Wintertime—especially if you live in a place where it gets bitterly cold—can be tough on a lot of things: our automobiles, our fingers and toes, and our psyche. But it doesn’t have to be tough on our hearing aids, thanks to the latest hearing technology and some simple best practices we can follow.

Here are six helpful tips for getting the most out of our hearing aids during winter.

1. Do Be Mindful When Removing Headwear

These days hearing aids are so comfortable, it’s sometimes easy to forget we’re wearing them. So, when it comes to repeatedly taking off our hats and scarves, it’s important to be mindful of our hearing aids to reduce the chances of inadvertently pulling them out and losing them.

2. Don’t Worry; Today’s Hearing Aids Can Withstand Winter Elements

Gone are the days where we need to stress about weather conditions impacting our hearing aids. Our latest hearing devices are built to be waterproof*, sweatproof, and everyday-proof: In other words, they can withstand sweat, dirt, dust, drops, dunks—or whatever life throws at them—all season long.

3. Do Use Your Best Judgement During Winter Activities

Like to ski or snowmobile? If you think there is any potential for losing your hearing aids while participating in action-packed winter activities, you might consider removing them temporarily until you finish the activity.

4. Don’t Store Hearing Aid Batteries or Chargers in Your Vehicle

As with many digital products, hearing aids do have maximum and minimum temperature limits they can tolerate: Going outside these limits, which may occur if you leave or store your hearing aid batteries or charger in the car, can affect battery life and product quality. To find out the maximum and minimum temperatures your batteries and/or charger can withstand, reference your user manual.

5. Do Maintain Daily Cleaning of Hearing Aids

While today’s hearing aids are built to last a long time, it’s always a best practice to continue cleaning them daily to foster a lengthy lifespan. It’s worth the effort when it comes to hearing your best each day—and for many winters to come. (Check out our dos and don’ts of hearing aid care, here.)

6. Don’t Keep Rechargeable Hearing Aids in a Heated Drying System

The same logic as tip #4 applies to storing your rechargeable hearing aids in a heated drying system, as tempting as it may be to do so during this cold, wet time of year.

Schedule an appointment today for a hearing cleaning!

*Up to 1 meter. Rechargeable styles only.