Best Fixes in 2022 for Dropped AirPods in Water – Perfect Drying Guide

A couple of my team members dropped their AirPods in the water, and our team collectively searched for the most effective solutions to get the pods working again. The most unfortunate thing I want to clarify here is that Apple products do not have a warranty for these incidents. For example, dropping AirPods in water, AirPods getting thrashed in a road accident, or similar accidents are not covered in the 1-year warranty of apple products.

Also read, how to use Snapchat on Apple Watch and how to text someone who blocked you on iPhone.

Dropped AirPods in Water – Apple’s Official Suggestion

Apple understands buyers’ needs and tries to provide all the instructions about any possible incident. For example, if you dropped your AirPods in a water tub recently, Apple suggests you use a MicroFibre cloth to dry the earbuds and the charging case.

After drying them properly, place both devices on the same cloth upside down. Keep the face of the charging case down and let them stay there for at least 3 hours before you re-test.

This brief discussion will help you with multiple solutions to remove water from the pods, dry them up, and test them. We suggest you follow the steps carefully to avoid putting your AirPods at high risk. The first thing you need to do is to extract water out of AirPods you dropped in the tub.

How to Dry/Get the water out of AirPods?

There are multiple effective ways to extract water from the AirPods. The most suitable method is using a microfiber cloth. If you do not have that specific type of cloth, we recommend you use a blower with which you usually dry your hair. Another popular method of extracting the hidden water inside AirPods is to place them nearby desiccant packets.

The only way to save your AirPods is to dry them as soon as possible. The process of drying AirPods is the same as drying out Mobile Phones. But, we do not recommend using rice to extract water from the AirPods. You stop using rice because smaller rice grains can get into the AirPods and cause issues later. Here are the steps you need to follow;

1. Use a simple and dried version of Fiber cloth.
2. Wipe earbuds from scratch
3. If you place wet AirPods inside the charging case, you also need to dry the charging case. If the charging case stays wet, it can cause issues later. 
4. Placing Pods upside down for an hour or two will help the water make its way out of the AirPods.

If you want to use charcoal or bamboo packets to suck the moisture from Pods, you need to place these packets nearby Pods, and the packets will do the rest.

If you are inspired by Apple Watch features and want to apply the same technique for the extraction of tiny drops of water from AirPods, we recommend you take care of the following suggestions;

1. Connect your AirPods with your AirPods first. 
2. Do not put AirPods in your ear; increase the sound to its peak for better results. 
3. Search the Siri Shortcuts app on your iPhone and download it. 
4. This app has an option of activating the water ejection trick. 
5. Turn the activation on when you cover sensors on both of your AirPods. 
6. When the music starts, you will see the Pods vibrating. 
7. With this method, water will make its way out of the Pods itself.

As you see the whole process, you have a better idea if there is still more water inside or not. Therefore, according to your assumption, you can continue this process as long as you get satisfied.

Testing the Dried AirPods

After using multiple techniques to dry the Pods, the next step is to test the quality of the sound your Pods provide now. There are numerous ways to test the buds, but we suggest you use the most straightforward method:

1. Use Bluetooth to connect your iPhone with recently dried AirPods.
2. Try listening to one of your favorite songs to test the quality of sound being transferred.
3. After listening to music for a while, test them by calling someone from your list.

In Short, make yourself convinced that your AirPods are doing fine.

If you are not convinced with your ears, an app can help you test your AirPods. Clear Wave App is often used to test phones, but it can also be used in our case. This help allows you to play with the frequencies and sound waves for proper testing.

Another advantage of using this app is that when you go for higher frequency and higher music volume, the buds will vibrate and extract any moisture still stuck inside the buds.

Drying Didn’t help? Contact Customer Support

AppleCare+ is a service you are already familiar with. They provide support for more minor issues like dropping AirPods inside water, but they do it only once a year. So, if you haven’t contacted them and shopped for these AirPods in recent months, AppleCare+ will take care of your demands. They will charge you around $30 for either replacing the current AirPods or repairing the current ones.

Giving $30 once a year is better than spending more than $200 for a new set of AirPods. We suggest you go for the newer ones if you can afford that. If you lack the budget and still have one chance left, you should ask Customer Care to replace the defective Pods and provide you with newer ones.

FAQs

What to do if you drop your AirPods in water?

The first thing you need to do is to get them out of the water as soon as possible. The longer the AirPods stay in the water, the lower the chances of their revival. Secondly, if you have managed to extract your Pods out of the water quickly, the next thing is to dry them as soon as possible. You can use any of the following methods to dry the wet AirPods;

1. Using a microfibre cloth
2. Charcoal & Bamboo packets
3. Desiccant Packets
4. Blower
5. Apple watch technique
6. Using rice(not highly recommended in this case)

What happens if you drop AirPods in water?

If you dropped AirPods in the water, the water would quickly make its way into the AirPods. The water will soon merge with the inner structure of the Pods. If Pods stay in water for too long, there is a high risk that AirPods will never work again. The internal system of AirPods is not designed to be waterproof. If you are lucky enough to get them out of the water quickly, drying the AirPods will help you get them working.

Can AirPods survive water?

It depends on how long AirPods were inside the water. If it was for less than a minute, they are highly likely to work after drying them thoroughly. On the other hand, if you dropped them in a swimming pool, and it took you more than some minutes to find and extract them out of the water, it is too late unless and until you are lucky.

What to do if AirPods get wet?

As described earlier, the first thing you need to do is to dry them up as soon as possible. This article has already described multiple techniques on how to dry them quickly. The most effective method of extracting water from the Pods is using a clean cloth or a blower.

Can I put my AirPods in rice?

Using rice to extract water from AirPods is the last available option. Try using other techniques first, and if you feel water is still inside the AirPods, you can use rice to suck the moisture out. However, there is a risk of rice grains getting inside the AirPods. Due to this reason, most professionals do not recommend using grains of rice to dry AirPods.

Are AirPods water resistant?

AirPods resist water and are sweet, but they are not waterproof. Resistance from water means a little interaction with water doesn’t make them defective. But, if you forgot them inside the pocket of your clothes, and you get the AirPods out after getting washed, we don’t think they will ever work. Still, you can dry them up by suggested techniques and test them to see if they work.

Conclusion

Every one of us is human, and we forget or be careless sometimes, which puts us in difficult situations like we dropped AirPods in water. The best thing to do is to take AirPods away from water as early as possible. Try all the solutions we suggested to suck every bit of moisture from the AirPods.

After cleaning and drying them properly, test them by playing music or making a phone call. If nothing worked for you, ask AppleCare to replace the AirPods. They will replace current AirPods with newer ones if you haven’t availed of this service in the last 12 months. The best thing is to go for newer AirPods if you can afford them.