William Gallagher
Far more AirPods Max owners are complaining about condensation problems than repair store owners are being asked to fix — and experts only have guesses about why.
In AppleInsider's long term review of AirPods Max, conducted two years after they were released, did mention a possible condensation problem.
"We're not sure what to make of the hard-to-pin-down and scattered reports of condensation," said the piece, "but we haven't experienced it."
That appears to fit the experience of most AirPods Max users, yet there are sufficient numbers of people experiencing this issue that it has even gone to court. Now 404media has talked with repair experts about why some people could be getting this, and why repairers are not being asked to fix it.
"AirPods Max condensation won't damage the drivers!!"
— Michael (@NTFTWT) July 5, 2022
The condensation in question: pic.twitter.com/rUKwBOWYjk
"But few repair pros I contacted had even heard of the condensation problem," writes 404media. It's not clear how many experts were consulted or over what period, but the publication interviewed one in detail.
Repair industry consultant and repair YouTuber Justin Ashford says that condensation issues are "inherent to over-the-ear headphones," not just AirPods Max.
"I've been putting my ear to the ground trying to figure out what's happening here," he told 404media. Just based on the volume of complaints in forums, videos, and Reddit, Ashford says it should be what the trade describes as a "scaleable repair."
That's the term for the kind of widespread defect or problem that keeps independent repair shops profitable. For instance, the iPhone 6 Plus "Touch Disease" where screens failed to respond to touch, was such a scaleable repair.
Similarly, so was the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus "Loop Disease," where the devices' microphones would break.
"Repair shops were making hundreds of thousands of dollars on that one [Loop Disease] repair," said Ashford. "If there's a really big issue, you're going to find there's a market for that scalable repair, something that will keep your shop going."
"When it comes to these scalable repairs, the moment we start to see the problems we start to see the components for sale," he continued. But since there is no indication of this, "all the industry signs that this is a big problem are pointing to no... it's not an issue."
Yet Ashford doesn't question that people are experiencing the problem, nor that there is a condensation issue.
"I have absolutely, 100 percent seen liquid [from condensation] inside the driver [speaker] area," he said. "There's water inside of a f****** electronic [device] that should not have it in there."
Possible answers to AirPods Max condensation reports
We have collated service data on Apple-serviced products. There doesn't appear to be a spike in service events, nor are most of the service events related to water exposure. Unlike the iPhone that has similar sales volumes when compared to the year before, we don't know how many have been sold, nor how many competitive products from Beats are in the wild, so there's no real conclusion to draw from the data.
"My opinion is people are sending these back to Apple," said Ashford. "How many of these are being sent back to Apple and people are being told 'Go F*** Yourself?' We've seen it with other issues [like Touch Disease]."
Ashford does not claim to have figures to back up this theory. His reasoning is that new AirPods Max owners who find condensation, may be within a warranty period and will return the headphones rather than look for independent repairers.
"What we're missing, right now, is solid-ass proof," he says.
AirPods Max were first released in December 2020, and have not been updated since. More recently, Apple has released the similar but lower cost Beats Studio Pro, and there do not appear to have been any complaints of condensation with those.
Malcolm Owen
Christine McKee
Amber Neely
14 Comments
Got mine in the first batch in December 2020. Already in January filed a customer complaint about this condensation issue, with pictures and everything.
The areas behind the magnetic ear pads were soaking wet on both left and right sides. How did I find out? They started to stink. They stank of old foul water more than a meter away. I used to be a DJ for many years, and I’ve never had headphones stinking before. And you wouldn’t like to know where those headphones had been. The only difference these days is that I now have a shaved head, as opposed to before when I had long hair.
After much complaining to Apple about this, the headphones suddenly started to behave erratically. Pairing wouldn’t work and I had to factory reset the phones several times each day. After that, Apple agreed to take them in. What did they do? They returned the same headphones together with a pair of new magnetic pads. That’s it (!!!)
Do I still use the headphones? Not a chance 🙊
Two weeks ago my then 25 month old Airpod Max died. At the Mac Store they could not revive it. Send to Apple but no more quarantee of course, could not be repaird, only replaced. For the price of a new one!
I bought the headphones as soon as they were released. I am in Australia. They are the best headphones I have ever used and I have had a number of high end headphones, some in excess of $4K
The ear cups accumulated condensation after extended period of use. Eventually they failed to connect or alternatively connected and the produced crackling noises.
Well anyway, we have quite progressive and reasonable Consumer Law here in Australia. After over two years and outside Apple's warranty period, because of the higher cost (part of the consumer law) Apple tested the cans, confirmed that they weren't working and replaced them without further trouble. My warranty period starts again under the law.
So I am more than happy with the phones and Apple's response.
No one is a bigger Apple fan than me. I worked for an Apple VAR, then for Apple, Inc. My wife and I have at least two of everything Apple makes (except a Mac Pro and only one iMac), and subscribe to AppleOne. We both have AirPod Pros.
But when it came time for over the ear headphones, we both found the AirPods Max hot and uncomfortable. Didn't like the fit and finish of the Beats, either. Then we tried the Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones. And bought two of them on the spot. They're lighter, more comfortable, and never have condensation, even when I wear them during my morning LifeCycle workout. Their audio fidelity is comparable to Apple's. But then, there's the ANC (noise cancelling tech). It's the BEST, bar none. We wear them when we travel by air or rail, and I've used them in noisy restaurants (they also have good voice priority settings) and at the movies and the symphony. Did I mention they're $200 less than the Max, and sometimes can be found on sale for $250? And that they fold flat to fit in a supplied case? They also have an audio jack, with an airplane adapter. They only come in two colors, and the app is an Android port (but I almost never use it). Other than that, they're superior to AirPods Max.