Speaker Cleaner

How to use the speaker cleaner

1. Turn off silent mode (on iPhone, flip the ring/silent switch so no orange shows) and take off any case that covers the speaker.
2. Hold the phone with the speaker grille facing down, so gravity helps the water drip out.
3. Press Start cleaning. The tone starts quietly and rises to the volume you set over two seconds.
4. Raise the volume slider and your device volume to about 70-100% if the sound is still muffled. Watch for tiny droplets on the grille and wipe them away.
5. Repeat two or three times. Try Pulse or Sweep mode if the plain tone is not enough.

How to tell if it worked

There is no score here: the result is how your speaker sounds afterwards. A wet speaker sounds quiet, crackly or "underwater". After one or two runs of the water eject sound most people hear the tone get louder and clearer as the water leaves. If the sound is fully back to normal, you are done.

If the tone stays muffled after three or four runs, let the phone dry for a few hours in a warm, airy spot (not on a heater) and try again. Water deep inside the speaker chamber can take time to evaporate.

How does a speaker cleaner sound work?

A phone speaker has a small diaphragm behind a mesh grille. When water sits in the mesh, its surface tension holds it in place and blocks the sound. A low frequency tone makes the diaphragm move further on each cycle than speech or music does, so it pushes air hard against the mesh and flicks the water out. 165 Hz is a popular choice because it is low enough to move a lot of air, yet still inside the range that small phone speakers can actually play.

Pulse mode switches the tone on and off twice a second, which gives the water a series of sharp kicks. Sweep mode glides between 120 and 300 Hz so the speaker passes through its own resonant frequency, where it moves the most. This is the same principle as the Water Lock eject on an Apple Watch and the "water eject" shortcuts for iPhone, but it runs right in your browser with nothing to install.

Safety tips

• Do not plug in or charge a phone that is still wet. Wait until the port is dry.
• Do not use a hair dryer, oven or rice. Heat can damage the battery and rice adds dust.
• Keep the phone away from your ear while the tone plays at high volume.
• A speaker cleaner removes water and loose dust. It cannot repair a speaker that was damaged by salt water, a drop or corrosion.

Common problems and fixes

I cannot hear anything on iPhone

Web audio is muted when the ring/silent switch is on. Flip the switch (or use the Action button) to ring mode, turn the volume up with the side buttons, and press Start again.

The sound is still muffled after cleaning

Run the cleaner two or three more times with the speaker facing down, then try Pulse mode. If that does not help, leave the phone to dry for a few hours. Gently brushing the grille with a soft, dry toothbrush can remove lint that holds water.

The tone stops when the screen locks

Phones pause browser audio when the screen turns off. Keep the screen on and the page open while the speaker cleaner runs.

Only the earpiece or only the bottom speaker is wet

Phones with stereo speakers play the tone through both the bottom speaker and the earpiece, but older phones use only the bottom one. If the earpiece stays muffled, hold the phone with the earpiece facing down, run the cleaner again, and give it some drying time.