Guides
Everything about looking after your speakers
14 guides on the mechanics: what is actually blocking a speaker, which frequency moves which kind of debris, how to tell a blocked speaker from a broken one, and the two-minute routine that means none of it becomes a problem. No sign-up and no email — the answers are on the page.
Water
The one that brought you here. What to do when a phone gets wet, which frequency actually moves water, and what the IP rating on the box really promises.
- Water ejectionHow to get water out of your phone speakerA phone speaker is a membrane that moves air. Water sitting in front of it is a thing that can be pushed. That one sentence is the whole method, and everything below is how to do it properly, what to do first, and the three things people try that make it worse.
- FrequencyThe water eject sound, and what frequency actually worksThere is a reason every water-eject clip on the internet sounds like the same low warble. It is not a magic tone and it is not a placebo either — it is the frequency band where a phone speaker moves the most air. Here is what is really happening, and how to pick the number.
- EmergencyYour phone just went in the water: the first thirty minutesMost phones survive this. Most of the ones that do not are killed in the hour afterwards, by someone trying to help. Here is the order to do things in, what to leave alone, and when the speaker becomes worth thinking about.
- RatingsIP67, IP68 and what water resistant really meansTwo digits, a laboratory, a brand new device and still fresh water. The IP rating on your phone is a real measurement of a very specific thing, and almost every way people use it in conversation is not that thing.
Sound
It is dry and it still sounds wrong. Working out whether a speaker is blocked, blocked in one place, or genuinely broken — before you spend money on it.
- DiagnosisWhy your phone speaker sounds muffled, and how to fix itMuffled is a specific complaint with a short list of causes, and you can work through all of them in about five minutes. Most people never do, because the sound faded gradually enough that they assumed the phone was simply getting old.
- TestingHow to test your phone speakers properlyYour phone has at least two speakers and they fail independently. Testing them together tells you almost nothing, which is why so many people clean one, hear an improvement, and live with the other one blocked for another year.
- DiagnosisBlocked or broken: telling what is actually wrong with your speakerOne of these you can fix in two minutes at your kitchen table. The other needs a repair shop and costs money. They produce different sounds, and once you know which sound is which you will never confuse them again.
- VolumeHow to make your phone louder without buying anythingBefore you install a volume booster: most phones that are not loud enough are not broken and not underpowered. They are blocked, capped by a setting nobody remembers turning on, or being asked to play into a cushion.
Cleaning
The physical job. What is really packed into that grille, what safely gets it out, and the tools that quietly destroy the mesh behind the holes.
- CleaningHow to clean a phone speaker grille safelyThere is a fine mesh behind those holes, it is the only thing keeping dust off the driver, and once it is torn nothing puts it back. Almost every tool people reach for is capable of tearing it. Here is what actually works.
- DebrisDust, lint and sand: what is actually in your speakerDifferent debris blocks a speaker in different ways and comes out by different means. Knowing which one you have is the difference between five minutes that works and a fortnight of cycles that does nothing.
- EarbudsCleaning AirPods and earbuds: what works and what does notEarbuds are not small phones. What blocks them is earwax packed into a mesh, and no tone, vibration or app moves a solid. This one is a manual job, and doing it wrong is how people push the blockage all the way through.
Care
Two minutes a month, and the reason a three-year-old phone sounds like a three-year-old phone rather than one that needs replacing.
- RoutineA phone speaker care routine that takes two minutes a monthNobody neglects their phone speakers on purpose. They degrade slowly enough that there is never a day it becomes urgent, which is exactly why a schedule beats good intentions. Here is the whole routine, and the version for people who go to the gym or the beach.
- MaintenancePhone maintenance: the short list that actually mattersMost phone maintenance advice is either folklore or things the operating system already does for you. This is the shorter list: the handful of physical habits that genuinely change how a phone ages, and how long each takes.
- Sound levelsHow loud is too loud: reading decibels in real lifeDecibels are a strange scale that almost nobody has an intuition for, which is why “turn it down a bit” is such useless advice. A meter in your pocket turns it into a number, and the numbers are more surprising than most people expect.
Or just fix it now
CleanWave is every method on these pages as one button, running offline on your phone. Free on iOS and Android.