We asked, you told us: Some of you have filthy wearables

Fitness trackers and smartwatches can accumulate some nasty bacteria, as a recent study found. Needless to say, this study therefore revealed the importance of regularly cleaning your wearable.

The saga got us wondering whether readers cleaned their wearables after a workout. We posed this question to you in a standalone poll article last week, and here’s how you answered it.

Do you clean your wearable after a workout?

Results

This was one of our more divisive polls in recent months, although there was a winner. Just under 39% of surveyed readers said they indeed cleaned their wearables after a workout.

In second place, with almost 35% of the vote, was “No, I don’t.” Yep, over a third of respondents said they didn’t wash their wearables after exercising. Finally, 26.62% of surveyed readers said they sometimes cleaned their wearables after a workout.

It was also interesting to note that a couple of readers noted in the comments that they wore their wearables in the shower. That technically counts as cleaning it after a workout, I guess.

Comments

• Tziona Greenberg: I never even thought of cleaning my Fitbit Sense 2 after my workout. I think I will start doing that.
• gwine: Not directly, but I wear it into ths shower after a workout.
• Konrad Uroda-Darłak: Everyday during shower, not online after workout. It’s obvious for me, especially now (summer, hot temperatures).
• Callum: I don’t clean my watch after each workout, but I do make sure to thoroughly clean it at least once a week.
• EeZeEpEe: I clean my phone and watch at least once a day. Both things, get nasty pretty quickly. Even before I had a smartwatch, I cleaned my watches. Probably just good habits being that I work in a hospital.
• Byorself: How about a separate poll that might have a connection to this poll or not. The poll would ask- “Do you wash your hands after using the public restroom? 1-Always, 2-Sometimes, 3-Never.” My anecdotal observations about other users is often answer #3.