Why I don’t recommend putting your headphones in the dryer
Well, I wish I could blame this on the Bride of Macenstein for not going through my pants pockets carefully enough before doing the wash, but hey, she’s nice enough to wash my pants in the first place, so I’ll cut her some slack.
Oddly enough, the iPhone’s headset seems to work fine despite going through a full wash cycle and an hour-long “Permanent Press” drying. Even the inline remote seems to work fine. The cord itself is now a bit crinkley and spaghetti-like from the heat, I’m afraid, and has areas of “pitting” in the rubber, but hey, at least it’s clean.
The cord has actually shown signs of being able to regain some degree of its original shape when subjected to extreme pressure, and is now in the process of being “stretched straight” between two vices. I am confident with proper care it will make a full recovery.
Been there done that, still got the headphones. In fact, I now use these headphones while in the hot tub with no problem. Listening, talking, clicking the remote all work fine. I submerge everything but the ear buds. I’m thinking they’re pretty indestructible.
Oh and the iPhone resides in a Zip-loc Freezer Bag when I’m soaking in the hot tub. Dropped a cellphone years ago and learned my lesson!
I washed and dried my Apple In-Ear buds accidentally and the same thing happened to them. They still worked but they looked just like that.
While stretching them with the vice, blow dry the cord so it warms and can be reset. This will help some.
I knocked over a full cup of tea into a pair I had sitting on my car seat a few years ago. The right side didn’t sound right for a while. Once all the juice evaporated – they sounded great. I still use that nasty old pair with my new Nano.
Those headphones may be expensive to buy on their own – but nothing beats the durability.
Been there, done that… well, even worse than that. I put my pants with the ear buds in a pocket in the washing machine and hung them out to dry. I only realized it after several days of searching for my buds.
Strange thing is, they are OK.
OMG! same thing happened to me — thought I had lost them (I rarely use them anyhow). I was afraid to plug them back in, in case they would short my ipod out. but all’s good.
At least now they’re nice and white.
It seems there are several of us who share this experience. Mine have worked just fine since their unfortunate spin cycles. They just have that same crinkling and the padding on one of the earbuds itself has peeled off.
Stretching them in a vise sounds like a bad idea. You might pull the wires too tight and break them. I’d probably throw them on my dashboard or rear deck of the car at work. A full dy in the sun will soften them up and may even activate some “memory” in the plastic (like car bumpers).
As noted above, they’re really nice and white!
Done that as well, I gotta do my own laundry so its my own fault. that bad part is my buds actually fell off and I was not able to use them again. I used them for everything including using them on high end audio recordings for television shows. sucks cause i had to go buy a new pair of headphones that were sony and they dont seem to work as well as my 1G nano headphones.
Is the sound now cleaner than before washing?
same happened to me (several times) but they didn’t got ever that white again – what kind of washing powder do you use? ;o)
Andreas – the fidelity didn’t change, but now George Carlton only has 5 words you can’t say on television.
Lot the mic on my set that went through the dryer. Went to the Salt Lake City Apple Store and asked for a headset subscription… for I knew that this set was far from the last to go.
I’ve made 4 additional return trips. I’m 6 headsets deep now.
And friends ask why I don’t use Bluetooth.