Figure 1
Device checks by problem, from three makers' user guides
Each line is attributed to the maker's own user guide. Steps cover the device only.
| No sound | Clean a blocked speaker opening or earpiece; switch the aid on; charge a flat battery; reboot an aid in an error state | Close the battery drawer all the way; put in a new battery | Replace a dead battery; clean a clogged mould, or change the wax filter or dome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weak, distorted or cutting out | Raise the volume if a volume control was set up; charge a low battery; clean the speaker opening or earpiece | Speech on and off, or one aid muted: replace the battery in one or both aids; move away from electrical interference | Clean the mould or change the wax filter; wipe moisture off the battery with a dry cloth; replace a dead battery |
| Whistling (feedback) | Both causes listed concern how the aid sits in the ear or the ear itself: not reproduced here | The cause listed concerns the ear: not reproduced here | Both causes listed concern earpiece placement or the ear: not reproduced here |
| Beeps | 2 beeps signal a low battery: charge | No beep row in this guide | 8 beeps played 4 times in a row: the microphone needs a service check by a hearing care professional |
| Restart | Hold the lower part of the multi-function button for at least 15 seconds; programs and settings are kept | Open and close the battery compartment; turn both aids off and on if they fall out of sync | Opening and closing the battery drawer is one step of the Apple pairing fix |
| Phone or remote control | Calls fail in flight mode: switch off and on; otherwise pair the aid with the phone | Bring the control device closer, away from interference; the hearing care professional checks the pairing | Unpair, turn Bluetooth off and on, open and close the battery drawer, pair again (the 2016 phone menus are not reproduced) |
| Charging or battery life | Reseat the aid in the charger and connect the charger to power; a battery that no longer lasts the day goes to the hearing care professional, who may replace it | Disposable battery: see the rows above | Disposable battery: see the rows above |
Figure 2
When a fix stops being free
| Phonak Audéo I-R user guide (2024) | 1-year limited international warranty from purchase, with proof of purchase; covers manufacturing and material defects of the aid and charger, not tubes, earpieces or external receivers; local terms come from the seller |
|---|---|
| Phonak Audéo I-R user guide (2024) | Improper handling or care, chemicals and undue stress are not covered; service by third parties or non-authorized centers voids the warranty |
| Oticon Opn miniRITE guide (UK edition, 2016) | International limited warranty of 12 months from delivery; batteries, tubing, speakers, earpieces and filters are excluded; improper care, accidents and unauthorised repairs are not covered and may void it |
| Widex MOMENT BTE13D guide (2020) | No warranty section; the guide says never to open or repair the aid yourself and to have repairs done through the hearing care professional |
| Medicaid claims, HCPCS V5014 (repair or modification of a hearing aid), 2023-2024 | $73.49 paid per claim line on average, over 27,816 lines from 100 billing providers |
| Same Medicaid claims, by billing provider | Billers' own averages per line: $18.52 at the 10th percentile, $41.09 at the median, $297.66 at the top decile |
How to read these numbers (3)
- Each cell paraphrases the user guide of one named model: Phonak Audéo I-R (US edition, 2024), Widex MOMENT BTE13D (2020) and Oticon Opn miniRITE (UK edition, 2016). Other models, and newer editions, can differ.
- Rows that concern the ear itself or how the aid sits in it are left out on purpose; those belong with a hearing care professional.
- Medicaid amounts are national paid claim lines for 2023-2024 (2024 preliminary, small cells masked at source); they are program payments, not the price of a repair out of warranty. Percentiles are computed by us from the billing providers in the file.
3 user guides, 3 kinds of hearing aid
This page keeps to the device, and to what its maker printed. Every step below is paraphrased from one of 3 user guides, each for a named model:
- Phonak Audéo I-R, a rechargeable aid with a built-in, non-removable battery: the US user guide, version dated August 2024.
- Widex MOMENT BTE13D, on a type 13 zinc-air battery: the user instructions, issue of November 2020.
- Oticon Opn miniRITE, also on a disposable battery: the UK edition of the instructions, dated October 2016.
We read the 3 PDFs again on November 3, 2026. They don't cover every model, and a newer edition of a guide can change a step, so the guide for your own aid comes first. Each troubleshooting table also has rows about the ear itself or about how the aid sits in it. We leave those rows out: they're for a hearing care professional or a doctor, and the guides say so.
No sound or weak sound: the first checks each maker lists
Silence is the row every guide starts with, and the order of checks follows the battery. Phonak's guide lists 4 causes for an Audéo I-R that has stopped working: a blocked speaker opening or earpiece, an aid that is switched off, a fully discharged battery and an aid stuck in an error state. The fixes are to clean the opening or earpiece, switch the aid on with a short hold of the lower part of its multi-function button, charge it, or reboot it.
Widex's guide for the MOMENT BTE13D has 2 causes for a completely silent aid, both about power: a battery drawer that isn't fully shut, and a battery that no longer works. Oticon's guide for the Opn miniRITE puts a dead battery first, then clogged earpieces, with cleaning the mould or changing the wax filter or dome as the fix.
Weak or patchy sound is where the guides part ways. Phonak lists a volume set too low (only if a volume control was set up for you), a low battery and the same blocked speaker opening. Oticon names a clogged sound outlet, moisture (wipe the battery with a dry cloth) and a dead battery. Widex treats speech that comes and goes, or one aid that falls silent, as a battery or interference problem: replace the battery in one or both aids, or move away from the source of electrical interference. The device table above sets the rows side by side.
Hearing aid feedback: what the guides do and don't let you fix
Feedback is the whistle or squeal people search for most, and it's the row where a user guide helps least. Phonak's Audéo I-R guide gives 2 causes for a whistling aid, Widex's MOMENT guide 1 for an aid that whistles continuously, Oticon's Opn guide 2 for a squealing noise. In all 5 cases the cause is how the aid or its earpiece sits in the ear, or the ear itself. The steps that follow are either putting the aid in again, which this page doesn't cover, or a visit to a doctor or hearing care professional. None of the 3 lists a setting, a button or a part on the device to change for whistling.
What the guides do list, under other rows, are parts that wear: the earpiece, the wax filter and, on Oticon's model, the dome. In the Phonak and Oticon tables, a blocked earpiece or filter shows up as no sound or weak sound, not as whistling. And when a problem persists after the checks, all 3 documents end at the same step: the hearing care professional.
How to reset a hearing aid: 3 different methods
A reset means something different on each of the 3 models. On Phonak's rechargeable Audéo I-R, a reboot is for an aid in an error state: hold the lower part of the multi-function button for at least 15 seconds, whether the aid is on or off, and it restarts with its light blinking green. The guide says the reboot doesn't remove any program or setting.
On Widex's MOMENT BTE13D, you restart the aid by opening and closing the battery compartment. The same guide uses that restart to pair a phone, and the aids stay in pairing mode for 3 minutes afterwards. When the 2 aids stop working together, its fix is to turn both off and on again. Oticon's Opn guide has no separate reset row: opening and closing the battery drawer is one step of its fix for a failed pairing with an Apple device, after unpairing the aids and turning Bluetooth off and on. That guide dates from 2016, so we don't reproduce its phone menus.
For a remote or app that stops controlling the aids, Widex lists distance, electrical interference and aids that were never matched to the device, the last one a check for the hearing care professional. Phonak's guide notes that calls won't work in flight mode until the aid is switched off and on again.
When a fix stops being free: warranties and what Medicaid paid
The steps above cost nothing. A repair can, and the warranty decides when. Phonak's Audéo I-R guide describes a 1-year limited international warranty from the date of purchase, on manufacturing and material defects in the aid and its charger, with proof of purchase. It excludes tubes, earpieces and external receivers, and damage from improper handling or care, chemicals or undue stress; service by a non-authorized center voids it. For the local warranty, the guide sends you to the seller. Oticon's Opn guide gives 12 months from delivery and excludes accessories such as batteries, tubing, speakers, earpieces and filters, as well as accidents and unauthorised repairs. Widex's MOMENT guide has no warranty section, but it says never to open or repair the aid yourself.
2 rows in the guides point to paid work after the checks. Phonak's says a battery that no longer lasts the whole day needs the hearing care professional and may need replacing; Oticon's says a repeating beep of 8 tones, 4 times, calls for a microphone service check.
A public series shows what a repair was paid. Medicaid claims carry the code V5014, "Repair/modification of a hearing aid". Across 2023 and 2024, Medicaid paid $73.49 per claim line on average, over 27,816 lines billed by 100 providers. The averages of those providers ran from $18.52 at the 10th percentile to $297.66 at the top decile, with a median of $41.09. These are program payments, not the bill for a repair out of warranty. Our hearing aid repair page goes further into maker warranties and repair payments, and our hearing aid lifespan page covers when payers replace an aid rather than repair it.
Frequently asked questions
Why hearing aid feedback?
The 3 user guides read here give the same kind of answer: whistling comes from how the aid or its earpiece sits in the ear, or from the ear itself. Phonak's Audéo I-R and Oticon's Opn guides pair it with putting the aid or earpiece in again; all 3 send ear-related causes to a doctor or hearing care professional, and none lists a device setting that stops whistling.
What is the average lifespan of a Phonak hearing aid?
Phonak doesn't publish an average in the guide we read. The US user guide for the Audéo I-R, dated August 2024, gives an expected service life of 5 years for the aids and their charger, and says Sonova keeps a repair service for at least 5 years after a model leaves its range. Other Phonak models have their own guides.
How do you reset a hearing aid?
It depends on the model. Phonak's Audéo I-R reboots when you hold the lower part of its multi-function button for at least 15 seconds, keeping its programs and settings. Widex's MOMENT BTE13D restarts when you open and close the battery compartment. Oticon's Opn guide uses opening and closing the battery drawer as one step of its pairing fix.
Sources
Steps are paraphrased, never copied, from 3 manufacturers' user guides for named models, read on November 3, 2026; rows about the ear itself are left out. Medicaid figures come from our archived copy of the HHS Medicaid provider spending file for 2023-2024 (2024 preliminary), and the percentiles are our own calculation from its billing providers.
- https://www.phonak.com/content/dam/celum/phonak/master-assets/en/documents/hearing-instruments/infinio-us/user-guides/ph-user-guide-audeo-i-r-92x125-029-1357-03-en-us.pdf.coredownload.pdf
- https://www.widex.com/-/media/widex/global/files/ebooklets/ifu-moment-bte-13-d_9-514-0576-001-01.pdf
- https://assets-we.cas.dgs.com/-/media/oticon/main/pdf/master/opn/ifu/171383uk_ifu_opn1-2-3_minirite.pdf
- https://opendata.hhs.gov/datasets/medicaid-provider-spending/
- https://www.cms.gov/files/zip/october-2026-alpha-numeric-hcpcs-file.zip
Cost and coverage research, not medical advice. Each step comes from the named model's user guide; follow the guide for your own aid, and see a hearing care professional for whistling, fit or anything about your ears.