I use mine every day for at least an hour of running. Yesterday they ran out of power at just over two hours of running. I have had mine for a couple of years now.
Iām looking forward to buying these new ones as they are water resistant and the original model is not, requiring me to dry the sweat off of them very carefully.
They don't advertise the water resistance but I run with mine drenched in sweat and have never had an issue. I also put them through the washer and dryer (not in the case) and they work fine almost a year later. I wouldn't worry about carefully drying them..
I have not had the same success as you. I do a lot of running and I sweat a lot while running at full speed. Formerly, I would put my AirPods into their case as quickly as possible after a run to avoid losing them. The charging contacts ended up becoming corroded and I have cleaned them off multiple times to get the batteries to charge. The AirPods were not fully wet, they just had a sheen of sweat on them. Now I set them out to dry in the air for a while before putting them in the case. I suspect the new version will have the same problem. They are not really meant for vigorous exercise.
[Edited to answer your question to which I cannot reply because it is marked as dead:] The corrosion to which I was referring is clearly oxidation to my eye. It has a green color and requires scraping. Maybe our environments and usage are too different for comparison. I live in Central Florida, where it is quite hot and humid. According to my receipts, I bought these AirPods on April 5, 2017. I have been running with them almost every day since then.
Thats pretty interesting, you made me take a look at my charging contacts and they're still completely new looking.
I wonder why you experienced that and I didn't - I don't take particularly good care of my AirPods. The only thing I do occasionally is hit them with a paperclip to remove any earwax buildup because they get pretty gross after a few weeks of use.
I mean I'll go for runs in the rain, run in super humid weather, sleep with them in sometimes, and a host of other probably not good ideas and they just keep on working perfect after a year of this 'abuse'.
I would guess however that they weren't corroded in the traditional sense of the word, more likely just covered in a gross film?
Iām looking forward to buying these new ones as they are water resistant and the original model is not, requiring me to dry the sweat off of them very carefully.