How do I clean complys?

Remember, not ever with alcohol.

Standard advice is warm water with a little soap. Works well.

I seem to recall reading that someone put theirs in a white cotton sock, tied it off, and washed it in the regular laundry.

I never tried that though, since I've gone back to the silicon tips.

Sorry kids, but it's story time...

When I got my UM1s is found the long complys to have the best sound of the univeral tips. Noticing that they would get a bit dirty after about a week of wear, I would clean them with warm water and a mild detergent. This was what I had done long before with triple flanged tips on my Etys. The problem is that they foam on the Complys don't always respond well to washing.

After washing a pair of Comply tips, I had the foam separate from the stalk of the tip while removing it from my ear. I had experienced Disclocated Tip Syndrome (yes, I'm going to trademark that) earlier when I was an early adopter of the Etymotic er-6i. However, in this case it was in pretty deep, and caused me to be very disturbed. To make matters more uncomfortable, I was in the middle of my commute, stuck on a train heading into downtown Chicago. I give many thanks to my Leatherman Micra, and the less than perfect tweasers that are supplied on them, for being able to recover from the situation. While the tools that I had at my disposal were not the best, I was able to dislodge offending foam.

It was in the seconds after removing it, that I made the decision to upgrade to custom tips.

My overall recomendation would be not to wash Comply tips. Wear them until they don't seal as well as they should, and then replace them. Stock up when you purchase to make the shipping a bit better.

good luck, and avoid "foam ear"

-Jeff

Lick it.

do you just wipe the outside with the soap/water or dip the whole thing in?

I've rinsed a pair 5-6 times before with soap and water and they still work well and look a lot cleaner when dried out. However, I won't recommend more than 4 times as the sponge loses its compressive abilities and spring back too quickly for you to insert them properly.

Accept as fact that a pair of foamies will have a very short life. If they're soo dirty you want to clean them - toss them, and start using a new pair. You gain nothing from attempts to wash them. Your only options are to a)only use foamies when absolutely necessary 2) buy scads of them each time 3)get custom IEM.