Living with hearing loss is a challenge that many of us overcome on a daily basis. Modern times have seen gradual increase in how long people are living, particularly in more developed countries. People living to be older are one of the trends that have resulted in increase in number of people with varying degree of hearing losses. They are being fitted with hearing aids to overcome this hearing loss. One of the many challenge that hearing aid users face is determining the right battery for their hearing aids.

Emotional Moment

When someone is initially fitted with the hearing aids they are provided with the instructions on the hearing aid battery sizes along with a whole bunch of other details. Wearing hearing aids is a life altering moment for people; the emotions and anxiety of the person being fitted with the devices for the first time results in somewhat less than full attention being paid to the trivial information like battery details. Providers typically also give patients a supply of batteries for immediate use. As a consequence of this a consumer does not even start to think about batteries they need till after a few months of first getting the hearing aids. By this time they don’t recall how to figure out best hearing aid battery for their hearing aid. When they look for help they find out that there is very little information available to help them through this; even on internet it takes some digging up to get the needed details. My hope in writing this article is to provide some relevant information and identify some resource which could help someone in this situation.

For the beginners remember that the quality and performance of a particular batter will vary by the manufacturer; however, the specifications of the battery will always comply with industry standards. All batteries manufactured to fit hearing aids using standard size 10 batteries will fit hearing aids using size 10 batteries irrespective of the manufacturer of the battery or hearing aid.

Best way to identify the size of the battery for your hearing aid is the numerical code assigned to each size. These codes are assigned by I.E.C and the common codes for battery sizes are 10, 13, 312, and 675. These sizes have associated standard color codes as well. Battery size code number is prominently located on the front and back of the blister pack or packaging. Sometimes manufacturers may add letters with the size number for example ‘A312’ what is important is the number ‘312’ which represents the size of the battery that your hearing aid uses. Also make sure not to confuse the size number with other information found on the packaging, like expiration date. Size code is going to be more prominently mentioned in the front and the back of the package.

Another way to quickly identify the batter size is look at the prominent color on the package or the plastic tag attached to the battery itself. This tag is the color code of the battery size.

• Yellow color represents size 10 batteries which are typically used by ‘Completely in the Canal’ or 'In the Canal hearing’ aids.

• Orange color represents size 13 batteries which are typically used by ‘In the Ear’ or ‘Behind the Ear’ hearing aids.

• Brown color represents size 312 batteries which are typically used by ‘In the Ear’ and ‘Behind the Ear’ hearing aids.

• Blue color represents size 675 batteries which are typically used by ‘Behind the Ear’ hearing aid and Cochlear Implants. Implants required higher power than a hearing aid; for this reason manufacturers have optimized a size 675P or 675SP for the Cochlear implants. Please keep in in mind that battery performance also depends on the unique implant user map personal to each user.

If your hearing aid does not use one of the standard battery size or you are not sure about the needed battery size you can read further hearing aid batteries reviews available on the internet.

Last word of caution is that do not attempt to force a battery into your you device. This will likely damage the piece. If the battery does not slide effortlessly into the battery chamber it could be a sign of an incorrect battery size. Use only the correct size of battery in your device. When in doubt use a battery size chart to determine they the size of the batteries.