This year, it’s brilliant to see lots of us are able to come together in person to celebrate the day. But there are still lots of online events going on. Find a list of events here.
With COP-26 coming up in Glasgow, we’re focusing on the climate benefits of repair with the theme: repair lowers carbon emissions. By fixing our broken belongings, we make the most of what we already have and reduce the need to manufacture new products.
Did you know that extending the lifetime mobile phones in Europe by five years
would save 5.5 million tonnes of emissions (CO2e) annually by 2030 - the equivalent to taking 3 million cars off the roads for a year (source: EEB)
And I don’t have anything to fix today, but I did get my laptop battery replaced earlier this week at my local repair shop. They got it done in just 3 hours! Very impressed.
I fixed my mouse today! All it needed was a good clean, there was a lot of dust between the buttons.
Made the absolute rookie mistake of trying to pry it open right away without proper tools though - turns out there was a hidden screw under a sticker. Which means that I needed to superglue it back together - but at least it works now
I saved a camping torch from an exploded battery mess. I ended up having to sand some of the corrosion off, as my vinegar wasn’t strong enough. I didn’t actually have enough AA batteries around to test it (reminding me of many Restart Parties )
an old radio that a guy had bought this wife when they were courting (they’d celebrated 55 years of marriage last week!)…hadn’t worked for 30 years and it sprang back to life!
dancing rudolf…bought for a grandma, by her mother a few years back, the mother died a couple of months later unexpectedly, so it was a very treasured item. Grandkids loved it, but last Christmas is stopped working…bit of attention from our team and it was dancing once again.
Hoping to do some social media posts about both stories (when I find time )
My repair was actually unsuccessful. The torch is designed to stand as it is in the photo. But the implication of this design is that when the batteries leaked, the liquid went all into the PCB that controls the LED. After some disassembly, I determined that as a bare minimum the switch was dead. But I think more was wrong with the board, given the amount of corrosion and damage. My rudimentary clean of the board didn’t save it. (I also really struggled to remove the switch and PCB without destroying the torch).
So this is an example of how designers (and engineers) need to use some kind of basic “failure mode analysis” when designing products. What is most likely to fail? Is it a single point of failure?
Did you know that extending the lifetime mobile phones in Europe by five years
Happy Repair Day!
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