How long have you worn your AirPods, or put them aside? Is it a long time, have you noticed that your AirPods have become very dirty, your long-term wearing may make your AirPods full of earwax, or you have left them aside for a long time and they are full of dust. Isn’t it scary! To keep your AirPods as new as they were when you first bought them, here’s how to clean them, let’s take a look!
Apple‘s AirPod Cleaning Instructions
Apple instructs you to use a slightly damp cloth and a soft, dry, lint-free cloth, and warns you not to use soap, shampoos, and solvents, or to run your AirPods underwater. To scoop out dirt from the microphone and speaker grids, Apple recommends using a dry cotton swab and a soft-bristle brush.
According to Apple, for the tje AirPods Pro, you can remove the earbuds and rinse them with water, but don’t use soap or other cleaners. Apple then wants you to follow its general rule of wiping the earbuds clean with a soft, dry, lint-free cloth and letting them dry completely before reassembling.
To kill any germs that might be hitchhiking on your AirPods, Apple says you can use 70% isopropyl alcohol wipes or Clorox disinfecting wipes to gently wipe down the outer surface (but not the speaker mesh). It’s best to avoid overly saturated wipes, as you don’t want any openings in your AirPods to get wet. Finally, no matter how dirty and disgusting your AirPods are, don’t dip them in any cleaning product.
Apple‘s method was tested. Tried using a Q-tip, but ended up just smoothing out the wax and dirt further. Then I used an old toothbrush to try to remove the roughness, with no better results.
Fun-Tak and Wooden Toothpicks
I could wipe the outside of the AirPods (and their case) with a dry cloth to remove dirt, but I needed a better way to get the wax and dirt out of the speaker’s mesh and hollows.
To remove wax and grime stuck in the cavity of the AirPod speaker, just grab a small piece of Fun-Tak and stretch and rub it to warm it up. Then press it on the speaker a few times and it will pick up wax and grime.
The stubborn bits that hit the sides of the speaker cavity can then be gently removed using a wooden toothpick. A wooden toothpick is sharp enough to pick out coarse waxy dirt, and it’s far safer than sharp metal objects like unfolded staples, which can scratch plastic or tear wire speaker mesh.