Hearing aid batteries are a vital part of the hearing aid itself. None of the electronic parts will work without being powered by the battery. They're so essential that many individuals who have a hearing aid will also buy a hearing aid battery tester. It makes it easy to know when the battery is running low on power. Then they can be prepared with spare batteries when it needs to be replaced.

The life span of hearing aid batteries will depend on what kind of device you're using. The batteries for those small hearing aids that go inside the ear canal don't last as long. That's because the batteries are smaller and contain less of the substances required to produce power.

Older styles of hearing aid batteries used mercury to power the device. These batteries are much less effective than the newer zinc batteries that are popular these days.

Zinc batteries utilize zinc air. This is a combination of the zinc contained inside the battery along with oxygen present outside the battery. The resulting reaction gives power to the battery. They have about twice the life of the conventional mercury batteries.

You'll find that zinc hearing aid batteries have a color coded tab. One of the reasons for this is so you can know the size of the battery. But it also keeps the air out of the battery until it is time to use it.

Once the tab is removed, the oxygen in the air is allowed into the battery. The battery will activate once the zinc and oxygen combine. So it's important that you don't pull off the tab before you need to start using the battery. You don't want it to start losing life before it's even in use.

There are four common sizes of hearing aid batteries on the market today. There's a specific size of battery for every type of hearing aid out there. A number 10 battery with a yellow color code is the smallest you can purchase. The blue labels indicate the largest size available, which is 675. The small sizes are most commonly used for the smaller digital hearing aids that go into the ear canal. The large sizes are used for the behind the ear hearing aids. You can buy hearing aid batteries just about anywhere where they sell hearing aids online.

The larger sizes are longer lasting since there is room to hold more zinc inside the battery. But they do take up a lot more space. For some people, it's more important that their hearing aid is discreet than it is to change the battery less frequently.