Do you know what Costco hearing aid battery problems are or why my Costco hearing aid is not charging? Well, you are at the perfect place to find the answer to such a question.
Using any electronic device powered by batteries comes with many limits to their autonomy. But, for many people who use hearing aids, those problems can exacerbate other challenges they are facing every day. That’s why we are talking today about 9 common problems with Costco hearing aid batteries.
The most common problems with Costco hearing aid batteries are caused by their technological limitation, improper use, and erroneous expectations. Low capacity, short lifespan, and charging problems are the most common.
So, let’s dive into the details of these problems, a few more, and how are they caused.
9 common problems with Costco hearing aid battery
As I’ve said above, just like with any other battery-powered device, hearing aid users that power them with Costco batteries face certain common problems.
Most of them are actually lack of understanding how these batteries work under certain conditions and what are their technological limitations.
But, let’s just name them for starters:
- low battery capacity,
- short battery life span,
- problems with charging rechargeable types,
- low battery warning,
- problems caused by improper storage,
- depletion when not in use,
- battery compartment corrosion.
Let’s now cover each of these problems, how they come to be, and how to fix them if that can be done.
1. Low battery capacity
The most common complaint about Costco hearing aid batteries is their low capacity, and this is practically always just a misconception unless the user is not aware of how the environment impacts the capacity of the battery.
No matter whether the battery is rechargeable or not, low capacity is caused by one of these two reasons.
2. Wrong expectations
Battery capacity is often expressed in days or weeks of use, but that is misleading because some people use their hearing aids just 6 hours a day and others more than 12.
Most capacity estimates presume roughly 6 to 8 hours of use per day, so you should be careful when reading such information.
Generally, you should expect around 60 hours of use, but that also depends on the number of features your hearing aid has.
The more features it has, such as Bluetooth connectivity, the higher will be the drain and so the capacity will be depleted quicker.
3. Environment
The environment can negatively impact the capacity of any hearing aid battery. Whether they are rechargeable or not, they produce electricity from a chemical reaction, and the voltage they produce depends on how quickly it happens.
In cold this chemical reaction gets slowed down, which lowers the voltage a battery can produce.
Because battery capacity is actually the ability of the battery to produce a voltage in the range between the minimum and maximum for its type, cold weather effectively cuts down its capacity.
When it comes to non-rechargeable Costco batteries, high humidity also cuts down their capacity.
4. Short battery life span
Costco carries both hearing aids that are powered by rechargeable batteries and non-rechargeable, besides selling non-rechargeable batteries.
And customers complain about their life span, no matter what type they are. While in the case of non-rechargeable batteries this is caused usually by the wrong estimate, with rechargeable it is usually improper use.
Batteries can be recharged a finite number of times but recharging them from slightly depleted to full charge greatly decrease their life span.
So, if your hearing aid has a rechargeable battery and you put it on the charger every night, you are actually hurting its battery.
5. Unit not charging
Another common problem with Costco hearing aids and their batteries, specifically those items with rechargeable type is the problem of not charging.
While this can indicate a faulty battery that needs to be replaced, more often than not it is just fine. Instead, more common is one of two potential problems with the charger itself.
A more common problem is a faulty charging port, and in the case of chargers with two ports you can simply attach the hearing aid to one and then to the other. Very likely the aid will charge one of them.
A second potential problem is the accumulated dirt on the charger or hearing aid electrical contacts, which as an insulator disrupts the contact and prevents charging.
6. Low battery warning
Many hearing aids have a system that warns you of a low battery level, and you could confuse this warning with an alert that the battery is empty and think that you have a faulty one.
But, that obviously is not the case, and you should check the manual for your hearing aid to familiarize yourself with these alerts and warnings.
But another thing that can trigger this alarm is the above-mentioned low environmental temperature.
As the voltage drops in cold weather, the device will detect it as a low battery level. And depending on how low the temperature is there could be quite a lot of charge left in it.
7. Improper storage
If you have purchased a larger supply of non-rechargeable batteries at Costco for your hearing aid you could get an unpleasant surprise down the road.
These batteries are the zinc-air type, and they are very sensitive to the conditions in which they are stored. Which is the reason behind the existence of various devices such as battery dehumidifiers.
These batteries are very sensitive to excessive humidity and rapid changes in the temperature whether they are stored or in use.
Eventually, they will go bad. But also, no type of battery can indefinitely keep the charge, and from the moment they are produced they start slowly losing it.
8. Battery depletion without use
If you have bought some non-rechargeable batteries at Costco for your hearing device, you might be led by circumstances into the belief that they are bad. Because they can lose charge even when you do not use your hearing aid.
There are several factors that influence this, air, humidity, and time.
The zinc compounds in the battery react with the oxygen from the air to produce electricity, and this reaction starts after you peel off the protective plastic tab of the battery.
And it will slowly lose a trickle of charge even when not in use. While the battery is in a device, there can be humidity buildup in the battery compartment, which also drains it even when not in use.
But also, as I’ve said above, just because of the passage of time all batteries slowly lose charge.
While none of these factors have a big impact, the combination of those three can make your experience seems like you were sold a faulty battery.
9. Battery compartment corrosion
Because the humid air can intrude into the battery compartment and in combination with the current from the battery, the contacts can over time slightly corrode.
This corrosion acts like an insulator and often can be not very noticeable specks on the metal. You could end up changing several batteries bought at Costco thinking that they are bad.
But the real problem is battery contacts that need to be cleaned of corrosion buildup.
Conclusion
Besides various makes and models of hearing aids with both rechargeable and non-rechargeable batteries, Costco carries special batteries for these devices.
The 9 most common problems with Costco hearing aid batteries are often not a sign of their quality and are generally an impression due to erroneous expectations of environmental conditions.