"Right to Repair" - Potentially great news for DIY!

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Equipment repair is, for many shops, a money losing enterprise were it not for parts.

You must not have monkeys working at your LDSs.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Every now and then, Scubapro sends a missive to their dealers warning them that there have been incidents of online parts kits sales and that they should desist immediately “or else”. Very threatrning language.

Then nothing happens and it’s back to business as usual. If they were really serious, they could buy one on Fleabay and actually do something. The letter is really to placate dealers and make them feel like SP is ‘protecting’ them.

That doesn't work well with shop chains (of six stores) where the owner has a habit of telling anyone to pound sand that try to tell him how to run his business (including PADI and ScubaPro). Its kind of comical to observe really. Everyone comes crawling back in order to get back in.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Lawyers will certainly find clever loopholes.

I would certainly expect most scuba-shops would gate access, the same way many demand a certification-card before filling tanks. To them it might be a mixture of liability, reputation, commonly-held-ideas of "diy servicing is dangerous," and that it's in scuba-shop's best interests to have you pay them for service. Also the same as practically every open-water class tells you to not service equipment yourself.

Online retailers might be more willing to not be as anal, but there's little stopping someone like Scubapro from cutting off a company that sells parts-kits to consumers, without giving any explicit reason.

I believe most people have no interest in servicing their own gear. I can’t picture someone working in a high pay field thinking they need to get a hold of some parts so they can be ready for their multiple thousands of dollars live aboard trip coming up. I think they drop it off at the LDS to get serviced.
The people who are interested in self service are a very small minority. They are the types that will always be into self service no matter how hard the parts are to obtain, they will always find some back alley work around. It’s more than just saving money for them, it’s a way of life and a hobby.
It would be in the best interest of all companies to provide parts to these people if they were truly worried about peoples’ personal safety in that they would be getting real factory parts and not aftermarket sourced kits with possible wrong rubber compounds, wrong seat materials, tolerances just a tick off, etc.
It would also make their brands more attractive to a bigger cross section of people if the DIY’er knows they can legitimately buy parts.
DIY’ers will always work on their own stuff and others will always take their stuff in. I don’t think that ratio will ever change.

 

[Addison Snyder]

Essential listening from the unofficial face of right-to-repair, Louis Rossmann:

 

[Stoo]

With right to repair will come Captain Butterfingers and his home regulator rebuild and a few more posts in the Accidents & Incidents forum

Two out of three times I've had my regs "professionally" serviced, I had to return them for tweaking. In one case, my regs literally blew off into free-flow. Seems my LDS used "generic" parts, or as the other shop guy (who rebuilt them properly) said... "I think they used the Home Depot Universal Plumbing Repair Kit for parts..." Good thing I was only in 120' in a rip-ass current.

 

[Addison Snyder]

They also hack the source code to circumvent emissions and install unsafe/questionable add on parts.

That sounds like an EPA enforcement issue. How does that hurt John Deere (or any other company)? Because right now, farmers really don't have a 3rd party option for repair because firmware and hardware are locked down to requiring a secret key from a manufacturer. You'll see this in newer iPhones. Take two brand-new iPhones out of the case, swap the cameras, and they won't work... There is no benefit to the user from this. Both cameras are legitimate Apple parts, in mint condition. And yet the motherboard only allows the hardware ID of the original camera. The only way to remap it is through proprietary (secret) software directly through Apple (and this sort of stuff isn't only one company, it spreads quickly to others).

Imagine if you could only replace tires that had a chip from the car's manufacturer in them, or fridge water filters. The core of the right-to-repair campaign is to stop manufacturer abuse, lock-in, and at the end of the day, anti-competitive practices.

 

[Addison Snyder]

Two out of three times I've had my regs "professionally" serviced, I had to return them for tweaking. In one case, my regs literally blew off into free-flow. Seems my LDS used "generic" parts, or as the other shop guy (who rebuilt them properly) said... "I think they used the Home Depot Universal Plumbing Repair Kit for parts..." Good thing I was only in 120' in a rip-ass current.

Last time I got my regs back from servicing, one of them had a missing O-ring on the SPG.. Like, did they ever think of pressurizing it before handing it back to me? Point is, there seems to be this faulty notion that "authorized" repair is always superior to everything else, including your own skills.

 

[The Chairman]

The people who are interested in self service are a very small minority. They are the types that will always be into self service no matter how hard the parts are to obtain, they will always find some back alley work around. It’s more than just saving money for them, it’s a way of life and a hobby.

Indeed, indeed, indeed!

Reduce, reuse, recycle! I print a few parts I need for around the home, for Scuba, for my vehicle. I often repurpose items and if I can build it, you can bet I won't buy it. My son once told his friend that there was nothing I couldn't fix. While I think that was a bit of an exaggeration, I have fixed and improved a lot in my lifetime. I've put on two roofs, done a lot of replumbing, rebuilt engines (big and small), welded things together, and more. I don't really trust the pros to do the same quality of work as I demand of myself. When it comes to Scuba, I have more riding on having it done right than any technician. Scuba equipment is as simple as it comes. Take your time, take copious pictures, no take even more pictures, ask all the questions you want here, and learn while doing. Pros built the Titanic with state-of-the-art tools while amateurs built the ark with an adze, gopher wood, and no youtube. You can quote me on that!

 

[formernuke]

amateurs built the ark with an adze, gopher wood, and no youtube. You can quote me on that!

Now Pete not everyone is religious, let's go with the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids along with other grand stone structures without youtube using copper tools etc, though many believe the aliens helped.

 

[The Chairman]

Now Pete not everyone is religious,

Neither am I.

Gilgamesh first recounted the great flood and ark story. Just saying.

let's go with the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids along with other grand stone structures

It's the height of ego-centrism that many people think they had to have help from aliens to build them, too. Just because they are so dim, they can't imagine how to do it, doesn't mean our ancestors weren't smart enough to prove them wrong before they were even born.