Dear Phonak, your Lumity battery isn't good enough

Hearing Aids
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@codergeek2015
In my limited experience with Marvel and Paradise, I believe your recent Phonak experience is down to poor programming. First fit has been awful for me, with speech recognition being really bad.

Sadly my UK NHS experience, was poor, leaving a conclusion that their Audiologists either didn’t know how to use the Target software, or just couldn’t be bothered. My private audiologist spent a good 90 minutes getting round all the barriers Target put in his way. All the fancy settings are only as good as the base programming

Peter

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@kevels55

Seems to me that our hearing aid systems can have fatal flaws. So we adapt when we need to
Thank heaven for the successes we have

I network every chance I get hoping to find the skilled provider I know is out there.

I’m happy I have good hearing aids. In about 5 weeks I’ll see the fellow who set them up.

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This is standard for the CROS system. It’s not good. If it works for you fine, but you may want to strongly consider switching to either the P90 13T (then you’ll get around 6 days) or a different manufacturer if you want rechargeable. Taking just the CROS off for part of the day would extend the battery life.

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Little update from my side (I don’t know if it can useful for anybody else): after ha wing experienced very bad battery drain in the left hearing aid for a week, it came back to normal now; i don’t know what happened and why…

Do you still suggest me to send the HAs to repair/change battery (they’re still under warranty).

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or change it for good

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Something to cheer everyone up:

Sonova Con Ear
Sonova Con Ear960×1440 264 KB

Dear Phonak, I started wearing your Phonak Audeo Lumity today.
My audiologist gave them to me, they are nice.
But they don’t hold their charge for more than 12 hours.

Dear Casey, it was so good to read your letter.
I’m glad you like your Audeo Lumity.
We don’t exactly expect them to last all day.
We do expect you to charge them during the day, though. But normally, they last up to 16 hours.

Dear phonak, today was my first day at work with the Lumity.
I didn’t like them. I don’t want to use them anymore.
they died on me in the afternoon, I was left in the meeting without hearing anything.
My Audi said that I need to give them another try.

Dear Casey, hopefully this finds you still goin’ strong with the Lumity.
Hearing is important. Your audi’s right.
Now, don’t you worry about batteries.
Sometimes you get bad batches, but don’t let rechargeable hearing aids get you down.

Dear Phonak, are you ever going to release hearing aids with disposable batteries?

Dear Casey, of course we are realizing some.
In just a little while longer, and all the things will be back to normal…
you can be sure we’ll do.

Dear Hummingbird, break out the fine china, chill the lemonade…
tie a yellow ribbon 'round the old oak tree…
‘cause our hearing aids with disposable batteries will be out soon, comin’ to the market forever.
I just hope I’m not a disappointment to Casey or anyone.
Love, Phonak.

"My phonak with disposable batteries are coming on July 14th.
My birthday is July 14th.

From Cyrus the virus

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I’ve written an update to this post 3 months after. Thanks everyone for being so active!

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Adding to your DearPhonak post …

Dear Phonak, when I first bought your rechargeable Lumity Life aids in fall of 2022, I only got 11 hours of use per day. Then I learned right here that if I updated my Android cell phone to OS 13, I’d enjoy extended battery life! VOILA, it worked (altho it took my brainiac hubs virtually ALL DAY to find the OS 13 and download it cuz it wasn’t officially sanctioned yet for my Samsung Flip-4 phone). I now enjoy 17.5 hours of use every day with my Lumity Life aids. Granted, NOT enough to get me through an international flight of 20 hrs, but still …

No reply from Phonak on that one …

Dear Phonak, after enjoying a good long year of 17.5 hr per day use, about a week ago, I was rudely surprised when my Lumity Life aids DIED at 9pm - in the middle of TV viewing! What’s up with that? I’d put them in at 7am, but suddenly, I’m no longer getting more than 14 hours of use! Are my rechargeables not able to charge up any more? Luckily, I have TWO pairs of these, so I’ll try the other one tomorrow. After I charge them up. IF they charge up.

No reply from Phonak on that yet.

Dear Phonak, I’ll be danged, but even my 2nd pair of aids are no longer giving me 17.5 hrs of use per day! They conked out after about 16 hrs. I’ll go back to the first pair and see what happens.

I decided to wait till I’d worn the first pair of Lumity Lifes last night. I got just 13 hrs and 45 min of use today. NOT ACCEPTABLE! What’s happening? Are both pairs of my rechargeble aids going DOWN? Now I’m going to keep a log on how much time I get out of them every day till this is resolved. I’m on the optimal Android OS, so as far as I know (never being contacted by Phonak directly on matters like this), this is as good as it gets.

My audi said that the aids can be sent in before the 3-yr warranty is up for free replacement rechargeable batteries. I sure wish I could have these in size 13 battery version. But that ain’t happenin’ any time soon.

I now have two pairs of rechargeable Lumity Life aids that I HAVE TO SWAP IN EVERY DAY. Is that the optimal customer experience you’d like to share on your website? I rarely stream phone calls, never stream with my laptop, and only stream TV for 2-3 hours a night. What’s up with this dramatically reduced rechargeable battery time?

Waiting to hear back any minute.

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I’ve had my Lumity hearing aids for 15 months and I still get 18 hours a day on a charge. I’ve mentioned this a few times but I will repeat it again…

The battery will burn down much quicker if leave connected bluetooth devices turned on when you are not using them. I don’t know why this happens but I have proved this over and over again. If you find your Lumity hearing aids suddenly using more battery on a particular day…you probably forgot to turn off bluetooth on one or more devices in your house (i.e. your laptop, iPad or even the Phonak TV Connector). My theory is that it has something to do with the hearing aids trying to reconnect with devices as you move further away from the device in your home.

The only device I leave always connected is my iPhone. On every other device, I turn off Bluetooth on that device when I am no longer using it.

Jordan

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Ditto for me! I’m obsessive about that. But now I’m down to just 13-14 hours of daily battery life on my Lumity Life aids. Perhaps they need to go in to have the rechargeable batteries replaced.

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Last August I needed new HA’s, and on reading bat’s issues, just a few then now 430 post here on this subject, I decided then to get the Paradise P70T with 13 bat’s, maybe older tech, but after 3 tweaking sessions (about par for having new HA’s) these have been pretty good, and they don’t drop out in the middle of whatever, when it signals me that bat’s are due, I usually get 1 to 1.5 hrs warning. I figure that in 3 or 4 years from now this issue wil have itself resolved (I hope)

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@kgmgpm
This is exactly what I chose, and for the same reasons. I no longer use Autosense, and use Music as default, so am in no rush to get Lumity. I’m always fiddling with my aids too, so tap control would be switched off too :slight_smile:

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Same here, at my last Audi visit, I showed her the custom program that I created, had her adjust the voice in noise program and then made that one the default startup, had no issues since, the Autosence 4.0 is quirky at best and started to act up a bit, one day I may have her send these in to reprogram the Autosence as she thinks it may be the cause of it’s erratic behavior. As for tap control, try it in -20C temp outside walking the dog with a large furry hat on (me not the dog)… I asked the moderator if it had been tested, and No.
If I do get a call on my phone (something that rarely happens) then I push one of the tabs once, but still have to take the mits off. No big deal, just no worth it, and then that feature was not available with disposable’s. I don’t miss all that, one thing for sure is my hearing now is great with the Ha’s on, without, well just look at the audio-gram, my tinnitus takes over.

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My new Oticon Xceed aids have exceptional battery life. So much so, that even after three days of at least 8 hours a day streaming (I work from home and do a lot of streaming of music/audio while I work), and my (normal disposable, thank God) batteries don’t run out even after three days. But, I got so used to my sucky Phonak battery life that I still change them out after 3 days. That’s just me. I need to get used to pushing beyond that 3 days and see how much longer I can get away with the battery life on these exceptional hearing aids.

Oh yes: I absolutely still love my new aids. I give Oticon a full 5 stars compared to Phonak. I would give Phonak 2 stars (and that’s being generous) for the issues I have experienced with their aids over the past 5 years. Quick update: Because of the exceptional skill of my new non-Phonak-beholden audiologist, it has now been three months since my last ENT visit. I haven’t been able to go three months without seeing my ENT since before 2019. Oticon has been a game changer for me in many areas.

My old audiologist kept rebutting me saying “Oh it couldn’t be the ear mold.” Guess what, old, Phonak-beholden audiologist? It’s the freaking ear mold that was causing all of my issues.

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Amen. Amen. Amen. And because the reply needs to be at least 20 characters, Amen.

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AUGH!!! While I can’t say that I get in to see my audi every 3 mos, I’ve already been in to see her, well, let’s see… about EVERY 3 MOS since last fall. I’ve gone in about the Rogers, then to tweak MPO vs gain, now 2 sets of Phonak Lumity Life aids needing to go in the shop (one is there, the other will go when I get my first pair back).

You’ve given me something to DREAM about. I totally get that certain audis are pro-brand. It may have to do with their experience or training. I’ve been happy in the Phonak camp mainly due to the BT stability and quality of sound. I haven’t tried Oticons since maybe 2016? But the “open sound” paradigm seemed too much for my ol’ gray cells to make sense of. Even so, I’d love either a rechargeable aid that gives me a solid 24 HOURS of use or a size 13-battery version of new aid.

Not seeing that coming from Phonak yet.

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Go ahead and try them, rather than being overly influenced by what you read on this forum. Not that Oticon presently has a RIC that conforms 100% to your battery desires. But who knows what’s coming, now that Phonak gave in on a disposable-battery Lumity.

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@kevels55

I find your post really interesting. We have a couple of those in our neighbourhood but haven’t had a chance to talk to the drivers.

I find the talk about electric cars focuses on range, and quality of recharging stations. It’s interesting that the hydrogen fueled options are still being discussed, as the infrastructure is so far behind Tesla and other makers recharging infrastructure.
Years ago I had a diesel car. Travelling to far north in Ontario required planning. Specially when I worked til after 11:00 pm Christmas Eve, then started my long long drive.

I’ve signed on the Tesla Club forum to see how thngs are in their world.

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Germany is advanced in the hydrogen fuel services:

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Aye Dave, it’s an interesting subject… I believe we are on the cusp of seeing the demise of the automobile industry, as we know it… interestingly enough, this might prove a godsend to hearing aid manufacturers rechargeable batteries… Nissan are developing a Lithium Ion Solid State Battery (See link below) they reckon, once developed, 10 minutes to charge, and 1200 miles, on a single charge, these solid state batteries are much denser, and will hold up to 4 times the charge? So maybe this is the direction the hearing industry may take? Cheers Kev :grin:

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