Larry Magid: These days we often replace rather than repair

I’m old enough to remember the “Maytag repairman” commercials that ran from 1967 to 1989 in which the repairman was “the loneliest man in town” because, the commercials claimed, Maytag appliances rarely broke down.

There was actually some truth to that not just for Maytag, but based on numerous reports and my own experience, appliances in general seemed to last a lot longer than they do now. But, as lonely as that fictional Maytag repairman may have been, at least those appliances – and just about everything else we owned – were repairable.  That’s not always the case today,

These days it’s often not cost effective to repair devices for a number of reasons. Often, the cost of the repair is close to or even more than the cost of the item. That can even be true with shoes. I brought a pair to a local shoe repair shop only to learn that I could buy a new pair of the same shoes for less than the repair cost. He said he had to charge so much to help cover his high rent. Even clothing is often cheaper to replace than to repair, unless you mend your own clothes or have a friend or family member willing to do it for you.

Major appliances can still be repaired, but it’s not always the case with electronics. I’ll be reviewing the soon-to-be-released Google Pixel Watch 3 in September, but Google has confirmed that the new watch, like the first two iterations, isn’t repaired under warranty if it’s damaged, breaks down or even has a broken screen. As Android Central reported, “Users must contact Support for a replacement device and are also encouraged to grab the Preferred Care insurance plan to cover damages.” Based on a couple of teardown videos of the Google Watches 1 and 2, the watch is very difficult for third-party technicians to repair.

When you order a Pixel Watch, the company encourages users to purchase a “Preferred Care” plan for $4 a month or $89 for two years, which covers “Replacement in case of accidental damage (including drops, liquid spills, and cracks) up to twice in a rolling 12-month period.” I’ve never broken a smartwatch, but I could easily see it happening, so for a device that starts at about $350, it’s probably a good idea to get coverage either from Google or a third-party provider. I think I’d go with Google’s monthly plan, which is only 30 cents a month more than the two-year plan.

Vanishing repair shops

There used to be lots of shops that fixed TVs and even technicians who would come to your home with tubes and other parts needed to fix them. There are still some places that fix TVs, but they are a lot rarer than they used to be. When electronic devices go bad, it’s usually a matter of swapping out components rather than taking a soldering iron and trying to repair them. In the early days of TVs, it was sometimes a matter of swapping out a tube.

With electronics, even if the repair cost is a bit less than the replacement cost, there’s a good chance that you can buy a newer and better model for not too much more than the cost of fixing one that might be considered “out of date.”

I once got an estimate to replace a broken screen on a two-year-old iPhone but decided to instead get a new phone because, as is often the case after a couple of years, the battery was starting to run out of juice sooner than when the phone was new, and the combined cost of a screen and battery replacement was pretty close to the cost of a new phone.

In the early days of cell phones, an owner could easily replace the battery, but now they require someone with the skills and tools to take the phone apart.

Fix it clinics

Not everyone has given up on repairing things. There are what are called “repair cafés” or “fix-it clinics,” which are community-based workshops where volunteers with repair skills assist people in fixing their broken items.

The Repair Café Silicon Valley is a volunteer-run, community service organization “dedicated to encouraging the repair and reuse of goods rather than dumping them in a landfill.” Their website says they have “electronics experts who love to solder, woodworkers who love to glue, sewing experts who love to stitch, and bike mechanics who love to grease things.”  If you’re located in or near Silicon Valley, go to their website and scroll down to find local fix-it events.

Sometimes it’s the software that’s “broken” 

When it comes to “repair” of electronics such as phones and computers, often the problem is not with the hardware but with the operating system or the software. I’ve had a few friends tell me they were about to replace a slow or non-functional phone or PC, but I instead showed them how to “fix” them by removing apps, updating the operating system, or in some cases, doing a factory reset, which usually makes the device work as well as it did the day they bought it.

I usually do a reset as a last resort before replacing or taking a device in for repair, but when my Pixel 8 phone failed to charge, I assumed it was the charging port, which sometimes gets clogged with lint. I cleaned it out, but that didn’t fix the problem, so I called Google support to inquire about a warranty repair. They, too, thought it was a faulty port and told me to take it to uBreakiFix. When I came to pick it up after the repair, I was told that all they did was a factory reset, which I could have done myself and avoided two 25-mile round trips to drop it off and pick it up. Had it been out of warranty, I would have had to pay uBreakiFix for something I could have easily done myself.

Save your money and our earth

Although I’ve been guilty of discarding items that could be repaired, I agree with the good folks at the Repair Café that it’s in all of our interest to keep devices running for as long as reasonably practical. I’m not suggesting you keep using your 2007 iPhone, but replacing a device every year is almost always unnecessary, especially if it winds up in a landfill. At the very least, if it can be repaired or restored to factory settings, see if you can find a new home for it by handing it down or donating it to an organization that will find it a new home.

Larry Magid is a tech journalist and internet safety activist. Contact him at larry@larrymagid.com.