Summer heat is exposing the AirPods Max’s biggest design flaw

Summer is finally here, and with the sun out, it’s the perfect time to grab your headphones for an outdoor walk, run, or family road trip. But as the weather heats up, some AirPods Max owners are noticing something strange inside their earcups, particularly those who bounce between outdoor humidity and air-conditioned rooms: pools of condensation. It can be a startling discovery, but it isn’t new. Every summer, I see Reddit post after Reddit post showing thick droplets of water along the inner walls beneath the ear cushions, and it’s a problem that, unsurprisingly, persists with the identically designed AirPods Max 2.

Apple has actually already been sued over this exact issue twice. A class action filed in California in 2021 alleged a built-in defect that lets condensation collect inside the cups after as little as an hour of normal use. A second suit, filed in New York federal court in 2025, makes the same core claim and ties the moisture to dead audio in one or both cups, noise cancellation that quits, connections that drop, and charging that fails — and argues Apple knew and sold them anyway. Four-plus years of complaints and two lawsuits later, the design hasn’t changed one bit.

The culprit in the design is also what gives the AirPods Max their aesthetic appeal: the shiny, solid aluminum slabs. Aside from looking cool, aluminum holds cold temperatures incredibly well. Step out of an air-conditioned office or car, and the metal stays cold while your ears stay warm and damp. The bigger that gap, the more water condenses on the inside of the cup — which is why the heaviest reports come from people who never broke a sweat, sitting at a desk in the AC. Summer doesn’t cause it so much as it stacks the deck: you’re sweating more, wearing them out more, and swinging between hot streets and cold interiors all day. Every one of those moves the dial the wrong way.

To be fair, condensation alone isn’t unique to Apple. Every closed-back, over-ear headphone will trap some degree of heat and moisture. It’s just that aluminum drops in temperature faster than plastic, which most competitors use instead. And honestly, this wouldn’t really be a problem if Apple had added proper moisture protection. As iFixit has documented, there is a small, unsealed opening where the headband plugs into the earcup via what appears to be a thick Lightning connector. It’s possible that water slides down the smooth metal, finds that opening, and corrodes the contacts beneath it. That may be what’s causing the failure pattern owners describe: a crackle, then their ears stop being detected by the sensors, and eventually the headphones won’t hold a connection at all.

Apple could have easily fixed this with the AirPods Max 2, but alas, they couldn’t be bothered to change anything other than adding the H2 chip. So, people are left improvising. Some pull the pads every hour or two to wipe the cups dry. Others stash silica gel packets in the case overnight to draw out moisture. One owner, after finding that third-party sweat covers triggered a high-pitched squeal from the noise canceling mics, resorted to cutting custom inserts out of sterile gauze sponges to soak up the water before it reaches anything important. To me, that all seems like a lot of extra work to protect a pair of headphones you just spent $550 on. Sure, you could just buy AppleCare+ as insurance, but that’s spending even more money to paper over a flaw that a simple design tweak could have fixed.

Should you worry about your AirPods Max getting too much sun? If you mostly listen at home in a climate-controlled room, you may go years and never see a drop. But if you’re buying the AirPods Max as a summer travel companion, for the commute, the terminal, the walk across town, they are unfortunately weak to physics. The metal that makes them feel so premium is the same metal working against you. These aren’t workout headphones meant for a sweaty gym session or a hard run in the summer heat. Until Apple seals the internals or gives these an actual water-resistance rating, be careful where you wear your AirPods Max this summer.