Do Rechargeable Hearing Aids Need a Dryer?
Fitted with rechargeable hearing aids and told two opposite things about drying them in the same week? What wearers, a dispenser and one maker say.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
The fitter who hands you your first rechargeable hearing aids may tell you a dryer is for the old kind, the ones with little batteries. Then the maker's own material says a dryer is safe.
A Rexton Reach wearer got exactly that pair of answers, the first from their Costco fitter, and took the question to r/HearingAids. The replies split too.
If you sweat a lot, garden or live somewhere humid, the wearers who've been through a summer on rechargeables say you'll want something. The something is an electric box like the PerfectDry dryer or a desiccant capsule that needs no plug, and which one comes down to how much you sweat.
The advice depends on who you ask
The split runs straight through one shop. A Costco hearing-aid dispenser in that thread says the store's dehumidifier can be used on rechargeable units. Some makers, Rexton among them, sell a charger and dehumidifier in one, the dispenser adds.
Another Rexton Reach wearer uses the same dehumidifier because the rep recommended it, and the rep has used one on her own rechargeables for six years. A third Rexton owner emailed the maker to ask, and the answer was yes, use it.
Oticon gave the same answer by a longer route. A new wearer was confused by instructions that said to open the battery door first, so they called support. Support told them to put the aids in the dehumidifier as they are, and guessed the instructions hadn't caught up with rechargeables.
In the same thread, a wearer was told to switch the aids off before a drying cycle.
The one thing every side agrees on is that the aids are sealed to a rating, not sealed forever.
Who needs one
Sweat is the case that comes up most. One gardener's aids started buzzing once they were out of warranty and out in the summer heat. They tried a bag of silica in the charger first, but it didn't help, so they bought a dryer:
I use the dryer every night and issues instantly stopped, so they were definitely being impacted by moisture.
u/SicilyMalta, in r/HearingAids
Custom molds are the other case. A wearer who has them dries daily and calls it a bit of a hassle to charge and dry both, but skipping it leaves the molds itching.
A wearer with a water-resistant ReSound pair didn't worry about moisture until it killed one of them over time, and was told the seals deteriorate. A reply in the Oticon thread puts it plainly: moisture can absolutely get into rechargeable hearing aids.
The box kind holds the aids overnight. The PerfectDry box is one, and its own listing names wireless earbuds and cochlear implants beside hearing aids.
Amplifon, a hearing-aid chain, says to pick a unit labelled for rechargeable hearing aids. A hearing-aid shop's page for the PerfectDry calls it safe with rechargeables.
The box is for the wearer who sweats through the day, has custom molds, or is nursing a pair past its warranty.
Who's fine without one
Somebody who's worn hearing aids for twenty years in rain and snow never used a dehumidifier and never had a moisture problem. Another, whose rechargeables are rated waterproof, doesn't see the need.
A reply in the Rexton thread reads the fitter more kindly: many newer aids carry an IP68 rating, so the fitter may have meant not required, not incompatible.
In the thread for new wearers, one reply calls a dehumidifier good preventative maintenance, though not something you need to start with.
A wearer of eight years says the only accessories you really need are wax filters and ear pieces. They did buy a dryer in the end, but have no idea whether it does anything. Wear the aids through the trial period before you buy any accessory, which is their own advice.
Silica gel packets for hearing aids: the charger trick
The cheap version lives inside the charger. A wearer tucks a small bag of silica beads in, with room left for the domes, and replaces it a couple of times a year.
Another pours colour-changing beads into the bottom of the charger, changes them when the colour says they're spent, and recharges them in the oven. Their one warning: don't put in so many that the beads stick to the dome.
At least one maker has built it in. Starkey put a desiccant puck in the charging case of its 2019 rechargeables.
The desiccant capsule is the ready-made version, a disc of beads sold for a drying jar. Whether one fits inside your charger depends on the charger, so check the disc's size on the listing against the gap in yours before you order.
It has two limits. A passive desiccant has to be replaced as it's spent, or it's doing nothing. The gardener above also sweated straight through a bag of it. Nobody has tested a packet against a box on the same aids, so pick by how wet your days are.
Skip the rice. It sheds a fine dust that can clog the electronics.
How often should you dehumidify your hearing aids?
As often as you sweat, going by the owners. The Rexton wearer who emailed the maker uses theirs maybe once a month, after a sweaty day. The one on the rep's advice only runs it on days they've sweated a lot.
An audiologist in New York told the Oticon wearer every other month in winter and every month through the humid summer. Nightly is for the gardener and the custom-mold wearer above. Go by the day you've had.
Let a hot day decide. Aids that buzz or act up after one want a box every night, and the PerfectDry box is the one to get. Before the first cycle, email your maker: that's how the Rexton owner got a straight yes.
Aids that come through a sweaty week fine want nothing more than a desiccant capsule, tucked in the charger if it fits and swapped out regularly.
