A few years ago my Dad got really annoyed when his patio umbrella stopped opening and closing easily. He wasn’t annoyed because it stopped working. He was annoyed because he couldn’t fix it. He is one to fix things, but despite his best efforts (and that of his family) he couldn’t figure it out. He had to throw away the whole patio umbrella even though the umbrella was otherwise in great shape. Furthermore, it was a nuisance to dispose of since it didn’t exactly fit in a trash bin. Why couldn’t it be designed to be more repairable?
A week ago I ordered a bunch of smoke detectors to replace some faulty ones. The electrician informed me that the batteries in this newer design can’t be replaced and after ten years I will have to replace all the detectors. (1) That is progress? These days, even when a battery in a device can be replaced, you may have to ship the device to an authorized dealer and wait one or two weeks.
There has been a lot of pushback on this lack of repairability in the past few years. The Federal Trade Commission hosted a workshop on repair restrictions in 2019, and then the pandemic hit, with supply chain and labor force issues making access to repairs even more difficult. President Biden signed an executive order this past July that emphasized the importance of people’s ability to repair their own equipment. Various “right to repair” bills have been proposed, focusing on farmers or cars. This past Friday, California State Senator Susan Eggman of Stockton introduced a bill (link TBD) strengthening the “right to repair” for electronic devices in California.
This type of bill has broad bipartisan support according to a survey by bill sponsor CALPIRG.
Source: CALPIRG
Senator Eggman says: “The ability to fix the things that we own, through our own hands or those of a trusted independent repair shop, should not be a controversial or partisan issue.” CALPIRG advocate Sander Kushen is passionate about this: “California creates 1.1 million tons of electronic waste every single year. Our survey of Californians showed that people feel like they’re pressured into making their devices e-waste: 95% of Californians agree that manufacturers push us to buy new products instead of fixing our old ones.”
It’s not just we suburbanites that are frustrated with our inability to repair things. Authorized repair shops are few and far between in rural areas. When farming equipment is broken, especially during planting season or harvest season, the downtime directly impacts farmers’ incomes. If military vehicles cannot be quickly repaired, it can harm the resilience of a fighting force. Phones and laptops can be critical for small …….
Source: https://www.mv-voice.com/blogs/p/2022/02/13/why-arent-more-products-easy-to-repair