Lightning Enterprises

I can always tell when I touch on a new subject – I get emails. As I said in my last post, the amount of open flow is the most important spec to look at when choosing a hearing aid vacuum. Flow is a concept that is a little more difficult to understand, so advertisers use the “Hg specification to prove they have the most power. I would rather have less power and more flow for cleaning hearing aids because flow is the movement of air, and that is going to move the debris out of the hearing aid. Of course, if you can have flow and power you’ve got a winner.

Here’s an example: I got a call from a local Beltone dealer who had questions about her vacuum pump. She had just bought an Aura-Clean and she was really expecting more results. I had never seen an Aura-Clean in person, so I volunteered to stop by with our VAC-1 to compare. I turned her vacuum pump on and plugged the end of the vacuum tubing with my finger. Maximum vacuum was 22” Hg – not bad for power. But, what I did notice was it seemed to take forever for the vacuum gauge to get there. That told me the pump didn’t have a lot of flow, and therefore wasn’t going to be effective for cleaning hearing aids. I demonstrated the VAC-1 and it just blew the Aura-Clean away (plus it’s less expensive). We also compared our Lightning Vac 2. That is a smaller unit with 15”Hg, but has an incredible 4 lpm of flow.

She ended up getting our VAC-1 – everyone that tries one does.

We get calls every week from folks needing a hearing aid vacuum pump for their office or lab. Most are looking for something that will clean hearing aids on a professional level, without spending a lot of money. And most have done a little research so they are somewhat aware of vacuum pump specifications – the problem is the spec they are focused on is usually the wrong one.

There are two important specs when it comes to vacuum pumps as they relate to hearing aids. One is the vacuum capacity. This is the number most folks are familiar with as it is the one given in advertisements to tout the most powerful vacuums. It is given in inches of Mercury and looks something like this: 25” Hg. The number relates to the vacuum level the pump is capable of. In other words, a pump with the specs listed above will pump the air out of a box until the vacuum level inside reaches 25” Hg. The higher the number, the more air will be removed from the box.

The second number is the amount of flow the vacuum pump has – and this is the most important spec when it comes to cleaning hearing aids. Flow has to do with how fast the air is being pumped and is given in liters per minute, or cubic feet per minute. So if a vacuum pump is rated at 4 lpm, that means the unit will pump 4 liters of air in one minute. Think of that pump as moving a couple of 2 liter Pepsi bottles of air in one minute. The higher the flow the more air will be moved, and the more debris will be removed.

So where does the “Hg number become important? When you are using the vacuum pump for drying the hearing aid, then it is important to have a strong “Hg number. You will be drawing the most air out of the box, and the most moisture out of the hearing aid (a very efficient technique by the way).

Here is a link to an article that gets a little more involved: Hearing Aid Vacuum

So, when you’re shopping for a vacuum pump for the office, look for the unit with the most Flow, and if it comes with a high “Hg you’ve scored a winner. Do you want a recommendation? Look At This

We had just increased the warranty on our VAC-1 Hearing Aid Vacuum from 2 years to 3 years a little while ago, frankly because they just never come back for repair and we wanted a nice edge on our competition. I think we could have increased it to 5 or 10 years if we wanted to (maybe in the future). We have been manufacturing these units for 7 years now, and another 5 years before that with the company I used to work for, and we have only seen a couple come back. And to tell you the truth there was nothing wrong with them.

The weird thing about this is the same day we announced the new warranty, I got a call from a customer who had just taken over an older hearing aid practice, and while he was looking over the equipment in the lab he came across one of our VAC-1 units. Now, the VAC-1 is a powerful vacuum pump that we have configured to clean hearing aids. It can be used as a stand alone unit, or configured with some options for hearing aid drying and so forth. You can get a complete description on our web site here. The system was still being used, but it was only set up for cleaning hearing aids with the vacuum pump and he wanted more functions, so he gave us a call. Come to find out the unit was from 1997 and still going strong. All he needed to modernize was the VAC-1D vacuum desiccator chamber for fast hearing aid drying, and the VAC-1C compressor option for blowing air.

This is one of those days where you know you made a good decision.

Hello, my name is Chris Perkins, and I own a company dedicated to developing and manufacturing products and equipment designed for hearing aid repair and maintenace. The company is called Lightning Enterprises, and I wanted to create this blog in an effort to give insight into the operation of a small niche business - the ideas, successes, and defeats that come with the territory.

First if all, I got into this business because I was working in the industry. I was the Product Development manager for a small hearing aid manufacturer for about 8 years or so. We actually got into more than just making hearing aids. The owner of the company was always looking for other ways to make money, so he had me develop some other products that were useful to us in the repair department. I developed a UV cure unit that was used for modifying hearing aids quickly using UV curable materials, and a vacuum pump unit for extracting wax out of hearing aids. Both products proved invaluable to us, so the owner began marketing them to other industry professionals for in-office repair work.

Both products sold well, but the company itself went through some management problems and wasn't run very well. After a few years, the company was so cash poor they couldn't even afford to buy the parts to make these products. They had distributors who were getting tired of waiting for product, and I heard one of them was going to start making UV cure units themselves, so I contacted them and asked if they would buy them directly from me. So, I started making UV cure units and vacuum pumps in my garage part-time.

So, this was the birth of Lightning Enterprises over 7 years ago now. We have grown into a major supplier to the hearing aid equipment market with several new products, and many new ideas. I'll be posting periodically, hopefully giving insight into the heart of this company.