HomePod 2 will still stain your glossy wooden finish – here's why
Oils in the silicone base and your table's finish like to mix things up
➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: Ring around the HomePod
⚪️ The new HomePod can still leave a white ring on your polished furniture
🧑🔬 This is caused by oils from the silicone base mixing with those of your polish
🤔 Silicone and rubber stains have been an issue for a long time
👍 Luckily, not all surfaces are affected, and you can prevent it with a coaster
Although it’s not quite hitting customer’s homes yet, the HomePod 2 is here for some reviewers, and apart from the obvious fact that it looks very similar to the old HomePod, it seems it does improve a few things – added sensors, updated chipset and an improved top touch panel among them. But, perhaps surprisingly, one issue remains: the silicone base in the new HomePod 2nd Generation will still stain your nice, polished table.
That’s per popular tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee, who yesterday posted a video review of the new HomePod, which showed it doing the exact same thing – albeit more faintly and after a longer period of time:
If you don’t remember, back in 2018 there was a small controversy around the HomePod’s sound-dampening pad leaving a white ring on certain surfaces. That led Apple to update its HomePod cleaning page with the following:
“It is not unusual for any speaker with a vibration-damping silicone base to leave mild marks when placed on some wooden surfaces. The marks can be caused by oils diffusing between the silicone base and the table surface, and will often go away after several days when the speaker is removed from the wooden surface. If not, wiping the surface gently with a soft damp or dry cloth may remove the marks. If marks persist, clean the surface with the furniture manufacturer's recommended cleaning process. If you’re concerned about this, we recommend placing your HomePod on a different surface.”
Like Apple says, oils in the silicone can interact with the oils in your table’s surface – but the issue won’t affect all polished tables. I know this firsthand, because I keep my two HomePods on a very high-gloss polished coffee table which I use to hold everything beneath my TV – they’ve been there for a year and a half with no marks as yet.
HomePods aren’t alone
HomePods aren’t the only products that can do this – anything with a rubber silicone base can leave a ring on certain surfaces (though Apple says the HomePod Mini won’t leave a mark – perhaps weight is a factor?). Tech writers quickly found out the Sonos One will, for instance.
Google thinks anyone searching for that is looking for the HomePod or Sonos issue, these days, but If you search for articles dealing with silicone or rubber stains on wood using a date range up to 2017, you’ll find people have been afflicted by products with rubber or silicone feet leaving marks on their wood for a long time.
If you’ve already ordered a HomePod, don’t worry. If it’s going to leave a ring, it starts to happen after just a few minutes, so you’ll know pretty quickly if it’s going to react with the oils of your table. Or you can just, you know, use a coaster.
(via MacRumors)