Time to Read: 5 Minutes
In this video, Emma introduces the new SmartCharger, a portable charger for the Oticon More mRITE-R and CROS PX lithium-ion rechargeable hearing aids. The SmartCharger is capable of storing extra charge so that you can charge your hearing aids on the go. It also uses inductive charging to dry your hearing aids as they charge.
The new Oticon SmartCharger was released in Australia in October 2021.
Watch the video or read the transcript below:
Hi there, I'm Emma from Value Hearing. I'm a clinical audiologist, and in today's video I'm going to give you a quick update on the new Oticon SmartCharger that has just become available for order in Australia.
The SmartCharger from Oticon is an exciting release simply because Oticon have been really successful this year with their More hearing aids.
Their More rechargeable hearing aid came out in January. We fitted a lot of them here in Australia and we've been really, really happy with them and our clients have been giving us amazing feedback.
One of the drawbacks with the Oticon model compared to some of the others on the market was we only had one charger to choose from and it was quite limited in its function. So, the smart charger is a very welcome addition to the family.
The SmartCharger is essentially a dry aid kit for your hearing aids as well. So, it now has a lid and it will be using induction charging and producing some heat to help dry any moisture out that's built up throughout the day in your hearing aids, which is something that can be a real issue here in Australia.
The other thing is that this little charger is also a power bank.
It actually has three charging cycles available so that's three nights of charging for you if you go off camping for the weekend and you don't have access to electricity. You can take this with you and know that you won't run out of battery power.
It also has USB C, which you can plug directly into your power point but you can also plug it into anything with a USB A, so a car, or a PC which means it's just a little bit more flexible than what we've had before.
Also, this little charger is very light and portable in general, so it will make for a great storage unit for the hearing aids while you're traveling.
It's not something we were able to offer before. We didn't even have a lid with the previous charger.
It takes three hours to fully charge the hearing aids. It will be four hours to fully charge the charger for the very first time, or every time you've run it out of its three charging cycles. If you're charging the hearing aids at the same time, it will take about eight hours - so just overnight for that.
Some really good tips with the charger and any electronic charger for hearing aids, or dry kit for hearing aids for that matter, is make sure that you don't store it somewhere really humid like the bathroom.
Somewhere like the bedroom would be good.
When you're cleaning it don't use any solvents. Please just use a nice dry soft cloth so you're not damaging the charging contacts.
Apart from that, it's all pretty straightforward - you just put your hearing aids in for a charge every night and they will be getting a nice drying session throughout the time they're charging up.
So this is what it looks like - nice and small, quite light. What I particularly like is that the trough inside is actually quite deep, so even if you've got quite a big ear mould as part of your hearing aids, you will usually be able to fit them into this.
They'd have to be quite big to become a problem which is great, so yes we're very happy.
Something else I should mention is also that with those three charging cycles there are three little lights on the back that will indicate to you how many charging cycles you have left and the status overall.
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