Have your hearing aids gone for a swim?? Not working due to moisture?

Well, this does happen and in this case, our practice is finding ways to best help our patients if their hearing aids are no longer functioning due to water, humidity, or sweat. I asked Ryan, our 4th year doctoral Au.D student to put the ReDux to the test by submersing digital hearing aids in water, over a length of time. The results were quite amazing. See below…

Ryan shared……..I recently had the chance to work with a new piece of technology known as the ReDux, a device that supposedly allows us to drain the moisture from a hearing aid far more effectively than other drying units. With hearing aids, it is easy for moisture to build up over time and work its way deep into the device where passive drying and even conventional vacuuming cannot reach it so of course we had to test the ReDux.

I placed several hearing aids (removable batteries and lithium Ion rechargeable) with open battery doors in glasses of water and let them sit, fully submerged for 10 minutes. I also left one hearing aid fully submerged for an entire hour to stress test the hearing aid. After approx. 11 to 35 minutes in the ReDux machine, every one of these hearing aids was completely dry and working! The ReDux documents how much water had been removed from each hearing aid and according to the ReDux unit manufacturers, they saw a majority of hearing aids being improved with as little as 5 microliters being pulled out. After letting our hearing aids soak, the ReDux unit removed almost 100 times that amount! Needless to say, we have managed to find a tool that will allow us to better serve our patients, even those with moisture exposure issues such as dropping a hearing aid in a bathtub or pool.

Written by: Rich