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Discover Effects of water or sweat on headphones

Some people can’t live without wearing headphones while walking down the street or while playing games and music at home. We can’t blame them, headphones turns into a gateway so we can savor every moment of watching movies, playing games, and listening to music without bothering anyone.

Headphones serve a lot of purposes and every person has the reason to keep their accessory intact and working. In case you are wondering if there are certain situations in life that can damage your headphones, then let’s start talking about water and how it affects your headphones in different ways.

How do headphones get wet?

Headphones get wet in various ways and it doesn’t just mean pouring a glass of water to your headphones. Your accessory can get wet when you are using it outside and it’s raining, when you are jogging and your sweat gets into the front case of your headphones, when you poured a liquid, not just water, to it accidentally, when it falls to a basin of water, and other alike circumstances. Basically, your headphones get wet when it comes into contact with any type of liquid.

How does water affect your headphones?

Getting in contact with water, headphones can immediately get broken or malfunction. The water penetrates your accessory gradually until it is fully wet from inside out. The damage depends on how the water gets in contact with it.

If the headphones are submerged into the water, there is a great negative impact on its functions. Meanwhile, if there is not much liquid, the headphones can be still be saved from getting wet totally.

In order for you to fully understand the effects of water on your headphones, you may read the next paragraphs.

What are the effects of water on your headphones?

There are plenty of ways on how water affects the performance of your headphones. In general, water can damage your headphones resulting to complete malfunction. You will observe that the first side of your headphones will stop working and then the other until you cannot use it anymore. To be more specific, here are some of the common effects of water on headphones.

First, let’s focus on the quality of sounds. When water or any form of liquid enters your headphone from the front cover, it will easily penetrate through the holes. Unline dust, water can quickly get inside your accessory and it is not trapped in the cover.

After the water gets inside, it will go straight to the diaphragm–the component that creates the sound of headphones. If there is water in the diaphragm, it can easily malfunction and stop working. So first and foremost, water can hold your headphones from delivering any sounds to your ear.

Next, water can loosen up the tiny parts in your headphones by removing the glue that is attaching those components. When the water gets in, the tendency for you to shake your headphones so the water can come out is very likely.

The more you shake your accessory with water in it, the more it will unglue all the tiny parts. It is also important to consider that the quality of the headphones itself has a great impact. If it’s cheap, the water will likely destroy it. If it’s more of a quality brand, water will less likely damage it.

What are the effects of water on the components of your headphones?

The components of your headphones may include the magnets, wires connecting each other to send signals, coils, cones, and tiny parts that have big assignments. Water can do something to them too.

Other than the diaphragm and the glued tiny parts of your headphones, the wires, cables, and magnets can be easily affected as well. When water gets to the wires and cables inside your headphones, it can send an electrical current to your body.

No one ever wants to get electrified when wearing headphones. Apart from currents, water can also corrode the wires and cables inside your accessory. If left unfixed, corroded wires can soon break so as the electrical connection between cables inside your headphones.

As for the magnets inside your headphones, water will not damage them completely because there are certain magnet reactions that repel water. However, once the water gets into the magnet, some parts attached to the magnet will also get wet, leading to different malfunctions and damages.

It is also not recommended for magnets to get in contact with water for an extended period of time unless it is coated. The components of your headphones are like the human body. They are interconnected and once a part malfunctions, everything follows when left untreated. This is the reason why you should avoid your headphones from getting wet or else you will have to buy a new one.

Is there a way to remove water from headphones?

Yes, there are ways. Some people who have experienced this have come up with many methods to remove water from headphones. Some methods include drying the outside and front cover by a soft towel, disassembling the headphones to expose the components to hear, using silica packets and putting it together with the headphones in an airtight container, drying it with a bag of rice in a zip lock bag, and unplugging the headphones from the phone or the computer.

Whatever works for you, you should immediately do it because letting the water inside your headphones for a longer period of time will cause more malfunctions.

It is also important to consider that water in headphones can impose risks to your health. For instance, when water gets in without you knowing it and you continue to use your headphones for hours while connected to a device, you can get electrified by a series of corroded cables and wires.

Water can damage your headphones, so as your health. It’s better to get your headphones fixed quickly to avoid any issues related to it. And don’t forget, cleaning and keeping your headphones away from liquids will avoid all this hassle.

If you want to buy a pair of noise cancelling headphones, then below is our list of recommendations based on quality, price and users’ feedback

For more information about noise cancelling headphones and headphones in general you might want to have a look at our list of e-books below

  1. Your health and headphones
  2. The In and out of anti-noise headphones
  3. Evolution of headphones technology

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