Pens are peachy, and t-shirts are totally neat, but if there’s one category of promotional products that’s grown a lot in recent years, it’s the tech device and tech accessory category.

These days, products like USB flash drives as well as office and desk supplies regularly get counted among the most popular promotional items around the world. We’ve seen a few tech accessories skyrocket in popularity here at QLP as well. As people become more accustomed to using tablets, smartphones, and even good ol’ desktop computers in their everyday lives (because there still are some holdouts), you can bet that the popularity of tech promo products will only rise.

So of course you want your own branded tech products to last.

If you just need some quick information about how to clean popular tech products (because cleaning is caring, as my grandma always said), you can use the links below to jump right to the section that interests you:

    How to wash your earbuds and headphones
    How to wash power banks and battery chargers
    How to wash USB flash drives
    How to wash mouse pads

But! If you want to get into deeper detail, here to help is a care guide to some of the most popular tech-related promo items we sell. Whether you want to know how to clean an item, store it, or just make sure it functions well, you’ll find your answers below!
Earbuds and Headphones

Small, often affordable, and able to be used with almost any device, earbuds and headphones are some of the most common giveaways among businesses that want to reach out to tech-savvy users without blowing the ad budget. The best part is that a lot of the advice about caring for headphones (especially when we talk about how loud to play your music) applies to items like Bluetooth speakers, too!

Cleaning: It’s important to clean your earbuds not only because dirt and dust can affect sound quality, but because headphones and particularly earbuds can be breeding grounds for bacteria, which can cause ear infections. Ew.

Promo Headphones - Tech at QLPYou can use a dry toothbrush to remove tiny bits of debris from the mesh speaker holes of your headphones. If your headphones have a soft, leather-like cushion for the ears, or if you use earbuds, you can de-germify those soft exterior parts by dipping a cloth into a mixture of liquid soap and warm water (not too much soap – you don’t want to leave a residue) and gently wiping the surface.

If your headphones have foam pads that you can remove, take them off, squeeze them gently in your bowl of soapy water, water, rinse them, and let them air dry.

However you clean them, DO NOT dunk any parts of your earphones that are not soft and removable in water. If you take nothing else away from this post, please know that pools of water and electronic circuits and wires do not mix.

Storing: How many of us have ended up with our headphone or earbud cables tangled in a giant rat’s nest mess seconds after we put them away? It always freakin’ happens (and for a legitimate scientific reason, as researchers at UCSD demonstrated – curse you, thermodynamics!). Unfortunately, this can cause the wires inside to break and can loosen their connections.

The Internet is full of helpful hints about the best way to wrap your cables. Our favorite is the figure eight method, which involves winding your cable in a figure eight around your extended index finger and pinky, leaving some slack at the end that you can wrap around the center of the eight to keep it secure.

Of course, you can always invest in a custom cord wrap to keep them safe.

Keeping the Speakers Safe: Search Google for “can loud sound damage headphones,” and you’ll find plenty of gearheads talking about how constantly blaring your music through any speaker can fry coils and transducers, resulting in distorted, muffled sound. If that wasn’t enough to convince you and your customers to keep the sound down low, there are also plenty of reports of what listening to loud music with earbuds does to a person’s hearing.

At least the solution for preserving your headphones and your own hearing is an easy one: keep the volume no higher than 80 percent, and limit your listening time! Sounds below 85 decibels are considered safe for the ears.

Also, there’s an idea that headphones have to be “burned in” by being used to play white noise or random sounds for hours on end in order to produce the best sound quality. There’s no conclusive evidence that that’s true, but the people behind Mythbusters suggest that there’s no harm in just using your headphones and earbuds to listen to lots of different music and sounds when you first get them.
Power Banks and Battery Chargers

So many people own mobile devices that it’s hard to go wrong giving away a promo item to keep those devices charged. Proper care of these battery chargers, however, is what will make them a giveaway that’s just right!

Cleaning: Like the exterior parts of earbuds (and like just about every item in this post), the exterior of a power bank or car adapter can be cleaned by wiping it with a damp cloth. For the love of all that is good, please do not submerge your chargers underwater.

Promo Power Banks - Tech at QLPStoring: Any items with electronic parts are best stored at temperatures that are neither too cold nor too hot. Both extreme cold and extreme heat can weaken and break any components or connections that have been soldered together, and hot air tends to carry more humidity, and what have we learned about water and electronic parts? Basically, leaving your chargers in your car on a rainy 90-degree day might not be the best way to go.

Power banks, which store their own power to recharge a device, come with another issue to consider: they contain batteries. Batteries also shouldn’t be stored in extreme heat, because that can cause the battery – and your power bank – to lose capacity or, worse, leak. You don’t have to put your power banks in the fridge; a cool, dry place of any other kind will be fine.

In addition, if your power bank uses a lithium ion battery, some battery services recommend storing rechargeable lithium ion batteries with a 40 percent charge – turns out that the battery will drain less over time that way than if it’s stored at 100 percent! How will you know if that’s what your power bank uses? Check the included user’s guide, or better yet, ask your QLP customer service representative!
USB Flash Drives

Like power banks, flash drives contain a lot of tiny internal electronic circuitry. Like earbuds, they’re an amazingly popular giveaway for trade shows and other special events. Put these facts together, and you’ll see why proper care of your USB flash drive is so important!

Promo Flash Drives - Tech at QLPCleaning: We’d say “lather, rinse, repeat,” but we don’t want anyone to get confused and think that they have to shampoo their flash drives. All we mean is that, as with power banks and USB chargers, you can clean the exterior plastic case of your flash drive by wiping it with a damp cloth.

If your flash drive happens to get wet by, say, getting washed because you left it in your pocket before doing laundry, don’t fret. There’s no guarantee it’ll still work, but give it a few days to dry out, and then try plugging it in. Hey, at least it’ll be really clean then, right?

Storing: Just like other electronic devices, flash drives should be stored at mid-range temperatures and at low humidity. They’re essentially little bitty computer storage centers, so care for them accordingly!

In addition, we know that a lot of people store their flash drive on their key rings. That’s great for making sure you bring your drive with you, but when it comes time to plug it into a computer, take it off of the ring! Otherwise, the weight of the keys risks pulling down on and snapping the drive’s metal USB connector.

Removing from the computer: You’ve heard plenty of IT professionals say it; now we’re going to chime in, too. Don’t just unplug your flash drive when you think you’re done! Instead, if you’re using Windows, take a look at the icons on your taskbar in the bottom right corner of your screen. Hover over them until you see one that looks like a USB plug and that says “Safely Remove Hardware” when your mouse pointer is right over it. Click on that, and wait until you see a popup window telling you your device is safe to remove.
Mouse Pads

Hey, not every tech accessory has to be fitted with all sorts of electronic circuits and connectors! Mouse pads (also known as mouse mats, which is adorable) are another affordable tech-related giveaway that anyone sitting at a computer for even part of the day will appreciate.

Promo Mouse Pads - Tech at QLPCleaning: Let’s face it, the most care that the average mouse pad will get is a quick cleaning. Lucky for all of us, mouse pads are extremely easy to clean (especially if yours is made from hard plastic – just wipe that surface down with a damp cloth!).

If you have a fabric mouse pad made from neoprene, you can clean it by filling a tub with warm water and a little bit of mild liquid soap, like Woolite or baby shampoo (which will help your custom imprint last longer). Soak the mouse pad for three to four minutes, rub any particularly funky spots gently with a cloth, rinse it with clean water, and let it air dry after patting it with a towel.

If the neoprene fabric appears to be separating from its rubber backing, just wipe the top surface with a damp cloth instead of soaking the whole mouse mat. Hee hee, mouse mat.

Storing: Did you know that UV rays from the sun can break down neoprene? It’s a common concern with the wetsuits that scuba divers wear, which also are made from neoprene. For that reason, we recommend storing your mouse pad or even leaving it to dry somewhere that the sun won’t turn its harsh light on it. (Please don’t stick a wet mousepad in a dark, dank place to dry, though. Mildew is not your friend.)

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Surveys say that forty-five percent of people who receive a promotional product use that product at least once a day. Considering how often people enjoy their computers and mobile devices, we’re pretty confident that tech-related promo products make up a good chunk of that forty-five percent, and will in years to come. With a little bit of careful care, your tech products will be the items your customers turn to day after day!