Originally published at: How to clean the earwax out of AirPods | Boing Boing
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The thought of doing this reminds me of a doctor’s advice, “Don’t put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear.” 
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How does this even happen? How far up your ear canal do AirPods go? And how long do you keep them stuffed up there?
The reason I ask is that I have had multiple doctors in three different countries tell me that I produce more earwax than average (it’s genetic, according to them, don’t judge). I have never owned AirPods, but I have never found earwax in any of my earbuds, ever. Is this just an AirPod thing?
You just have good luck?
I get a crust of earwax on any earbuds I have in for just a few hours. It comes off easily by just using my nails to scrape it. The rubber covers easily flex to get into corners. I do that before putting them in, so the wax has dried from the last use a day or more ago.
But I have never owned AirPods. The hard plastic surround probably won’t let fingernails into the corners.
I have to question why someone would buy a cleaning brush that looks exactly like a toothbrush. And I constantly question why open air on ear headphones have become so hard to find when pods have so many issues.
I have had good luck with a dry tooth brush and a tooth pick. then you just blow on it, don’t need all the putty.
A little drop of isopropyl alcohol really loosens up ear wax, then a toothpick/ cotton bud to take it out does the trick nicely.
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I suspect it might be a viscosity thing. Some people are crustier (dry) than others, perhaps.
How about simply something like this:
Those pads are dead cheap … you’d just need to poke the holes for the IR sensors, yourself. Just throw the dirty ones away, and the hole poking still seems simpler than your cleaning routine 
I see enough people around me where the answer seems to be the the wake hours of their day.
Yes! - also the isopropyl alcohol and toothpick/cotton swab can get it done — cleaned the first time in two years and it substantially improved audio quality. This also further proves that headphones are PERSONAL devices …. not to share.
I wear EarPods all day at work, I have other CanalPhones and IEM’s, but I have a radio with me for communicating with others on the team, so I have to be able to hear that as well. Seems it’s likely a personal thing, I’ve found bits of earwax in the long eartips on my canalphones, but my EarPods seem to stay pretty clean. I’ve used a toothpick and a cotton bud with IPA in the past, but it’s seldom much of an issue for me.
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