Quick facts
- Time needed: about 5 minutes, every 2 weeks
- Kit: dry soft toothbrush, Blu Tack, cocktail stick, microfibre cloth
- Water: eartips only, removed from the buds, dried fully
- Never use: alcohol on the mesh, hand sanitiser, needles, compressed air
Earbuds rarely die. They go quiet.
A fine mesh sits at the tip of each bud, and it fills with earwax over months of ordinary use.
Sound has to travel through that mesh. So does the reference signal the noise cancelling depends on.
Block it and you lose volume, bass and cancellation together โ gradually enough that most people blame the battery.
A blocked nozzle imitates almost every other earbud fault
One bud noticeably quieter than the other is the classic symptom.
Muffled treble is the second, and a collapse in cancelling on one side only is the third.
All three are usually wax rather than electronics.
Earwax is designed to migrate outwards, which means it migrates straight into anything pushed into the ear.
Warm ears soften it, and the seal of the eartip then presses it into the mesh.
That is why gym users and daily commuters clog their buds far faster than occasional listeners do.
Work dry, and treat liquids as a last resort
A soft dry toothbrush breaks up dried wax on the mesh. Brush with the earbud facing downwards so debris falls away from it.
A wooden cocktail stick lifts residue from the rim without scratching. Never a needle, a pin or a paperclip.
A small ball of Blu Tack, pressed gently onto the mesh and peeled off, takes what brushing leaves behind.
That putty trick is the one most owners have never tried, and it is the one that works.
Isopropyl alcohol has one narrow use: barely damp on a cotton bud, on the plastic shell, well away from the mesh and the contacts.
Alcohol dissolves some of the adhesives holding meshes and driver assemblies in place.
Hand sanitiser is worse. It is alcohol plus glycerine, and the glycerine stays behind as a film.
Never run an earbud under a tap, and never soak one.
Every liquid you introduce has to leave again, and inside a sealed earbud there is nowhere for it to go.
Five minutes, once a fortnight, in this order
Take the eartips off first. They are the dirtiest component, and they detach deliberately for exactly this reason.
Wash the tips on their own in warm water with a drop of washing-up liquid, then leave them somewhere warm.
Brush each mesh downwards for roughly thirty seconds.
Lift the loosened wax off with the putty.
Wipe the shells, then refit the tips only once they are properly dry.
A damp eartip puts moisture back exactly where it does the most damage.
Fortnightly suits most people. Weekly if you train in them.
The case collects everything the buds shed
Pocket lint, dust and dried wax gather in the charging wells and settle directly on the contacts.
A dry cotton bud clears the wells. The toothbrush clears the hinge.
Compressed air is tempting and mostly counterproductive, because it drives debris deeper into the well.
If a bud has started charging intermittently, suspect the contacts long before the battery.
Water resistance ratings cover the buds and almost never the case, on any brand.
Sony's flagship is rated IPX4 on the buds alone, as our Sony WF-1000XM6 review: the 5 numbers that decide whether it's worth ยฃ300 sets out. Treat every charging case as unrated, because in practice it is.
If a spotless earbud is still quiet, the blockage may be you
Cleaning that changes nothing points somewhere else.
Wax builds up in ear canals too, and earbuds accelerate it by pushing it inwards twice a day.
The symptoms overlap almost perfectly: muffled sound, a blocked feeling, occasionally a mild ringing.
Olive oil drops are the usual first step, and syringing is not something to attempt at home.
Read the NHS guidance on earwax build-upOfficial NHS advice on symptoms and safe removal โ
