The right move: knowing how to decipher the repairability index to make the right purchase

You have undoubtedly seen it on the shelves of your favorite stores or websites. This small red, yellow or green dot, accompanied by an adjustable wrench logo, is supposed to tell you how easy it is to repair a device. Having become mandatory on several product categories since 2021, the repairability index is not always well understood. However, it is an important indicator to take into account to gauge the durability of a product. To better understand what’s going on behind this little label, let’s decipher together how it works, how the score is calculated and what to take into account.

Beyond a simple rating out of 10

It is good to remember first and foremost that the repairability index is a self-assigned rating by the manufacturer who places his product on the market. However, there is no question of letting manufacturers give themselves 10/10s in all directions, the rating is governed by specifications included in the law and the general directorate for competition, consumption and the repression of fraud ( DGCCRF) is keeping an eye on things.

The index is not limited to the score out of 10 that can be seen next to the price of a product. Each manufacturer must actually complete a table made up of criteria, sub-criteria and sub-scores which will then give rise to the score out of 10 that we know. It’s a kind of ecological report card of a product. This table, essential to properly gauge the repairability of the device you have in front of you, must be made available to consumers. on request on the shelves » or via a link on a web page.

In total, the table contains 5 categories (to which we will return), sometimes divided into several sub-criteria. Each of its sub-criteria is assigned a score out of 10, weighted differently depending on its importance, to arrive at a coefficient of 2 for each category. Thus each of the categories obtains a score out of 20, to then obtain a total out of 100. This total is then simplified into a score out of 10, with decimal places. This is the number you see on the label.

Let’s take a look at this famous report card using an example. Below you can see the full rating table of the iPhone 15 Pro Max which inherits a score of 7.7/10. But in reality, as is often the case, the devil is in the details, and it is important to scrutinize each line to properly gauge the effective repairability of a product.

Documentation

The 1st criterion concerns documentation. This involves gauging the manufacturer’s propensity to provide repair tutorials, exploded views of the device, details on easily changeable or repairable parts, etc. In short, everything that can support a handyman in the process. act of repair.

Here, the iPhone 15 Pro Max scores 7.7/10. This criterion does not include a sub-score, we multiply the score of 7.7 by the coefficient 2 to obtain a score of 15.4 in this category.

Dismantability

Then comes the second criterion: dismantling. This is about gauging the pure ease of disassembly of the device, i.e. how easy it is to access and change each part.

The parts are here divided into two lists: 1 which includes those “whose good condition is necessary for the operation of the equipment” (motherboard, network card, etc.) and list 2 which concerns those “whose breakage or breakdowns are the most frequent” (screen, battery, etc.).

The tools required for disassembly and the way in which the parts from list 1 and 2 are interlocked (removable or not) form two sub-criteria with a coefficient of 0.5 each. The ease of access and dismantling of parts in list 2 inherits a greater coefficient (logical since these are the parts most often changed). Together, they provide a coefficient of 2 to the dismountability rating. Overall, the greater the number of steps to access a room, the lower the grade will be.

On the iPhone 15 Pro Max we can therefore see that the parts in list 1 and 2 are easily detachable but that you need fairly sharp tools (special screwdrivers, heat gun, etc.) to access these parts.

Parts availability

The third criterion is undoubtedly one of the most important of all: the availability of spare parts. Indeed, without parts, there is no point in repairing. Here too, we find our lists 1 and 2 with different weightings depending on the duration of availability and delivery times of each. The parts in list 2 (the most often changed) weigh more heavily in the rating of this criterion than those in list 1.

Here, we can see that parts such as screen, battery and others are widely available and shippable quickly, but that changing a more structural part like the motherboard is likely to be significantly more complicated.

Parts prices

The fourth criterion this time concerns the price of these parts. Here too, we touch on something very important since, as Ademe reminds us, if a repair costs more than 30% of the price of a new device, then we abandon the repair in most cases. And the bulk of the cost of a repair lies in the price of the parts.

Here, the note follows a relatively simple mathematical logic: the price of the most expensive part will be added to the average price of the other parts. This result will then be divided by two and compared to the average purchase price of the device. If the price is higher than the famous rates of 30%, the score will be zero. On the contrary, the lower the rate, the better the rating will be.

On our example table, we can see that the average price of the parts is relatively acceptable given the rating of 6/10.

Specific criteria

The fifth and final criterion of the index is a bit special since it adapts according to the product category. The rest of the criteria being common to all devices, the latter decides on more specific aspects of each device family.

On a washing machine, for example, the accessibility or not of a usage counter (indicating the wear of the device) will be judged, while on a smartphone the possibility of software reset and the information transmitted during deployment will be judged. of updates.

On the iPhone 15 Pro Max here, we can see that Apple is doing things well by alerting the public to the nature of these updates and by offering remote assistance in the event of a problem.

Problems and repairability index blind spot.

As you have probably guessed from this article, the repairability index is not impeccable. Some criteria are easy ways to raise the overall score while others deserve to be updated or completely transformed.

What is also apparent is that the overall score out of 10 does not always adequately reflect the issues and subtleties surrounding repairability. For example, in the case of the iPhone 15 Pro Max, even if the spare parts were all worth a fortune and the phone inherited a zero point in this category, it would still have a score of 6.5/10 overall. global and would display a small light green label. While in fact, the device would not really be repairable.

Some defenders of the right to repair are therefore campaigning for a transformation of the index which will perhaps happen with the implementation of the sustainability index. Until then, you are better equipped to concretely gauge the repairability of a product.