We Need the Right to Repair Our Gadgets

A good friend informed me he had a damaged TV, which he said had been fried by a lightning strike near his home.  Unfortunately his deductible was greater than the replacement cost of the device. He said it had turned on, but only a blue-screen would show.

After a little web-searching, it seemed likely the culprit was the tuner board. I ordered one on eBay, waited several days for it to arrive.

He brought it over and set it on my kitchen table, where I separated the back and stand from the unit, and in less than 10 minutes the tuner board (aka main board) was installed, back and stand reattached, and we plugged it in.

Easy peasy. The TV worked like new. Total cost?  $47.

Manufacturers have been criticized before for using shoddy components, especially capacitors.

They could of course claim that will all the bureaucratic regulation in place today that encouraging someone to open up their TV or other electronic device might lead to an injury for which they could (and probably would) be held responsible.

A more egregious example though is the recent disappearance of replaceable batteries in cell phones. It is ridiculous that you are expected to suffer with ever decreasing usability of the device and have no alternative but to return it to the manufacturer for a new battery.

And what do you do for a phone while you wait for its return?

The remedy is for us as a culture to rediscover the value of modularity in our toys. In volume, that "motherboard" you fixed might have only cost $30 to replace and the burnt one could be sent back to the factory for the soldering job.

Don't hold your breath waiting for this common sense to happen though.

Jessa Jones

You're right of course. However, like the article stated Apple (and others) should be more forthcoming with specs and how to fix so consumers can repair their own devices if they choose.  

For example, a lot of people crack the front screens on their smart phones.

Many  sellers on ebay sell everything you need to fix your phone including the screwdrivers! For less than 20 bucks you're back in business.

I for one will not be buying that if I crack my screen because it requires a level of skill and patience I lack. So I would use one of the aftermarket repair facilities that have sprung up. For about 100 bucks most phones can get new gorilla glass in about a few hours.

I'm certain the manufacturer's options for this fix are much more expensive if they offer it at all.

  The labs are even now being constructed at engineering schools where solid state replaces all moving parts and these are built into the structures themselves. It does not take a great deal if imagination to realize how inexpensive this will make washing machines, driers, cars, air-conditioners, and freezers. When your 96 cubic foot freezer arrives in a six inch X four X six foot cardboard box, from amazon and costs the price of a box of chocolates, then the dynamics of this throw away society can be seen and appreciated. Simplicity is the solution!

This is a generational problem. Baby Boomers and older Americans grew up tearing open their washing machines, replacing brush sets on their drill motors, and changing their own oil. When their rotary phones died, they'd go to the local dump and find some similar yellow coiled wire and solder it to their old receiver. They would spend ten hours with a crowbar and a mallet mounting their own new tires on the rims rather than pay $5 each to a Sears to do it for them.

Then, their kids grew up.

You won't find one Gen Xer in 100 who wants to go to the local radio shack and get a capacitor to repair their iMac. Nor will you find one Millennial in 1000 who wants to trade ten minutes Snapchatting for ten dollars to rewrire their $29 wireless video cam they bought on Amazon. A generation that leases brand new BMWs at 21 years old isn't a generation who is going to change their own oil. Not to mention some new cars can't even be jump started with an old pair of jumper cables not because it's a secret plan to prevent jump starts, but because consumers don't want to even pop their own hoods.

@Matthew Ferrara Lack of opportunities for repair is not the same thing as wanting to throw things away.  For the most part - this is an informational problem and not a generation one.  

There is huge element of affordability.  If you can get a part for $14 to repair a refrigerator (mine) and the replacement cost is $1600 plus - repair is very viable.  Even if a local tech charged $80 for a service call - it would still be viable.  But if you or the tech cannot get a part, or the instructions, and the manufacturer wants $500 for the part plus labor,  the economics may lean the other way.  

And why is the part $500?  It isn't remotely reasonable and that is intentional.  Afterall - who stands to make money selling replacements?  This is a rigged game. 

TVs? What about cars? Why must you go to a shop for a persn to plug in a device to read what's wrong with your car? 

I got an idiot light and couldn't go for my required inspection to re-register my car. I went to friends shop and the problem was that my gas cap wan't sealing the fill tube and maintaining pressure. 

Had I gone to the dealer I would have had to pay $90 for that information and then buy a new gas cap.

The new gas cap cost less than $10. 

#Marco Morales 

Everybody I know that takes a product to the "Genius Bar" ends up buying a brand new replacement.  The "Genius" is in being able to convince people to hand over their money while buying a "premium" product that lasts 6 months.

Marco you are exactly right!

I've been buying desktops from Computer Renaissance for twenty years.   When the CPU fan bracket broke on my XP desktop unit, CompRen said they would look around for the part.  They called and said it wasn't available.   But I had found half a dozen places selling the exact same part for two to ten bucks.  So I did the repair. Pulling the mobo and installing a new bracket and fan, watching youtube instructions, demystified the insides of a computer.  

So I  built two new desktops to my own specs, and in doing so got knowledge of the poor build quality that had gone into my Computer Renaissance desktops and why they had failed every two to three years.  The fan brackets on my current CPUs won't break in ten years, let along two or three.  And much else besides is better.

I'm no longer CompRen's customer.  I've never messed with circuit boards though. The article is right, once you've decided that the unit is a total loss you have nothing to lose by seeing if you can fix it yourself.  

This may or may not apply to electronic gadgetry, but companies have been held liable for the performance and safety of their products after they have been retrieved from scrap yards.  The legal principle is deep pockets pay.  

Further, aftermarket parts may or may not meet manufacturers' specifications.  As a retired engineer involved in product design, I have seen the results of shade tree mechanics. 

@Thomas Yasin

Balderdash! If it's broken and out of warranty any fix you do is good no matter how long it lasts. I'm a technician and I've rigged enough stuff over the years to have little appreciation for the design quality of most of the junk engineers design. And I've kept things running for much longer than the manufacturer planned with its planned obsolescence by replacing the product with a whole new line.

Repair shops especially those that are adjuncts of a store just want you to replace what you have. Before that happens go to the internet and you'll almost always find what you're looking for.

I’ve paid professionals to rebuild laptops for me, I’ve never got my money’s worth from any of the repairs, and my success rate as a tinker is beyond dismal.I’ll continue to replace or upgrade them when needed.

Fantastic article.  Companies make it difficult to impossible to repair because "planned obsolescence" means they can keep selling you new stuff.  On the other hand, it does cost a lot to maintain an inventory of spares to support your hobby shop.

My background is in maintenance and aftermarket and I have to say, the best part of your article is showing how simple most of these repairs can be....Most of this stuff is MODULAR.  You're only replacing a broken component, you don't have to repair the circuit board. 

Apple should be getting HAMMERED on this issue. With each successive generation of products, they make fewer parts repairable/replaceable by purchasers. For example, over the last couple of years, they have soldered the RAM chips into their computers so that purchasers can't upgrade RAM on their own.  Apple obviously wants to force consumers to buy every single part of their computers (including upgrades) from Apple.  Apple obviously wants to squeeze every single penny it can out of consumers. This is why I will not get rid of my 2010 MacBook Pro. Unlike the newer Apple laptops, it is very easy to repair/replace just about every single part of my 2010 Apple. I've maxed out the RAM, put in an SSD drive, and replaced the CD-DVD drive when it went bad.

Thank you for a great article. I hate throwing things away. I also love the idea of a repair cafe!

I can't believe the WSJ is advocating more government regulation on business!

If consumers don't like how they're treated a manufacturer, they are free to go to another.

Isn't this how the free market works?

Using the government to force businesses to provide valuable intellectual property to consumers for free?

Obviously, Mr. Fowler is on Elizabeth Warren's payroll. 

@Chris Sykes You get upset about regulation and then use copyright law as the basis for why companies should be allowed to restrict the freedom of information. A tad hypocritical is it not? IP law was and is written by the politicians on the payroll of the various trade groups and companies. You talk about a free market? Intellectual property, copyright and patents are antithetical to the very nature of a free market. If information and merchandise is available for sale, then it is the property of the buyer, not the seller. Repair data is given out for the consumer and repair organizations without restriction. Using the hand of government legislation to attempt to determine what they can do with what they own is as anti free market as you can get.

@Benjamin Sydnes @Chris Sykes Benjamin makes a great point. Manufacturers are trying to have their cake and eat it too.  They sell you tangible property (physical assets) and then add copyright limitations (often not disclosed) to prevent you from using your property.   This isn't free market - its monopolization.  Repair isn't political.  

I love the idea of a repair café. 

Let's think this thing through people -- if we fix everything, the landfills go out of business and the archeologists of the future will be deprived the artifacts needed to piece together our civilization when it eventually becomes lost.

@BOB DENBY Bob's onto something...one need only read A CANTICLE FOR LIEBOWITZ to understood the depth of his comment. Keep posting, Mr. D.

Legislation is for insecure wimps. Let the market work it out, as at some point a manufacturer will start bragging about being easy to repair. The Japanese didn't need legislation to get a foothold on the U.S. auto market, just a good product and a willingness to stand behind it.

However, unlike the strong majority of Americans, the Japanese tend to be real people with real character, people who don't run and whine to their attorneys and politicians with their dimunitive problems. Again, at some point the market will work it out as it has through the author's simple Internet research. This is a far lower cost and more effective solution for everyone than getting the attorneys and politicians involved.

@Rod Schulz They were also willing to sell at a loss...

@Rod Schulz Markets don't work under monopolies.  One of the very few good uses of legislation is making sure markets function.  

It's not just about chips. What's more mundane than your windshield wipers? You used to be able to slide in a new pair of the rubber thingys for about 5 bucks. Unfortunately they don't sell "refills" anymore. Now you have to replace the whole blade assembly at $15-20 bucks a piece. And what happens to the perfectly good blades you had to rip out? Into the landfill? And they're made out of plastic i.e., evil oil...

Where are the environmental jackassses screaming about this waste of resources? How many polar bears are murdered by this throw-away racket (obviously dreamed up by the Koch brothers and Halliburton)??

Gayle and Helen are spot on.  This is not only a problem for TVs and cell phones but for everything with a chip. For anyone interested in the legislation underway, just go to the website for the Digital Right to Repair Coalition.  There are links to bills active in MA, MN, and NY and links to contact legislators in those states to use your voices to promote healthy change.

@Gayle Rosenthal I thought I remembered something earlier than that.  I googled it.  In 1963, Chrysler touted its new, 5-year/50,000 mile warranty.  In '86, they raised it to 7-yr/70,000 miles.

Every observation made by the author equally applies to home appliances like washers, dryers, fridges, dishwashers. Green earth people should be campaigning against the throw away society we have become when it comes to high tech gadgets and appliances. The disposal of these items must really be messing up the environment. Just imagine when all those solar panels and wind mills need to be disposed of because they have outlived their usefulness.

@Gayle Rosenthal @Helen Corey

If you are going to be in the home rental business it would pay to learn some appliance repair. I repair or replace everything myself. Granted I have experience since I worked in a Public Works shop when I was in the Navy all the parts for anything are available on line. I can replace an ice maker in 15 minutes. same with the igniter on a gas stove or a ht water heater. Hint: Before replacing an igniter make sure the two piezo electric contacts don't have a build up of crud from spilled food and that the tube carrying gas from the burner to it are clean inside. 

@Anirban Samanta  There aren't any Warranty Laws other than Magnusen-Moss.  Manufacturers are free to offer whatever warranties they feel they need to offer for marketing purposes. Warranties are not a guarantee of product quality, durability, even that a tech can do much of anything other than pull and replace failed parts or parts assemblies.  If manufacturers don't want to be blamed for poor service, they can train and certify independent techs. 

Good article, worth saving.

This period of the "aughts" and "teens" of this century will eventually be seen as the dark ages of consumer, and even business electronics repair. I get a kick out of that CEA fellow with "urban myth" -- anyone remember the RIAA? Same kind of organized crime mob.

There's a fellow in Chicago who gets tons of throwaway iPods and refurbishes them with parts from Apple. When iPods were still selling strong, I bought one of his refurbished 5.5 gen models, on which he had replaced the screen with a brighter one, the battery with a longer-lasting one, and the HDD with a higher-capacity one. All for under $200.00 (at the time you could only find the 6th gen. one at just under $600.00 if memory serves). Great for the environment, great for customers, great for him. You can find him if you search for "eco friendly ipod" on eBay. Unfortunately, he's taking a break to go to med school, so he's pricing them at just under $800.00 now to DIScourage business because he doesn't have the time, but still wants to stay in the market and provide the service to those who really, really want it. 

I had sworn off Apple products, until I found out that you could install an alternate OS on the iPod 5.5, that's infinitely smarter than the original OS. Check it out: RockBox. Open Source, "free beer" and "free speech."

"I’m happy to report the fix on Shira’s TV took under two hours. "

A small shop would need to make $100 an hour to stay in business.  $200 would be a reasonable fee for this job.

@Patrick McNally 

depends on where you live, and your small business goals.  For example, a retired electrician or engineer could easily do this part time and charge much less making both repair person and customer happy.

#Jay Apple

An Apple product - forget about it. It requires a trip to the Genius Bar.

And Big Bucks too!

@RAY ANTONELLI Everybody I know that takes a product to the "Genius Bar" ends up buying a brand new replacement.  The "Genius" is in being able to convince people to hand over their money while buying a "premium" product that lasts 6 months.

I loved the article, and I immediately drew the parallel to health care, as I elaborated on here: http://kimbellardblog.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-right-to-repair-ourselves.html

I've got a Dell D830.  The USERS MANUAL (not a service manual) contains details like how to remove/replace the internal network cards, the Bluetooth card, the keyboard, etc.

The cooling fan died a few days ago - which rendered the laptop useless.  A new one is about $20, readily available, and took about 1/2 hour to replace... but you have to go in by removing the keyboard, the display, and do other fairly major surgery - but it's easy, and the "how to" data is easy to get.

On the other hand, I have no clue how to open or repair the Mac laptop I just bought my wife....and I'm an electrical engineer!

It's easy. I have upgraded several Mac laptops and they last a decade. Easy to bash Apple because of their up front cost, but over time they are 2-3x more economical due to their quality, power and closed environment which ensures compatibility.

@C. J. HALL  Yes, taking a laptop apart is easy.  Putting it back together is a little more difficult, especially if one of those microscopic wires breaks.  This is where qualified repairmen can be worth your money.  If you have the money to invest in the tools and the time to learn the skills, repair can be a fun hobby.  That doesn't mean it's always the best decision.