Zincaro The Hearing Aid Battery Robot

Hearing Aid Battery Tutorial

If you are here, you are probably saying, "What is this mA Drain and Capacity stuff?", or "What the heck is this Zincaro thing and what is it doing with my mA information?"

This page explains what the acyronyms stand for and what Zincaro does to give you battery life estimates. Also included are some general information on batteries.

First, what is this mA and mAh stuff?

mA - milliamp - this is a measurement of electrical power used two ways in computing battery life.

The mA Drain of a hearing aid per hour. (mA) This is how much mA of electricity a hearing aid will drain in one hour. It is usually given on the ANSI specification strip or, you can measure it with most hearing aid test boxes. If either of these are not available, you should be able to call the hearing aid manufacturer for the drain information. The average values that Zincaro uses were taken from Robert L. Martin's January 1992 Nuts and Bolts article in The Hearing Journal. To his credit, Dr. Martin's article gave me the inspiration to create this page!
The mA hour Capacity of a battery. (mAh) This is the number of hours that a hearing aid battery gives 1 mA of electricity. The average values that Zincaro uses are from the RAYOVAC Zinc Air Extra brand of hearing aid batteries.

What Zincaro does to compute battery life is divide and then divide again!
First, he takes the mA hour Capacity of a battery and divides it by the mA Drain per hour of a hearing aid.

Dr. Martin in his Nuts and Bolts article uses the following analogy:
The mA drain per hour of a hearing aid is like the MPG rating for a car. The difference is, the lower the drain rating the better. The lower the drain rating the less power that the hearing aid needs per hour.
The mA hour capacity of the battery is like the size of the gas tank. The the larger the gas tank (mAh capacity of the battery) the longer the battery will last.

Zincaro's first division (capacity/drain) gives the total number of hours that the hearing aid will last on one battery. Here is an example:

If a 675 Zinc Air battery has a mA capacity of 600 hours (a gas tank of 600 gallons) and the hearing aid has a drain rating of .5 mA per hour (consumes .5 gallons per hour) the battery should last 600/.5 or 1200 hours. Still, 1200 hours doesn't mean much to people until you tell them how many days that equals! This is Zincaro's second division. He divides the total number of hours, by the number of hours per day that the hearing aid will be used. Day estimates are usually based on wearing the hearing aid 16 hours per day. So, to finish the example from above:

Here are some useful factoids that I use when counseling patients on hearing aid batteries.

Do not peel the zinc-air tab off until you are ready to use them. Once you peel it off the battery will become active. With the tab left on they have a shelf life of 2 to 3 years.

Hearing aid batteries are made to have a constant drain and then quit. If your hearing aid goes dead it is probably time for a new battery.

Batteries are dangerous if swallowed! The emergency number to call if a battery is swallowed is listed on the back of all battery packs and is (202) 625-3333 and, you can call collect.

Keep your batteries away from your vitamins, pills, children, and pets to prevent them from being accidentally swallowed.

To drive home the point that swallowing batteries is dangerous, we have all of our patients initial a statement in the hearing aid contract that says that they understand that batteries are dangerous if swallowed.

If you have two hearing aids and one battery runs out before the other just change both out to save frustration.

Hearing aid batteries can be bought at most major drug and grocery stores. They are usually kept in a separate section from the regular batteries. It is easiest to just ask the manager where they are kept if you are unsure where to look. RAYOVAC has a 1 800 number you can call to find where to get hearing aid batteries near you at 1 800 800 5224. This number is answered Monday-Friday 5 am to 9 pm EST.

Store your batteries at room temperature. Avoid storage in hot locations. Refrigeration is not necessary.

All hearing aid batteries are color coded. You just have to remember the color of your hearing aid battery to remember what size to get.

That is it! If you have this information down click here to use Zincaro!

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