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Comment by iaabtpbtpnn | Hacker News Reader

My AirPods went thru the washer and dryer in their case. No damage whatsoever!

My first gen pros didn’t survive. They still work, but have a high pitched wine. They were already out of warranty so I had to buy a new pair.

I did not and will not complain. I have owned over a hundred pairs of headphones/earbuds in my lifetime and these things are the best, by FAR.

However, don’t wash them.

> They were already out of warranty so I had to buy a new pair.

You realize that this is not a warranty issue, right?

They may have meant AppleCare+ which covers accidental damage

https://www.apple.com/support/products/headphones/

And petre may have meant that them being unrepairable isn't a warranty issue.

Maybe by warranty he meant the insurance that Apple now sells (“AppleCare with…”)

I get that AppleCare is technically insurance, but it's kinda a rip-off IMHO.

Holy crap, hundreds of pairs? What do you do with them? Run them through the washer just for fun? :)

I probably haven't had hundreds yet, but probably more than one hundred.

So many things used to come with cheap earbuds or headphones. A pocket radio. A portable CD player. A cheap MP3 player. A laptop. I've even had some small TVs come with headphones out of the box. So there's like 40+ sets I didn't even ask for over the years. Pretty much all immediate trash.

Then there are the ones I bought in a pinch. Go on a trip, realize I didn't bring my headphones, swing by the store and get a cheap pair. Being a cheap pair, they often didn't last long. There's another dozen sets.

Now the ones I actually wanted. Not all have replaceable cups or pads, so they'd often wear out after a few years. Or they were USB, and the circuitry started freaking out after a few years. On top of that I probably have different sets for different use cases. A pair for on the go. A pair for the computer. A pair for the HiFi system. A pair for the office.

Same here. They sounded "off" for a while, but returned to normal after a day of drying outside of the case. (I'm guessing that perhaps some water was blocking the microphones used for noise cancellation.)

I sometimes wear my airpods in the shower. Have gotten water in them often, but this never caused them to fail or be permanently damaged.

Out of curiosity – why do you wear them in the shower? Are they meant to withstand that?

The first few times were by accident, but once I realized they are durable enough I started wearing them sometimes while showering if I've got a good audiobook or YT video that I don't want to put down.

I think they're supposed to withstand some degree of moisture, but I don't believe they're designed specifically to be submerged. However, one of mine (gen 2 airpods) got fully submerged for maybe 3 seconds in the bathtub but it managed to start working again when I let it dry out.

I'm not saying I recommend others treat their AirPods as if they're water resistant but, in my experience, all the generations of AirPods can take a bit of a water beating. The only ones I've never done this with are any of the Pro models.

My airpods pro were totally destroyed in the washer/dryer, no idea why.

Maybe it was because it was quite a lengthy washing cycle?

You forgot to set the washing machine to "Whites"

Yea my brother has ruined 2 pairs of airpods in the washing machine.

I wonder what the difference is? One (admittedly uninformed) hypothesis is that there might have been more detergent, and the failure was caused by detergent residue. If this was true, they could be (possibly) repaired by rinsing with fresh water to remove said residue and leaving to dry. (Lots of other possible hypotheses and confounding factors)

Mine too. I tried them on and they played a loud, high pitch noise and haven’t dared touch them since.

Heh. I wasn’t so lucky, and it was the morning of a flight. Never had more of a reason to pull the forget on the $15 2-hour delivery Apple offers in my area.

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