My earphones' cable has been oozing sticky goo for over a yer now

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨user224@lemmy.sdf.org⁩ to ⁨mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world⁩

https://i.imgur.com/xAYP2LJ.jpeg

Previously posted in mildly interesting a year ago, doesn’t qualify anymore: lemmy.sdf.org/post/18714104

Probably disintegrating, I don’t know. But now I’ll finally have to buy new ones. Currently there’s 6 oozing points in total. 3 are minor, one is now inactive (the 2024 pimple), one I taped over, but it’s starting to overflow, and one near the jack is major.

I now cannot plug them in without getting sticky residue everywhere. Also the rubber on the outside is starting to crumble a bit.
I am a cheapskate, but this may be their end.

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Comments

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Diddlydee@feddit.uk ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Why would you still use them after the first day you knew this was happening?

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- Patches@ttrpg.network ⁨47⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
  Op is why we have safety labels like “Don’t inject bleach”
  
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baggachipz@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Given that:

The statue of Mother Mary cries;

These earphones are weeping;

You are witnessing divine signals from heaven above, and can charge people money to make the holy trek to witness your hallowed earphones.
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- Infernal_pizza@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Its Jesus’s earwax!
  
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- brax@sh.itjust.works ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Wasn’t the weeping statue just sewage?
  
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  - baggachipz@sh.itjust.works ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    I don’t really appreciate your blasphemy
    
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Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I think it’s infected. You better take them to Dr. Dre.

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- sanguinepar@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Who?
  
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  - Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Ya’ll forgot about Dre!?!
    
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  - And009@lemmynsfw.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Dr Who isn’t that kind of a doctor.
    
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  - turdburglar@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    mike jones.
    
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  - Lumidaub@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Not a medical doctor. As such.
    
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- binarytobis@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Beat me to it.
  
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TheFogan@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
You clearly left out the main thing anyone would need to troubleshoot this issue… what kind of music are you listening to. Obviously low quality music will wreck headphones no matter how good they are.

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- flubba86@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
  Cbat.
  
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- Snowclone@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  probably Psalm 69 by Minstry, I made the same mistake in high school, my headphones didn’t leak anything, but several lesser demons briefly manifested. I just went back to listening to White Zombie, and it all calmed down.
  
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  - the_crotch@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
    Liar! Blasphemer!
    
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- Kissaki@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Music so touching, it brought the cable to tears.
  
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- rizzothesmall@sh.itjust.works ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Grime
  
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- Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Skrillex actually.
  
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whaleross@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I think cancer treatment will be more costly than a new pair of earbuds or whatever your next cheap accessory that is leaking unknown chemicals.

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Fedizen@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I would try two things.

heat gun the goo a little (get it up to like 150F or so) and see if it the sappy liquid runs and you can maybe clean it and drain it easier at temp 2)get some shrink wrap to seal up the ends. That might help for a while if you can get it tight.

I’m not familiar with those headphones but sometimes manufacturers will put grease or goo inside the cables to reduce straining and folding of the wires.

It looks kinda like rosin in the photo. I wonder if something inside the device was saturated in rosin and its just leaking down the cable?
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atomicorange@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
If it’s leaking from the inside, it may be that the polymer never properly cured and is still liquid on the interior. You could try returning it as defective, or just shell out for a new cable

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- Hypocrite9554@lemmy.world ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Shell out he says
  
  These look worse than knock off iphone 4 buds
  
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  - Psythik@lemmy.world ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Hot take: They’re IEMs, so they’re garbage nonetheless. For a proper soundstage, over ear open- or semi-open-backs are the only way to go.
    
    That said, I understand the need for a smaller headphone if you just need something playing in your ears during exercise or at work, which is perfectly fine so long as you’re not making them your primary pair of headphones.
    
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possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
It is the era of device

Get something newer as overtime the older rubber like materials tend to break down.

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axEl7fB5@lemmy.cafe ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
what does it taste like

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- Kissaki@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Like honey
  
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QuantumSparkles@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Bro just clean your ears bro

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orochi02@feddit.org ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
You Deal w ts for over a year???💀

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pewpew@feddit.it ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
It’s just going trough puberty

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Krudler@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
This happened to the outer rubbery (soft plastic) housing on my bike U lock. For like 10 years it was great, then one first-ride-of-spring I grab it, and it’s like the entire thing was dunked in a pot of honey.

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- klemptor@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Rubberized coating does that eventually, especially if the ambient humidity is high.
  
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AndiHutch@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Oh boy!!! Just what I was looking for. How much for a pint of certified organic cable syrup? Can you guarantee it’s less than 1% earwax by weight? If so I can go as high as tree fiddy.

My usual source on FB marketplace is playing hard to get. They said ‘I know what I’ve got and I won’t take less than a dub’. What a scammer LOL. Unless that syrup is gold plated I ain’t paying 20 bucks for a pint, smh.

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nicerdicer@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
That’s a Spotify Leak /s

This reminds me of the old Apple Macbook chargers where the cable was permanently attached to the charger itself. These cables became brittle and discolored from white to yelloy (they looked like they have been in a heavy smokers’ household when exposed to UV light, which is always). When I tried to fix the brittle cables with tape, it got worse and probably due to a chemical reaction between the material of the cable and the sticky glue of the tape they completely disintegrated.

Your headphones are beyond repair. It looks like they have been exposed to some chemicals. Did you at one point in time clean them with perhaps an aggressive cleaner (toilet/ household cleaner)? It could be possible that some cleaner got inside the cable through a micro-crack in the cables’ insulation and reacted with the copper inside.

You should replace them. The ooze is probably not healthy.

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FuglyDuck@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I gotta question.

Is badge502 on Lemmy?

Ah well. He’s been giffed.

Image

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purplerabbit@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Ok, so, A. Buy new earbuds. And B. Don’t throw them away, give their “body” to science, I want a full autopsy of these.

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- Tikiporch@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Yeah, but slightly cheaper earbuds so you can also buy an xacto knife to cut these bad boys open.
  
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random_character_a@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
We live is corrosive atmosphere.

When rubber and plastic run out of antioxidants they will disintegrate or turn in to a slime.

When using recycled plastics, this a real wild card. The levels can wary wildly from batch to batch, so even the manufacturer doesn’t really have clue, only occasionally tested minimum level.

Pristine shit can be used more for planned obsolesce.

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toomanypancakes@piefed.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I'll give you a nickel if you lick it

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- Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  "If I had a nickle everytime someone wanted me to lick unidentified goo from someone, I’d have 10 nickles and a weird aftertaste.
  
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Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Are your headphones sucking out your ear wax or something? What the heck even is that gunk? 😮

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- user224@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  I thought of that at first, but that got too far down the cable now. I also tried to put hydrogen peroxide on it which seems to foam a lot with earwax, but had no visible reaction to this goo.
  
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  - possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    As others have said it is the rubber breaking down
    
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Sanctus@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Send them to their resting place, they’ve done all they can

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Jaded99@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
It’s that xxx site youbkeep visiting

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RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Thats the sin leaking out.

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original_reader@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I also had this once.

This might be the answer: integraudio.com/why-headphones-cable-sticky/

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- MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  This is AI slop?
  
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  - spankmonkey@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    It is absolutely slop whether a human or AI vomited those words onto the page. So much fucking repetitive filler.
    
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lobut@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
If it’s anything like the Aliens movie, then it’s a droid.

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MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
The door paint in my last flat did this if you hung damp clothes over them.

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Agent641@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
The vital essence

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dumbass@leminal.space ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
It’s lived past is expected use case a set of headphones should be, this is reality bleading though your headphones.

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HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I’ve had cables so this after ten (five of I left em in the car) so maybe they’re a touch old?

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