How to stop black rubber from leaving dirt on shirt

I have a set of earbuds on a neckband, black rubber, several years old, and the yoke has started to leave a lot of black rubber marks on my shirt collar.

Can you suggest a treatment or coating to prevent this?

The part that rubs off has no jacks or wires comeing out, it's a plain field but otoh, many things might not stick to its surface. It;s curved everywhere.

It wasn't until the 3rd shirt I took the trouble to find the problem, and the first shirt has been washed and it came did come off in the laundry. I'm not a fancy guy but even I think it looks terrible.

This is a combination hearing amplifier and bluetooth-from-the-cellphone and cost about $300 or 400 new, by Bose, and they don't make them anymore. They still sell some on ebay but I'm sure they are as old as mine are.

Doesnt' that mean the battery on new old stock is old and weaker too? If the battery on this wears out, won't a replacement be already half-way as bad, just from age? Probably lithium. (Because I'm consiering buying real hearing aids but I fear they will keep falling out of my ears. The neckband kind do, but they don't reach the ground when they fall.)

Cheaper ones don't give hifi sound, t hough they are still better than nothing.

If you don't mind the appearance, consider a thin tubing, which is split to allow wrapping the wire without disconnecting

$1.14 for 5"

I won't like the appearance, but I don't have many choices. I hear well enough 90% of the time, but meetings, lectures, doctor's appts with some doctors, are a problem. (I found an app that records what we say and transcribes it. That helps a lot. Even when I hear everything, I can't remember it all.)

That's a pretty good idea, that I would not have thought of. (I though of heat shrink but it gets too wide at each end.) I used to have a big box of that stuff that I used when I ran 3 controls, a wired cable channel selector, wired, on/off, and wired volume control to my bedroom tv and my workshop tv. I still have lots of it left, especially the small sstuff, but it would be hard to find after 40 years.

That might be a good idea too. Yours also were making your shirt dirty? Not when new but a couple years later?

It sounds like the original soft black "rubber" is in fact urethane polymer, which is now reverting back to urethane monomer.

The monomer might be removable using Ethyl Acetate, found in some kinds of nail polish remover.

Joe

Almost certainly. Of the commonly available solvents likely to be found in your garage brake fluid is just about right for removing the nasty tacky surface gunge whilst not damaging the remaining good polymer.

I was surprised how well it worked...

I hadn't heard of that option before either.

I would comment that (except for DOT5, which is a silicon oil), modern brake fluids are glycol based, and thus can be washed away with water. So if one has used brake fluid to remover urethane monomer, be aware that the monomer can precipitate out a milky haze that can re-deposit on nearby surfaces, so use a lot of water to flush it away before it can redeposit.

May need to do the brake fluid trick twice.

Joe Gwinn

It's not sticky. It doesn't even seem dirty until I push down a litle when I rub it. I've had the sticky one, on a power-thing for recharging phones etc, and I finally did get rid of almost all the stickiness, and I actually used the ppower-pack my last day in florida to recharge an almost dead phone. It was good to have.