Expert Insight | February 21, 2018
Courtesy of ZPower
About Our Expert…
Barry A. Freeman, PhD
Barry Freeman, PhD, is vice president of business development for ZPower, and has been leader and educator in the global audiology community for over 35 years. Prior to joining ZPower, he was CEO and President of Audiology Consultants Inc (ACI), a private audiology consulting firm, and Senior Director of Audiology and Education for Starkey Hearing Technologies, a global manufacturer of hearing aids. Dr Freeman has served as Chair and Professor of Audiology at Nova Southeastern University (NSU) and has taught full time or as an adjunct professor in some of the most distinguished audiology programs in the country. Additionally, he owned and practiced for 20 years at the Center for Audiology in Clarksville, Tenn, and Hearing Services of Kentucky in Hopkinsville, Ky. He is a past president of the American Academy of Audiology (AAA), served on the AAA Board of Directors for 6 years, and continues to serve on several professional boards.
Q & As: This Week’s Top Selections
Q: What’s a realistic time frame for a rechargeable hearing aid battery to last?
A: Rechargeable silver-zinc batteries last about a year. They are removeable and therefore easily replaced. It is recommended that rechargeable silver-zinc batteries are replaced once a year by a hearing care professional.
Li-ion batteries are sealed within the hearing aid, and are usually removable only by the hearing aid manufacturer. They last approximately 4 to 5 years.
A: When the hearing aids are put on the charger, the charger will check to see what type of battery is in the hearing aid. If the charger detects a disposable zinc air battery, the lights on the charger will turn red. If the charger detects a silver-zinc battery, the lights on the charger will start blinking green; once the battery is fully charged, the lights will turn solid green.
Q: Can my patients overcharge a ZPower battery if they leave it in the charger for too long?
A: The batteries will not overcharge if left in the charger. It is a best practice to put the hearing aids back on the charger when the hearing aids are not being worn during the day. This will keep the hearing aids turned off and the batteries charged. For long-term storage, if batteries will not be used for over 2 weeks, the rechargeable batteries should be removed from the hearing aids and stored in a location where they will not touch each other or other metal objects.
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To read another Expert Insight featuring rechargeable battery questions, click here.
I am having same issue with my batteries they are in the plugged in charger all night. Shut off after 6 hours! Got hearing aids in Jan batteries started failing end March new ones now doing the day thing mid May! They told me they last a year calling Madison Hearing Monday!
Wat do you mean by Only use an approved active drying system
I just bought Widex Evoke Hearing Aids with Z Power rechargeable batteries yesterday. I am used to have Power One Rechargeable Batteries. I kept a second set of batteries along with the Power One Pocket Charger. The Z Power Charger will not charge these batteries. Do you have a device where I can charge a second set of Z Power Batteries outside of the hearing aids? I would buy a second set of Z Power Batteries for this purpose. Thank you.
My solution was to get an extra pair of battery doors. I charge my spare Zpower batteries with those doors in the charger, then take them along as spares.
If you can get a pair of compatible hearing aid shells to attach the doors to it makes the handling even easier.
I have fit Z-Power hearing aids from various manufacturers for almost a year now. Patients love having rechargeable batteries, but there is a major flaw. Randomly a battery will only last 6 hours before going dead. Just this week I have had 5 patients come in with this issue. One of the two batteries doesn’t last for the whole day even when they charge the battery all night. The patient’s have experimented. They switch the left and right batteries and still that one battery doesn’t last the whole day. They also switch sides on the charger and get the same issue.
One of my patients purchased her hearing aids a month ago. She was in this week to let me know that she flew to Arizona to see her sister. When she got off the plane her battery was dead. She had fully charged her hearing aids that night to make sure she would be ready for her trip. She brought her charger with her but unfortunately she didn’t have her 312 disposable zinc-air batteries with her and had to spend her time searching for a CVS to buy some disposable batteries. It wasn’t what she wanted to do and not what she expected with her brand new hearing aids.
It’s anyone and everyone using Z-Power batteries. It’s not the patient but the batteries.
See the thing is this wouldn’t have been such a big deal if the charger came with a bunch of the gold rechargeable batteries but they don’t. The charger comes with only 2 batteries. No backup rechargeable batteries.
Knowing this is a widespread issue (all the other providers in our company have this same issue with their patients wearing Z-Power) I had a small supply in my office for replacement Z-Power batteries I had ordered. Unfortunately this week it was not enough. I had 5 patients come in with the issue. When they come in saying one of their batteries isn’t lasting a full day on a full charge I replace both left and right batteries just in case they mixed them up. So I ran out. The supply I had only had one battery in each little container unlike the two that come with the charger. So in short I ran out of Z-Power batteries this week even though I was prepared with some backups.
I don’t like it that Z-Power doesn’t acknowledge the issue and supply the patient with replacements with the charger from day one. They only get the bare minimum; one battery per hearing aid. I have been selling the Z-Power for about a year now but the issues with batteries not lasting a full day on a full charge have all occurred within months of the patient’s purchase.
I don’t like that I have to request a supply of replacement batteries when I should be supplied with a bunch as a strategy by Z-Power to make sure I never have to tell a patient, “I’ll order you some”.
I also don’t like the case and manual that come with the Z-Power charger. First of all the case is so hard to repackage the charger back into that I just throw it away after opening and showing the patient how to use the charger. So I put the charger in their bag with the hearing aids. It looks sloppy. The manual is not user friendly at all and it’s written in every language imaginable. Many hearing aid companies have a user friendly manual such as NuEar, and Oticon. Those I give to the patient as a reference but the Z-Power manual that comes in the charger packaging is useless.
Next I do not like that the battery door color is only found in one color. It’s this ugly grey protrusion on the bottom of the hearing aid. Widex, ReSound, Oticon ships the battery door and I have to attach it. It’s a pain. NuEar/Starkey attaches it for me, which is nice but then there is no indicator for right(red) and left(blue) and NuEar/Starkey has a battery door design that pulls open every time you take the hearing aids off the magnetic charger. So patient’s have to close it every time they take their hearing aids off the charger.
There are some major improvements that need to take place but first and foremost Z-Power needs to be honest and transparent about the known issues. The Z-Power batteries have issues lasting a full day on a charge sometimes. It’s quite random and there’s no knowing when it will happen but it is happening with new batteries. What should be done besides improving the technology is simply supplying the patient and provider with extra rechargeable batteries with their charger.
[email protected]
Response from Barry Freeman, PhD, of ZPower:
We have been receiving excellent questions about the performance and design of the ZPower Rechargeable System, and I will try to answer them below.
As a way of background, ZPower has had great success in the past 12-18 months. In 2016, we launched a single product but in 2017, we added an additional 8 hearing aids that are compatible with the ZPower Rechargeable System. In 2018, we anticipate compatibility with an additional 9 new hearing aids. Our success also has created a challenge of keeping up with product demand without compromising the quality. To achieve some of these goals, ZPower now is running production lines 24/7 at our manufacturing facilities in Camarillo, CA. We also have expanded our manufacturing capabilities and have grown from 75 employees in 2016 to almost 300 employees today. We also have learned many lessons in the past year that should assure providers that they are fitting their patients with the highest quality and safest rechargeable technology commercially available.
Now to the questions:
Some patients have observed that some of the batteries are not lasting a full day after charging. The logical assumption is that there must be something wrong with the battery and, in some cases, that may be true. However, ZPower has carefully evaluated systems with this complaint and have identified other causes of the short battery operating time. The ZPower Charger has internal intelligence that permits the engineers and chemists at ZPower to evaluate the actual performance and charge history of the battery. Results have shown a relatively small number of battery defects. In fact, when properly charged, the majority of cells were performing as advertised. Instead, we have identified issues that can be grouped into two general categories: 1). Manufacturing improvements and 2). User counseling to assure they follow best practices to optimize the performance of rechargeable batteries.
ZPower is working with our hearing aid manufacturing partners, for example, to improve the robustness of the battery contacts to assure they are making adequate contact with the battery and the charger. The result is more consistent charging and the full-day operating times required by patients.
A characteristic of silver-zinc batteries is that, if given the opportunity, the battery will recharge to original full-capacity for at least one year. However, we have begun to recognize that many users treat silver-zinc batteries as if they perform and can be managed like disposable zinc-air batteries.
Unfortunately, this is not true and, in fact, some of the more traditional ways zinc-air batteries have been managed are going to have negative effects on the performance of rechargeable silver-zinc batteries. This is one reason why ZPower has created a new set of FAQs and Counseling suggestions available at our website (https://zpowerhearing.com/faqs/).
Examples include:
• Charge the hearing aids every night. Never try to get more than one day out of a single charge.
• Do not open the battery door when the hearing aid is not in use. The battery door has its own electronics and will continue to drain the battery even if the door is open. Instead, fully remove the rechargeable battery from the door and store it separately. Even better, always store the hearing aid and battery in the charger.
• When the hearing aids are in the charger, always leave the charger plugged in with power. When the charger does not have power, the hearing aids will turn on and begin to drain the battery.
• Only use an approved active drying system. If the drying system is not approved, then remove the batteries from the hearing aids before placing the aids in the drying system. Unapproved active drying systems may have temperature ranges that exceed the recommended rechargeable battery operating temperature. This could cause the silver-zinc rechargeable battery to over discharge and may damage the battery.
• More FAQs are available at the website.
There also have been questions about colors of the battery doors, factory installation of the doors, and instructional manuals. ZPower is a supplier of the silver-zinc rechargeable batteries and doors. They fill the orders received from the manufacturers. Rechargeable batteries and products entered the market very rapidly since 2017 and manufacturers have taken different approaches to bring their rechargeable products to market and support their customers. As the adoption rate and demand for rechargeability has increased, so have the requests for color matching, factory installation, and improved peripherals. The manufacturers are listening to their customers and are responding in a way that many of these concerns will be resolved in 2018.
This truly is an exciting and transitional time in hearing care. As an analyst from Goldman-Sachs wrote several months ago, “…rechargeability [is a hearing aid industry] focus…in 2017, with most manufacturers now offering the silver-zinc battery solution from ZPower…In the medium- to long-term, we believe it is likely that most hearing aids will be rechargeable.”
I have this issue as well. My hearing aids and ZPower system are new. There is one battery that runs out before the other one. Switch that battery to the other side and it still is the one that runs out first. Usually happens around dinner time. I do a fair amount of streaming, it is true. The other issue is that when the battery runs out, it goes quickly. I get the low battery tone, which is supposed to indicate that I have about 20 minutes remaining, and I get the battery dead tone a few seconds later. I have alway charged my batteries fully every night. The only issue I can see with the way I have treated them is that my audiologist installed them a few days after I got my original hearing aids, because the ZPower unit had been back ordered. He put them in, threw away my disposable batteries and sent me on my way. The batteries ran out in less than an hour and I did not get to put them on the charger until that night for the first full charge. Would have sort of thought that they would have already had a full charge before I got them from him. I’m going back on Wednesday and will raise the issue.
Is the life of the HA circuit reduced as a result of using the rechargeable system? It did happen when the Magnatone aids were rechargeable.
Response from Dr Freeman: The ZPower Rechargeable System has been thoroughly evaluated by the hearing aid manufacturers and there is no indication that the system will have a negative effect on the life of the hearing aid circuit. The ZPower silver-zinc battery is designed to mimic the performance of traditional zinc-air batteries and is transparent to the DSP of the hearing aids. Extensive studies of hearing aids using the ZPower System also show the System including the ZPower silver-zinc batteries have no impact on the electrophysiologic performance of the hearing aids. Therefore, the ZPower System will not have a negative impact on the hearing aid circuitry or performance.