Ten Reasons Why Hearing Aids Are Going Rechargeable

A new hearing aid feature that kicked off in 2018 was that of hearing aids being rechargeable and having in-built rechargeable batteries. This is now becoming quite a popular feature of the latest hearing aids appearing on the market in 2019 and most likely what we will see as a major feature in 2020 onwards. We look at the reasons why this is happening and whether this is a good thing for hearing aid users.

If you want to see a definitive list of available rechargeable hearing aids, we have added them to the bottom of this post.

No More Batteries 

Up until recently all hearing aid users have had to deal with small hearing aid batteries in sizes 13, size 312, size 10 and size 675. A rechargeable hearing aid means that the battery of the hearing aid is a permanent feature so never requires you to remove it or replace it.  No more worrying whether you have enough battery life for your holiday or to get your through the next week. The battery of the rechargeable hearing aid should last you as long as the hearing aid will as they are capable of charing thousands of times.

Less Fiddly

A rechargeable hearing aid is a lot less fiddly on the fingers as you just need to be able to pop the hearing aid into the charger. Previously you would have to manouver a small battery into a compartment and make sure it is the correct way round. In fact, with rechargeable aids, there is no battery compartment at all so the on and off feature is not linked to this. It is a lot kinder to fingers that are not so nimble and those that have arthitus. If you find that you are losing your dexterity with age, a rechargeable hearing aid can help with this.

Eco-Friendly

No small batteries that you continually replace and bin means less waste, one hearing aid can get through more than 50 batteries in a year. The hearing aid battery, along with the packaging and distrubutional packaging all accounts to waste.

There are recycling options for batteries, however most are not recycled. 

Reduced Visits

You no longer need to go and purchase or collect your batteries, meaning it saves you time. You can replace the time you would normally spend going to get batteries or purchasing them online with doing something you enjoy. 

Less Hazard for Children

Having no hearing aid batteries lying around provides less of a hazard when you are looking after small children, your grandchildren who like to try putting things in their mouths will not be able to if there are no batteries to play with.

Hearing Aid Case Is More Useful

A hearing aid case is generally a small plastic and felt pouch to contain your hearing aid, the hearing aid batteries and possibly a cleaning tool. The case of a rechargeable hearing aid is a little bigger and has an important job to do, this is your charging port and where you will charge your hearing aids in.

Some charging cases also allow enough room for drying capsules. Therefore making the space you house your hearing aid multifunctional. You will find your hearing aid manufacturer also makes different size charging cases for convienience and ease of portability. 

Charged Overnight

Rechargeable hearing aids can be charged throughout the night or when its convienient for you. It can become part of a daily routine meaning you should find yourself less unlikely to run out of power from your hearing aid inconvieniently. 

Two Hearing Aids Is Less Problematic

Having two hearing aids means that you have to have batteries for each aid, with rechargeable hearing aids, if you have two of them, it's no problem to charge them at the same time. Previously you would have to struggle and manage two hearing aids and their batteries, collecting them, removing old ones and replacing with new ones. Sometimes the hearing aids can run their batteries down at different rates which means that you'll be replacing batteries one day for just one hearing aid and then repeat this process again for the other hearing aid a day later.

Having two rechargeable hearing aids is different. It will take more power to charge two but you're not going to need more than you already have.

The charging case normally accomodates two hearing aids and having them charged at the same time means they should last a similar time. Unless you have different hearing loss levels, then one rechargeable hearing aid will use more power than the other which needs to use less because your hearing is better in that one.

Rechargeable Battery Life

By popping your hearing aid into the charging case you'll be able to see with the indicator light how much battery is life. Also rechargeable hearing aids are some of the most intelligient hearing aids on the market and will have an app option connected to the hearing aid meaning that you can keep an eye on you hearing aid battery status through the app on your phone. 

Charge anywhere

A rechargeable hearing aid will be charged via USB and or your mains supply. Making it an easy device to charge at home, or work or even whilst driving your car. You can even use a normal adaptor to take it abroad and charge. Some rechargeable hearing aids have a power bank option for your charging case so that you can charge this seperately so that if you are somewhere without electric you can still charge your hearing aid off the power bank rather than the mains. 

Summary

Rechargeable hearing aids are still a new concept amongst the hearing aid industry. It is not something yet provided by the NHS therefore you are looking at a private purchase which is costly. The price of rechargable hearing aids are on par with private hearing aids that are not rechargeable. Some additional considerations are that a rechargeable hearing aid will last you up to a full day or two half days worth of use were as a hearing aid battery will provide you 10-14 days worth of use.

This will improve over time as new battery technology comes out but we still have a while to go until a rechargeable battery can last two weeks.

Therefore you are going to need to recharge a few times in the space of how long a current battery lasts.  Recharging is a habit you will need to put into your daily life and if you are already a hearing aid user, using hearing aid batteries has become a second nature you may be happy with. For someone who loves their technology they will enjoy the easy of recharging their hearing aid along with other technological devices you own.  

Rechargeable hearing aids are a game changing new addition to hearing aids and it is exicting to see what the future holds will bring as the industry changes. If you are interested to see what the current options for rechargeable hearing aids are, we have added a definitive list of all rechargeable hearing aids available to buy.

Are NHS Hearing Aids Rechargeable

At the moment, no, you will have to go private in the UK to purchase a rechargeable hearing aid. This may change in 2019 or 2020 and they may offer rechargeable hearing aids in the future as the cost over time could decrease without having to buy and replace batteries.

Definitive List of Rechargeable Hearing Aids

Below we have added an automatically updating list of hearing aids that are rechargeable. As we add new hearing aids to the websites hearing aid directory, if they are rechargeable, they will auto populate this page.

 

Quick Tips

Two hearing aids? Left has blue marker and right has red marker, remember red for right.