Can I REPAIR £499 Apple AirPods Max - Condensation Death??? 

"I'm going to use a cocktail stick". Brings out a fence post.

You just spared me my pair! I had these headphones since 2020 and had these exact issues. It went so far that I got them replaced in early 2022 while still in warranty, and few months ago the new pair started to do the same. I spent a lot of time on the support line with apple, doing the usual things - unpairing, pairing, restarting, reseting... I gave up on them and only used them with cable when flying, wanted to sell them for parts... Until I saw this video, wiped connectors quick with the alcohol based monitor cleaner and bam, works like new!

This was exactly what I needed. Thank you so much for posting this. I was using my APM everyday until they stopped connecting a few months ago. It turns out the connectors were dirty and a quick clean fixed them. Thank you, the video is well made and worked perfectly for my brain.

Recent subscriber, so have been watching some of your back catalogue. Interesting to see how you have developed from not being able to recognise a diode on a circuit board (bathroom fan fix) to where you are now.

Brilliant fix and well researched, saved you taking them all apart, Vince is a master fixer well done mate 😊

You’re heaven sent I been dealing with this issue since last year and Im about to throw them, but I did clean the connectors like what you din and they are now working again ❤

I love how excited you are to find broken things.

Watched your ‘zepplin’ repair and bought a broken one to repair. Looks like this is on my list now too. I repair all sorts of devices, just don’t have the drive to film like you do. Keep up the good work.

Been binging your videos recently! Some great content 😊

Mat from California here. So you like low rider and use to skateboard. Love it! Thanks for the videos 😎

Excellent. I repaired mine the same way. They work again🎉. Thx a lot. I used a fiberglass pen und sealed the contacts with a high quality contact spray. Again very thankful for your video 😊

Haha, I have watche so many vids of yours and now I find out your a skateboarder! love to hear it :D I just started again at 35 and it's so much fun. Great vid as always

Keep up the good content!

Great video as normal Vince looking forward to the next rolls Royce vid keep it up

Thank you so much, this actually fixed the problem on my AirPods Max

My Airpods were really glitchy and constantly lost connection but thanks to you they now works perfectly. Great thanks!

Hi Vince. If it may come in handy with something small to clean the insides with IPA try using a pipe cleaner. Good video 👍🏽 Keep 'em coming mate.

Thank you for this fixing video. I bought the AirPods Max approximately 2 years ago on a sale (still expensive) and really enjoying them. I sometimes use them at night, especially when the neighbours are a bit noisy. I was in doubts wether some sweat in warm night might be bad for the phones, till today I had no problems using them with 4 different iTems (sic!) now that I’ve seen your repair I know I can fix it in case of a condensation problem. Thank you very much indeed.

No ads on RU-vid Premium accounts....only your PCB Way segway 😊 Good fix....Will keep watching eBay for the same problem.

Wow, 10/10 to Apple for what I consider a great way to connect up the ear pieces - but when that replacement piece is $400, WTF lol. I wish all headphones were designed that way though!. Another amazing fix Vince!!! Don't forget de-oxit! IPA is good for general cleaning but won't do much for corrosion and corrosion protection. I wonder if some dielectric grease might be an idea in those connectors - hard to know if that would make connections worse or better long term.

Thank you dude. This fix worked for me.

It works perfectly. Thank you for sharing it

I love how you are happy that there is corrosion. Most of the time, you would be depressed about the presence of corrosion.

Hi Vince, you have a good day now sir, you really deserve it!. Your fix went much better than my attempts today.

I'm glad you've said that about adverts they drive me insane lately really getting out of hand , still enjoy your film's though 👍

Thank you! This fixed mine too!

You should get some pith wood or peg wood. Watchmakers use this to clean watches. You can sharpen it down to very small pieces or shapes to get into tight areas.

I’ve had to trade in my pair of AirPod Max headphones three times due to this. Really great pair of headphones overall, but don’t do well with use over the years. Hope to see a redesigned version of these with the second generation that are less prone to condensation build up.

Tooth flossing interdental brushes would be ideal to clean those contacts Vince, keep up the good work 🤞

I use Deoxit spray on electronic connections, it works amazing

Good job Vince! Also a shout out to Apple A simple o-ring seal at the connector would have prevented muck from finding its way in there in the first place!!!!

I used to watch your videos many years ago, when you were still a newbie, now you have become extremely good at this, I really recommend opening a shop or something with tech repair

Thanks for a great video! There is a sim eject tool in a Pro Tech Toolkit you seem to be using - might be much more comfortable than using a tool from iPhone box ;)

Great Job Vince👍 I think I would have just blindly went in and started wondering why the screws weren't undoing. Good job you checked it out first like you said. Those connectors are a great idea. It's a shame after going to all that trouble, they didn't fit something such as a simple o-ring to seal them to stop moisture / condensation getting into them. Great job as always !!

1st time seeing these repair

Thank you so much for this video. I love fixing stuff, just like you do - but I did not know about this. So, of course I got myself a pair of these asap, with exactly the same issue. But the contacts on mine were not corroded the slightest bit. Bummer. Unplugged and plugged in the headband 3 times, switched left and right - and they’re perfect now 😅 And from one tinkerer to another: have a look at BeoPlay A1 (1st Gen) 🤫

Thanks so much, you just saved my a trip to the Apple Store!

Omfg Thank you so much !! I just managed to fix my AirPods Max after watching this, You sir are an absolute legend 😀😀

Another great video. Best wishes from the USA

Awesome fix!

Thanks bloke. I wish someone else had made that two-button 15 second reset technique obvious before I lashed-out on a new set or AirPod Max.

For those hard reach conectors, you can use a interdental thootbrush. Is efectiver than a stick, I think.

I realise you're not a fan of a fibreglass pen but that would have been an ideal cleaning tool for the headband. Thanks for the videos, I always think I could do better but I am kidding myself :)

Love the video. There's a kit designed to clean out apple and android products. Its maybe 7 bucks US. Might be worth adding to the tool kit.

Nice vid vince

Probably fit little O ring in the groove to stop dust and moisture getting in, just a suggestion 😊

I agree, RU-vid adverts are annoying, but the strange thing is you have to pay for RU-vid premium to get rid of them??? In short, you have to pay for something you 'don't' want. ...What a strange world we live in. Anyway another great fix Vince. Cheers 🙂👍🇬🇧

Interesting how manufacturers these days don't seem to learn from their competitors anymore. This kind of condensation issue has been a known problem for years for headsets that are designed to twist around (not connected by wires but by contacts). My Sennheiser headset had this issue a few years ago. Got a free upgrade to version 2 without this problem.

Thank you!!! I think this may have solved the same issues I was having. The contacts on mine were visibly very clean except for one small smudge. I really hope this fixed the issue for me, I guess we'll see in a day or two! Apple wanted $300 to send them in for repair...

I await a My mate Vince Christmas raffle of PCB starter kits... 🤓

Great fix! Always best to do some searching to see if there's obvious/known issues 🤘

I have had this pair for almost 2 years, returned 4x’x to Apple, with every return; water damage. But I do not wear them in the water or even close to it. This last return was rapid they also asked if I would “work with them”. Okay, I have extensively watched with a magnifying glass. So the left side will develop condensation faster than the right. If it’s warmer in the house I will take them off about every 20 min and use a hair dryer to dry them. I have a love/hate relationship with them. Good luck 🍀

Hello Vince, I came across your videos about a week ago and have to say I like them because it reminds me of when I left school in 1970 and started working in an electrical shop repairing many different items, of course I am long retired from all that. My last comment failed to appear on the switch video, so trying again. However to the point. You mentioned in a video and I do not know how old it was, so maybe date them on screen. But you stated you had become known as the 'Nintendo Switch Killer' for melting components and such. So you may want to try this. Get some heat resistant PVC insulation tape(fire-retardant-pvc-tapes) from your known good supplier and also plumbers non-setting fireproof putty(fsi-non-setting-fire-putty) from a good known supplier or shop. The putty should be able to protect from your heat gun up to 1,400 C and I think you mentioned you use 400 C. The heat resistant PVC insulation tape cannot take that but it is not for in heat direct use. In theory, you can place the insulation tape over the cable snap blocks and other terminal positions, exposed pins and such, so that the putty does not cause pin/component fouling. Then use a large blob (really as big as you can and be able to work) of the fire putty over the whole thing. For circuit board components the tape may not be needed but a good helping of putty to cover things should stop items moving around when board heated. Their solder would likely melt but your heat gun should not blow them away. A dam around a chip may focus your heat so not needing a too high setting to remove and replace while also stopping a sideways blow on smaller items. As for plastic casings which are near, some tape and putty in a 'U' shape over inside and out may stop melting. As I said, just a suggestion with no guarantee of success. Martin Ratcliffe.

Those tiny little brushes you can get for cleaning drinking straws would be useful for cleaning out the bit inside the hole.

Hopefully that's fixed it but the seller did say a reset got them working again for a short while. May have been better testing them without resetting first. Just have to keep using them hopefully they keep working.

Giving you a like for mentioning the Blind Video - "Video Days" 👍😄

8:08 is why im here for, nicely coroded stuff

What a bad design flaw, that area would be really open to water ingress and clearly they haven't done enough to protect it. Then again Apple really doesn't like to hamper their design vision and perhaps some sort of wiper seal would ruin their vision.

Great video thank you I could never afford them anyway but my suggestion why did’t you use Q-tips with isopropyl alcohol on them for the holes much safer than the cocktail sticks keeps up the excellent videos you are producing

great video well done

A tapered cotton swab like an MG 8112A would have done some wonders for you on this job. I am sure there are many cost effective alternatives to these out there.

I did this it started working for a day and went back to the issue

$549 device failed for an issue that could have been mitigated with $0.000001 worth of dielectric grease. Think Different!

Thank u sooo much ❤

The band's pins are set up that way to allow them to be connected either way round :)

Nest time just roll a little bit of cotton on the top of the stick and soak it in ipa to clean inside hole area, it works amazing for me especially to clean 3.5 mm headphones jacks, it will work amazing in this situation, just put it in there and roll and it's clean inside.

Vince, why no DeoxIt on these corroded contacts? You could use the 5% spray to clean first, followed up by the 100% solution to coat (shield) the contacts from some of that future moisture. DeoxIt would also add a bit of lubrication to where the earcups twist. Also, using these tweezers to scrape some of that corrosion off will create scratches that will be home to some more corrosion later. At least when you thin coat it with 100% version of the DeoxIt, you will have DeoxIt in these grooves, instead of more corrosion :). Using a toothpick or any pointy piece of wood or a Q-tip is definitely better and safer than metal tweezers that could be scraping off metal coating on these contacts.

Thank you🙏

Ty my air pods max work great 😊

I have a battery powered air pump for an inflatable mattress that has gone bad, not sure if it's the BMS or the cells that are bad. Is that something you would want to troubleshoot?

good fix. Design flaw to fail so easily, wonder if thats on purpose

When you're out next for a coffee be sure to pick up a few more wooden coffee stirrers, flat and have rounded ends.

Could you use lemon juice for the corrosion issue. I would never use expensive headphones in wet weather, keep them for house use.

Cocktail stick. That's funny 😁. Watchmakers call it pegwood and newbies scramble to find it and pay crazy prices.I buy from dollar store and it's cheap at a dollar for hundreds. What to look for is the word bamboo. Bamboo doesn't leave splinters or anything when done.

Hey Vince, can uou please tell me what you use to get your audio so nice. I can tell its not a voice over, but it has the quality equal to that of a voice over

nice video yes war low rider back in the 70s

Well done Vince. Well, I guess that the people who usually buy those type of devices are not the kind who care about fixing anything and simply buy another one... (and Apple loves it).

Deoxit on the contacts? An o-ring or some grease to stop water getting back inside?

Yes! Blind Video Days 🔥. You don’t skate anymore?

Informative video, saved my out-of-warranty APM, I practically own you £400.

Crappy headphones but great fix Vince .

What soldering iron do you use sir just curious?

Smashing good👍🏻

The ear cup connections have to be rotationally symmetrical in case the cups are swapped over from side to side.

Vince, the only guy who gets excited on seeing corrosion 😂.

mine were perfect on the connectors. when i stop using them for a while i cant hear anything very weird i might bring it to the apple store

Easiest way to contact you about possibly doing a trying to fix on a xbox elite series 2 controller , No stress about breaking it as already not used but would be amazing to have fixed ?

I work in IT and today I saw one of these come in from a shops RMA. Would you belive it? Fingers crossed here's hoping these have the same problem! :D

You should have used Deox after the clean

Would dielectric grease work on those contacts to prevent further corrosion.

Should be good thin interdental brushes for cleaning the female connectors?

"collect today" lol i love that in America its pick up today

Nice one.. I as the seller would be a bit mad. So easy to do.. if you know..

What a steal of a deal for AirPod Max. I have had mine for 2.5 years and absolutely love them, and use them daily.

I think those are designed to have an O-ring on the headband ends and they are not installed, which means grime works its way in.... probably why Apple didn't install the O ring... shorter life = more sales.

Blind's _Video Days_ had Low Rider, I think :)

Mine died. Hopefully your video will help….

13:20 The connections in the headband are top to bottom because the earpieces face each other.

Thank you so much for this. Mine just came back from Apple after I turned down their 277€ quote for fixing them. After cleaning the connectors they now work better than ever. For the price Apple charges for the APM, you should be able to expect that you will enjoy them for a long time and that they will repair a widespread issue at cost. But Apple being Apple, they admin no issues and show no goodwill at all. Particularly offensive: If you send in the APM for a battery change, you pay 79€ and they simply replace the right ear cup. They do the same for every other problem, but charge three times as much. It's all about the user experience - except they don't really give a shit.

To prevent this from happening again could use a little electric grease to prevent corrosion and moisture build up.