Repair Vs. Replacement Thinking      

A large part of my adolescence was spent in the attic of my parents’ home. The privacy there was a welcome break from the noise and confusion often occurring below. The attic also was a treasure trove of interesting stuff that had been relegated to storage.

An Emerson rotary fan built back in the ‘30s helped lower the warmer temperatures in that attic. The old fan must have weighed about 30 pounds, but my father told me that it was well constructed and would likely outlive all of us.

Radios fascinated me as a kid. A RCA console “entertainment center” built in the ‘40s had been relocated to our attic after my parents purchased a fancier one in the early ‘60s. Both consoles had a record player as well as a radio with AM, FM, and shortwave bands. Some of the later consoles also included a TV.

My father would usually remove vacuum tubes and other components when our TVs or radios malfunctioned. He’d take apparently defective components to the residence of a friend of his who would test them and give Dad a price break on any needed replacements. Convenience and hardware stores back then often had an area with electronics testing equipment where customers could bring their TV and radio components for self-testing and possible replacement parts purchases. Over time, though, these electronics self-testing areas within these stores disappeared.

The invention of the transistor and the development of solid-state circuitry in the mid-century helped produce improved electronics performance. Quasar was established as a television brand in 1967 by Motorola. The design of their solid-state TVs featured a chassis designed such that many electronic components were contained within drawers that could easily be slid out by service technicians for replacement. I well remember Magnavox commercials then that heavily promoted this “works in a drawer” design. Other electronics manufacturers with different brand names and designs also contributed to these “compartmentalization” trends.

Integrated solid-state electronics obviously had positives, but there were a few negatives as well. Because the electronic components were integrated or closely welded in circuits, it was more difficult for “do it yourself,” repair-oriented consumers. No longer could you spot vacuum tubes that weren’t glowing and/or easily test possibly defective individual parts with a volt-ohm meter in order sometimes to make relatively inexpensive replacements. You often needed a repair technician to take a drawer full of circuitry and to spot problems, or often just replace the whole drawer at significant expense. Instead of repairs for what might have been one or a few minor electronic components, more consumers paid for whole module replacement or even new radios and TVs.

Our country shifted, slowly at first and then rapidly, toward a “disposable” mindset regarding product consumption. For many convenience or inexpensive items, such as Gillette or Bic razor blades, disposable alternatives made practical sense for many folks. For more expensive goods, such as TVs, this trend toward convenient disposal of many purchased items contributed to the increasing numbers and sizes of our dumps and landfills. Of course, the repair of manufactured products occurs to some extent, but disposal of manufactured goods was just so convenient for many leading busy middle-class working and family lives.

Corporations by the mid-century turned more to marketing campaigns to encourage consumers to upgrade to more expensive product models offering aesthetic changes and “new and improved” performance features. Advertising appeals certainly continued to fuel these consumption trends. The dominating social media in the past two decades has intensified public expectations for more immediate gratification of perceived needs.

There was more corporate importance placed over a half century ago on industrial engineers (“efficiency experts”) and cost controls. College professors teaching production/operations courses stressed that a dollar saved is worth more than a dollar received in sales revenue because the latter was subject to taxes. I worked as a product engineer for several years in the early ‘70s at Western Electric and could detect corporate-level priorities steadily shifting to marketing and finance and away from production and engineering activities.

The complexity of global climate change and environmental challenges today demands diverse technological, political, and cultural responses. I’m more optimistic about technological advances than I am for our fostering supportive political and cultural responses. There are a few signals though, usually more in Europe than in the USA, that shifts in thinking and policies are occuring. 

Recently EU negotiators provisionally agreed on a law aimed at reducing waste by making repairs for manufactured products more accessible and affordable. This stronger consumer “right to repair” imposes clear obligations on manufacturers to prolong product lifecycles by offering more repair options, even beyond the expiration of legal product guarantees.

The new rules cover a range of products, including washing machines, vacuum cleaners, and smartphones, with the potential for more items to be added over time. Consumer benefits from these rules include the option to borrow a device while their own is under repair, free and improved online access to repair pricing information, and a one-year extension of the legal guarantee period for repaired goods. These changes by the EU aim to breathe new life into their product repair markets and create additional job opportunities for repair technicians.

Despite some momentum for similar policies in the USA, the prospects soon for "right to repair" federal laws here seem less likely. US manufacturers have argued that these could compromise product safety and intellectual property rights. Since these manufacturers have strong lobbying influence in the US, this will probably hinder federal legislative progress. Still, state laws regarding “right to repair” have gone into effect on many manufactured items in New York, Minnesota, and California in the last year or so.