Speaker Cleaner › How we test
How we test Speaker Cleaner
We test Speaker Cleaner by measuring each phone's speaker loudness when dry, again after a controlled splash of water, and again after one, two and three cleaning runs. We test phones that sell widely in India and publish every number, including runs where the tool didn't help.
Phones we test
One current model from each of these brands. We add models as new phones launch.
| Brand | Why it's included |
|---|---|
| Vivo | Among the top-selling brands in India |
| Samsung | Galaxy A and M series are common in India |
| Redmi / Xiaomi | Has its own built-in Clear speaker feature to compare against |
| Oppo or Realme | ColorOS / realme UI phones |
| Apple iPhone | No built-in water eject, unlike Apple Watch |
SpeakerCleaner Live measures speaker loudness with a sound level meter held 10 cm from the grille while the phone plays a 1 kHz reference tone at maximum volume. The room noise floor stays below 35 dB so that small changes in output are visible in the readings.
Equipment
Nothing exotic. Anyone can repeat this test at home.
- Sound level meter or calibrated SPL app, fixed 10 cm from the speaker grille
- 1 kHz reference tone at maximum media volume, played for 5 seconds (our speaker test plays it)
- Tap water at room temperature, applied from a dropper: 1 ml directly onto the grille
- Quiet room, below 35 dB background noise
Procedure
The result is how many decibels come back relative to the dry baseline after each run.
- BaselineMeasure the dry phone's reference tone three times and average the readings.
- WetApply 1 ml of water to the bottom speaker grille, wait 60 seconds, measure again.
- CleanRun Speaker Cleaner Water mode for 30 s, measure; repeat for runs 2 and 3.
- ControlRepeat on the same phone with no cleaning, just waiting, to show what time alone does.
SpeakerCleaner Live tests its tool by measuring phone speaker loudness at 10 cm with a 1 kHz reference tone in three states: dry, after 1 ml of water is applied to the grille, and after each 30-second cleaning run. A no-cleaning control on the same phone separates the tool's effect from natural drying.
The test does not cover submerged phones, salt water or opened devices. Those are hardware-damage situations that a sound-based cleaner is not designed to fix, and testing them would risk the phones. Results therefore describe splash and rain exposure, not immersion.
What we don't test
We don't submerge phones, test salt water, or open devices. Those are hardware-damage situations a speaker cleaner isn't meant to fix, and testing them would put the phones at risk.
Updates
We re-run the full test every May before the monsoon, and whenever a new phone enters the top-selling list. Results appear on see the test results as soon as each round is complete.