That time I had to get odor out of a set of headphones

I trained mightily (by my standards, which means not very much) for my recent trip to India, which involved a whopping 36 hours of travel. Each way. Mostly I learned I need to take some heavy, heavy drugs with me so I can sleep on the airplane when I need to, along with this excellent alternative to the crappy generic traveler U shaped neck pillows.

Planes are so ridiculously noisy though, my ears ring for a day afterwards. Other people I trust (several of them actually) recommended those Bose anti-noise headphones, even after trying other stuff, and the wirecutter strongly agrees, so… I ordered a pair.

But here’s the important bit: because I only travel seriously maybe 2 times a year, and I guess I am a cheapskate or something, I didn’t want to spend a lot on them. And the wired-only model, which I prefer, is no longer really available new, it’s been fully replaced by the bluetooth wireless version. So I purchased used headphones from Amazon.

I think you can see where this is going.

The headphones came and they work great and are in fine shape. But. But. They smell like an older lady who wears a lot of … let’s say … “product”. I immediately noticed the smell after unboxing them. At first I thought well … maybe this is now my fetish? Wearing things that smell like older ladies? Maybe that’s my jam? That’s what I’m into? It’s like the olfactory equivalent of cheating on your wife with a sexy cougar, or something.

But no. Holy crap these things are overpowering to even have around. After a few hours I wiped them down with baby wipes as thoroughly as I could, and banished them outside the house to bake in the sun for a day. This helped… a tiny, tiny bit. Then I thought, well, I’ll do it again. I wiped them down, sprayed them with some anti-shoe odor spray I have that we use on the kid’s shoes (it works!), and left them out in the sun again.

Picked them up after a day to smell and… well, I hope you like what Catherine Denueve probably smells like. Part of the problem, I’m guessing, is that these headphones spent the majority of their life in the zipped-up case just marinating in whatever scented product this lady wore when she used the headphones. And I’m sure she was a very nice lady! Who used a LOT of product!

I looked up a bunch of articles on how to get smell / perfume out of stuff and they were pretty worthless. Leave it outside in the sun to get air and breeze, yes, that’s obvious. Put it in a box with baking soda or vinegar or charcoal to “absorb” the odor, I … guess that would work? I dunno.

Finally out of desperation I remembered we have these heavy duty Clorox bleach wipes we used for the kids potty training cleaning. I grabbed a few and furiously wiped the hell down out of the whole thing, the headset, the (removed) earcushions, the case inside and out, the cable. Left it out overnight again and… my god FINALLY something is working! It smells noticeably less!

Since I could suddenly “smell” success on the horizon, I executed another full scale, maxtreme furious Clorox bleach wiping, this time really dripping the Clorox wipe sauce in the earcushions in particular (they have vents on the backside once you remove them), with a bit more attention to the blue inside fabric covering of the earpiece as well. The top part that touches the head is also fabric so that got a Clorox wipe drenching as well.

image

(Yes, I am avoiding getting the electronics bits that are presumably behind that blue fabric wet. And of course batteries are out of it.)

Given the improvement yesterday, I’m hoping this might finally do the trick, or at least maybe one or two more Clorox wipe cycles might completely eradicate the smell.

The funny thing about this, is I’ve really struggled to find anything lately that makes me happy or that I enjoy. And for some reason, the challenge of removing this lady’s, uh, scent… from these headphones, was perhaps the happiest I have been in weeks, maybe months. Yes yes I could order and pay for whatever the hell I want.

I don’t know what’s wrong with me.

But if you ever need to get an odor or smell out of something, I recommend a profuse, repeated clorox bleach wiping, along with leaving the item out in the sun. Hell, maybe they’ll still even work after I’m done. Maybe I’ll work after I’m done. But I doubt it.

Good headphones though, right!

Man, I have tried so many NC headphones and when I finally caved and bought the Bose I was horrified to find out that Bose marketing and industry reviewers were not exaggerating for once - they are the best on the market and not by a little bit. They crushed everything else I had tried, including expensive stuff.

That was about four years a go now, not sure what they state of play is now, but the Bose are still kicking and never miss a flight with me.

I am more interested to hear if you survived the trip to India :)

Yes we were in Jodhpur. Amazing how far India has come in the last 10-20 years.

Yeah, assuming those are the QC35s, I have them as well and they’re the best I’ve ever had, and I’ve had a lot of wireless headphones. Not just the sound, but the connectivity is handled so much better than Sennheiser or Sony, especially for pairing with multiple devices simultaneously.

The idea of wearing used headphones from a stranger is kind of gross to me.

This is a product I would also like you to link. :)

I’d buy used headphones. Earphones, no-- not if they go inside the ear.

Bose is generally overpriced bullshit but those noise-canceling headphones are just plain amazing on airplanes. The steady droning noise is a perfect candidate for opposing waveforms. They work really, really well. I have an old wired pair myself and use them exclusively on flights.

Ironically, they would not pick up the old-lady hair product smells though ;)

Just the odor eaters shoe spray. It gets great reviews and it does work.

https://www.amazon.com/Odor-Eaters-Foot-Sneaker-Spray-Pack/dp/B00E4MR4HC

I also belatedly realized I can purchase new ear foam inserts for $15. The good news is that I think my regimen of Clorox bleach wipes and sun is working, though the ear foam bits are the most persistent in retaining smell at this point.

This is the thread I learned who a Catherine Denueve is. Thanks! :)

This is going to seem obvious, but for those items that can be completely immersed in water and thoroughly washed, you probably should. That applies to:

  • the case (plastic outside, fabric inside, zippers)
  • the ear foam inserts (foam inside, plastic outside, plastic ring)

Anything with internal electronics is obviously out, so the cable (it has an integrated volume thing) and the headset itself.

I was definitely having the most trouble, scent-wise, with the ear foam inserts. They seem to have absorbed the most and strongest smell for whatever reason (direct contact with skin?), even multiple days of super-drippy Clorox bleach wiping was not enough to reduce the smell a whole lot. But! Immersing them completely in hot soapy water and letting them sit there for a few hours did wonders. Drying them out was a bit of a pain as they have small vents on the back and the water collecting inside the foam has to be actively pushed out… but the before and after is dramatic.

The clorox wipes + outside in the sun approach (over 2-3 days, repeated) worked great to kill the scent on the headset itself, including the fabric bit at the the top, the case, and the wire – but only soaking in hot soapy water was enough to finally kill the scent in the ear foam cushions. I suppose more rationally this is an argument for preemptively purchasing new ear foam cushions for any used headphones. Which, uh, makes sense. Especially if they are popular brands like these Bose ones that have lots of parts resellers.

Anyway. I just put the headset back together, popped in a battery, and tested it out. Working, and virtually no scent at all! TAKE THAT, OLDER LADY WHO USES A LOT OF “PRODUCT”!

At the end of the day, considering what your time is worth, how much money do you think you saved/lost compared to buying the same headset new?

So you think I am the only person who is ever gonna buy a used item that smells like another person?

Putting useful information out into the world, that’s my fuckin’ jam, man. That works for me.

The info is hugely useful for everyone here.
But I’m still curious as to whether the ordeal was a net gain for you or not.

Thanks!

Considering that @wumpus seems like the type of person who seems to revel in figuring out problems like this (a condition I innately understand :D) id say net gain.

Sometimes figuring this stuff out is it’s own reward.

Sweet!

It was useful to me, but I had just bought a brand NEW pair of sunglasses that stunk to high heaven. For some odd reason, I did not notice the smell as I tried them on in the store, but after I bought them and drove off with them on my face, I noticed the smell pretty quickly. Pretty sure it was something in the manufacture of the plastics or something. And I’m only talking about $14.99 here, so nothing major. I suppose I could have returned them the next day (I was at work and drive for a living), but instead, because I liked the styling and the effectiveness of the lenses, I took them home and tried some of @wumpus’ advice.

Clorox Wipes did the trick in my case. This was really odd. I’ve had new plastics smell before, but it always went away, and didn’t smell that bad. These sunglasses though smelled like…burnt plastic. It was driving me nuts for days.

My only point is that sometimes, buying new stuff will have a horrible odor as well.

Sooo I got the replacement ear foam pads. They fit and work well, but they also have a tiny bit of a plastic smell, which I am sure will go away over time. Oddly enough it is a dead heat in smell between the old soaked in hot soapy water ear pads, the ones I cleaned, and these direct from China specials. Yes there is a tiny scent on the old ones I cleaned, but it is dominated by the dish soap smell, which is arguably no worse or problematic than the new plastic smell — so what I am trying to say is, it is a very weak smell in general.

I wanted some baking soda packets to put in the case and the old ear foam pads (I packed those into the plastic zip lock bag the new ones came in).

So I grabbed some 4 inch gauze pads we had around in first aid kits, wrapped a bunch of baking soda in the middle of the gauze, and taped it up. Bam! Now I have small packets of baking soda that I can leave in bags and cases longer term, to soak up the last 5 percent of whatever smell is left.