although I’m not sure I understand it all. I’ve been using Rayovac zinc air batteries for many years. I buy them at Costco for around .50 each. They last between 14-15 days with an average of 15 hours use per day.
As another EE and a 20 year veteran of wearing aids, I respectively disagree with my colleague. He is correct in that the classic method of testing batteries for mAh is as he desdcribes. However, when evaluating hearing aid batteries for use in aids then I think the method he used is quite good. Even better would be to put the batteries into a hearing aid and wait for the end of use beep. This I have done earlier but with rechargeable batteries (NiMH) I just recharge over night and go for another day.
I have been using hearing aids for years and have been curious about which battery works the best. There are so many discussion boards about which battery last the most, so I decided to test them for myself. I bought a data acquisition system from Futek Instruments. It comes with a software that collects data and graphs them on your computer. It will tell you exact what the voltage, impedance, resistance… etc… Just go to their website at futekinst.com and browse through their DAQ product line. Affordable and easy to use. Use their products to find out which battery works the best. You would be surprised. Not all name brands come out on top.
I use Rayovac size 10 for my Starkey 1600 aids and I have to replace them every 4 days. I also used the Audiologist’s brand and they also had to be replaced every 4 days. It gets quite expensive.
Buying HA’s is a lot like buying cars or houses, no one thinks about how much gas a car is going use to drive x number of miles, all they know is they like the car. Same thing with a house, most people don’t ask how much the property tax is, all they know is they like the house,then they get the tax bill in the mail and then they are shocked! Then there are HA’s, most want ones that are as small as possible or can’t be seen and then are shocked when they find out they are going though batteries every 3-4 days. If a HA uses a size 10 battery the best you can hope for is probably 5 days but that would be a stretch.
The term alluded to is TCO (total cost of ownership).
Many people look at how much money they are saving at the initial purchase … it is the only thing that matters.
Cheap usually means corners were cut and in the long run the maintenence and other ownership costs grossly exceed purchasing a quality solution in the first place.
For example, in my profession there are people that want to purchase the cheapest electric motor they can to keep the project costs down. What I try to educate them on is if motor cost is only 93%-97% of the total cost of ownership. The rest of that money is going to be electricity. Spending extra at the initial project, using VFD’s and expensive shielded cable and motor grounding rings will save them tens of thousands of dollars over the life of the motor. Yes, the initial installation costs were doubled, however the payback is astronomical.
Another example is buying a cheap used car that gets 12 miles per gallon. They have all that power, however all their money goes on fuel. They cannot afford to maintain it properly, put the cheapest tires they can afford and replace them every year. The costs snowball into a money pit that become increasingly unsustainable over time. These people never get ahead because they keep throwing good money into a bad investment.
Yet they refuse to spend the extra twenty percent to buy a vehicle that will be much more economical to operate in the long run.
It is not that they cannot afford it … It is because they cannot afford NOT to. Ignorance is curable.
You need to test at least three samples of each battery to tell how well you will do in the long run, assuming the manufacturer does not change the battery chemistry over time in response to market pressures and lax/strict oversight by the government.
E.g., cell #1 from Mybrand comes in at 140, 150 and 160 mAh; cell #2 from Yourbrand at 145, 150, 155. The cell averages are the same but cell #1 will give you worse performance half the time.
Using Excel to reduce your data from all cells, the average is 144 mA and half the cells fall between 149 and 136 mAh and ~97% of the cells fall below 166 mAh (using Excel’s sample standard deviation function) .
An honest vendor might call this a 140 mAh cell, but since “competition breeds conformity” he/she will eventually be compelled to call it a 160 mAh cell.
I hope this isn’t too far off the thread. Following lurking on this forum for awhile, I went into Costco determined to buy the ReSound Futures, my Costco salesperson used length of battery life, and the fact that she would be better able to upgrade the Chronos later, to talk me into buying the Bernafon Chronos. Is there a difference in battery life dependent upon the type and or brand of HA’s? My HA’s last about 6 days between changes.
Hearing aid batteries are unlike most other batteries you may have seen. Zinc air batteries are designed to maintain a constant voltage from beginning to end. "Normal" batteries fade slowly as they are used.
“This means a circuit slightly more complex than a purely resistive load” but not much more complex.
Let’s say during discharge your battery goes from 1.4v to 1.0v, a 0.4v change.
Put it in series with a 12v battery and a resistor such that you get the current drain you want, probably around 1 mA.
As the battery voltage drops 40% depending on how you figure percentage, the current only drops 100 x 0.4/13 = 3%.
There can be a difference depending on what hearing aid you are looking at. It is essentially a computer, and it sucks up a lot of power depending on what it is trying to do. A basic aid might last a lot longer than a more advanced one because the higher tech has a more powerful computer that - shockingly - uses more power.
They do try to streamline things from time to time. For example, at Sam’s we carry the Engage32 that uses 312 battery and you should get a week out of the battery. The Engage64, which has more automatic features and a more powerful processor should get 8-9 days.
problem with the theory and the reality… is the reality… hmmmm someone famous said that…
if volume of background noise causes increased battery usage
if heat decreases battery life
if moisture decreases battery life
the variables are HUGE for each user…
that said averages are averages… and give or take 1/5 a day or even a day… Hell you can hear better then you could before you put them on… so for 10 bucks buy 40 batteries…
The price of batteries vs the premium aids is noise
discounted premium aids justifies buying your own batteries on the net or at discount locations
If batteries cost the same then clearly buying the ones that get the individual more time and last longer on the shelf…
How many folks worrying about batteries have tried 15 brands of gasoline to see which gets better mileage? and then done a price value analysis and then only buy the gas that gets them the best…
We all live on tight budgets… but that said… one less meal out a month will cover lots of extra batteries… even if it is a fast food meal…
Generic brand mayonnaise will pay for lots of extra batteries vs branded.
for those without premium aids… and are struggling for the longest battery life from a monetary vs theoretical basis… then I suspect they are reading this at a library vs at an internet connection from home…
I don’t buy 1800 dollar glasses… I pay a couple of hundred from costco… I could buy costco 150 dollar eye glasses… but want the added features of the premium price…
But I buy them where they are cheapest… Some folks have to get them from the VA and hence no progressive lenses and perhaps no transition lenses…
Lots of folks who need hearing aids don’t wear them not because they cannot afford them or do not want to afford them but because they just do not want to…
some folks feel the same way about glasses…
40 bucks a year for batteries for me is ell worth scrimping on something else to be able to hear better then I can without the aids…
Hi, I read your battery comparisons, and being new to hearing aid I was not too sure how to decipher your results, I would be grateful if you could tell what results I should be looking for?