It’s important to properly care for your hearing aids when it comes to cleaning and storage. This is especially important in the winter months as the weather gets colder and wetter. Below we review tips for winter weather hearing aid care.
What to Do
To care for your hearing aids during the winter, you should:
- Keep spare batteries on hand. Cold weather can drain hearing aid batteries faster. Keeping spare batteries or a charger on hand can ensure you don’t run out of hearing aid battery when you need it most.
- Remove hats and scarves carefully. It’s all too easy to pull your hearing aids out of your ears when removing winter gear. Be mindful of this so you don’t lose your devices.
- Take your hearing aids out before participating in outdoor winter sports. If you enjoy skiing somewhere such as Edelweiss, consider storing your devices somewhere safe so you don’t risk losing or damaging them.
- Air out your hearing aids after spending time outdoors. To allow moisture to evaporate, open the battery doors of your hearing aids and let them rest.
- Invest in a dehumidifier. To really ensure no moisture damages your hearing aids, store them in a dehumidifier at night.
What Not to Do
Just as important as knowing what you should do to care for your hearing aids during the winter is knowing what not to do. Be sure to avoid…
- Storing batteries or chargers in the car. This could damage them and shorten their lifespan.
- Putting your rechargeable hearing aids in a heated drying system. Hearing aids can be damaged by heat.
- Forgetting to keep up with your daily cleaning routine. With the days growing shorter, many people are thrown off their routine. Don’t let your cleaning routine fall by the wayside.
- Worrying about the cold weather. While cold weather can affect battery life, it won’t harm the technology within your hearing aids if you’re following our above tips.
- Hesitating to call your audiologist. If you experience any problems with your hearing aids, from short battery life to sound distortion, call your audiologist right away!
For more information on care and repairs or to schedule an appointment with an expert audiologist, call Decibel Hearing today.