You can buy most hearing aid tubes from your favorite name-brand hearing aid manufacturers online. Advanced Affordable Hearing is one such great resource for purchasing name-brand hearing aid tubes for devices from brands like Phonak, Siemens, Beltone, and more.
But when should you replace your hearing aids tubes?
Ideally, you should replace your hearing aid tubes at least once every three months. There are several signs to look for that reveal it’s time to purchase hearing aid tube replacements, as well as several reasons to consider purchasing tubes online rather than from your local provider.
3 Signs You Should Change Your Tubes
While it might seem tempting to leave in the tubes that came with your hearing aids, you might start noticing that you can’t hear as well as you did when you first got your hearing aids, and here’s why:
1. You’ve cleaned your tubes, but they’re still clogged.
Every healthy ear canal contains some earwax. However, as a hearing aid wearer, your ears are prone to producing excess earwax. This is because when you wear your hearing aids, you block your earwax’s natural exit. In turn, your earwax blocks sound from entering your hearing aids properly, which can result in feedback.
To reduce feedback, you can clean your tubes with a cleaning filament. (Watch our YouTube video on How to Clean Your Tubes.) That being said, cleaning your tubes will only increase their life by so much, and after a certain point, they’ll need to be replaced for you to hear your best.
2. You’ve noticed that your tubes are cracked.
Especially if you wear your hearing aids every day, and for a majority of the day, your tubes will be more susceptible to normal wear and tear. Because they are made of plastic, your tubes will degrade over time, which can result in cracks, and cracks can prevent you from hearing your best.
Trying to hear well with a cracked hearing aid tube is akin to trying to drink soda with a cracked straw. Just as soda will struggle to travel through the cracked straw, sounds will struggle to travel through the cracked tube into your hearing aid and into your ear. As a result, you may not hear as you should until you replace your tube.
3. You’re hearing feedback or nothing at all.
When your tubes aren’t in the best shape, your hearing aids themselves won’t have the ability to function to the best of their abilities either. In fact, many people mistakenly believe their hearing aids are broken when they merely need new tubes.
Before you call your hearing aid provider, consider changing your tubes as soon as you notice your hearing aid not working as well as it should. Not only will you hear better, but you’ll lengthen the life of your hearing aids.
Shopping with Your Local Provider vs. Online
If you purchased your hearing aids from your local provider, you may feel like you need to visit your local audiologist in order to new tubes. However, you can purchase tubes for most name-brand hearing aids without leaving the comfort of your home, and often for a much lower price.
By purchasing your hearing aid tubes online, not only will you save a trip, but you won’t have to take the risk of hearing a sales pitch from your local hearing provider. Instead, shop with Advanced Affordable Hearing. We offer hearing aid tubes for many name-brand hearing aids, along with many other name-brand hearing aid accessories.
To purchase yours today, view our Tubes page.
For more information, call a representative at 1 (800) 804-0434.