I know they have great prices and their own Kirkland brand. Any reason to spend more than the Kirkland to get the Jabra, Rexton, Phonak, or Phillips ?
This will be my first set. Don't go to conferences, golf courses, concerts, or other "challenging" environments. Kirkland are $1299.00 and the Phillips are double that.
Hearing test show extreme drop after 2k.
I hear mostly fine. Wife disagrees

You get what you pay for. If you are into cheap you could hold a megaphone up to your ear.
Seriously, Vtail is the expert here.

I got mine from Costco but it wasn't their brand as they didn't have their brand about 4 years ago. But I wouldn't hesitate getting Costco's brand.

I would ask the Costco person what do you get with the higher price that you don't get with the Kirkland brand. It may be just some bells and whistles that you'd be indifferent to anyways.

I have been wearing hearing aids for several years. Started out with Miracle Ear but when they got to be such a PIA to charge, adjust, etc etc etc. We were on the way home from the miracle ear facility (the offered the newest set of aids for about $11.000. We were driving passed the Costco store and I realized they also had a hearing aid department. Decided to stop and check them out.

Did all the testing, listened to the recommendations and got quoted a price. It was less than half the price of the miracle ear and included free maintenance. I would guess that I have been using the Costco "aids" at least 8 years. I can only recommend their hearing aids and services. I think they now have a really new set of aids and have been toying with the idea of stopping in to check them out. Naturally I take them out at night, and the storage box that came with them charges them up for the next day. I do seem to recall that the vendor said the aides would last a couple of days without a recharge. Never tried it.

The Kirkland hearing aids are rebadged hearing aids from one of the big manufacturers usually one step behind the latest release. When I bought mine they were rebadged ReSounds. The independent audiologist wanted about 3x the amount for essentially the same tech. I didn't want to contribute towards her second boat.

The Costco rep should look at your loss and point you in the right direction. Ask them what the real difference is between Kirkland and the other brands. Your loss may be such that you don't need what the more expensive units offer. It's important to remember what hearing aids can and can't do and the features you need. I'm probably due to replace mine. Costco is where I'll start.

Make an appointment at your local Costco hearing aid center.

An audiologist will perform the proper testing to evaluate your hearing loss and graph the results. S/he will discuss the options with the hearing aids that they sell.

The audiologist programmed a couple of different models for my hearing loss and let me demo them. I walked around the store and listened. I opted for the Costco Kirkland Signature, which were manufactured by Rexton.

The testing and demo are absolutely free, no charge for their services.

The price for the hearing aids at Costco was way less than half the price at outside stores.

I can drop by at any time and the person at the hearing aid service counter will clean them and install new domes (the part that goes inside your ear) and the tiny filters that keep ear wax out of the system, while I wait, at no charge, no appointment needed.

If I think that my hearing has changed, I can make an appointment with the audiologist to re-test my hearing and re-program the hearing aids, again at no charge, and if I want, I can demo a newer different type.

If you use replaceable (as opposed to rechargeable) batteries, they sell a card of 48 batteries for $8.29 -- a fraction of what you would pay at a drug store or even Walmart.

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Anecdote: The first time that I had my hearing tested at Costco, the audiologist thought that there was something strange about the computer results, so before she would dispense the hearing aids, she sent me for a consultation with the ENT doctor who is the foremost expert in the Orlando area. His technician tested me and came up with results that were virtually identical to Costco's, except that the glitch that the Costco audiologist saw was not present. The doc signed off on the hearing aids for me. I asked him whether they dispensed the hearing aids at his practice. He told me yes, they do, but I should get them at Costco, less than half the price for the same hearing aids.

I bought my Costco hearing aids about 7-8 years ago. While they are Costco brand, they were made by Siemens. $1800. I don’t wear them much but they still work great.

I've had both an expensive brand and then tried Costco. Costco was much less money and I got better service and good hearing aids that lasted >7 years. I just recently had to replace my old ones and went straight to Costco. $1399 and much better service.
I'm a happy camper! Spend your money any way you want, but I'll spend mine at Costco (for hearing aids).

Earliest appt I could get was mid-November. Had the test done at a place my insurance covered. Cheapest set they had was 3400 out of pocket in addition to the 3000 health plan allotment

quote:

Originally posted by oldbill123:

Earliest appt I could get was mid-November. Had the test done at a place my insurance covered. Cheapest set they had was 3400 out of pocket in addition to the 3000 health plan allotment

$6,400 for hearing aids? That's four times what you'll probably pay at Costco. Even if you have to pay full price with no insurance coverage, you'll get away for half the cost of the $3,400l out of pocket that you mentioned.

Test done at a place that your insurance covers? There is no charge for the test at Costco. It's free.

Yes, by all means hit Costco. That's where I got mine and the service and the aids were great!

They will do their own test (free) and program up a couple pairs of their models to your results and let you walk around in the store to demo them.

Walk around the store, being critical. Can you hear what everyone near you is saying? How is the tone? Can you hear the quiet background sounds in the store? (air from the HVAC, footsteps, carts, background music, etc.) Maybe make a cell phone call or play some video/music on your phone (quietly, it's in a store, after all) and see how they work with your phone.

Then, whether or not the first set impressed you, check out another demo set. I was very impressed (3 years ago) with the Costco-branded ones but I thought, maybe their Phonak ones would sound better/clearer. They actually did, at least to my ears, and that's what I wound up going with.

If you are new to hearing aids, it's worth investing ten bucks into a Kindle book that will get you oriented and informed enough to feel good about making an informed decision: "The Little Book of Hearing Aids 2020"

Another vote for Costco, I've had mine a little over 3 years. I went with Phillips based on a friend's recommendation. When/if I need to replace I'd probably give the Costco brand a try.

I do find a big difference in the techs at Costco, I've been really happy with some, really unhappy with others.

I picked up my first hearing aids from Costco a week ago.
I went to an independent shop at first for a test and they offered me aids at $7500 a pair after my MC Advantage plan kicked in $500. I told them I wanted to shop around some.
Went to Costco for the test and demo of the Kirkland brand. After a walk around the store with them, I ordered a set. $1399, $899 after advantage plan contribution.

Mostly I wanted to be able to understand speech better at a lower volume which I do now, they say I'll get use to hearing a lot of other things I never heard before in some time.

For the most part I was fine with the quiet, but my wife disagreed.

quote:

Originally posted by D_Steve:
they say I'll get use to hearing a lot of other things I never heard before in some time.

For the most part I was fine with the quiet, but my wife disagreed.

I had forgotten about hearing birds. I like hearing them now.

I'll throw in my 2¢ worth.

Most of my friends, but not all, wear hearing aids. Most came from professional audiologists and most cost around $5,000.00/pair. We're talking about around 30 different guys...no gals.

None of the guys that have them are happy with them and they're all looking for something else. They've pretty universally said it was a huge waste of money.

A few, very few, have some really cheap hearing aids and they are all happy with them. The ones that had the expensive hearing aids first all say that the difference in hearing is slight between the expensive and the cheap ones. They say around 10% difference for thousands of dollars more.

I'll leave it at that but it's something some of you might want to look into.

^^^^^^^^^^^^
May be psychological. You expect more if you spent a lot of money and are more easily disappointed. What would be of value is to have a neutral audiologist check their hearing. There are quite a few people that cannot wear in the ear aids due to eczema and other issues.

Go out and acquire a copy of The Little Book Of Hearing Aids. Read it. Understand it. Proceed from there.

There is a vast difference between brands, between different model lines within brands, and in brands and models from year-to-year.

I went top-drawer, with Oticon MiniRITE-R, because I wanted the best chance for success. (The -R is for rechargeable, because I didn't want to deal with fiddly little batteries). They were expensive, even with the discount I got via our MediCare Part <whatever> package, but worth every last penny.

Most of the people I know who've gotten hearing aids hated them. Many abandoned them after a short time. Many of those got theirs from Costco.

I wear mine every day, from the time I get out of bed until I get back into bed.

I have Costco Kirkland KS-9 hearing aids. They are made by Sonova a major hearing company. Very satisfied. Going on two years with aids and wear the aids all waking hours.


The current Kirkland aids are ks-10 and are made by Phonak a Sonova company. They have Bluetooth connectivity and can connect to Apple and android phones.

The best hearing aid forum I have found is hearingtracker.com.

https://www.hearingtracker.com...-signature-costco-10

Not trying to sell Costco brand aids but they offer a lot for the money if the fit is good for you.

Note that Costco has a 6 month trial period. They can be returned up to 6 months for refund.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
^^^^^^^^^^^^
May be psychological. You expect more if you spent a lot of money and are more easily disappointed. What would be of value is to have a neutral audiologist check their hearing. There are quite a few people that cannot wear in the ear aids due to eczema and other issues.

It goes the other way also. You pay a ton of money and don't want to know you got screwed so you tell everyone how great your hearing aids are. You tell it often enough you start to believe it all the while saying "huh" and "what" and "I didn't hear that" all the time. I've seen it.

It's essentially self delusion.

My stepfather and mother have used Costco hearing aids for years. A recent upgrade got them a set that can be adjusted via the phone app. And, his connect directly to his phone for phone calls, so he doesn’t have to hold the phone or listen to its speaker. Life changing.

I have personally taken their hearing aids in for cleaning and new batteries. NO charge. NOthing but customer service.

Costco has it figured out. Sell what people want, at a fair price that brings a reasonable profit. Do it over and over again. Make lots of money. Their buying power is driven in part by volume, but also has a dimension of Kirkland quality. They do have what it takes to demand Kirkland level of features.

IF I ever need them, I know where to buy them. Costco.