by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
Some brands of hearing aid batteries come in standard or high power versions. If your hearing aid is a power aid, then you may need the high power versions. However, if not, then buying high power batteries will not give you extra performance or longer battery life. In fact, they may give you shorter battery life. Here’s why.
According to Elliott Alexander of the Micropower Battery Company , high power batteries are designed to meet the higher current demands of power hearing aids. To design a high power battery, the manufacturer must sacrifice milli-amp hour capacity, so the high power battery will have less capacity than a standard battery.
Thus, if standard batteries meet the current requirements of your hearing aids, then they should last longer than similar high power batteries. This is not to say that high power batteries won’t work in any aid. They will. They just may not last as long and may cost more.
Here’s how you can tell if a battery is a high power battery or not. The letters following the battery size are an indication. For example, number 13 batteries are standard power, while number 13HP (Toshiba), 13EH (Rayovac) and 13P (PowerOne) are all high power batteries. The same letter combinations also hold true for number 675 batteries.
