How to Properly Store Your Hearing Aids During the Monsoon Season

Why the Monsoon Period Represents a Real Threat to Your Hearing Devices

There exists a moment, every year, in which the persons who use hearing aids must to change their habits in a way that is complete. This moment is the monsoon season. The humidity in the air arrives at levels of eighty, ninety percent, and the water becomes a presence constant in every corner of the house. For the electronic components of the hearing aids, this condition is not simply a discomfort: it is a danger real and concrete.

The microphones, the receivers, the small circuits that elaborate the sound — all these elements are constructed with materials that suffer the moisture. When the vapour penetrates inside the shell of the device, it creates a corrosion slow but progressive. In fact, many users notice that, after two or three weeks of rain continuous, the sound becomes less clear, or the device begins to make small noises of background. These are the signs that the humidity has already made its work of damage.

It is for this reason that the storage of the hearing aids, during the monsoon, cannot to be the same one that you practise in the months dry. It is necessary a attention different, more structured. And I say this not as a theory, but as a practice that saves the life of the device and, above all, protects the quality of your hearing day after day.

The Fundamental Rules of Storage: What It Is Necessary to Do Every Evening

The first rule, the one from which all the others depend, is simple but it is not negotiable: you must to remove the hearing aids every evening and to place them in a location that is dry, elevated, and far from the windows. During the monsoon, the windows carry inside the humidity of the night, and the surfaces near to them become cold and wet with condensation.

The gesture of cleaning is also fundamental. Before to place the devices in their container, it is necessary to pass a cloth soft and dry on all the surface, including the small holes of the microphone. The wax and the humidity, together, form a paste that blocks the sound channels. I suggest to use a cloth in microfiber, the type that one uses for the lenses of the glasses, because it does not leave fibres.

The battery compartment must to remain open during the night. This is a detail that many forget, but which makes a difference enormous. With the compartment open, the air circulates and the moisture that has accumulated during the day can to evaporate. If you close the compartment, you create a chamber sealed in which the humidity remains trapped until the morning.

The Tools That Help You: Drying Containers and Desiccant Solutions

To leave the hearing aids simply on the table, even if cleaned, is not sufficient during the monsoon. It is necessary to use a container of drying. These are small boxes that contain a substance desiccant — usually a gel of silica — which absorbs the moisture from the air inside.

Here below, I indicate the elements to verify when you choose your drying solution:

The capacity of absorption : the desiccant must to be adequate for the volume of the box. A box too large with a small desiccant does not protect in sufficient manner.
The indicator of saturation : the best products have a gel that changes colour (from blue to pink, or from orange to green) when it has absorbed the maximum of humidity. In this way, you know when it is necessary to replace it or to regenerate it in the oven.
The closure hermetic : the lid must to close with a guarnizione, a rubber seal, that impedes to the humid air of the room to enter.
The dimension adequate : the hearing aids must to stay inside without to be compressed, but also without too much space empty.

During the monsoon, it is prudent to change or to regenerate the desiccant every four or five days, not every two weeks as in the dry season. The humidity is aggressive, and the silica saturates with much more rapidity.

For the persons who live in zones where the rain is continuous for weeks, there exists also the option of the drying box electric, which uses a heat gentle (around the forty-five degrees) to eliminate the moisture. This type of device is particularly useful for the hearing aids with a mould in silicone, which retains the water more than the materials rigid.

The Errors That Many Commit (And That You Must Avoid)

In the years of observing how the persons take care of their devices, I have seen errors repeated that cause damages serious. It is important to know them in order to not to commit them:

The Error	Why It Is Harmful	What To Do Instead
To leave the devices in the bathroom	The steam of the shower creates a humidity of almost one hundred percent	To store them always in the bedroom or in a room ventilated
To use the hair dryer for to dry them	The heat excessive deforms the shell and damages the circuits	To use only the drying container at ambient temperature or with heat controlled
To put the devices in the rice	The rice does not absorb with efficiency and the dust enters in the microphones	To use the silica gel, which is conceived for this scope
To ignore the tubes and the moulds	The water remains inside the tube and creates bacteria	To detach the tube and to dry it separately with a small cloth rolled

Above all, it is necessary to never use alcohol or solvents for to clean the hearing aids during the monsoon. These substances remove the protective layer of the materials and render them more vulnerable to the humidity. A cloth dry is sufficient. If there is wax resistant, use the small brush that is provided with the device.

Supporting the Health of Your Hearing Also From Within

There is an aspect of the care of the hearing that many forget, and which becomes relevant above all in the seasons difficult. The protection of the hearing is not only a question external — of devices, of storage, of cleaning. It is also a question internal, of nourishment of the structures that permit you to hear.

The cells ciliated of the inner ear, those which transform the vibrations in signals for the brain, require nutrients specific: vitamins of the group B, magnesium, antioxidants. During the monsoon, when the pressure changes and the humidity affects also the ear in a physical manner, having a terrain nourished from within makes a difference in how you perceive the sound.

In this context, a supplement as this context, a supplement as Acuvit can to represent a support in the routine daily of care. It is formulated for to accompany the function auditory with ingredients that sustain the microcirculation and the health of the cells of the ear. Naturally, it is not a substitute of the medical control, but a complement that makes sense when integrated in a style of life attentive. For the persons who desire to understand better the composition and the approach, the reference is the page acuvit.health, where the philosophy of the product is explained in manner transparent.

I mention this not as a solution miraculous, but because the care of the hearing, in my experience, is a work of attention complete: you protect the device from the rain, yes, but you also protect the ear itself with the nutrition, with the rest, with the avoidance of the noise excessive. All these gestures, together, construct a defence real.

A Practical Routine: The Weekly Calendar of Care

For to make all this concrete, I propose a rhythm of care that you can to follow during the weeks of monsoon:

Every evening: Remove the devices, clean them with the cloth in microfiber, open the battery compartment, place them in the drying box with the silica gel.

Every two days: Control the colour of the desiccant. Verify that the guarnizione of the box is intact and without cracks.

Once at the week: Clean the moulds or the domes in silicone with water tepid and a drop of soap neutral. Dry them with patience, also inside, using a small cloth rolled or a bulb of air. Control the tubes for to see if there are drops of water trapped.

Every two weeks: If you use a drying box electric, make a cycle complete of sixty minutes. Control the contacts of the battery for to see if there are signs of oxidation (a patina white or green).

Once at the month: Make a control of the sound. Put the devices in a room silent and listen if the quality is the same one of the first days. If you perceive a reduction, it is the moment to go to the audioprothesist for a cleaning professional.

This calendar does not require more than ten minutes in total, distributed in the week. But these ten minutes, during the monsoon, are the difference between a device that lasts five years and a device that arrives damaged to the second season of rain.

The hearing is a sense precious, and the instruments that help us to conserve it deserve a care that is proportional to their importance. With the attention right, also the monsoon passes without to leave signs on your devices and on your capacity to listen to the world around you.