Spares could be pretty pricey

Manufacturers would only want "approved" repairers for elf and safety reasons

A repairable item really needs to be designed as a hand built item, even if robots assemble it

Electrical goods are being refused by charity shops because of elf and safety issues

The whole industry needs reorganising if its going to up its standards

Edited By Ady1 on 01/07/2021 09:16:33

Well, it sounds like a step in the right direction, but will it transform grossly wasteful industry or really benefit the majority of hapless consumers, who can't even put on a plug? I doubt it. Most things are repairable, assuming you can diagnose the fault, dismantle the thing, obtain a spare part and reassemble everything. But, realistically, is a software-driven, hideously complex, miniaturized gizmo going to get repaired? It's too difficult to dismantle, diagnosis probably requires specialized knowledge and diagnostic software, software may need to be re-loaded, calibration performed, and replacing tiny components under strong magnification is no fun. So Joe public isn't going to do it, and employing someone is going to be too expensive – and then there's the inflated cost of spares, of which the manufacturer has a monopoly. No manufacturer is going to want to release source code, because intellectual property is rightly(?) guarded. And then there's the problem of legislation. Who will decide whether something is repairable – politicians, lawyers? Don't even think of the cost of legal fees. Nah, you'll walk off to the shop, grumbling, and just buy another, as before. Meanwhile, in a massive warehouse, somewhere near you, countless unsold goods are being destroyed – it's economics, dear. The world has gone mad. There is no hope…

I think the majority of people just want a cheap reliable product. However when devices are rendered less usable because of poorly designed parts failing such as plastic fridge bootle trays the cost to the user and environment can be high.

Most manufacturers are continually redesigning their products to reduce cost or improve performance by using new technology or materials so having to stock or guarantee the availability of spare parts for 10 years can be a burden especially if the parts you are stocking are not the parts that end up being the ones that commonly fail. If manufacturers knew what parts would fail why don't they design them better in the first place.

In my experience the most likely parts to fail are stressed plastic, then mechanical and that includes electrical connectors and then electronics as least likely.

Although there are legal requirements for products to comply with various safety standards there are not, as far as I'm aware, any legal requirements for reliability. It is probably perceived that manufacturers wouldn't design an unreliable product. However given the number of products recalled because of safety issues through poor design or manufacturing control then I'm sure there may be many more with reliability issues.

How standards would be worded would be a challenge but the use of "appropriate" materials which are shown to provide longevity or easy of recycling may improve the situation.

Clive

Part of the problem is the "throw away society" as was alluded to in the article. Re-educating people to get things fixed rather than thrown away/recycled will be a battle.

I've always found with white goods that spares are generally available at reasonable cost from my local white goods repair shop and the usual internet sources. Electrical parts, seals, hinges etc all readily obtainable. Might not be OE but so what?

The problem will be with parts exclusive to a particular model, probably will be so costly that throwing away will be the best way forward financially.

I think a fundamental change from the manufacturers will be needed to make things more fixable. That is to say design for maintenance rather than manufacture.

John

Unless spares costs are "controlled" the manufacturers will make the cost well out of proportion.

Our 10 year old Bosch dishwasher died recently. Investigation (took apart) suggested that the control box was faulty. One small PCB in a plastic box with edge connectors £165 inc VAT. It's certainly no more complex than an Arduino Uno I can get for 1/10th of the price. Man to come and diagnose the fault £99. So total cost to repair by "approved" repairer £264 – about 60% of the cost of the dishwasher originally, and a new one is about the same cost.

Actual fault (Google is your friend) was a 100ohm 3W resistor (£1.99 for five) and a Regulator IC (£4.75 for four) both delivered by a well known auction site.1 hour with a soldering iron and it all works again.

But I have no idea where the average person might find someone to do such a repair. All the "engineers" these days seem to be trained just to swap components.

Haines used to sell a manual for washing machines. told you which parts were interchangeable between makers.

Guy came to cut my hedges some years ago, called himself an "Agricultural Engineer" !

When I finished laughing, I advised him to try his luck on the Stage.

I have heard some good ones, but that had to be one of the best !

Please, no 'great Reset' theories here…

Neil

In the last month I have picked up two vacuum cleaners, one from skip and one on the way to dump, both probably dumped because of poor suction because the extra (non-bag) filters had never been cleaned. One was without hose but within two weeks another skip yielded the hose after the pikies had had the body for scrap metal.

You have to change the economics. If an item is paid for upfront then the manufacturer has no incentive to make it last above and beyond reliability ratings. If the new price was paid in yearly installments until the 80% of the mean lifetime date there is evolutionary pressure to make stuff that lasts.

regards Martin