AirPods Repair & Cleaning Cost UK (2026): Repair, Replace or Refresh?
AirPods get treated as disposable. One bud goes quiet, the battery stops holding a charge by mid-afternoon, or the case gets crusty – and the instinct is to bin the pair and buy new. That instinct is usually wrong, and it is expensive. A single replacement bud, a fresh charging case, or a proper deep clean costs a fraction of a new set, and for most faults the fix is straightforward.
This guide gives you the real numbers. We list celltech's published AirPods repair and cleaning prices by model – AirPods 1st through 4th generation, AirPods Pro and Pro 2, and AirPods Max in both the original and USB-C versions – explain what actually drives the cost, and give you an honest steer on the one scenario where replacing genuinely beats repairing.
Direct answer: Most AirPods repairs in the UK cost between £15 and £110. A deep clean is £14.95–£44.95, replacing a single lost or dead AirPod is £49.95–£89.95, and a new charging case is £59.95–£109.95. The three things that drive the price are which model you own (newer and Pro models cost more), which part has failed (a clean is cheapest, the case is dearest on standard pairs), and whether the fault is a worn battery or a recoverable issue like dirt or pairing. AirPods Max are repaired part-by-part, so a battery (£149.95–£169.95) or ear cushions (£79.95–£89.95) cost far less than a new set.
AirPods Repair & Cleaning Prices by Model
These are celltech's current published prices. Unlike many UK repairers who hide everything behind a "request a quote" form, every figure below is fixed and shown up front. Prices are per AirPod or per service, and standard repairs include free diagnostics.
AirPods & AirPods Pro (in-ear models)
| Model | Single AirPod (left or right) | Charging case | Audio / sound fault | Pairing & connectivity | Noise cancellation | Deep clean |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AirPods (1st gen, 2016) | £49.95 | £59.95 | £29.95 | £19.95 | – | £14.95 |
| AirPods (2nd gen, 2019) | £59.95 | £69.95 | £34.95 | £24.95 | – | £19.95 |
| AirPods (3rd gen, 2021) | £69.95 | £79.95 | £39.95 | £29.95 | – | £24.95 |
| AirPods 4 (2024) | £69.95 | £79.95 | £39.95 | £29.95 | – | £24.95 |
| AirPods 4 with ANC (2024) | £79.95 | £89.95 | £44.95 | £34.95 | £69.95 | £24.95 |
| AirPods Pro (2019) | £79.95 | £99.95 | £44.95 | £34.95 | £69.95 | £24.95 |
| AirPods Pro 2 (2022) | £89.95 | £109.95 | £49.95 | £39.95 | £79.95 | £29.95 |
On AirPods Pro and Pro 2, replacement silicone ear tips are £19.95 a set – worth knowing, because a poor seal is often mistaken for "the noise cancellation has stopped working" when the real culprit is a perished or wrong-size tip.
AirPods Max (over-ear)
AirPods Max are built to be serviced part by part, which is exactly why repair makes so much sense on them – a single worn component is a long way from the price of a new pair.
| Service | AirPods Max (2020) | AirPods Max USB-C (2024) |
|---|---|---|
| Battery replacement | £149.95 | £169.95 |
| Headband replacement | £249.95 | £279.95 |
| Ear cushions | £79.95 | £89.95 |
| Audio / speaker repair | £129.95 | £149.95 |
| Noise cancellation repair | £99.95 | £119.95 |
| Digital Crown repair | £89.95 | £99.95 |
| Smart Case replacement | £69.95 | £79.95 |
| Deep clean | £39.95 | £44.95 |
What Drives the Cost
AirPods pricing looks scattered until you understand the three levers behind it.
- Model and generation. A 1st-gen AirPod bud is £49.95; the same job on AirPods Pro 2 is £89.95. Newer models pack more into a tiny shell – better drivers, extra microphones, the H-series chip, and on the Pro line a force sensor and noise-cancellation hardware – so both the part and the labour to fit it cost more.
- Which component failed. A deep clean is the cheapest service because nothing is replaced. A pairing or connectivity fix is next. A single bud sits in the middle. The charging case is often the dearest item on a standard pair because it contains its own battery, charging coils and the firmware that binds the set together.
- Part grade and battery wear. The biggest hidden driver is the battery. AirPods batteries are tiny lithium cells that degrade with every charge cycle, and once a bud or case will not hold charge, that part needs replacing – you cannot clean your way out of a worn battery. A genuine-grade replacement bud or case restores the original runtime; a bargain-bin part rarely does.
Lost or Dead Single AirPod: Repair, Don't Rebuy
The single most common AirPods problem is one bud – lost down the side of a sofa, dropped on the train, or simply dead while its twin still works fine. People assume a lost left AirPod means buying a whole new pair. It does not.
A replacement single AirPod is £49.95–£89.95 depending on model, and we pair it to your existing case and surviving bud so the set works as one again. Compare that to a new pair of AirPods Pro 2 at full retail and the maths is obvious: you are paying roughly a third of the price to get a complete, working set back. The same logic applies to a dead bud – if one side has stopped charging while the other is fine, replacing the failed bud is far cheaper than replacing both.
If it is the case you have lost or killed rather than a bud, that is a standalone replacement too: £59.95–£109.95 on standard AirPods, paired to your existing buds.
AirPods Cleaning Service: The Cheapest Fix of All
Before you spend anything on parts, consider a clean. A huge share of "my AirPods are broken" complaints are not faults at all – they are dirt. Earwax, lint and pocket grime build up over the speaker mesh and in the charging contacts, and the symptoms look exactly like hardware failure: one side sounds quiet or muffled, volume drops, a bud will not charge, or the set keeps disconnecting.
A professional deep clean is £14.95–£29.95 on in-ear models and £39.95–£44.95 on AirPods Max. We clear the speaker grilles, the microphone ports, the charging contacts on the buds, and the wells inside the case – the spots you cannot safely reach at home without pushing debris further in. In a lot of cases that single, cheap service brings the audio and battery behaviour back to where it should be, and you spend nothing on replacement parts at all.
Try this first: if one bud has gone quiet or stopped charging, book a deep clean before assuming the worst. It is the lowest-cost service we offer, and on dirty AirPods it often is the whole fix.
Battery Degradation in AirPods and AirPods Max
If your AirPods used to last five hours and now barely manage ninety minutes, that is battery wear, and it is the most common reason an older pair feels "done". Because the cells are sealed inside each bud and the case, the only real fix on in-ear models is replacing the affected part – a fresh bud or a fresh case restores the runtime.
AirPods Max are the standout here. They use a single, larger battery that we can replace directly: £149.95 on the 2020 model and £169.95 on the USB-C 2024 model. For a set of premium over-ear headphones that originally cost several hundred pounds, a battery replacement that brings the runtime back to new is excellent value – and far better for the planet than scrapping a perfectly good set of drivers and aluminium because one cell wore out. The same goes for worn ear cushions (£79.95–£89.95): new pads transform how a tired pair feels and seals, for a fraction of replacement cost.
celltech vs Buying New (and vs Apple)
Apple does not really repair AirPods. Its model is replacement: a faulty or lost bud, case, or unit is swapped for another at a per-unit service fee (Apple's published pricing, subject to change), and there is no battery service for the in-ear models – once the battery wears, the path is a paid replacement unit. AirPods Max are the exception, where Apple does offer a battery service.
Where independent repair wins is on the things Apple does not do and the things it hides:
- Transparent, published pricing. Every price above is fixed and shown up front. Most UK repairers make you fill in a form and wait; Apple quotes per-unit fees that, on cheaper models, edge uncomfortably close to the cost of a new pair.
- A genuine clean and repair option. A £14.95 deep clean simply is not a service Apple offers – their answer to a dirty, quiet bud is to sell you a replacement.
- Honestly tiered, genuine-grade parts. We tell you what is going into your AirPods, and replacement buds and cases are matched to restore the original runtime and sound.
- A 27-month standard guarantee. That is more than double the 12 months most independent UK repairers offer, and far longer than Apple's 90-day repair warranty – so a replacement bud or case is covered for over two years.
- UK-wide, tracked and insured mail-in. Your AirPods are covered both ways, posted back to you fixed, with no need to find a city-centre store.
Is It Worth Repairing? An Honest Steer
We are not going to pretend repair always wins. Here is the honest decision tree.
Repair or refresh when: you have lost or killed one bud and the rest of the set is fine; the case is worn or lost but the buds are healthy; the audio is quiet, muffled or cutting out (try the clean first); the battery has faded on AirPods Max; or the ear cushions have perished. In all of these, you are spending a fraction of a new set's price to get back to fully working.
It is genuinely worth buying new when: both buds and the case have all degraded at once on an older 1st- or 2nd-gen pair – at that point you are effectively rebuilding the whole product, and the combined part cost approaches a new entry-level set with newer chips and better battery life. Likewise, if you have water-damaged buds with corrosion through the internals, or you simply want to jump to a newer generation for the features, replacement is the sensible call. We will always tell you honestly which side of that line your AirPods fall on after diagnostics – we would rather say "these are worth replacing" than take money for a repair that does not make sense.
How the Mail-In Repair Works
celltech is a mail-in specialist covering the whole UK, so you do not need a repair shop nearby. You book online and tell us the model and the symptom, post your AirPods to us using our tracked and insured service – covered in both directions – and we diagnose the fault. Standard repairs include free diagnostics, so you know exactly what is wrong and what it costs before anything proceeds. Once approved, we carry out the clean, part replacement or repair, test it, and post your AirPods back to you fixed and re-paired. Across our service we cover around 2,467 device models and hold a 4.8-star rating.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to replace one AirPod?
A single replacement AirPod (left or right) is £49.95–£89.95 depending on the model – £49.95 on 1st-gen, £69.95 on AirPods 3 and AirPods 4, and £89.95 on AirPods Pro 2. We pair the new bud to your existing case and surviving AirPod so the set works as one again. That is far cheaper than buying a whole new pair just because you lost one side.
Is an AirPods cleaning service actually worth it?
Often, yes. A deep clean is £14.95–£29.95 on in-ear models and £39.95–£44.95 on AirPods Max, and a large share of "broken" AirPods are simply clogged with earwax and lint. Symptoms like quiet sound on one side, a bud that will not charge, or constant disconnects are frequently solved by clearing the speaker mesh, microphone ports and charging contacts – with no parts needed. It is the first thing worth trying.
Can you replace an AirPods battery?
On AirPods Max, yes – a direct battery replacement is £149.95 (2020) or £169.95 (USB-C 2024) and restores the original runtime. On the in-ear AirPods the battery is sealed inside each bud and the case, so a worn battery is fixed by replacing the affected bud or case rather than the cell alone. Either way, faded battery life does not mean the whole set is finished.
My AirPods keep disconnecting – is that repairable?
Usually. A pairing and connectivity fix is £19.95–£39.95 depending on model. Before that, a clean is worth trying, because dirty charging contacts are a common cause of dropouts and one-sided audio. We diagnose first so you only pay for what your AirPods actually need.
How does celltech compare to buying new or going to Apple?
Apple replaces AirPods rather than repairing them, charges a per-unit fee (its published pricing, subject to change), and offers no clean service or in-ear battery service. We publish fixed prices up front, offer cleans from £14.95, replace single buds and cases, and back standard repairs with a 27-month guarantee – more than double the 12 months most UK repairers offer and far longer than Apple's 90 days. For most faults, repairing or refreshing costs a fraction of a new set.
Will my AirPods sound and last like new after repair?
For the part that was replaced, yes. We use genuine-grade replacement buds, cases and AirPods Max batteries matched to restore the original sound and runtime, and we test before posting them back. A clean restores audio that was being muffled by debris. The honest exception is an old pair where everything has degraded at once – in that case we will tell you it is worth replacing rather than rebuilding.
Are AirPods worth repairing, or should I just replace them?
Repair or refresh when one part has failed – a lost or dead bud, a worn case, a clogged speaker, a faded AirPods Max battery, or perished ear cushions – because you spend a fraction of a new set's price. Replacing makes more sense when an older 1st- or 2nd-gen pair has degraded across the buds and case together, or there is water-damage corrosion, where the combined repair cost approaches a new entry-level pair. After free diagnostics on standard repairs, we tell you honestly which applies to your set.
How does the mail-in repair work and is it safe?
celltech is a UK-wide mail-in specialist. You book online, post your AirPods to us with our tracked and insured service – covered both ways – and we diagnose the fault before any work or charge. Once you approve the quote we carry out the repair, clean or part replacement, test it, re-pair the set and post it back to you fixed. Standard repairs include free diagnostics, and you can follow your AirPods every step of the way. For related Apple cost guides, see our iPhone battery replacement cost guide and Apple Watch screen & battery replacement cost guide.