What you should do about smelly earphones

It’s question and answer time on JYAJ.

Don says…
Great site, thanks for making the resource available.

I exercise most days including running and I have come across the problem of my ear buds (headphones) getting very smelly and therefore also making my ears stink! Not a nice problem.

Have you heard of this problem and are there any good solutions???

Thanks
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Thanks for the comment. I’ve not heard of this problem before. But you are probably using ear buds that have some kind of foam coating. If this is the case what happens is your sweat gets on the earphone and bacteria then grows on them. The bacteria creates the odor as a byproduct of its metabolism. This is the same kind of problem you might experience with your running t-shirts.

Solutions for smelly earphones

1. Wash the foamy parts.
2. Try dunking the earbuds in boiling water (although that might short them out)
3. Try washing them with rubbing alcohol. This will kill bacteria.
4. Just get a new set.

Hope that helps.