New EU law gives users the right to repair their appliances. Only, however, if a specialized technician does it
The European Union takes a first, admittedly small, step to combat planned obsolescence. That is, the strange tendency of household appliances and electronic devices to break down shortly after the expiration of the manufacturer’s warranty.
A new regulation on the “Right to repair” is coming, the right to repair appliances instead of replacing them. Currently, only washing machines, dishwashers, refrigerators and lighting fixtures are covered by the new legislation, but the list of devices could be expanded in the future. With the new rules, manufacturers will have to guarantee, for at least ten years, the availability of spare parts. But according to environmental and consumer protection associations, the new rules are not yet sufficient to eradicate the phenomenon of planned obsolescence.
Only professional technicians
One of the most controversial points of the new European regulation on the right to repair is that the availability of spare parts is guaranteed only to professional repairers: service centers, electricians and all those who install and repair household appliances by trade will be able to buy spare parts, while ordinary citizens will not. This means that even a trivial repair of an exhaust pipe of a washing machine will have to be carried out by a technician, because we will not be able to buy the spare pipe. The new regulation also obliges manufacturers to ensure that repairs can be carried out with normal tools (no odd-headed screws, to be clear) and without having to damage other parts of the product to access the one to be repaired.
New Energy Rating
A second important aspect of the new regulation on household appliances concerns energy consumption. The famous scale from “A” to “G”, with a “+”, which for many years has indicated the energy efficiency of a household appliance, will soon change. It is in fact too old: today about 55% of washing machines, for example, obtain the rating “A+++”, because the scale was drawn up too many years ago and even an average product can now reach the best classification.
Truly energy-saving appliances, equipped with more recent and efficient technologies, have to be content with the same rating “A+++” and are unable to emerge from the mass of products available on the market. Therefore, it will be more difficult to have such a favorable energy label in the near future.