Upgrade from 3G to Freedom BTE

krazykatkitty

krazykatkitty

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Hi, Soon I'm going to upgrade in to new Freedom speech processor in June or July. I need to know how much difference between freedom and 3G.. Any positives about the Freedom Speech processor? :hmm:

Thanks :)
 
I have experience with the 3G and the Freedom.

I can only speak from my own personal experience, but some of the things I love about the Freedom include:

* 4 program slots as opposed to 2 on the 3G
* better sound quality
* water resistance
* ability to control volume and sensitivity separately instead of being limited to one or the other with the 3G
* ability to use rechargeable batteries
* battery warning beeps sound 5 minutes before batteries lose power as opposed to 2-3 seconds with the 3G
* longer disposable battery life

Long story short, I'm very happy with my Freedom processors. :D
 
I don't have any experience with 3G, but a few friends of mine did. Most of them were implanted with N24C and had 3G. They upgraded to Freedom, and they love it. Sounds so much better and clearer. This is why you'll see that Cochlear hasn't really upgraded their processors because it's almost to perfection. The only thing I could think of that they need to improve on is the battery compartment, but it's something that you just get used to...since Freedom is the only one that can handle regular disposable batteries AND rechargeable. It's a neat feature to have.
 
I didn't think I'd like using rechargeables at first, but once I did, I was hooked. I love the ease of being able to charge my batteries overnight and have a full day's worth of power. At the same time, I also love the flexibility of being able to use disposables when I'm on the go or being able to walk into any convenience/drugstore and purchase 675 batteries in a pinch.
 
I think Cochlear needs to make the speech processors less heavy on the ear and slimmer. My implant really irritates the top of my ear
 
You can buy Power One implant batteries? i wish i had that option if I ran out of batteries, because I cannot go into a drug store and buy my batteries. i have to specificially get them from the hospital or the CI centre
 
DeafLissa90 said:
You can buy Power One implant batteries? i wish i had that option if I ran out of batteries, because I cannot go into a drug store and buy my batteries. i have to specificially get them from the hospital or the CI centre
Click to expand...

Why can't you buy 675s at the drugstore?

By the way, Power One Implant batteries are only sold through microbattery.com.
 
Dont know they just usually sell tiny batteries for HA's
 
DeafLissa90 said:
I think Cochlear needs to make the speech processors less heavy on the ear and slimmer. My implant really irritates the top of my ear
Click to expand...

Try placing a piece of moleskin where your processor irritates your ear.

I also have to say that I wish the Freedom were smaller. I have very small ears and I can't count the number of times it has almost fallen off. I won't wear an earmold because I'm not going to risk having ear infections. I've dealt with them long enough and do not want to experience them again if I can help it especially since the ear infections I have last for weeks and sometimes months.
 
Lissa,

I am sorry that you had soreness on your ear. I had the same problem and I fix the issue by taking the ear hook off and put in hot water to reform the bend in the hook more to fix it. In your kit from Cochlear you should a small packet of different ear hooks as well that you can try. I use a Skelton ear mold with my implant and will not get any ear infection with thay type of ear mold and it is more like a ring in the ear. I had outer ear surgery done long time ago to help hold a hearing aid but with the Freedom it was a bit of trouble but no longer a issue for me.


DeafLissa90 said:
I think Cochlear needs to make the speech processors less heavy on the ear and slimmer. My implant really irritates the top of my ear
Click to expand...
 
I've been wearing skeleton earmolds since 1985 and I still had ear infections due to the part of the earmold that sat in my ear canal. I have extremely small ear canals, so perhaps that's why. :dunno:
 
I am sorry that you still have ear infections. When my audi made the skeleton mold it was for the CI in mind and almost nothing is in my ear canal. Just a few years ago I had a very bad case of fungus in the ears and I made a vow to prevent that from happening again. I made myself an eye dropper bottle of distilled water, alcohol and a bit of distilled vinegar and put in a few drops in the ear every few day and never will have that problem again.


Hear Again said:
I've been wearing skeleton earmolds since 1985 and I still had ear infections due to the part of the earmold that sat in my ear canal. I have extremely small ear canals, so perhaps that's why. :dunno:
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
john57,

Ever since I had my first CI in 2004, I haven't had a single ear infection. All of the ear infections I had were from infancy right up until the day of my first CI surgery.

Knock on wood, ear infections have not been a problem. I think this is attributed to the fact that I no longer wear earmolds in my ears.

My audi always used to file down the part of the earmold that is inserted into the ear canal, but it still caused problems despite the fact that I sanitized and cleaned it every night.
 
DeafLissa90 said:
You can buy Power One implant batteries? i wish i had that option if I ran out of batteries, because I cannot go into a drug store and buy my batteries. i have to specificially get them from the hospital or the CI centre
Click to expand...

U can buy normal 675's in any drugstores (boots do them) But not Cochlear ones which we need to get from CI centre. The 675's are ok for CI's but they don't last as long as CI batteries but it'll do for short time.
 
Cochlear implants use hi powered 675 batteries..

That's why I like the rechargable batteries along with my nifty remote on my MedEL Opus 2
 
I actually have some friends that didnt like the Freedom and went back to their old model.

Each their own...
 
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