Picking the right hearing aids can feel like navigating a minefield. 

We’ll help you find a clear, safe passage through it all.

We’re proudly independent.  We’re not commitmentphobes, we’re committed to helping you pick the right hearing aids.

We enjoy being free to give you the best advice, no strings attached!

OK, we just liked this picture so will need to come up with a tenuous smoke and mirrors analogy to make it fit into (even if it isn’t that relevant) this article.

Once upon a not very long time ago if you lost or broke one of your out of warranty hearing aids you’d have no option but to buy yourself an expensive new pair (even though you still had one!).  You’ll still receive exactly this advice from most providers.  They won’t mean to try trick you with smoke and mirrors (aha, we did it – there’s the tenuous connection!), we’re new, what we’re doing is new.  It’s exciting, (we think) it’s going to change the way you can buy hearing aids.

At Affordable Hearing we love Circular Economy and Circular Thinking.  We’re trying to prolong happy active life.  Pairing up no longer needed hearing aids where they are most needed, creating positive benefit here and around the world (more later – we’re not just sometimes about legacy hearing aids, we’re trying to create our legacy (helping others hear) too).

We promise to do our very best to help you find the perfect hearing aid (or pair).  From an old favourite to the latest release, we have most of everything and would love to help you.

Like us, hearing aids come in all shapes and sizes.  Here’s a little run down of how to think about which hearing aid has your name on it.

Most hearing aid ranges come in 4 or 5 technology levels.  To keep things simple(ish) we’ve grouped two together here.  We’ve done this as generally the lower two tech levels offer such similar functionality and features unless you’re a hearing aid test box, we think you’d be hard pushed to tell them apart.  All of us consider 3 main things when we explore hearing aids whether it’s our first time or not.  These are: Features, Appearance and Price.  Generally the features dictate the price.  We feel the easiest way to work out what can seem a completely befuddling array of garbled tech speak is to look at your lifestyle.  In simple terms the higher you move up the tech levels the more varied listening environments the hearing aids will be able to help you in.  For example if you spend most of your time having 1:1 conversations in calm environments then – this is the level for you.  Your copper/bronze/entry/basic/cheapest, (whichever way it is presented and to keep us confused all manufacturers use a different way!) hearing aids will still help in other environments but will be most suited to a quieter lifestyle.

With refurbished hearing aids the cheaper ones will generally be traditional battery and not direct bluetooth streaming.

The ‘Silver’ level hearing aids do everything that the ‘Copper/bronze’ do and….. a little bit more.  Actually not necessarily ‘more’, yes, more but also they do things a little differently.  We will be adding a handy chart soon to help you look at how your lifestyle fits with each of the technology levels.  We think the best way to look at it is to consider which situations you are most commonly in.  There’s no doubt that having hearing loss makes interacting in many environments difficult.  However, there are many times when people with no hearing loss also find it difficult to hear.  This is why we suggest you look at how life most often is and use that as your ‘how to choose the perfect hearing aids’ benchmark.  For example if you often need to have conversations with one other person in noisy environments then this will be the level for you.

In relation to refurbished hearing aids the Silver level probably equates to a set of hearing aids without rechargeability with bluetooth or rechargeable without bluetooth.

Onto the Gold group of hearing aids.  These do everything the copper, bronze and silver do and yes, a little bit more, a little bit differently.  There’s no prizes for guessing that when we get to the Platinum in a min they’re going to add a little bit more as well!

As before, in relation to the features part of choosing your perfect hearing aid, you’ll need to have a cup of tea and a biscuit (one of our favourite things to do!) and a little think about what life most often looks (and sounds) like.  If you have a busy and active social life and often need to have multi-way conversations with a group of people, then you’ll need to go for gold!

In relation to refurbished hearing aids, a ‘gold’ level will have bluetooth and be rechargeable and help you in wide and varied situations and environments and be much less expensive.

Last but by no means least, the Platinum.  These are your ‘ready for anything’ hearing aids.  They will offer you the most help in the most listening environments.  As hearing aids go, these are the all singing and all dancing ones.  Which coincidentally makes them most geared towards an all singing and all dancing lifestyle.  If you’re often trying to have conversations in noisy environments with a group of people, you’ll want these.  Including if you are often in ‘complex’ listening environments.  For example live music has many different tones and pitches and is often performed in large spaces with hard surfaces and so you’ll need all the tech you can get.  These will be the latest Ai enabled releases.  We sell all of these too.  If we haven’t had time to add them to the site, please just call us and we’ll do our best to help you.

This doesn’t rule out refurbished.  We often have these hearing aids, sometimes in the cupboard as we’ve been too busy helping people to add them to the site.  They will always be up to 60% cheaper than the high street. Call us on:  0330 230 3333 or CONTACT.

Behind the Ear Hearing Aids

Most NHS hearing aids are BTE’s.  They’re less discreet than RIC or CIC.  However, their larger casing and fuller mould in the ear enable them to give the maximum level of amplification.  If you have a profound hearing loss, these will be the ones for you.  Not sure if these are the right hearing aids for you? – Call us – 0330 230 3333.

Receiver in Canal Hearing Aids

We love RIC hearing aids.  More often than not the best ones for the job.  They are super discreet yet offer the maximum SNR.  In normal non-jargon terms this means that they will be able to give you the most help in tricky situations.  Helping you hear in a busy place, not a puncture from a pothole (don’t get us started on the state of the roads!).

Concealed in Canal Hearing Aids

The most discreet hearing aids on the block.  Affordable Hearing’s Co-Founder Zöe is very fond of telling people that the best things come in small packages!  CIC hearing aids are brilliantly tiny, however, traditionally they have come with various compromises attached.  Call us and we can talk you through if they might be right for you.

New-new hearing aids:

We sell all of the ranges at all of the technology levels from all of the manufacturers:  Phonak, Oticon, Resound, Starkey, Bernafon, Widex, Signia & Unitron.  You name it, we sell it and always at up to 60% less than the High Street.  Give us a call, we can tell you all about them and help you pick the perfect pair of hearing aids for you.

New to You Hearing Aids

We’re sorry (ish) that we spend a lot more time trying to help people hear at prices they can afford than updating the products on the website.  Our stock changes all the time.  We’d love to tell you all about it.  At time of writing we have a fabulous pair of Widex Allure 440 hearing aids.  Want to know what’s in our cupboard?  Call us on: 0330 230 3333 or CONTACT to find out!

Just the one Hearing Aid?

Something else we’re fully committed to (and super proud of) is our ‘just the one’ service.  Lost or broken one of your hearing aids?  No matter the age we promise to do our best to find you a replacement one.  We’ll also programme your remaining hearing aid as a pair with it to the results of a recent audiogram.  Call us to find out more on:  0330 230 3333.

Got a no longer needed ‘oldie’ lying around.  Affordable Hearing are so proud of their association with Hearing Aid Recycling and DeafKidz International.  Through the power of positive collaboration, between us, we sent over 100,000 hearing aids to be distributed free to people in need around the world in 2025.  To places including Ukraine, Malawi, Uganda, Pakistan, Syria, South Africa, Zambia, Gambia, Zimbabwe.  We couldn’t do it without you.  Every no longer needed hearing aid you buy or send us will go to a next best use.  Either to help someone here in the UK as a refurbished affordable hearing aid or overseas free to help someone without a hearing aid.  We’ll be updating our Affordable Hearoes gallery very soon.  Telling you all about the amazing people around the world we’ve helped and who help us ‘Help Others Hear’.  Every hearing aid’s life that we prolong will have a huge impact.  Looking after our planet by reusing and recycling but also by helping Deaf people get and stay connected.  We’d love to do even more in 2026, can you help us?