Telecoil mode has on-again, off-again ticking or hum noise

Posted by h2h @h2h, Aug 17, 2025

I have 2 year old Unitron hearing aids, my second pair and first with telecoil, but only because I had to ask for them/insist on them. When I am in telecoil mode where there is a hearing loop, which by the way is fantastic as the sound goes directly to my hearing aids and any of the room "echo," "reverberation" is not present, I get an on-again, off-again ticking sound, like a clock or metronome, or sometimes it's just a hum or buzzing sound. Both slight don't really interfere with hearing what is being presented. It might last 5 to 10 seconds, then comes back probably within 30 seconds. I've mentioned it to my AuD, and the young man who was there a short time, decided to send them into the factory and made it sound like they would put new telecoils in. Not sure that happened as I still have the problem. Mentioned it again to a different AuD in te practice and they were basically "deer in the headlights" look as IMO, they don't care about telecoils or understand what any problem might be going on because they likely have so few customers who even have a telecoil since they don't offer it upfront and one has to ask for it, and then they get the reply, "it's old technology, there's new technology coming, there aren't many places with hearing loops here." It's till the gold standard, why should we have to wait, people travel! Very frustrating. Any others with telecoils ever have this type of sound occur? thanks

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arrowshooter | @arrowshooter | Aug 19, 2025

As I wrote this post I began to realize that it was taking on a negative flavor. I don’t intend to be critical of anyone just pointing out generalities.

It was mentioned in posts above that people don’t complain about not being able to hear. And that’s part of our problem. ADA basically requires that REASONABLE accommodations MUST be provided UPON REQUEST. We are missing the “upon request” part by not speaking up. And that’s on those of us in the HoH community. We need to do better.

So when a loop system is not functioning properly or your hearing aids are not serving you well we need to speak up. No one else is going to do that for us.

From what I’ve read above the hearing aids seem to be producing the noise because they do the same thing using different loops. The audiologist/manufacturer need to fix the problem. I’m suggesting you be more insistent about that. The well-intentioned people on this forum can provide helpful information but the HoH people in general need to become better self advocates. And I’m including myself here too.

h2h | @h2h | Aug 19, 2025

Agreed. We, those of us who are HoH and wear hearing aids, are the only ones who know and understand our circumstances. We need to not be embarrassed about our hearing loss and speak up. I'm not sure how many AuD have hearing loss and wear hearing aids. It's too bad more aren't so they would better understand our situations.