By Eric Sherman
Have you ever placed a fully charged battery into your cochlear implant processor only to find out it doesn’t power up?
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| Dirt on battery terminal |
Over time, the processor’s
battery terminals can become dirty. When this happens, the dirt forms a barrier
between the battery and the processor’s battery terminals preventing your
processor from turning on.
This happened to my son’s
processor. After a weekend of totally
refreshing the rechargeable batteries, one of his processors didn’t power on. I knew the batteries were good because they
all tested above 900 mAh and they worked in the other processor. Plus, my son had recently seen his
audiologist for a mapping session and all his equipment checked out. I thought I was going to have
to buy a new processor because his is out of warranty.
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| Materials to Clean AB Neptune Processor |
My son is bilaterally implanted and
wears Advanced
Bionics Neptune processors on a daily basis. The Neptune processors are very durable, so
it is hard to imagine that it would die from everyday use.
When examining the processor, I noticed what looked like a scuff mark on the brass battery
terminal. I grabbed a Q-tip and 91% isopropyl
alcohol and cleaned the terminals in the processor. The scuff mark came right off. After making sure everything looked clean, I
popped in a fully charged battery and the processor powered right up and has been
working ever since.
Practicing good maintenance on
your hearing devices will help them last and stay in good working order. Make
sure you follow your manufacturer’s instructions on maintenance and troubleshoot
before you start looking at replacing your device. It might just save you time
and a lot of money.
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