AirPods Speaker Cleaner and how to get water out of AirPods

How to use the AirPods speaker cleaner

Inside each AirPod is a driver not much bigger than a lentil, sitting right behind a mesh that’s finer than a tea strainer, and a single trapped drop in that mesh is plenty to make one side go dull, faint or crackly. When you play a low tone, that tiny driver pumps air outwards against the water, which slowly coaxes the drop towards the surface where a cloth can catch it.

Keep them connected to your iPhone, iPad or Mac with this page open, then take them out of your ears and lay them on a dry, lint-free cloth with the speaker mesh pointing down. Half volume is plenty. The driver is only a few millimetres from the mesh, so there’s no need to blast it, and a gentler level is kinder to such a small part anyway. Set Duration to 30 seconds, run Water Eject, and if a bead of moisture appears on the mesh, just dab it off. After that, give them at least a couple of hours to dry before they go back in the case or back in your ears.

How to get water out of AirPods, Apple’s way

Apple’s page on AirPods sweat and water resistance is refreshingly short, and I’d follow it exactly. You wipe them with a soft, dry, lint-free cloth and then you wait, at least two full hours, before they go back in your ears or back in the case. No hairdryer, no radiator, no can of compressed air. And if what they got covered in was soap, shampoo, lotion or sunscreen rather than plain water, Apple wants them cleaned properly using its cleaning guide before you do anything else.

The AirPods speaker cleaner slots in neatly between wiping and drying. It deals with the water that’s sitting in the mesh, and the two-hour wait takes care of whatever’s left.

Can AirPods get wet?

Sort of, and it depends a lot on which pair you’ve got. The newer ones shrug off sweat and splashes reasonably well, but none of them are waterproof, Apple is quite blunt that they aren’t meant for swimming or showering, and whatever resistance they started with wears down over the years and can’t be put back.

The ratings follow the IP code. IPX4 is the “a bit of splashing is fine” level, and IP57 means the earbuds went through a test dunk of up to a metre for half an hour and came out working. A forty-degree wash with detergent and a spin cycle is a very different beast from that lab test, though, so even the best-rated pair isn’t really built for it.

My AirPods went through the washing machine

You’re far from the first, and AirPods are tougher than you’d fear. Get them out, give them a wipe, and leave them somewhere airy out of the case for several hours, ideally overnight. Hold off on charging until they’re fully dry, and keep them off the charging pad or out of the case for the same reason. Washing powder tends to leave a faint film on the mesh, so once they’re dry it’s worth giving the mesh a proper clean as described just below. If a side is still silent or crackling after a whole day, contact Apple, though be aware liquid damage isn’t covered under the standard warranty.

Cleaning the AirPods speaker mesh

If the muffling crept up over weeks rather than appearing after a soaking, it’s almost always earwax, which is a bit grim but very fixable. Apple’s guide How to clean your AirPods has a surprisingly specific routine for AirPods 3 and 4. You dip a soft children’s toothbrush in micellar water, brush the mesh in small circles for about fifteen seconds and blot it on a paper towel, three times over. Then you rinse the brush, do the whole thing again using distilled water, and let them dry for at least two hours.

Apple also says not to hold AirPods under running water, and to keep sharp objects and anything abrasive away from them. The Pro models have their own separate guide, because the ear tips come off and the mesh sits a little differently.

Other earbuds

Galaxy Buds, Pixel Buds, Beats and most other true-wireless earbuds respond to exactly the same approach, out of your ears, a moderate volume, a short Water Eject run and then a long air-dry. The mesh behind the nozzle differs from brand to brand, so it’s worth checking your own maker’s water rating and cleaning notes as well. Over-ear headphones hardly ever trap water near the driver, but if yours got soaked walking home in a downpour, the same tone can still help.

When the AirPods speaker cleaner won’t help

If an AirPod is completely silent rather than muffled, start with the boring checks: the battery level of each bud, whether it’s actually connected over Bluetooth, and Settings › Accessibility › Audio & Visual › Balance on your iPhone, which can quietly shove all the sound to one side. Run the Left and Right test as well. If one side is still dead after cleaning and a full dry, the AirPods speaker cleaner can’t bring it back, and Apple’s repair service is where to go next.