The story is short and easy: I wear hearing aids that communicate with and are controlled by my cell phone via BT. When I’m at home, I normally leave my cell phone charging on the end table next to the couch. When I walk out of BT range, I get some short tones in each ear. When I come back into range and reconnect, I hear another short set of tones. You know…go to the bathroom and they disconnect. Move over a few feet to wash my hands, they reconnect. Go to the fridge, they disconnect. But you get the picture.
I’ve seen some ads for true BT repeaters (not pairs of transmitters and receivers) that claim to extend the range significantly. It looks like they plug into an outlet and have a small BT dongle at one end.
Has anyone tried one of these? They look like they are about $80. I don’t mind the cost, unless they are a total scam. I just want to get another 20 or 30 feet of distance as I move around the house.
I also wear hearing aids (no BT on them). What I do, if I have to walk around and talk is use head phones and a usb into my phone (you will likely need an adaptor for the USB to plug into your phone).
It depends on your headphones and phone.
enipla ~ Smile And Nod, First Class. ~ A a different kind of silent minority. It sucks.
I appreciate the suggestion, but I am not in fact using my hearing aids for either phone calls or listening to music at the time. The tone is simply the disconnection/reconnection of the hearing aids management app as I move in and out of range (which is only about 20 or 25 feet). I believe I can turn the alert tone off, but that means, of course, that I don’t have any verification when I do need to connect.
One of my concerns about the BT “repeaters” is that they look like somebody just took a USB wall wart and inserted a cheap USB BT dongle into it so the light on the dongle is lit. I can’t find any reviews or any information about them. I wonder if they’re just a scam. (“Yes, I think that they MIGHT be doing something helpful.”)
It’s strange. My computer repeater also hooks up to our TV down stairs. I got a USB for my computer and moved the repeater one foot and the TV lost connection. I moved it back, and it was fine.
Sorry to be unclear. I do not have a BT repeater. I am asking about people’s experience with BT repeaters. My cell phone connects directly with my hearing aids via BT and the range is just short enough that I’m aggravated by connections and disconnections as I move around the house. There’s no wifi or router involved.
I could just carry my cell phone around with me as I move around the house, but this is pretty inconvenient.
The connection to my hearing aids is very useful, as this is how I adjust volume, check battery status, change audio profiles, etc.
Maybe take a look on Amazon. I see there are many for sale, and they have lots of reviews. They seem like they are more substantial than just a bluetooth dongle. Some of them look like mini wifi routers with external antennas.
No worries. I have a cell phone repeater. I’m 62, but I work from home. EMS is hours away if they can get to my house at all. I don’t go anywhere with out my cell phone.
There are just TOO many accidents that can sneak up on you. You never know what it’s gonna be. I know this because of my mother. She died. Alone. She refused assisted living, and also to wear a “'I’ve fallen, and can’t get up button”.
Thanks, but most of the Amazon “repeaters” are actually links to connect a TV or some other device to headphones or other devices. I’m looking for a unit that would allow me to extend BT from my cell phone to a location about 20 feet further from the phone than I currently can.
I’ve found a unit (identified as an “RPT-BT”) on various websites that claims to be a true BT repeater. It’s $70 - $80 and, frankly, looks like it might just be something cobbled together.
I’m not an expert in BT technology, so I don’t even know if a true BT repeater even exists.
If you have a really old phone, a phone upgrade may give you more range. Different phones have different support for Bluetooth standards, which have different ranges. Bluetooth 5.0 is supposed have a range 4x farther than the 4.0 version (no obstructions). Most recent phones will have at least the 4.0 support.
You could consider moving your phone charger someplace where there’s fewer obstructions between it and you. The more line-of-sight you have, the more range you’ll get. It would be interesting to take your phone outside and see how far away you can get from it before you hear the tones and compare that to the distances within your house where it cuts off.
I was looking at those RPT-BT devices. They do look a little kludgy. Maybe they work, but I wouldn’t have my hopes very high.
I agree, filmore. As I said previously, those units look like someone took a BT dongle and plugged it into a wall wart.
As far as the BT type, I unfortunately have to look at my hearing aids as being the weak link. They are three years old…newer ones coming up in a year or two when my insurance covers them.
The phone itself is a brand new Samsung S23. However, the problem was not as bad with my older S8.