I was excited when the new battery for my computer arrived. On expert advice, I had ordered it from iFixit. Along with the battery came a neat box of tools, containing no fewer than 16 micro-size bits for unscrewing electronics, and other useful tools for slicing, gripping with tweezers and prising open. It came from Stuttgart. These Germans are really serious about repair and recycle, I thought.
The first sentence of the little booklet began encouragingly:
‘You don’t need to be a genius to repair your things’.
It then told the story of the two engineering students at Cal Poly in California who in 2003 founded iFixit after one of them broke his iBook and managed to repair it. What is needed is the correct spare part, the tools, and instructions. They founded a worldwide business based on that. 10 million people now use iFixit monthly. They have published over 150,000 solutions and they operate in 12 different languages from Japanese to Italian. They have a community you can join to share your problem or your solution with others. You can write a repair guide, answer questions in the forum or join a team of translators.
From California to community
I love the turn-of-the-century idealism behind all this, similar to how the early internet, as initiated by Tim Berners Lee, opened up emessaging across the world, or how the wiki-system facilitated the co-construction of knowledge and free image banks. I have also occasionally dipped into Stack Overflow where you can post a coding problem and more expert coders race to provide the most efficient answer. They get kudos and possible career advancement from providing solutions, while you get a solution that works. iFixit comes from the same California talent pool. It is good to realise that some there are keen to benefit the world, and not just become super-rich yachtowning oligarchs.
iFixit aims to reduce WEEE. This is a growing problem. Many people have several old phones stashed away, and probably a drawerful of old computer cables. They might even have an old printer or TV shoved into the back shed or attic. It takes effort to recycle and life is busy. However, most local councils now give plenty of advice on what to do with WEEE.
Batteries and beyond
The first thing to note is that batteries should never be tossed in the bin. They can cause fires in waste lorries or contaminate land. However, more shops have now set aside bins to collect used batteries. In our local Lidl these are visible by the exit door. Tesco is now the star of the British supermarkets with its pledge to take back the WEEE from what it sells. This is a good move towards the circular economy which is badly needed if we are serious about reducing waste. It makes economic sense to try to retrieve the valuable metals and minerals in WEEE. At a time when wars are being fought over areas where rare minerals are to be found and mined (eg Eastern Congo, Ukraine) it is vital to recycle.
A repairer’s instincts
I guess my instinct to try to repair and reuse comes from a formative winter in my teens when we were snowed in, in a Kent village. Social fixtures – like New Year dances, still went ahead if we could walk through the snow to reach them. But we could not get to town to buy suitable festive clothes. So, I rummaged through my mother’s wardrobe and came up with items of beautiful cloth but bizarre styles. I got going with unpicking and recutting to reshape the items to more modern styles, with gratifying results. But it took persistence, along with some mistakes and wastage.
Another example where persistence paid off was when my typewriter suddenly stopped working in my first term of teaching in Botswana. There was no typewriter shop within reach. So, I spent some hours tracing the fault to a tiny missingscrew. But where to get such a screw? I had to go to the school office where they had a directory of businesses in South Africa (information was all paper-based in those pre-internet days). I figured out a possible supplier. I drew around the screw on paper to indicate the dimensions, and posted the paper with my request. Bless them – they actually posted back two such screws free of charge, and the repair was easily done.
When things go wrong
With these achievements in my memory store, I started the task of replacing the battery on the Dell XPS computer. The screws that hold the back in place require tiny star screw-drivers (TOR5 to be specific) which the iFixit box supplied. The screws lifted out. I then needed a plastic prise (again supplied) to open the back. I was happily following the instructions, and even checked a YouTube video to reassure myself that I was following the right procedure. The video told me to disconnect the battery first, which looked like just a quick tug on the tiny plug that connects the battery to the motherboard.
I then had to tackle the four screws that held down the battery. These required a standard four-point small Philips screwdriver. I had one of those, and duly took out three screws using it. But the fourth just would not budge. I called a neighbour to help, and he came round ready to drill out the recalcitrant screw.
A hopeful repair, a sad ending
I lifted off the old battery and placed the new one in position. Now it was time to reconnect the little plug, but it would not go firmly into position. We each tried to wriggle it in. Then my friend spotted that two of the minute prongs, which are supposed to fit into the little sockets of the battery plug, were askew. We fiddled with tweezers trying to straighten them. But one snapped off. That terminated the repair effort. The prongs via the plastic holder are soldered to the motherboard. So, it would require either a new motherboard or learning a whole new skill of soldering one. At this point my persistence snapped too. This computer would just have to be consigned to the local council’s WEEE collection.
But I am sad that my adventure with iFixit was a failure. I wanted to tell them why, but I also wanted my money back. Their system asks you to fill in a standard form with only two options: either you have changed your mind, or it is the wrong part. If the part is defective, it is a different procedure. I was not sure the part was defective, though it is possible the reason the prongs were askew was that the holes on the battery plug were half a millimetre out of sync. I wanted to send them a photo of this, but could find no email address to do so. I can understand why – it costs money to give every customer a customised reply.
Final thoughts
But with their boast of being part of the ‘repair revolution’ and their call to join the fight for the right to repair, they should be more interested in reasons for failure. Maybe if the instructions and the YouTube clip had slowed down at the point when the little battery plug was detached, or reattached, I would have taken more care and the prongs would not have broken. Maybe manufacturers should be urged to make this plug a little sturdier.
My neighbour even joked that our problems with that tiny plug show why the USA will struggle to grow its electronics manufacturing: dainty Asian fingers and acute eyesight can better handle the miniature than fat clumsy Western fingers.
Reluctantly I am posting the repair kit tools back with the new battery. I think my brief career in electronic repair is now over. But I am still an ardent supporter of proper WEEE disposal.
