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Oticon Replaceable Rechargeable Batteries

Hi, I’m Dr. Egan from Now Hear This®, and today I’m going to tell you a really awesome feature about the Oticon rechargeable behind-the-ear hearing aids.

So, the most popular type of hearing aid is called the RIC, and in the RIC it’s a behind-the-ear hearing aid that looks like this. You can see this part goes behind the ear, and this little rubber tip wiggles inside the ear. A really awesome thing that I love about Oticon’s RIC hearing aids is that they are one of the only companies where you can swap out the lithium-ion rechargeable battery inside the hearing aid.

So, for the vast majority of manufacturers, if your hearing aid started out with, say, 20 hours of battery life, but 6 or 7 years into wearing it, it’s only lasting 6 hours, and then that battery is starting to putter out. You would have to send it out to the manufacturer for a pretty pricey out-of-warranty repair, because when they are at least 5 or 6 years old, they are no longer in warranty. That’s a hit to the budget.

What’s awesome about Oticon is that you can switch out that battery in clinic. So, we don’t have to deal with a costly out-of-warranty repair. The other nice thing, even if your hearing aids are in-warranty, is you’re not without your hearing aids for a couple weeks. And, of course, we have loaner hearing aids, but they are never the same as the exact hearing aids that has all your settings tweaked just the way you like it.

So, today I’m going to show you exactly how we change out that Oticon rechargeable hearing aid battery.

This isn’t something that you guys would do at home and of course, you don’t have access to these batteries, but I wanted to show you just how fast and easy it is and why that is a great asset for patients who have difficulty with their battery life. There’s this tiny little pin tool you push in, and it pops out the old lithium-ion battery. We have brand new lithium-ion batteries. I log into the Oticon programming software, enter the new serial number, swap them out, charge it for a few minutes, and then that battery life is good as new. At least 18 hours of battery on a charge to last you the full day.

I hope that you learned something from this video. If you have questions, reach out to out to our clinic, and if you’d like to learn more about audiology and hearing aids, feel free to like and subscribe to our channel! Have a wonderful rest of your day!