How to clean AirPods 3 following official Apple instructions

As AirPods 3 have grown in popularity, more and more people are wondering how to clean them. Over time, dirt accumulates on the grilles of these headphones as well as in the corners of their case. No matter how clean we are, it is inevitable with the bodily waste our skin and our ears are producing.

It is very easy to resort to using instruments that Apple does not recommend at all to do this cleaning, so let’s review how you can clean your new AirPods 3 without risking damaging them.

A rag, a brush and cotton swabs: everything you need

To do a general cleaning of both the case and the headphones, it will be enough to rub them using a dry cloth that does not leave residues. I insist: the cloth must be completely dry, it must not be wet or even moistened with water or any other liquid, neither in this step nor in any other of this guide.

To remove debris left on the headphone grille we must not fall into the temptation of using pointed objects, such as needles or tips of pencils or pens. The proper thing to do, as Apple mentions in its official guides, is to use a completely dry ear swab and pass it through all the corners of those grids to remove all the dirt.

Finally we can also use a soft-bristled toothbrush, also dry, to gently rub it in all corners and thus remove any dirt that is most resistant to coming out. Remember that the brush should have soft bristles, not hard ones. You can find these brushes in any supermarket or pharmacy.

Beware of using other materials

In some guides in the past we have shown you how to clean AirPods using adhesive putty (the well-known blu tack), but Apple does not mention it in its recommendations and there are Reddit forums where negative experiences are reported. In any case, we can always use it to remove dirt stuck to the outside of the casing, but it is better not to do it on the grille since there is a risk that the dirt will become even more embedded inside the headphones.

One thing to be very clear about is that we will never have AirPods like the first day: Your casing gets scratched with use and will lose its original shine after a few months. It is something completely normal and that we will not be able to avoid even with exhaustive cleaning that can become excessive. In case of minimizing this deterioration, you can always opt for the use of a cover.

Pictures | Wikimedia and vuatao