Just like your car won’t run without an engine, hearing aids are useless without the proper batteries. While an obvious necessity, batteries can sometimes cause headaches for hearing aid users. Knowing how to get the most out of your batteries can go a long way to increasing your satisfaction with your device.
Hearing Aid Battery Basics
Most hearing aids use disposable zinc-air batteries that are color and number-coded for easy replacement. The type of disposable battery you will need depends on the style and size of your hearing aids and includes:
- 5 (red)
- 10 (yellow)
- 13 (orange)
- 312 (brown)
- 675 (blue)
These batteries are easily found at Raley’s Pharmacy or other local drugstores. You can also order them online or get them directly from your audiologist at LeMay Hearing & Balance.
The lifespan of your battery can vary greatly depending on the size and style of your hearing aid, frequency of use, how severe your hearing loss is, and whether or not you stream media into your device, among other factors.
A 2013 study evaluating hearing aid batteries found that the average lifespan of most types was roughly 22 days, however, they acknowledged that their study couldn’t take in individual needs for different amplifications, which can impact battery life.
Common Problems (and Solutions)
- Deciding when to change your battery. As you might imagine hearing aid users can go through quite a few batteries in a given year. Waiting to change batteries until your current battery is dead will likely give you the longest usage, however you run the risk of having a dead battery when you’re at work or out to dinner with friends. Solution: Develop a battery change schedule so you can avoid needing to change it when you can’t or won’t want to.
- Not having batteries when you need one: Either you run out and need to make frequent trips to the store, or your battery dies when you’re right in the middle of something important. Solution: Buy batteries in bulk and store them in multiple places. By having many batteries and keeping some in your car, purse or backpack, it makes it more likely you’ll have one on you when you need it.
- Batteries are difficult to change. Hearing aids and their batteries are small! This is great when it comes to being discreet, but can make them difficult to grip and change. Solution: Use a magnifying glass and a magnetic tool specifically made for hearing aid batteries to make it easier to change them out.
To learn more about hearing aid batteries or to schedule an appointment with a hearing aid expert, contact LeMay Hearing & Balance today.