Hearing Pocket

More trouble with the Freedom?

Yesterday, our daughter went into NYC for a scheduled six-month evaluation. Before she left, we checked her Nucleus Freedom Controller.

Guess what, it wasn’t working.

This is not a surprise to the many readers of this blog. Cochlear Implants always break, and always at the least convenient times. We just shared with you our own recent experiences.

At the clinic, what was supposed to be an evaluation turned into a troubleshooting session. Turns out, her coil was no good, and it didn’t allow the unit to turn on. Seems to be a common problem, but because of it, we have to reschedule our evaluation until September!!

Remember, the Nucleus Freedom will not turn on if one of the parts are defective. This is done purposely to ensure that you will not put the processor on when it’s not working properly. Your audiologist can change the settings that a red LED light will shine when the processor is properly connected and is transmitting properly.

If you can put up with all the breaking down, the Freedom’s great features ensure that your child will always be hearing. 🙂

An Earlier Post mentioned how the quality of the Nucleus Freedom could use some improvement.

Well apparently, Cochlear seems to have listened. My daughters new body worn controller arrived today, and as can be seen from the photo, they have at least corrected the problem we’ve  experienced.

The copper strip where the controls of the unit press down on are imbedded into the controller so that it should not come up easily. In addition, there are strong metal brackets holding it in place. The whole controller seems more rugged, and is likely to last longer.

We will post if anything happens to it in the near future.

The Nucleus Freedom has been out on the market for almost two years, and according to the studies performed by Cochlear Corp. and others, the results are very impressive.

However, us parents may not be as satisfied. Although we definitely love the processor’s water resistance and it’s smaller size, the durability of the device leaves room for improvement. Since almost all the parts are major components of the device (no more just short wires and long wires), it does not make sense to carry around these expensive and hard-to-come by items. If you are away with your child, and something happens to any of the wires, you most likely will not have a replacement handy.

Our daughter uses the Body-worn battery pack. Apparently, since it is only a battery pack and not a processor, they have made it of inferior quality. We have the Freedom implant only about a year, and we are already on our second battery pack.

This image shows how the copper strip that is located under the power and select buttons has come up, which makes it unable to turn on.

Cochlear does have pretty good customer service, and they usually FedEx the replacement parts for free within a few days. However, after the three year period, the warranty expires, and the cost of the replacement parts is borne by the consumer. That is somewhat troublesome given our experience with their durability. Additionally, since the wires are major parts of the system, replacing worn and broken wires after the three year period will be costly. Perhaps it may be worthwhile to invest in Cochlear’s Service Plan.