What you need to know about keeping your bluetooth earbuds clean

Bluetooth earbuds are great innovations in wearable technology, and a great choice for listening to music or using your phone for calls. They’re compact, easy to use, and excellent alternatives to traditional wired headphones. However, like any other device that’s inserted into the ears or used near the skin, they require careful cleaning and sanitizing to keep them working properly. With a few tips and tricks, you can keep your new bluetooth earbuds squeaky clean and working well.

Why Should I Regularly Clean My Bluetooth Earbuds?

Unlike headphones, earbuds rest right on the inside of the ear canal. Even if you are adamant about keeping your ears clean, there are many instances during the day when your ears are still producing wax that can get lodged inside of them.

The natural oil and sweat from your skin can cause issues for bluetooth earbuds as well. Many people finish a workout and leave the gym without bothering to wipe off their bluetooth earbuds, let alone take a minute to really clean them properly. People already have natural oils coating their skin, and much like sweat, these oils can settle on bluetooth earbuds. This buildup of oil and sweat can make your bluetooth earbuds dirty and unsanitary over time. During an excessively sweaty workout, your bluetooth earbuds can suffer water damage if they aren’t cleaned and dried out in a timely matter.

What Tools Do I Need to Clean My Bluetooth Earbuds?

The two most basic tools you will need to quickly clean and sanitize your bluetooth earbuds are rubbing alcohol and a soft-bristled toothbrush (one that you don't use for other purposes, of course).

The rubbing alcohol will sanitize without staying on the surface of the earbuds too long. Since alcohol evaporates quickly, it won’t linger on the surfaces of your bluetooth earbuds, potentially causing liquid damage.

The soft-bristled toothbrush is ideal for scraping away bits of loose dirt and debris from the speaker portion of the bluetooth earbuds. It is best to select a soft-bristled toothbrush over a medium or hard one, since these could be too tough on delicate earbuds and cause damage to your technology. Besides stray earwax, bluetooth earbuds can also collect a lot of other bits of debris from being tossed in the bottom of gym bags and backpacks. To keep those little bits of debris away from the ears, it is best to gently scrub them out of the tiny nooks and crannies built into the bluetooth earbuds.

There are some other tools you may need to clean your bluetooth earbuds, but these items are dependent on the cleaning situation. For example, if you got caught in the rain during a run, you would want to use a plastic bag filled with dry rice to quickly pull out the excess moisture from your earbuds before it caused damage to them.

How Do I Properly Clean My Bluetooth Earbuds?

First, you must remember to be gentle when cleaning bluetooth earbuds. Wearable technology such as earbuds seems to be made smaller and more delicate each year. Being gentle is the key to getting your bluetooth earbuds clean without accidentally damaging them.

First, you want to apply some rubbing alcohol to the surface of your bluetooth earbuds to sanitize them. You can use pre-moistened wipes or dab a little bit from the bottle on the corner of a soft cloth. Gently wipe all the surfaces of the earbuds (including any wires or pieces that extend around the ears to hold them in place). It is important to not oversaturate your cloth with rubbing alcohol—using too much rubbing alcohol could cause liquid damage to the bluetooth earbuds. A small amount will do to sanitize them.

After using the rubbing alcohol to wipe down the surfaces on your bluetooth earbuds, you will need to focus your attention to the harder-to-reach spots to remove dirt and debris. Using a soft-bristled toothbrush, gently scrub the speaker portions of your bluetooth earbuds (and any other places where it seems dirt could easily settle inside them). It is important to hold the bluetooth earbuds firmly and upside down over a trash bin while scrubbing. This allows gravity to assist the process and cause the dirt to fall out of the bluetooth earbuds rather than farther down inside of them. After scrubbing away any dirt, you can do one more gentle wipe with rubbing alcohol to remove any lingering debris.

Finally, properly caring for your bluetooth earbuds will go a long way in making sure that you, and even the music-loving kids in your life, will be able to enjoy them safely for years to come.

Resources — Clean My Space, WikiHow

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