I normally wear Widex Moment BTEs. I am trying a pair of Phonak Lumity Life on vacation. I do not like them as well as my Widex aids, but it is incredible to be able to hear the ocean when I am on the beach or swimming. It’s also nice to be able to hear people talking to me. I can also stream music from my phone.
The main problem I have while swimming is that the instruments flap out from behind my ears. They are well anchored in my ear canals with solid molds, but I have to keep tucking them behind my ears. Any ideas? Thanks.
Keep us posted on how Lumity Life does in the water. A few people on this forum have had failures after swimming with their Lumity Life hearing aids so curious if they do ok.
Thanks, Jordan, for your rapid response. Overall, I am very pleased. It has been a long time since I have been able to walk on the beach and hear anything. Just hearing the waves come in is worth the price of admission!
There are certainly limitations and for ordinary situations they are not as good as my Widex BTEs. On my Widex, I use non-RIC narrow tubes with full molds and wide open venting. My loss is mainly in the high frequencies.
Here are the problems so far:
I do not find the Phonax sound as good as the Widex.
I prefer standard BTEs, but the Lumity comes only in RIC.
The molds must be sealed, which means I have to give up my vented molds.
I prefer #13 batteries to rechargeables, but for obvious reasons the Lumity needs to be completely sealed so there is no battery case.
Streaming works fine on the beach, but the sound cuts in and out while swimming.
– While swimming the instruments keep flapping out (they do not actually fall out) and I have to repeatedly tuck them behind my ears. There must be a fix for that.
All that said, I am going to purchase the Phonaks just for sports and beach use. They work well for what they are intended to do. Anyway, I don’t get by well without my hearing aids, so it is always good to have a backup set (I always travel with two pair anyway.)
I have no idea how they will hold up in the long run. But they are under warranty. I have a wonderful audiologist/hearing aid dispenser who stands behind everything she does. I’ll keep you informed.
The other thing we aren’t sure about is whether just the hearing aids are waterproof and/or whether the receivers are waterproof too. You might be ok because you are using closed molds and it seems to me that they would be a bit more sealed/protected.
With respect to your other points…if you are not hearing as well with Lumity, they are probably not setup very well. Go back to your audiologist and have him/her make adjustments.
As far as keeping the hearing aids behind your ears, you could use a pair of swimming goggles and route the rubber band (that holds the goggles in place) across your ears (and hearing aids). That might be a temporary fix.
I would definitely use some sort of hearing aid leash or lanyard that tightens so the aids don’t flop around. Ear Gear holders are very good, but they are designed for the receiver to be slipped in. Molds prevent that. They can be slipped in from the other end, but it’s more awkward.
Thank you for all the suggestions. I am in St. Barths for the week on a beach vacation. So far the Lumitys are doing well in the ocean and in the pool. I just went diving. Of course, there’s no need for hearing aids while diving (you can’t hear anything anyway), and we were at 20 meters (the Lumitys are approved to a half meter).
I wore the aids all the rest of the time. It was great to be able to hear the instructor on the boat and to have a conversation with other people. Getting splashed was not a problem. Then I could jump in the pool and not worry about the aids getting wet. So far, so good.
I’m glad they’re working and we need people to push them to the edge, but I’m cringing because I cant help but feel like these aids are not going to last long. You mention a walk on the beach is worth the price of admission, these aids should be absolutely fine for walks on the beach, light rain, the mist and sweat, an accidental shower, but 20m deep in salt water? Nope, nope nope makes me tingle and hairs stand up. I will be very surprised if they last! This is awesome, keep it up and keep us in the loop!
Please do not cringe. I said that I went Scuba diving today to 20 meters. The Lumitys are supposedly certified to 0.5 meters or shallow swimming. I certainly did not go under with them. Besides, there is nothing anyone can hear when you are diving that deep. We communicate with primitive signs.
I once dived with a waterproof Swatch watch which is fine for swimming and showering, but I destroyed it at 20 meters. You are certainly right about that.
I enjoyed my hearing aids on the boat going to the diving site, where I was able to participate in the conversation. Normally, I would not have heard enough to do that. After the dive I went swimming with them in the ocean. It was amazing to hear everyone talking around me.
Will the Lumitys last if I keep using them this way? Who knows. The manufacturer says they will, and I have to assume that Phonak will stand behind the product. BTW, my normal hearing aids are Widex BTEs.
Having a dedicated beach/pool HAs sound ideal! There’s a major difference between the Lumity and Moments, their sampling rate, that’s likely part of your preference with HF loss and it can’t be replicated with settings in Lumity.
Wearing a swim headband, or cap, is worth trying to keep behind the ear units in place.
Ah, gotcha! The way it was worded, I thought you meant you meant even though there was no need for them, you wore them diving anyways without issue.
You may have good luck, but I’ve damaged so many aids from moisture/sweat I couldn’t bring myself to swim in mine. Must be freeing! I would definitely adopt a strict drying regimen if you plan to keep them for long. Certainly is hard to enjoy a pool party and be part of the fun if you’re just wallowing in silence! May luck be with you! Hoping not to see a post in a week - “Aids died, what next?!”
For as long as I can remember, a completely waterproof HA has been the holy grail of HA users. I truly hope your experiment works. Using HAs while constantly swimming, kayaking, showering, getting caught in downpours, sweating in 100 degree F temps, would be transformational for an enormous population of users.
Unfortunately, and I’m not trying to rain on your parade, we’ve seen Phonak back away from their early claims of a truly go anywhere, do anything, waterproof HA. Please update us as your waterproof journey continues and, in particular, it would be great to understand — if the HAs do eventually suffer water damage —how quickly Phonak repairs them and if you encounter pushback from them.
Thank you for your great comments. I never realized that a waterproof hearing aid is such a big deal. We just returned from a one week trip to the Caribbean. Lots of ocean swimming and pool swimming and so far so good, but it’s only a week.
I will see my audiologist on Tuesday and have the HAs checked out. I will bring up the issues that you and others in the Forum have raised. I plan to ask her about what we can expect from Phonak if things go south. Will they stand behind the product, or blame me for swimming too deep or something? I don’t necessarily trust or distrust Phonak, but I trust my audiologist completely.
I’ll post again later in the week when I have some more information.
I don’t take my “waterproof” Timex into the water and am sure I would nver consider taking my $3-5000 hearing aids in either. And lastly I am also sure that no matter how much you insisted perhaps maybe if you were lucky, after one warranty event, that the company would eventually not honor its warranty.
Wow, there’s sure a lot of skepticism about Phonak’s underwater claim. BTW, I have swum with my $80 Swatch watch for years without problems. The only time I had an issue is when I forgot to remove the watch when I was diving, and it exploded at 20 meters. But ordinary swimming, showering, hot tub, etc. have not been a problem for the Swatch.
So the issue remains, will the Lumitys really hold up in the long run? I just used them pretty intensively for a week in fresh water and salt water, and so far no problems. To me the question is: just how strongly will Phonak honor its warranty when and if there is a problem or repeated problems. If they are going to get into “whose fault it is,” I’m not interested. I’ll know more after I see my audi tomorrow and report back to the Forum.
Well to be fair for good reason tho, it’s highly likely you are going to get some issues, plus you went diving with them and this will be the “killer” if anything, but as you say the rest of your activities have been mild in comparison, it’s good that you are taking the life’s through this process, I mean it’s absolutely at its limits for sure! So will be good to hear your feedback over time how this works out.
