Gruv Button Retrofit: An Aid for Inserting Hearing Aids
Author: Each Ear LLC
Published: 2025/02/09 - Updated: 2025/02/10
Publication Type: Product Release, Update
Topic: Deaf Communication - Publications List
Page Content: Synopsis - Introduction - Main - Insights, Updates
Synopsis: Gruv Button™ Retrofit is an award-winning, low-cost solution simplifying hearing aid insertion for seniors and those with dexterity challenges, enhancing usability and reducing device abandonment.
Why it matters: This report highlights the Gruv Button™ Retrofit, a low-cost, award-winning innovation designed to simplify hearing aid insertion - a common challenge for millions, particularly seniors and individuals with dexterity-related disabilities. Developed by Each Ear LLC, the retrofit adds a textured plastic sleeve to existing hearing aids, creating a slip-resistant groove that improves grip and enables deeper, more secure placement in the ear canal. Backed by a 2022 industry survey revealing 40% of new users struggle with insertion, the solution addresses both usability and medical concerns, as proper placement is critical for achieving prescribed sound amplification. Recognized with the 2024 Global Hearing Industry Innovation Award, the retrofit has garnered support from clinicians and patients alike for its practicality and universal design. It offers an accessible, ergonomic fix that could reduce hearing aid abandonment rates while urging manufacturers to adopt the technology at scale. By prioritizing user-friendly design, the Gruv Button™ Retrofit exemplifies how simple, patient-centered solutions can enhance quality of life for those reliant on assistive devices - Disabled World (DW).
Introduction
Global award-winning Retrofit could help millions, if adopted by the hearing industry. Millions of people get frustrated every day trying to insert their hearing aids, and many just give up. Now a simple, inexpensive hearing aid Retrofit provides a no-slip "groove" in the surface of the hearing aid, so the fingertip does not slip off during attempted insertion. The estimated cost? $15 or less.
Main Item
The Retrofit - called Gruv Button™ Retrofit - is a small, plastic sleeve that slides over the existing speaker, which is inserted into the ear canal. Crucially, the award-winning innovation provides the positive, no-slip interface - the groove - between the fingertip and the speaker end-surface, facilitating sufficiently deep insertion. As the developer describes it, "It Fits the Fingertip!"
The hearing aid insertion problem is pervasive and well-recognized. It is documented in a groundbreaking 2022 Hearing Industries Association-commissioned MarkeTrak survey, which revealed that 40 percent of new hearing aid users find it difficult to insert their hearing aids.
"This is a great example of why the hearing industry needs to ‘get back to basics'," said Jeffery Szmanda, the inventor of the patented Gruv Button™ technology. "All of the industry's impressive sound processing technology is not as effective as it's intended to be, if the hearing aid speaker is not sufficiently deep in the ear canal."
The insertion issue also has medical implications: sufficiently deep insertion is necessary to a patient's ability to attain the prescribed level of amplification. Gruv Button™ technology is a vital improvement in sound therapy because it facilitates the delivery of each person's prescribed amplification.
2024 Global Hearing Industry Innovation Award
Gruv Button™ Retrofit, developed by Each Ear LLC of Milwaukee, is the 2024 winner of the 5th Annual Hearing Technology Innovator Award, announced in September, in the Hearing Device Accessories category. The global award is offered by the Hearing Health & Technology Matters organization, an online resource for hearing professionals and consumers with hearing loss.
"The Innovator Awards are designed to shine a spotlight on the visionaries and companies turning groundbreaking hearing technology into tangible solutions," said Dr. Robert Traynor, a member of the 2024 Awards judging panel. "Companies like Each Ear LLC are driving the industry forward with their commitment to advancing technology and improving lives."
Dr. Amyn Amlani, president-elect of the Academy of Doctors of Audiology, who announced the Award, said that the category-winning entries offered "improved user experiences, and more patient-centered solutions. These advancements are shaping the future of hearing healthcare and enhancing patient care."
Besides this professional recognition, Gruv Button™ technology has received enthusiastic support from a wide variety of clinicians and consumers. "We need this thing!" said one Wisconsin hearing care clinician. "Great idea," said another. "Patients struggle with insertion on a daily basis." (A compendium of Testimonials is attached to this release.)
Opportunity for the Hearing Industry
"The use of Gruv Button's™ technology - its unique and proven design, its ergonomic qualities, its flexibility, its universal application - is absolutely essential to any serious effort to solve the industry's widespread and persistent insertion problem," said Szmanda, the inventor and president of Each Ear. "Its symbiotic combination of features and benefits makes it unique and irreplaceable."
The original Gruv Button™ was designed to be built into the speaker itself, during manufacture, and was first offered to the industry in 2016; however, the industry has not adopted it. "We don't know why, and we don't want to publicly speculate," Szmanda said. "That's why I developed the Retrofit - to make it easier for the industry to bring this technology to market to help millions of their end users."
Testing of Retrofit prototypes confirms that this plastic sleeve design is now ready for production and distribution by the hearing care industry. The industry's massive production capacity and extensive networks of retail clinics would maximize efficiency and help to keep the retail price low for consumers.
Production and distribution by hearing aid manufacturers is also appropriate because they produce their hearing aid speakers in many different shapes and sizes. It would therefore be most efficient for them to produce the Retrofit's plastic sleeves to fit their own particular speaker designs.
The developer of the Retrofit, Each Ear, does not have the capacity to produce the patented plastic sleeves in the variety and volume needed to satisfy expected demand in the marketplace. That is why involvement by the industry in production is so important.
"This new assistive device, which is both ergonomically-designed and universally-designed, can help millions and it's ready for roll-out," said Szmanda. "Hearing aid manufacturers can easily produce and monetize it and distribute it through their worldwide networks of hearing aid clinics. They can offer the Retrofit as a simple, inexpensive accessory to their hearing aids."
"We designed the process of retrofitting hearing aids at the clinic to be simple and familiar," he said. "No special training for clinic staff is needed. They're already familiar with the concept of using plastic sleeves for other purposes."
User frustration causes many to return their hearing aids.
"The industry data I've seen suggest that the rate of returns-for-credit is approximately 15 percent in the private/commercial market," Szmanda noted. "If folks weren't so frustrated, maybe they would still be using their hearing aids."
For further information on the Gruv Button™ Retrofit visit: eachear.com
Insights, Analysis, and Developments
Editorial Note:The Gruv Button™ Retrofit stands out as a practical and affordable solution to a common issue faced by many hearing aid users: the challenge of proper device insertion. By introducing a textured, slip-resistant groove, this innovation not only enhances user experience but also ensures that hearing aids function as intended, delivering the necessary amplification. Its recognition with the 2024 Global Hearing Industry Innovation Award underscores its significance in the field. As the hearing aid industry continues to evolve, embracing such user-centric designs can lead to improved adoption rates and better quality of life for users. The Gruv Button™ Retrofit exemplifies how thoughtful, simple modifications can make a substantial difference in daily usability
- Disabled World (DW).Attribution/Source(s): This quality-reviewed publication was selected for publishing by the editors of Disabled World (DW) due to its relevance to the disability community. Originally authored by Each Ear LLC and published on 2025/02/09, this content may have been edited for style, clarity, or brevity. For further details or clarifications, Each Ear LLC can be contacted at eachear.com NOTE: Disabled World does not provide any warranties or endorsements related to this article.