You love swimming and are all about being in the water. The pool is like your second home (when you were a kid, everybody said you were part fish–that’s how often you wanted to go swimming). The water seems a bit…louder… than normal today. And then you recognize your oversight: you went into the pool with your hearing aid in. And you don’t know if it’s waterproof or not.
In most cases, you’re right to be a little worried. Normally, contemporary hearing aids are resistant to water to some degree. But a device that resists water is a great deal different than a device that’s waterproof.
Hearing aids and water resistance ratings
In general speaking, your hearing aids are going to function best when they are kept clean and dry. But for the majority of hearing aids, it won’t be a big deal if you get a little water on them. It all depends on something known as an IP rating–that’s the officially allocated water resistance number.
Here’s how the IP rating works: every hearing aid is assigned a two-digit number. The device’s resistance to dust, sand, and other kinds of dry erosion is represented by the first digit.
The second digit (and the one we’re really interested in here) represents how resistant your hearing aid is to water. The greater the number, the longer the device will keep working under water. So a device that has a rating of IP87 will be very resistant to sand and work for around thirty minutes in water.
Some modern hearing aids can be quite water-resistant. But there are no hearing aids currently available that are totally waterproof.
Is water resistance worthwhile?
The sophisticated electronics inside your hearing aid case aren’t going to do well with water. Before you go for a swim or into the shower you will probably want to take out your hearing aid and depending on the IP rating, try not to use them in overly humid weather. No level of water resistance will help if you drop your hearing aids in the deep end of a swimming pool, but there are some scenarios where a high IP rating will definitely be advantageous:
- If the environment where you live is rainy or excessively humid
- You have a passion for water sports (such as fishing or boating); the spray from the boat could call for high IP rated hearing aids
- If you have a heavy sweating problem
- You have a track record of forgetting to take your hearing aids out before you shower or walk out into the rain
This is certainly not a complete list. It’ll be up to you and your hearing specialist to evaluate your day-to-day life and identify just what sort of water resistance is strong enough for your routine.
Your hearing aids need to be taken care of
It’s important to note that water-resistant doesn’t mean maintenance-free. Between sweat-filled runs, it will be smart to ensure that you clean your hearing aids and keep them dry.
In some situations, that could mean obtaining a dehumidifier. In other cases, it might just mean storing your hearing aids in a clean dry place every night (depending on your climate). But certain kinds of moisture can leave residue (like sweat), so to get the best results, you will also want to take enough time to clean your hearing aids thoroughly.
If your hearing aids get wet, what should you do?
If there’s no such thing as a waterproof hearing aid, should you panic when your devices get wet? Mostly because panicking never helps anyway so it’s best to stay calm. But you will want to completely allow your hearing aids to dry and consult with us to make sure that they aren’t damaged, especially if they have a low IP rating.
The IP rating on your hearing aid will give you a concept of what you can expect when it comes to possible water damage. If you can avoid getting your hearing aids wet, you will get the best results. The drier your hearing devices stay, the better.
