Hearing Aid Help – Page 24

This question of home WIFI interference and hearing aid comes up with either you hear distortion, intermittency or choppiness from your hearing aid while streaming or possibly your home WIFI is slow and you do not know the reason is. So can hearing aids interfere with WIFI? Newer hearing aids do run 2.4Hz wireless technology and some home WIFI routers are also based on this technology. However, they should not interfere with each other in normal operation. However, if in a crowded 2.4 GHz area there could very well be a traffic jam in the 2.4 GHz signal and your hearing aids may not stream correctly. So I did some additional research on the topic to hopefully save you some time researching it out. Hearing Aids on 2.4 GHz technology and routers on 2.4 GHz technology. 2.4 GHz is what all hearing aids are going to be using in the future for wireless communication. It is safe to assume that if you by a hearing aid newer than 2019 that it likely has a 2.4 GHz wireless chip in it. If you buy a self-fit or over-the-counter hearing aid it may or may not have a wireless chip. How Hearing Aids Could Be Impacted By Interference There are a lot of consumer devices that run on 2.4 GHz technology. When there are too many devices running in the same area there is what is called a traffic jam. A traffic jam means that all the signal space available to make transmissions is used up. This is unlikely to happen in a single family house but if you live in New York City in an 80 story apartment building with 8 apartment per floor it could be a very real issue. It all depends on how many wireless WIFI routers are running on 2.4 GHz and other 2.4 devices such as cordless phones, cordless computer mice, drones and other toys. How Will Interference Affect My Hearing Aids? Hearing aids would not be affected in their normal amplification functions but could be affected in the wireless function. Hearing aids do multiple wireless functions including streaming phone calls, streaming music and tv signals, using remote controls to change hearing aid settings, and having one hearing aid connected to the other ear. If you are having interference, the hearing aid will likely be intermittent. For example, if you are streaming from the TV transmitter, the signal is likely to sound choppy and cut in and out.If you were trying to use a remote control, sometimes it would work and other times it won’t. What to do if you have interference on the hearing aids? You need to reduce the amount of 2.4 GHz that is being transmitted nearby. This could include replacing your home WIFI router with a 5gHz signal instead of a 2.4 GHz signal. If you live in an apartment building it is possible that you will not be able to remove the interference if it is coming from a neighbor’s apartment and in that case, you either have to deal with the interference or move. Final Thoughts Although 2.4 GHz signal could theoretically have mild interference with hearing aid, I have never personally experienced it. I have fit many (like thousands) of patients with these wireless hearing aids and have never heard of one person complaining of it. However, many patients probably wouldn’t say that their hearing aids are having problems due to WIFI interference. They would likely just say that the device is intermittent, and if they did I would just send it to the manufacturer for repair.