How to Clean Your Headphones
Gaming peripherals will always live longer if you take good care of them and clean them from time to time. This applies to everything from keyboards, mice, mouse pads, and finally headphones.
Today we will specifically look at how to clean headphones and will give you some tips regarding how to maintain cleanliness. We will mainly talk about over-ear headphones since we have an article for in-ear buds already.
Why Do We Need to Clean Headphones
Like most other gaming peripherals headphones make direct contact with our skin and hair therefore can get oily and dirty pretty quick. Depending on how much time you spend with your headphones on, you might need to clean them daily, weekly, etc.
The main reason we want to keep the headphones clean is obviously because otherwise, they will quickly fall apart from all the gunk stuck in them. Putting on an oily pair of earpads is also not necessarily the best feeling experience so you can see why cleaning your headphones makes sense.
Besides the aesthetic reasons and the longevity of your product it is also important to know that the tear and wear can change the way your headphones sound.
If you do not maintain your earpads clean they might not form a proper seal around your ears and change the sound signature of your headphones. This process happens naturally anyways, but by cleaning your earpads you can ensure that your headphones sound the way they are supposed to.
Cleaning the Earpads
When looking up how to clean headphones you will quickly find that the most important aspect of this process is taking off the earpads and giving them a thorough clean.
This is the surface that is most likely the dirtiest along with the headband cushion so you need to spare no effort in cleaning it.
If you have velour earpads you can use a lint roller to get rid of the hair and other foreign gunk stuck to the surface. This will happen to all velour pads and it is important to clean them out properly.
For leather earpads, you can use wipes to clean all surfaces and return them to their proper state. This is highly recommended since leather earpads are 99% of the time covered in sweat and whatever else got stuck to it.
In case you cannot salvage your earpads just order new ones and watch your pair of headphones shine like new.
Cleaning the Headband Cushion
Just like the earpads, the headband cushion (if your headphones have one) can get pretty dirty. If it is a velour cushion use the same lint roller trick and if it is a leather one, wipe it down with wet wipes.
Some of the headband cushions pop right off just like earpads so do your research beforehand and figure out if you perhaps can swap it out entirely. This is usually a feature on even budget headphones so you should not worry much about it.
Cleaning the Rest of the Headphone
Now that you have removed and cleaned the earpads and the headband you can proceed to wipe down the rest of the headphones.
This mainly consists of wiping down the frame, making sure there is nothing stuck in the hinges (might even want to oil them up a bit), and making sure there is no dirt on the speaker itself.
If you are dealing with plastic you can just use wet wipes, but in case your headphones have a metal frame using alcohol wipes to finish the process will make sure no fingerprints are left on the surface.
This should cover how to clean headphones and should give you a good idea of the task ahead of you and why you should complete it.