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How appliance makers restrict repairs and enable more e-waste – Source fastcompany.com

For Dean Landers, fixing people’s refrigerators, dishwashers, and washing machines is more of a hassle than it should be.

Even after 40 years running an award-winning repair service in Baltimore, Landers says he still gets the runaround from appliance makers. He can’t always obtain the diagnostic data or electronic codes he needs to finish a job, and if he needs to consult with the manufacturer when all the usual repair steps fail, some won’t even let him pay for the privilege.

That all translates to longer waits and costlier repairs for customers, who in turn may end up replacing their appliances instead of fixing them.

“Every day, we run into something where we need to figure something out by doing an end-around, by talking to somebody else, by doing deeper-dive research than I should have to do because of the structure that these manufacturers have set up,” Landers says.

Home appliances are an overlooked facet of the right-to-repair movement, which aims to make parts,…

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Source : fastcompany.com

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