Hearing Aid batteries WITH mercury

Rushie

Rushie

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Rushie
Anyone know an online supplier? Or is this one more thing being ruined...

They made me go to light bulbs WITH mercury because they were more energy efficient and now they want to take mercury out of my little HA batteries the size of a pencil eraser because they have mercury. Unbelievable.

So anyway Amazon has them, but the reviewers say they are now being shipped mercury free batteries which is not what the picture shows.
 
It's not about what works best. It's not about what is better (or even less bad) for the environment.

It's about the Regulator flexing bureaucratic muscle and forcing the manufacturer to do what the Regulator wants. Surely you are familiar with this from the FAA????
 
Hank S said:
It's not about what works best. It's not about what is better (or even less bad) for the environment.

It's about the Regulator flexing bureaucratic muscle and forcing the manufacturer to do what the Regulator wants. Surely you are familiar with this from the FAA????
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Are they banning them now? Am I going to have to order my HA batteries from overseas like I did my glass mercury thermometers? Yes, I had some shipped to me from India I think it was.
 
Rushie said:
Are they banning them now? Am I going to have to order my HA batteries from overseas like I did my glass mercury thermometers? Yes, I had some shipped to me from India I think it was.
Click to expand...

Depends on which "they" Regulators and "them" products you are talking about.
 
The meter battery in my old Minolta SRT-102 was a mercury cell. "They" quit making them years (decades?) ago. Now the only thing with the right voltage and form factor is a zinc-air battery. Open the seal to allow air in and it's good for 6 months, whether you use it or not. The old batteries were good for years. I haven't used that camera in years and I'm not sure that I could get the battery locally if I needed it. This is progress?
 
Ghery said:
The meter battery in my old Minolta SRT-102 was a mercury cell. "They" quit making them years (decades?) ago. Now the only thing with the right voltage and form factor is a zinc-air battery. Open the seal to allow air in and it's good for 6 months, whether you use it or not. The old batteries were good for years. I haven't used that camera in years and I'm not sure that I could get the battery locally if I needed it. This is progress?
Click to expand...
Yes. Think about how much mercury was going into the environment from people powering their 60 year old film cameras. Think of the children.
 
Ghery said:
The meter battery in my old Minolta SRT-102 was a mercury cell. "They" quit making them years (decades?) ago. Now the only thing with the right voltage and form factor is a zinc-air battery. Open the seal to allow air in and it's good for 6 months, whether you use it or not. The old batteries were good for years. I haven't used that camera in years and I'm not sure that I could get the battery locally if I needed it. This is progress?
Click to expand...
For my Rollei SL35 I sent it to a shop and they re-calibrated the meter to use a 1.5V battery.
 
Ghery said:
The meter battery in my old Minolta SRT-102 was a mercury cell. "They" quit making them years (decades?) ago. Now the only thing with the right voltage and form factor is a zinc-air battery. Open the seal to allow air in and it's good for 6 months, whether you use it or not. The old batteries were good for years. I haven't used that camera in years and I'm not sure that I could get the battery locally if I needed it. This is progress?
Click to expand...

That's it! The new ones are zinc air and they say you have to remove the tab and let it sit for a while before you put it in your hearing aid. That's bullish!!!! Sitting at the gate at the airport? In the middle of a concert? The middle of the holiday dinner? At my doctor's appointment? Working? I'm supposed to say excuse me I'm going to be stone deaf here for a few minutes while my batteries crank up?

N659HB said:
I think you can order PowerOne batteries with mercury through Amazon.

Edit: apparently not.
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Yeah those PowerOnes are what I bought the last time and now when I "reordered" and put it in my cart the picture changed to the mercury free ones. I have sent a message to the vendor asking if they can guarantee the mercury ones when they ship, I'm not holding my breath.
 
My hearing aids give me about an hour of advance notice. It's rare that I'll not change the battery for it completely dies.
 
flyingron said:
My hearing aids give me about an hour of advance notice. It's rare that I'll not change the battery for it completely dies.
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I've been wearing hearing aids for about 20 years. I never had one that gave me more than about 3 or 4 minutes notice. Of course, mine are very powerful because, like Rushie, I am stone deaf without them. When mine give me the battery warning, I need to change them NOW.
 
The new digital aids are pretty remarkable.
 
The new Starkeys are pretty cool. At least, according to the hype. I assume other manufacturers have, or will have most of this functionality too).

They contain "sensors" and Aritificial Intelligence, although they are vague about what the sensors sense and what the AI can do. But they have recently put out a few details. Some of them are still on the drawing boards, but they say they are close.

Interactive language translation from any of 27 languages to any of the same 27 languages (eg: french to English, German to French, English to German etc). I'd be happy with just good English to English translation. Sometimes, people are difficult to understand even if you speak the same language.

Fall alert. Since many hearing aid users are older, and falls are a major danger, they can be programmed to send an alert to a list of people in case of a fall.

Fitness. They can duplicate most (or more) of the functions of products like Fitbit. If you go running without your smart phone, the hearing aids collect and store the data and send it to you phone when it is in reach.

Volume and pitch control from your smart phone, along with direct streaming to your phone or other BT devices, and can be controlled with a slight tap to the edge of the ear.

There are also ways for your hearing professional to remotely adjust your HAs if you get into a situation where they are not adjusted adequately.

It does other things too, including (so they say) the best and most powerful hearing aid functions ever. (of course, every hearing aid ever introduced has said that). And they say the batteries will last longer too.

They say these new hearing aids are supposed to do for hearing aids what the iphone (the first smart phone) did for cell phones.

I'll be looking at them in a few weeks, even though I just dropped over $7k less than 3 years ago on hearing aids that only let me hear better.
 
I've got Resound Linx3D's (spiffiest things on the market last year). I also have the noahlink programming device and the fitting app so I can tweak them myself.
No fit tracking or translation, but it does have the made for iphone support. My wife asked how it was that I knew where I was driving and I just pointed at my head and said "I hear voices."

The hearing aid basics are astounding. The default mode is pretty incredible, but putting it into restaurant mode tightens the directionality. You can adjust some of the params from the iPhone app.
 
JOhnH said:
The new Starkeys are pretty cool. At least, according to the hype. I assume other manufacturers have, or will have most of this functionality too).

They contain "sensors" and Aritificial Intelligence, although they are vague about what the sensors sense and what the AI can do. But they have recently put out a few details. Some of them are still on the drawing boards, but they say they are close.

Interactive language translation from any of 27 languages to any of the same 27 languages (eg: french to English, German to French, English to German etc). I'd be happy with just good English to English translation. Sometimes, people are difficult to understand even if you speak the same language.

Fall alert. Since many hearing aid users are older, and falls are a major danger, they can be programmed to send an alert to a list of people in case of a fall.

Fitness. They can duplicate most (or more) of the functions of products like Fitbit. If you go running without your smart phone, the hearing aids collect and store the data and send it to you phone when it is in reach.

Volume and pitch control from your smart phone, along with direct streaming to your phone or other BT devices, and can be controlled with a slight tap to the edge of the ear.

There are also ways for your hearing professional to remotely adjust your HAs if you get into a situation where they are not adjusted adequately.

It does other things too, including (so they say) the best and most powerful hearing aid functions ever. (of course, every hearing aid ever introduced has said that). And they say the batteries will last longer too.

They say these new hearing aids are supposed to do for hearing aids what the iphone (the first smart phone) did for cell phones.

I'll be looking at them in a few weeks, even though I just dropped over $7k less than 3 years ago on hearing aids that only let me hear better.
Click to expand...

Yeah I love budgeting $5000+ every five years for hearing aids throughout the rest of my life. I guess I'll work an extra few years into my "retirement" just to fund my hearing. But that's what it's come to, I suspect they're building in planned obsolescence just like they do with all electronics these days. My dad's first and only pair lasted him the rest of his life. Foolish me thought likewise the first one I bought would be it. Nope, already on the second pair and they're overdue to be replaced. I'd be interested in what you think of those Starkeys.
 
flyingron said:
I've got Resound Linx3D's (spiffiest things on the market last year). I also have the noahlink programming device and the fitting app so I can tweak them myself.
No fit tracking or translation, but it does have the made for iphone support. My wife asked how it was that I knew where I was driving and I just pointed at my head and said "I hear voices."

The hearing aid basics are astounding. The default mode is pretty incredible, but putting it into restaurant mode tightens the directionality. You can adjust some of the params from the iPhone app.
Click to expand...

I'll look at those too. I love my iPhone connection, and the next pair I get need to be iPhone integrated, no bluetooth necklace I have to recharge, assuming yours doesn't have the necklace? The only thing I like about the necklace is it has a button where I can shut off all outside sound and only hear what the hearing aid is saying, sort of like passive noise reduction headset. I'm assuming those can do the same thing?
 
The iPhone talks direct to the aids (individually) via BLE. It reduces the outside sounds when the iPhone is sourcing sound (don't know if there's a way to adjust that).
 
flyingron said:
The iPhone talks direct to the aids (individually) via BLE. It reduces the outside sounds when the iPhone is sourcing sound (don't know if there's a way to adjust that).
Click to expand...
My current, three year old hearing aids, have an adjustment to the open mike. The open mike can be 100% on or 100% off or anywhere in between while streaming sound. The problem is that it is a single setting that the provider sets in the office, and that is the percentage you get all the time. I think the new ones can let you adjust that on the fly, or at least let you turn the open mike on or off if the situation warrants. Often I will be streaming music or sound from some other source, and someone else will try to talk to me. Then I have to disable the streaming, or if set up, change programs. But that means sticking my finger in my ear and pushing buttons and waiting for the programs to change. The new way is much better; tap the outside of your ear to turn streaming on, then tap your ear again to turn streaming back off.
 
Salty said:
Yes. Think about how much mercury was going into the environment from people powering their 60 year old film cameras. Think of the children.
Click to expand...

Hey! I got that camera as a graduation gift from college - 43 years ago. :D
 
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