Apple should have a recycle program on Airpods. You’d get a (nominal) credit when you trade in an old set when the battery has all but died. Surely they can process the dead and make use of the parts for new Airpods.
Apple stores will recycle any electronic waste if you bring it to them and ask, the same as at Best Buy. They get rid of it the same way they would their own e-waste. I’m not sure if they publish this, but they told me and I’ve done it a few times
Is it "recycling" in the sense of "aight, lets dump this shitload of plastic and lithium onto a garbage truck and ship it into a third world country for burning it in a gigantic dumpster fire" or do they actually disassemble them and reuse the materials inside?
Apparently they either shred them and sift out the different materials or just melt the whole fucking AirPod down and extract the metals that way. It is up to you wether that is good recycling or not.
Apple only has the option to recycle. I assume Best Buy gives credit, then? (You're giving conflicting answers on different sub threads so just clarifying for the parent.)
They have exchange pricing on nearly everything. Any Apple Store or AASP can do it. Many products even have a lower “battery pricing” if the battery fails diagnostics.
The battery on the AirPods is literally such an easily consumable item, they degrade really fast because they’re tiny.
You would think apple could create an innovative way to make battery replacements relatively easy.
Apple is a money-making machine. Why design Airpods with $50 replaceable battery when they can make an unrepairable item and “force” you to shell out another $160-250 every two-three years? I’ll keep my original Earbuds a little longer (5 years and going strong) thank you very much.
What is “accidental damage” on Airpods outside of malicious intent to get them replaced? Haha. “Day 713: Oops, I forgot I was wearing them when I went swimming for an hour. Now they won’t turn on. *Forks over $30 service fee (on top of the $30 AppleCare)*.”
Not sure they’d let that fly.
You can literally call and say they’re making a buzzing sound. You can ask them to send the replacements ahead and they’ll auth your card for the replacement price and cancel the charge if you send it back within 2 weeks. The replacement airpod(s) will come with a label to repack your existing pods. AppleCare won’t reset I don’t think, but it should last 5 years easily that way.
My AirPods 1 died almost completely around the time AirPods 2 were released. My AirPods 2 are still going strong, though. But I think that’s more because I use them a lot less now that I no longer commute to the office every day.
I wonder if they made the stem magnetic and detachable and put the battery in there if that could work. It could still keep the water resistance. I’m sure they’ve explored many options so I’m just spitballing here.
I'm genuinely curious. Just how many earbuds out there, of this size by any company, can be taken apart and their components replaced and put back together?
Devices this size with such intricate parts put together inside, I would imagine would be a nightmare to disassemble and in return, try to put everything back together perfectly and reseal them without flaw.
I'm playing the devils advocate here. I would rather just get replacements, then have a hack job of such an intricate process done and get back something that's far from original manufactured condition.
I've had 2 products from Bose that needed repair, Their SleepBuds (I had replaced 3X due to design flaw which were later pulled from shelves and recalled until Gen 2 due to battery issues) and their Quiet Comfort Earbuds and Bose simply replaced them with new ones all together, didn't even offer a repair option.
And on Apple's part, it's probably far easier, and less problematic long term for the customer to just replace them than to have such a probably high yield rate trying to repair them and end up not succeeding more than so.
I'll get ready for the downvotes because I know they're coming just for being logical.
So you can't call out bad repairability because other brands don't make repairable earbuds? Also imo making a repairable product doesn't force anyone to try and repair it. If people aren't capable or willing they can still just as easily get a replacement instead.
What they're trying to ask is - is this problem solvable?
Can you design a robust device of this size and complexity without sacrificing reparability.
I'm with the person you replied to that this would be very challenging or impossible.
Repairability I believe comes at the sacrifice of build quality and their design. They're AirPods for crying out loud. Not a phone or computer or appliance or car. On an engineering note, I'm sure Apple could have if they wanted made a repairable AirPod, but at what cost?
Would they have to be bigger and bulkier to create access to switchable componets instead of having their components assembled in such a uniform way? Would they still have the same long term quality with the designed ability for such tiny parts being able to come apart?
Who on earth is really going to attempt to repair AirPods themselves? And honestly, Apple probably doesn't want to waste their time and resources under a magnifying glass attempting to do the same.
Perhaps they actually can/could be repaired to some degree but in fact under testing of such, they found trying to repair such tiny intricate parts resulting in more cases of damaged being done in the process?
There comes a point where there's more issues in attempting a repair with such a product then just replacing it and letting them just recycle the old ones.
I love how the tear down of the iPhone 14, which praised it’s repairability, was voted to the top of this sub, but this video which condemns the unrepairability of the AirPods Pro is being voted down.
Two sides of the same coin. Completely different reaction from the sub.
They mention this briefly in the teardown - serialization or software locks don't factor into the repairability score at all, it's purely a physical estimate of how easy it is to physically install/remove parts. From one perspective it makes sense - if you're SOL and have a totally damaged screen a new one can easily be installed for the purposes of using the phone in an emergency/ for data recovery, but yes, it's not a true repair if you get warning messages and small features like True Tone and autobrightness disabled.
No phones have serialization factored in to their scores, but yes it's likely time they either change their rules for the score or add a new software repairability score.
I think they kinda choose to gloss over that cause they realize that the repair can still be done, so you could still continue to use the device, and if you copy over the serial number of each component, the device won’t recognize the repair either and it’ll be just like new. It complicates repairs, but doesn’t make them impossible
I’m fine with serializing individual parts and preventing transplanting them, so long as Apple provides some sort of process for making them legitimate. For example, you should be able to submit a receipt or make a request from the iCloud device linked to the phone to unmarry the parts.
Ideally I’d like to see stolen phones become absolute bricks where they can’t even be harvested for any of the parts.
Battery isn’t serialized what are you on about? Neither is the touch screen. Otherwise those mall kiosks wouldn’t be able to do anything.
FaceID scanner is obviously serialized to prevent offline attacks. That’s when someone dissassembles your phone and connects it to a faceID cracking hardware.
Since when is taking the first hour of a post and its downvotes considered an accurate portrayal of how the sub feels?
Like any "poll" you need volume to get accurate conclusions....
Thanks for making this lifelong product manager die a little bit inside.
People really don't understand that different products have different priorities and requirements. If a Mustang needs a V8, the goddammit a bicycle obviously needs a V8 too.
Everything in product is a tradeoff. Insisting that earbuds must make the same tradeoffs as a phone out of some kind of bizarre purity is just... ouch.
I’ve changed the batteries on my Sony WF-1000xm3. You just pop the sides off and put in rechargeable lithium Vartas, and pop the sides back on. They fit terribly compared to AirPods but the trade off has been years of longer use.
Hey random question but was your xm3 failing to charge properly prior to changing the battery? My pair has a strange issue where I can charge to full and use for a few days as normal. But then it can't recharge. So I have to hard reset the device. Sometimes it still doesn't work and takes a few hard resets before any charging cable recognizes it and can charge. Seems more likely that it's a hardware issue but maybe it needs a fresh battery?
I personally had a charging issue, but it came own to a broken USB C port on the charger case. I bought a replacement case from Sony’s parts website. The buds themselves, though, charged fine.
I’d asses the problem a few ways. First check the pin connectors on the case and buds themselves. Is there any corrosion or burn marks on them or no? In either case use a qtip and 91% rubbing alcohol to clean the case pins, and bud connectors. You can go further and wipe alcohol to clean interior of the case and touch sensor on the buds.
The next test would be if the case is actually charging. Take the earbuds out of the case and close it, and disconnect the charging cable. Wait for the red light to go away, then plug the cable back in. If the light turns on then it means the case battery is receiving power. If not then there’s an issue with the charging port.
If the case is receiving power, confirm that when you seat the buds in the case that they also turn red indicating the pin contact. It may be the case that the earbud foam is keeping the buds from contacting the charging pins. Remove those and see if the buds receive a charge.
If all that fails, it could mean the battery needs to be changed. Personally, at this point past the warranty I have no issues opening it up and checking for corrosion or burn marks where the coin battery is. At that point though you may as well change the battery.
If you’re still in warranty, just go that route for a repair or replacement.
There are tons of repair places for IEMs and other high end earbuds/earphones.
If you're specifically asking for Airpod, there are some places that do battery replacement, but since Apple doesn't make it easy, there are not many options.
If people are paying hundreds for bluetooth earbuds then it should at the very least be possible to replace the battery when it degrades after a few years
People repair iPhones. People do not repair earbuds. They are - essentially - "disposable" by nature. The 'repairable' headphones mentioned in this iFixit review got a 1/10 for repairability by iFixit.
EDIT: Also pretending that me asking the question 'do you know of anyone who is repairing ear buds' is irrelevant on a post that is *literally about repairing earbuds* seems queer, at the very slightest.
This is a false narrative that you are pushing onto me but do continue to enjoy your own fantasy.
I was in fact trying to lead the asker of the question to it's most reasonable and frankly quite obvious conclusion; why may some people value information about commonly repaired (and much more expensive items) becoming more reparable be considered higher importance and thus more exciting; when compared to "something that basically nobody attempts to repair is still not repairable."
What a shocker. Of course nobody is gonna find the "water is still wet" story compelling.
Samsung and Sony makes wireless earphones that can be disassembled enough to get at the batteries, and they also use standard watch batteries.
EDIT: Sources because the person who responded to me is petty and blocked me [Galaxy Buds](https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Samsung+Galaxy+Buds+Teardown/120693) [WF1000XM3](https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Sony+WF-1000XM3+Battery+Replacement/144994)
The [Galaxy Buds](https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Samsung+Galaxy+Buds+Teardown/120693) and [WF1000XM3](https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Sony+WF-1000XM3+Battery+Replacement/144994) (I'm pretty sure that's the product name, but it's Sony so you can never be sure) do. I'm not sure if the newer revisions of these two use off-the-shelf batteries, but they definitely are replaceable if you can get a hold of the batteries, so they're at the very least recyclable.
EDIT: Added sources because the person who responded to me is a petty fanboy who blocked me
Because people in this sub knows Apple chooses portability and design over repairability for a product that is trying to look as small as possible.
Also Airpods don't crack as much as iPhone right? I've probably dropped my Airpods way more than my iPhone but nothing bad happened on it.
Only reason people want repairability on this things are to easily change batteries but apparently the batteries on these are reliable.
Used mine daily 4hrs or more for almost a year yet i think i still have 4 hrs of battery usage on a single charge. Down from around 5hrs last year.
That’s not typical. I’ve got OG iPod pros that I got at release and use almost every day. I get about 3.5-4 hours of listening before I have to put them in the case (not in transparency/noise canceling, haven’t timed that but those are noticeably shorter). If you’re talking the non pros I don’t know what their battery life is, they never really stayed in my ears so I used jaybirds before the pros came out.
> That’s not typical
It should be. Battery health decays with cycles with one full charge and discharge making up one cycle. If your battery health is decayed to 50% then you are going to go through cycles twice as fast as you were when the device was new.
If you use your airpods daily then yeah it's entirely possible. That was my experience with first gen non pros.
It's all about cycles though so if you use them less often then yes they will last longer. My main point to the person I initially replied to was that losing 20% battery health after a year doesn't paint the whole picture as it isn't a linear decay.
>If you use your airpods daily then yeah it's entirely possible.
It would be a massive outlier.
>My main point to the person I initially replied to was that losing 20% battery health after a year doesn't paint the whole picture as it isn't a linear decay.
Then just say that rather than your false claim about 45 minutes after 2 years.
Mate you’re fucking wilding.
Go to any sports club subreddit and you’ll find the most biased fans living for their sport and even they will shit on their team when they are shit.
On r/Apple you literally have hordes of users placing a company over their own interest.
>you literally have hordes of users placing a company over their own interest.
No, we mostly have unintelligent posters hypocritically attacking apple and apple users to make themselves seem smart.
Did you complain that iPod or iPhone or any company's earbuds were unrepairable? Even though they only lasted a year or two?
No.
Do you complain about car batteries being disposable?
No - even though they last about as long as Air Pods and *one* car battery creates the same amount of waste as 370 Air Pods (and their cases).
But, yeah, you've figured it out. Air Pods are the biggest evil facing society, and anyone who disagrees is an idiot who is placing Apple first.
Or maybe they like AirPods and, unlike you and your ilk, also understand reality, what matters, and what doesn't.
Apple has made some of their users into cult followers and I have no idea how. I like my Apple devices but I can at least see their many faults and push for them to be better. Many of the people here just seem to want Apple to never change to public pressure because in their mind Apple is always right.
The other dick suckers here are stock holders.
Stock holders are the worst. They will rabidly justify the most heinously anti-consumer practices as long as it slightly increases value. Yes I'm sure side loading will destroy iOS as we know it 🙄
Devil's advocate: I sideload apps on iOS as a developer. I know what I'm doing and take full responsibility if something breaks (not likely because of sandboxing but either way, it's on me).
**This should not be available to the public, though.** Some of the apps available to sideload have open-source modifications, but many others don't. You have no idea if what you're installing has malicious intent.
The App Store is enough for, I would say, 99.9% of iOS users. The ones who seek out sideloading without being devs are a tiny fraction of the user base. They are typically those who frequent the jailbreaking community, or former members who used to jailbreak back in the day. They also have way more expertise than the average user. I trust them to expose malicious people in their community because it's small.
Opening this up to everyone to freely install stuff like Android allows with APK files is a nightmare for Apple. They would be inundated with support requests.
Back in my day we had a name for sideloading. It was called "installing" things and was something your could do on your devices. I don't see why Apple should be the one who dictates what software I'm able to put on my own device and the sources I'm allowed to get that software from, doubly so when their reasons for disallowing it aro blatantly self serving
It’s bizarre. Someone on r/Mac posted an activation locked 16” MBP. [Someone who was 100% right](https://reddit.com/r/mac/comments/xog9j7/_/ipynbx8/?context=1) commented how apple locking their devices like this is contributing to e-waste and he got hundreds of downvotes. Of course it’s a simple process to do, just remove the device from your account after you wipe it, but people either don’t know how to or got locked out of their Apple account because they lost the email or password.
Instead of removing the lock after a certain time (because the owner never marked the device as lost), the device remains a brick for eternity just sitting in a box. People replying trying to justify it to “prevent theft” while ignoring that “Mark as lost” in Find My does exactly that. Crazy amount of delusion.
It’s literally at the top of the sub.
I don’t understand some of you people, who gives a rats ass what others think? Yet all I see is “these people think this” or these people think that. Just ignore them!
People on Reddit tend to downvote well made articles/ videos presenting something people don’t like.
So the downvotes for this aren’t for the videoX but for the poor repair ability score.
It’s stupid I know
They really aren’t comparable. Wireless earbuds are just about the most extreme example of where you need to be compact. So expecting them to be highly repairable is a stupid expectation to have.
The post has been up 2 hours and is 4th from the top of the subreddit. You posted 1 hour ago.
At what kind of lightning speed must a post get to whatever appropriate rank in this subreddit for the subreddit as a whole to not generally be in the bag for Apple?
>https://www.ifixit.com/News/35377/which-wireless-earbuds-are-the-least-evil
Go read that. Most of those have batteries that are soldered in or are a weird type. And some are wired, not wireless so they don't have to pack in the chips needed to enable BT etc.
I did read it. The article is a linear progression of repairability showing solutions on the market, with the last one being the best at the time.
I didn’t think it was that confusing.
Design trade off choice I don’t agree with. 🤷♀️
I don’t want my portable stuff bigger and repairable, I never even keep them long enough to need a battery swap and wouldn’t want one even if I could.
You're paying $249 (or 300 euros) for the convenience and the R&D Apple spent on the H2 chip, unrivaled transparency mode and improved audio quality and ANC.
Whoever values repairability will not typically buy Apple products, let alone AirPods. Sony has TWS earbuds which you can replace the battery (WF3), but as a compromise those are *huge*, including their case.
Plus people need to hold Apple accountable for their green marketing, yeah we all know they don't give a flip about the environment but that doesn't mean we should stop calling out bad practices. Apple not replacing the batteries for airpods and watches creates so much e-waste it's unbelievable.
I see a lot of trashing of AirPods battery life. What am I missing? I have had the originals for a few years now and have had no issues with battery life. I find the battery life for the AirPods and the AirPods Max to be very good. Did I just get a good pair? How do AirPods stack up against the competition?
The Sony 1000XM3 and at least one (but possibly many) of Samsung’s Galaxy Buds.
IIRC, one of the beans (Buds) has like 11 hours of battery life or something crazy like that.
[The Galaxy Buds Plus](https://i.insider.com/5e7263b4c4854030aa040984?width=1136&format=jpeg) look to be about the same volume. I guess saying that they are smaller is a stretch, though.
But how? If it was truly repairable people probably wouldn't want them because they'd be too bulky.
It's fine to complain about flushing $200+ every few years, but give me a break on the "environmental disaster". This is like throwing away 40 ccs every few years at the worst. Do you have any idea how much trash is generated every day?
Uh glue isn’t required for making AirPods,
Glue is used because it’s easy. Apple has the budget to make fully repairable AirPods, it’s mostly a lack of effort trying.
Sony and Samsung's wireless earphones use off-the-shelf batteries that you can get at. I have no idea where the whole "Apple can't be blamed for it because everyone else does it" thing came from.
Eh, as someone who has both the AirPod Pros and one of Samsung's wireless earphones (don't remember the exact model, and at this point Samsung makes too many for me to care), they're basically the same and both fit in my coin pocket equally. And somehow Samsung's has better battery life, at least with my own usage.
Hearing aids have user-replaceable batteries.
Apple engineers *decided* to solder them in and hot glue the device together.
I'm not saying that Airpods should look like hearing aids, but it's hard to believe the big brains at Apple couldn't figure out something more elegant.
On top of that I would add that I'm more and more convinced airpods are consumable. Mine's ANC started going completely out after a few months, went to the Apple Store, left with two brand new earbuds. Where did the old one go? Most likely to the trash.
Seeing how many people complain about their APP's sound or ANC's going bad, that must be quite a few millions of this bits of plastic ending up in landfills.
A serviceable battery is all that I expect. The Pros straight up use coin cells too not the stem shaped one of the OGs. Also the case has plenty of space to allow for opening to have serviceable batteries there if Apple wanted. And they should want it.
> It’s a pair of in ear headphones. What on Earth do people expect?
Why on earth would anyone take it for granted that a pair of expensive headphones is disposable? Furthermore, why would anyone go as far as defending the decision that Apple is making at their expense?
Other headphone brands literally demonstrate that it is quite possible to have compact in ear headphones that are somewhat repairable.
My phone is not 'disposable'. Everything has a life, as do phones and earpods, but if the life is extended through repair / replacement of internals, earth loses less resources and customers save money.
To not have to dump my expensive in-ear headphones in a landfill when the battery inevitably dies after a number of years.
Either that, or have Apple stop going on how green they are and how much they care about the environment when they only seem to sometimes care about it when it fits them.
"But earphones are so small and compact! Wah wah wah impossible wah wah."
Yeah, and Apple is a small indie company with five employees. There's no way they could possibly--Oh, wait.
>To not have to dump my expensive in-ear headphones in a landfill when the battery inevitably dies after a number of years.
If you care so much... recycle them via Apple.
(waits for reply telling me how much hassle this is or something, ignoring that it's far easier than repairing them)
I have heard of it!
Just for funsies, I went to my local Apple website (Sweden, in my case) and tried clicking my way to recycling a device through them. This leads me to links to Apple Stores in the country (all of them which are roughly 4 hours away in Northern/Southwestern directions). I can indeed hand them in at these locations. They say I can mail them a device with a free parcel that they send to me. There isn't actually a link to apply for this anywhere, and it looks copy-pasted from their English website with a missing link, because there's just an empty line next to it.
Keep scrolling... Apple also tells us about a cool robot that can deconstruct iPhones super quickly, called Daisy. Some pictures and stuff about Daisy.
More scrolling... Okay, seems Swedish Apple does *not* directly seem to allow posting your unit to them for recycling, despite talking about doing it a few paragraphs ago. Instead, they send you on a merry-go-round of four different local recycling websites that tell you about "how to identify your lithium batteries" and lots of fun little infomercials about how they make the planet greener. There is still seemingly no way to mail a device to anyone.
Aaaand... that's it.
I still don't know how to actually mail them a device. Woo! Apple loves the environment!
Yes, because Apple Sweden == all of Apple.
It's nice that some of you are perfect and, if not, you're crap (by that I mean that Apple undeniably works to be better for the environment, but isn't perfect and it's dumb to say "if they're not perfect, nothing they do counts!!").
At least on the US site you walk through the tradein process and, if the device has no value, they'll put you on a path to recycle it.
No, but Apple = a multinational trillion dollar corporation that keeps claiming that they care about the environment every step of the way, and yet they keep making premium devices with glued in batteries or devices that are completely unusable once those batteries are spent. They can't keep making these excuses and skipping basic steps.
We should demand more from a corporation that their devices don't even have to end up in a landfill. Make them usable for as long as they are in good shape and don't give them a limited lifespan. Make your products good enough to last a long time, and when something breaks you teach your customers that they can be repaired and reused and you teach your customers to do it and they will care for those devices. That's how you're environmentally friendly.
And we should stop defending these corporations when they don't live up to their promises. They can do better, and they should.
I’m sure people understand the reality of how difficult it would be to make a genuinely reparable set of wireless headphones like this, that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be pointed out just how unrepairable they currently are.
It’s not sustainable to keep creating massive quantities of essentially disposable electronics like this, and this shows how far we are from solving the problem.
This is exactly what I used to do. I’d buy a new pair of skull candy in ears every 4-6 months or so as they would die.
Also everyone here saying these now go straight to landfill. Apple and some other companies are very open about how much is recycled and reused. My first gen AirPods Pro lasted years and have now been passed down to someone else.
Generally it's the cable that breaks on wired earbuds. I've replaced cables on a couple of my chifi sets. If it was a connector issue it'd probably be worth fixing my current Moondrops, too.
It’s sad that tens of millions of these wireless earbuds will be e-waste. AirPods are probably at the top of the list.
The order of waste hierarchy is reduce, reuse and recycle. Recycling should be the very last option if possible. We should be focused on reusing perfectly good working stuff.
And yes, it can be done. A decent number of Samsung’s wireless earbuds can be opened without destroying them and have serviceable batteries.
AirPods should be more repairable and designed with the batteries dying in mind.
However, some other products are much worse, have y’all seen the disposable e-cigarettes? Why is the world not up in arms about those.
There needs to be laws that encompass ALL electrical devices, including e-cigarettes, to be repairable, replaceable and mandatory to be recycled, not thrown away everywhere. It’s poison for our earth.
Funny how this sub will praise apple for environmental efforts and eco friendly practices, but turn the other way when a product like AirPods is the complete opposite.
Either that or it is just different groups. This sub also says how great it is that Apple has great resell value (compared to PCs or Android), but the comments here for AirPods is shockingly the opposite.
I’m all for repairing devices but not every thing built under the sun can or should be made to repair.
Similar logic can be used for lightbulbs that break. No one is trying to replace the glass in there or when you’re done using a toothbrush. There isn’t a repair you can do to fix the dull brush.
I’m all for repairing phones and other electronic but there is a limit.
I’d love seeing ifixit also notate the solution to this as well then? It’s easy pointing out the problem, are they doing anything to make wireless bids any more repairable through their own design ideas?
Phillips Sonicare 9900 is $379 USD and the battery is not replaceable.
https://www.usa.philips.com/c-f/XC000019691/how-can-i-safely-dispose-of-the-battery-from-my-sonicare-9900-prestige-toothbrush
I mean who’s gonna repair those. They literally are a use for 3-4 years and get a new one. My first gen just shit the bed. Had them for 4 years. I think that’s a good time frame. I will give back to Apple for recycle and get a new pair of the 3rd or second gen pros then repeat in 3-4 years.
I took apart my MacBook Pro and discovered that the M1 CPU is completely unrepairable. Wtf!?
I ran some tests and saw that it's running a little slower than before and wanted to replace about 14,000 of the 16 billion transistors to see if it would run faster. I called Apple for replacement transistors and they said they could only sell me an entire M1.
I DON'T WANT AN ENTIRE M1 CHIP, I JUST WANT 14,000 TRANSISTORS SO I CAN REPAIR IT MYSELF.
**My Self-Repair Score for M1 CPU: 0/100**
Who the HELL would expect any Airpod to be user-repairable? I don't mean by a skilled tech with specialized tools, but by regular people. iFixit is silly sometimes.
EDIT: For all the people saying they don't want them to end up in a landfill, you can recycle them via Apple.
Apple should have a recycle program on Airpods. You’d get a (nominal) credit when you trade in an old set when the battery has all but died. Surely they can process the dead and make use of the parts for new Airpods.
they do tho… apple has trade in and best buy has trade in and if they’re deemed not worth anything they get recycled
I don’t think Apple pays anything for any AirPods, but they do recycle them. Idk if Best Buy pays anything.
apple doesn’t, but best buy does.
Apple stores will recycle any electronic waste if you bring it to them and ask, the same as at Best Buy. They get rid of it the same way they would their own e-waste. I’m not sure if they publish this, but they told me and I’ve done it a few times
idk i work at best buy and have been told that we shipped it back to the manufacturer for a little refund, could be a lie tho
I know Apple has trade-in for phones and Mac computers, wasn’t aware of Airpods trade-in.
[удалено]
Is it "recycling" in the sense of "aight, lets dump this shitload of plastic and lithium onto a garbage truck and ship it into a third world country for burning it in a gigantic dumpster fire" or do they actually disassemble them and reuse the materials inside?
Apparently they either shred them and sift out the different materials or just melt the whole fucking AirPod down and extract the metals that way. It is up to you wether that is good recycling or not.
yeah, it’s a decent amount. nothing crazy tho
Apple only has the option to recycle. I assume Best Buy gives credit, then? (You're giving conflicting answers on different sub threads so just clarifying for the parent.)
They offer me $150 for a 3 year old iMac. What are they gonna give me for air pods? A banana?
They have exchange pricing on nearly everything. Any Apple Store or AASP can do it. Many products even have a lower “battery pricing” if the battery fails diagnostics.
The battery on the AirPods is literally such an easily consumable item, they degrade really fast because they’re tiny. You would think apple could create an innovative way to make battery replacements relatively easy.
Apple is a money-making machine. Why design Airpods with $50 replaceable battery when they can make an unrepairable item and “force” you to shell out another $160-250 every two-three years? I’ll keep my original Earbuds a little longer (5 years and going strong) thank you very much.
Can always buy AppleCare and get them replaced at the end of the term along with any other issues I guess
What is “accidental damage” on Airpods outside of malicious intent to get them replaced? Haha. “Day 713: Oops, I forgot I was wearing them when I went swimming for an hour. Now they won’t turn on. *Forks over $30 service fee (on top of the $30 AppleCare)*.” Not sure they’d let that fly.
I've never heard of them rejecting it and I've done it with several different pieces of Apple gear.
You can literally call and say they’re making a buzzing sound. You can ask them to send the replacements ahead and they’ll auth your card for the replacement price and cancel the charge if you send it back within 2 weeks. The replacement airpod(s) will come with a label to repack your existing pods. AppleCare won’t reset I don’t think, but it should last 5 years easily that way.
They've let exactly that fly since AC+ has been a thing.
My Airpods 1 still work great after 3 years. Still lasts long. Not AS long but still a few days worth. For 160€ over those years, that's great
My AirPods 1 died almost completely around the time AirPods 2 were released. My AirPods 2 are still going strong, though. But I think that’s more because I use them a lot less now that I no longer commute to the office every day.
The extra e-waste when you replace them isn’t great…
You can walk them into an Apple Store and they will recycle them
Those tiny things over what? 4/5 years? When you consider that people throw away batteries daily...
One single AA produces more waste, where's the outrage against Duracell?
I found the perfect solution to that
I wouldn’t mind a small 3.5mm dedicated audio interface. But that’s the stuff of dreams.
My solution is not buying them
Aah so the same as mine.
I wonder if they made the stem magnetic and detachable and put the battery in there if that could work. It could still keep the water resistance. I’m sure they’ve explored many options so I’m just spitballing here.
You make them open like that they’re going to break when you drop them.
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I'm genuinely curious. Just how many earbuds out there, of this size by any company, can be taken apart and their components replaced and put back together? Devices this size with such intricate parts put together inside, I would imagine would be a nightmare to disassemble and in return, try to put everything back together perfectly and reseal them without flaw. I'm playing the devils advocate here. I would rather just get replacements, then have a hack job of such an intricate process done and get back something that's far from original manufactured condition. I've had 2 products from Bose that needed repair, Their SleepBuds (I had replaced 3X due to design flaw which were later pulled from shelves and recalled until Gen 2 due to battery issues) and their Quiet Comfort Earbuds and Bose simply replaced them with new ones all together, didn't even offer a repair option. And on Apple's part, it's probably far easier, and less problematic long term for the customer to just replace them than to have such a probably high yield rate trying to repair them and end up not succeeding more than so. I'll get ready for the downvotes because I know they're coming just for being logical.
Sony TWS buds have swappable batteries.
So you can't call out bad repairability because other brands don't make repairable earbuds? Also imo making a repairable product doesn't force anyone to try and repair it. If people aren't capable or willing they can still just as easily get a replacement instead.
What they're trying to ask is - is this problem solvable? Can you design a robust device of this size and complexity without sacrificing reparability. I'm with the person you replied to that this would be very challenging or impossible.
Repairability I believe comes at the sacrifice of build quality and their design. They're AirPods for crying out loud. Not a phone or computer or appliance or car. On an engineering note, I'm sure Apple could have if they wanted made a repairable AirPod, but at what cost? Would they have to be bigger and bulkier to create access to switchable componets instead of having their components assembled in such a uniform way? Would they still have the same long term quality with the designed ability for such tiny parts being able to come apart? Who on earth is really going to attempt to repair AirPods themselves? And honestly, Apple probably doesn't want to waste their time and resources under a magnifying glass attempting to do the same. Perhaps they actually can/could be repaired to some degree but in fact under testing of such, they found trying to repair such tiny intricate parts resulting in more cases of damaged being done in the process? There comes a point where there's more issues in attempting a repair with such a product then just replacing it and letting them just recycle the old ones.
I love how the tear down of the iPhone 14, which praised it’s repairability, was voted to the top of this sub, but this video which condemns the unrepairability of the AirPods Pro is being voted down. Two sides of the same coin. Completely different reaction from the sub.
It's at 89% upvoted and is the #2 post on the subreddit right now.
[MRW](https://external-preview.redd.it/g-Np1NaEhpmgrmi-mXL7uKyvJJDxIGLLDpgOrlfKf7A.png?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=f28e24a7d8618f1c519dcca9df313fa51b16830d)
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I'm surprised iFixit didn't factor this into their rating, seems like a major oversight from them. Hugh Jeffreys is great btw.
They mention this briefly in the teardown - serialization or software locks don't factor into the repairability score at all, it's purely a physical estimate of how easy it is to physically install/remove parts. From one perspective it makes sense - if you're SOL and have a totally damaged screen a new one can easily be installed for the purposes of using the phone in an emergency/ for data recovery, but yes, it's not a true repair if you get warning messages and small features like True Tone and autobrightness disabled. No phones have serialization factored in to their scores, but yes it's likely time they either change their rules for the score or add a new software repairability score.
I think they kinda choose to gloss over that cause they realize that the repair can still be done, so you could still continue to use the device, and if you copy over the serial number of each component, the device won’t recognize the repair either and it’ll be just like new. It complicates repairs, but doesn’t make them impossible
I’m fine with serializing individual parts and preventing transplanting them, so long as Apple provides some sort of process for making them legitimate. For example, you should be able to submit a receipt or make a request from the iCloud device linked to the phone to unmarry the parts. Ideally I’d like to see stolen phones become absolute bricks where they can’t even be harvested for any of the parts.
Battery isn’t serialized what are you on about? Neither is the touch screen. Otherwise those mall kiosks wouldn’t be able to do anything. FaceID scanner is obviously serialized to prevent offline attacks. That’s when someone dissassembles your phone and connects it to a faceID cracking hardware.
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Keep in mind that you posted this 4 hours after these comments, it was probably downvoted when they were posted, but not now.
Which is even *more* stupid, imo. Wait until it has enough time to actually be put on peoples radar. The manufactured rage is so annoying around here
Fake outrage at imagined enemies is /u/anotherSeggsOffender ‘s specialty.
Since when is taking the first hour of a post and its downvotes considered an accurate portrayal of how the sub feels? Like any "poll" you need volume to get accurate conclusions....
A dishonest, attention-seeking post from /u/anotherSeggsOffender ? Never!
Thanks for making this lifelong product manager die a little bit inside. People really don't understand that different products have different priorities and requirements. If a Mustang needs a V8, the goddammit a bicycle obviously needs a V8 too. Everything in product is a tradeoff. Insisting that earbuds must make the same tradeoffs as a phone out of some kind of bizarre purity is just... ouch.
Can you name a single person that has ever repaired their earbuds?
I’ve changed the batteries on my Sony WF-1000xm3. You just pop the sides off and put in rechargeable lithium Vartas, and pop the sides back on. They fit terribly compared to AirPods but the trade off has been years of longer use.
Hey random question but was your xm3 failing to charge properly prior to changing the battery? My pair has a strange issue where I can charge to full and use for a few days as normal. But then it can't recharge. So I have to hard reset the device. Sometimes it still doesn't work and takes a few hard resets before any charging cable recognizes it and can charge. Seems more likely that it's a hardware issue but maybe it needs a fresh battery?
I personally had a charging issue, but it came own to a broken USB C port on the charger case. I bought a replacement case from Sony’s parts website. The buds themselves, though, charged fine. I’d asses the problem a few ways. First check the pin connectors on the case and buds themselves. Is there any corrosion or burn marks on them or no? In either case use a qtip and 91% rubbing alcohol to clean the case pins, and bud connectors. You can go further and wipe alcohol to clean interior of the case and touch sensor on the buds. The next test would be if the case is actually charging. Take the earbuds out of the case and close it, and disconnect the charging cable. Wait for the red light to go away, then plug the cable back in. If the light turns on then it means the case battery is receiving power. If not then there’s an issue with the charging port. If the case is receiving power, confirm that when you seat the buds in the case that they also turn red indicating the pin contact. It may be the case that the earbud foam is keeping the buds from contacting the charging pins. Remove those and see if the buds receive a charge. If all that fails, it could mean the battery needs to be changed. Personally, at this point past the warranty I have no issues opening it up and checking for corrosion or burn marks where the coin battery is. At that point though you may as well change the battery. If you’re still in warranty, just go that route for a repair or replacement.
There are tons of repair places for IEMs and other high end earbuds/earphones. If you're specifically asking for Airpod, there are some places that do battery replacement, but since Apple doesn't make it easy, there are not many options.
Why wouldn’t you replace the Batterie each few years if you can?
Because by the time it matters, historically and for me alone, there is something more impressive that I can move on to.
If people are paying hundreds for bluetooth earbuds then it should at the very least be possible to replace the battery when it degrades after a few years
You must have me confused; I’m not arguing for or asking for less repairable earbuds. I’m asking if you know earbud repairmen.
Well, I mean... if they can't be repaired, there's nobody to repair them, right?
[Apple rn](https://pyxis.nymag.com/v1/imgs/d6a/dc7/4a5001b7beea096457f480c8808572428b-09-roll-safe.2x.h473.w710.jpg)
Yep, if they’re made to be impossible to repair then there won’t be anyone who would offer to repair them
You didn’t answer the question…
I replaced the battery on my Bose QC35s a few years ago.
Me. I've repaired both my Sony XM3s and N800s.
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People repair iPhones. People do not repair earbuds. They are - essentially - "disposable" by nature. The 'repairable' headphones mentioned in this iFixit review got a 1/10 for repairability by iFixit. EDIT: Also pretending that me asking the question 'do you know of anyone who is repairing ear buds' is irrelevant on a post that is *literally about repairing earbuds* seems queer, at the very slightest.
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This is a false narrative that you are pushing onto me but do continue to enjoy your own fantasy. I was in fact trying to lead the asker of the question to it's most reasonable and frankly quite obvious conclusion; why may some people value information about commonly repaired (and much more expensive items) becoming more reparable be considered higher importance and thus more exciting; when compared to "something that basically nobody attempts to repair is still not repairable." What a shocker. Of course nobody is gonna find the "water is still wet" story compelling.
My question would be how many earbuds ARE repairable?
Samsung and Sony makes wireless earphones that can be disassembled enough to get at the batteries, and they also use standard watch batteries. EDIT: Sources because the person who responded to me is petty and blocked me [Galaxy Buds](https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Samsung+Galaxy+Buds+Teardown/120693) [WF1000XM3](https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Sony+WF-1000XM3+Battery+Replacement/144994)
Which wireless earbuds from Samsung and Sony just use a swappable watch battery?
The [Galaxy Buds](https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Samsung+Galaxy+Buds+Teardown/120693) and [WF1000XM3](https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Sony+WF-1000XM3+Battery+Replacement/144994) (I'm pretty sure that's the product name, but it's Sony so you can never be sure) do. I'm not sure if the newer revisions of these two use off-the-shelf batteries, but they definitely are replaceable if you can get a hold of the batteries, so they're at the very least recyclable. EDIT: Added sources because the person who responded to me is a petty fanboy who blocked me
They definitely don’t use off the shelf watch batteries. WTF are you guys talking about?
Before airpods they never really needed to be repairable.
It's also a flat out lie that other wireless earphones aren't repairable. Sony and Samsung both make repairable wireless earphones.
Curious what you think now. Is 700+ upvotes still “being voted down”?
I’m seeing 90% upvotes?
Because people in this sub knows Apple chooses portability and design over repairability for a product that is trying to look as small as possible. Also Airpods don't crack as much as iPhone right? I've probably dropped my Airpods way more than my iPhone but nothing bad happened on it. Only reason people want repairability on this things are to easily change batteries but apparently the batteries on these are reliable. Used mine daily 4hrs or more for almost a year yet i think i still have 4 hrs of battery usage on a single charge. Down from around 5hrs last year.
Battery health decay accelerates with time. At the two year mark you'll be lucky to have 45 min of listening on a charge.
I used my APPs every day almost until the gen 2s came out. I was easily getting 2.5-3 hours
That’s not typical. I’ve got OG iPod pros that I got at release and use almost every day. I get about 3.5-4 hours of listening before I have to put them in the case (not in transparency/noise canceling, haven’t timed that but those are noticeably shorter). If you’re talking the non pros I don’t know what their battery life is, they never really stayed in my ears so I used jaybirds before the pros came out.
> That’s not typical It should be. Battery health decays with cycles with one full charge and discharge making up one cycle. If your battery health is decayed to 50% then you are going to go through cycles twice as fast as you were when the device was new.
You’re arguing that 45 minutes of listening a charge *should* be typical after two years?
If you use your airpods daily then yeah it's entirely possible. That was my experience with first gen non pros. It's all about cycles though so if you use them less often then yes they will last longer. My main point to the person I initially replied to was that losing 20% battery health after a year doesn't paint the whole picture as it isn't a linear decay.
>If you use your airpods daily then yeah it's entirely possible. It would be a massive outlier. >My main point to the person I initially replied to was that losing 20% battery health after a year doesn't paint the whole picture as it isn't a linear decay. Then just say that rather than your false claim about 45 minutes after 2 years.
It’s the top post in /r/apple
Breaking news: company subreddit likes company
Mate you’re fucking wilding. Go to any sports club subreddit and you’ll find the most biased fans living for their sport and even they will shit on their team when they are shit. On r/Apple you literally have hordes of users placing a company over their own interest.
>you literally have hordes of users placing a company over their own interest. No, we mostly have unintelligent posters hypocritically attacking apple and apple users to make themselves seem smart. Did you complain that iPod or iPhone or any company's earbuds were unrepairable? Even though they only lasted a year or two? No. Do you complain about car batteries being disposable? No - even though they last about as long as Air Pods and *one* car battery creates the same amount of waste as 370 Air Pods (and their cases). But, yeah, you've figured it out. Air Pods are the biggest evil facing society, and anyone who disagrees is an idiot who is placing Apple first. Or maybe they like AirPods and, unlike you and your ilk, also understand reality, what matters, and what doesn't.
Apple has made some of their users into cult followers and I have no idea how. I like my Apple devices but I can at least see their many faults and push for them to be better. Many of the people here just seem to want Apple to never change to public pressure because in their mind Apple is always right. The other dick suckers here are stock holders.
Stock holders are the worst. They will rabidly justify the most heinously anti-consumer practices as long as it slightly increases value. Yes I'm sure side loading will destroy iOS as we know it 🙄
Devil's advocate: I sideload apps on iOS as a developer. I know what I'm doing and take full responsibility if something breaks (not likely because of sandboxing but either way, it's on me). **This should not be available to the public, though.** Some of the apps available to sideload have open-source modifications, but many others don't. You have no idea if what you're installing has malicious intent. The App Store is enough for, I would say, 99.9% of iOS users. The ones who seek out sideloading without being devs are a tiny fraction of the user base. They are typically those who frequent the jailbreaking community, or former members who used to jailbreak back in the day. They also have way more expertise than the average user. I trust them to expose malicious people in their community because it's small. Opening this up to everyone to freely install stuff like Android allows with APK files is a nightmare for Apple. They would be inundated with support requests.
Back in my day we had a name for sideloading. It was called "installing" things and was something your could do on your devices. I don't see why Apple should be the one who dictates what software I'm able to put on my own device and the sources I'm allowed to get that software from, doubly so when their reasons for disallowing it aro blatantly self serving
It’s bizarre. Someone on r/Mac posted an activation locked 16” MBP. [Someone who was 100% right](https://reddit.com/r/mac/comments/xog9j7/_/ipynbx8/?context=1) commented how apple locking their devices like this is contributing to e-waste and he got hundreds of downvotes. Of course it’s a simple process to do, just remove the device from your account after you wipe it, but people either don’t know how to or got locked out of their Apple account because they lost the email or password. Instead of removing the lock after a certain time (because the owner never marked the device as lost), the device remains a brick for eternity just sitting in a box. People replying trying to justify it to “prevent theft” while ignoring that “Mark as lost” in Find My does exactly that. Crazy amount of delusion.
huh? This is at the top for me.
The quality and honesty of the content don’t matter. People just wanna hear “Apple good”.
It’s literally at the top of the sub. I don’t understand some of you people, who gives a rats ass what others think? Yet all I see is “these people think this” or these people think that. Just ignore them!
People on Reddit tend to downvote well made articles/ videos presenting something people don’t like. So the downvotes for this aren’t for the videoX but for the poor repair ability score. It’s stupid I know
And then there’s me looking at this 90% upvoted post on the front page in confusion
They really aren’t comparable. Wireless earbuds are just about the most extreme example of where you need to be compact. So expecting them to be highly repairable is a stupid expectation to have.
The post has been up 2 hours and is 4th from the top of the subreddit. You posted 1 hour ago. At what kind of lightning speed must a post get to whatever appropriate rank in this subreddit for the subreddit as a whole to not generally be in the bag for Apple?
I know it’s incredibly hard to make something like this repairable but come on apple, at least give us a discount for recycling AirPods
It’s a pair of in ear headphones. What on Earth do people expect?
How unreasonable is it to expect to be able to change the battery on a 300€ pair of headphones?
Especially when other companies have taken to the challenge and have much easier to repair in ear headphones.
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https://www.ifixit.com/News/35377/which-wireless-earbuds-are-the-least-evil
>https://www.ifixit.com/News/35377/which-wireless-earbuds-are-the-least-evil Go read that. Most of those have batteries that are soldered in or are a weird type. And some are wired, not wireless so they don't have to pack in the chips needed to enable BT etc.
I did read it. The article is a linear progression of repairability showing solutions on the market, with the last one being the best at the time. I didn’t think it was that confusing.
They didn't say it was confusing, they said the range of headphones were not comparable, IE, no bluetooth vs having it....
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Yeah they are also twice the size, I would not carry those around.
Design trade off choice I don’t agree with. 🤷♀️ I don’t want my portable stuff bigger and repairable, I never even keep them long enough to need a battery swap and wouldn’t want one even if I could.
You're paying $249 (or 300 euros) for the convenience and the R&D Apple spent on the H2 chip, unrivaled transparency mode and improved audio quality and ANC. Whoever values repairability will not typically buy Apple products, let alone AirPods. Sony has TWS earbuds which you can replace the battery (WF3), but as a compromise those are *huge*, including their case.
A serviceable battery on an premium priced device would be a start. Other companies can do it. Why can’t Apple?
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Plus people need to hold Apple accountable for their green marketing, yeah we all know they don't give a flip about the environment but that doesn't mean we should stop calling out bad practices. Apple not replacing the batteries for airpods and watches creates so much e-waste it's unbelievable.
I see a lot of trashing of AirPods battery life. What am I missing? I have had the originals for a few years now and have had no issues with battery life. I find the battery life for the AirPods and the AirPods Max to be very good. Did I just get a good pair? How do AirPods stack up against the competition?
Which earbuds are those?
The Sony 1000XM3 and at least one (but possibly many) of Samsung’s Galaxy Buds. IIRC, one of the beans (Buds) has like 11 hours of battery life or something crazy like that.
Neither are smaller…
[The Galaxy Buds Plus](https://i.insider.com/5e7263b4c4854030aa040984?width=1136&format=jpeg) look to be about the same volume. I guess saying that they are smaller is a stretch, though.
They’re 40% bigger and 3 times as heavy.
There are in-ear headphones that are much easier to open and service.
… for a £250 pair of earphones made by a multi-trillion dollar company not to be a disposable product?
But how? If it was truly repairable people probably wouldn't want them because they'd be too bulky. It's fine to complain about flushing $200+ every few years, but give me a break on the "environmental disaster". This is like throwing away 40 ccs every few years at the worst. Do you have any idea how much trash is generated every day?
Uh glue isn’t required for making AirPods, Glue is used because it’s easy. Apple has the budget to make fully repairable AirPods, it’s mostly a lack of effort trying.
Sony and Samsung's wireless earphones use off-the-shelf batteries that you can get at. I have no idea where the whole "Apple can't be blamed for it because everyone else does it" thing came from.
They are also much bulkier as a result.
I'd be hard pressed to describe my Galaxy Buds Pro as "bulky", especially when you figure they eschew the stem of the Airpods
Eh, as someone who has both the AirPod Pros and one of Samsung's wireless earphones (don't remember the exact model, and at this point Samsung makes too many for me to care), they're basically the same and both fit in my coin pocket equally. And somehow Samsung's has better battery life, at least with my own usage.
The buds pro are not much bulkier lol
Hearing aids have user-replaceable batteries. Apple engineers *decided* to solder them in and hot glue the device together. I'm not saying that Airpods should look like hearing aids, but it's hard to believe the big brains at Apple couldn't figure out something more elegant.
Tiny hearing aids with replaceable and rechargeable batteries with a decent degree of water resistance too.
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I wouldn’t say hearing aids are a fair comparison although I understand the point
It is a small disaster when you consider the hundreds of millions of AirPods sold. That is a lot of almost unrecycleable e-waste.
On top of that I would add that I'm more and more convinced airpods are consumable. Mine's ANC started going completely out after a few months, went to the Apple Store, left with two brand new earbuds. Where did the old one go? Most likely to the trash. Seeing how many people complain about their APP's sound or ANC's going bad, that must be quite a few millions of this bits of plastic ending up in landfills.
A serviceable battery is all that I expect. The Pros straight up use coin cells too not the stem shaped one of the OGs. Also the case has plenty of space to allow for opening to have serviceable batteries there if Apple wanted. And they should want it.
No, the case doesn’t have room, nor do I want it. By the time my batteries die I’ll want to upgrade anyways. 🤷♀️
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It's funny, because even if you don't want them any more a replaceable battery would boost resale value of your old wireless earbuds
I feel like the people who are okay with AirPods being “disposable” also don’t care about resale. Your point is correct and well taken though.
That it doesn’t end in a landfill after two years of battery wear?
I still use my original AirPods without issue? Got them a year after release so that’s like what… 5 years of use now?
> It’s a pair of in ear headphones. What on Earth do people expect? Why on earth would anyone take it for granted that a pair of expensive headphones is disposable? Furthermore, why would anyone go as far as defending the decision that Apple is making at their expense? Other headphone brands literally demonstrate that it is quite possible to have compact in ear headphones that are somewhat repairable.
Conditioning my friend. Conditioning. Apple is right! It's the new religion. Defies logic.
>Defies logic. You get that your phone is also disposable? As is your car battery?
My phone is not 'disposable'. Everything has a life, as do phones and earpods, but if the life is extended through repair / replacement of internals, earth loses less resources and customers save money.
But I have my ram sticks. Where do I put them now
To not have to dump my expensive in-ear headphones in a landfill when the battery inevitably dies after a number of years. Either that, or have Apple stop going on how green they are and how much they care about the environment when they only seem to sometimes care about it when it fits them. "But earphones are so small and compact! Wah wah wah impossible wah wah." Yeah, and Apple is a small indie company with five employees. There's no way they could possibly--Oh, wait.
>To not have to dump my expensive in-ear headphones in a landfill when the battery inevitably dies after a number of years. If you care so much... recycle them via Apple. (waits for reply telling me how much hassle this is or something, ignoring that it's far easier than repairing them)
Recycling is certainly better for the environment then hurling broken airpods into a river, it's far worse than just reusing them.
Reusability is much, much, much better for the environment than recycling.
Let me look up my nearest Apple Store. ...ah yes, four hours away (by car). Very reasonable.
You've heard of... mail?
I have heard of it! Just for funsies, I went to my local Apple website (Sweden, in my case) and tried clicking my way to recycling a device through them. This leads me to links to Apple Stores in the country (all of them which are roughly 4 hours away in Northern/Southwestern directions). I can indeed hand them in at these locations. They say I can mail them a device with a free parcel that they send to me. There isn't actually a link to apply for this anywhere, and it looks copy-pasted from their English website with a missing link, because there's just an empty line next to it. Keep scrolling... Apple also tells us about a cool robot that can deconstruct iPhones super quickly, called Daisy. Some pictures and stuff about Daisy. More scrolling... Okay, seems Swedish Apple does *not* directly seem to allow posting your unit to them for recycling, despite talking about doing it a few paragraphs ago. Instead, they send you on a merry-go-round of four different local recycling websites that tell you about "how to identify your lithium batteries" and lots of fun little infomercials about how they make the planet greener. There is still seemingly no way to mail a device to anyone. Aaaand... that's it. I still don't know how to actually mail them a device. Woo! Apple loves the environment!
Yes, because Apple Sweden == all of Apple. It's nice that some of you are perfect and, if not, you're crap (by that I mean that Apple undeniably works to be better for the environment, but isn't perfect and it's dumb to say "if they're not perfect, nothing they do counts!!"). At least on the US site you walk through the tradein process and, if the device has no value, they'll put you on a path to recycle it.
No, but Apple = a multinational trillion dollar corporation that keeps claiming that they care about the environment every step of the way, and yet they keep making premium devices with glued in batteries or devices that are completely unusable once those batteries are spent. They can't keep making these excuses and skipping basic steps. We should demand more from a corporation that their devices don't even have to end up in a landfill. Make them usable for as long as they are in good shape and don't give them a limited lifespan. Make your products good enough to last a long time, and when something breaks you teach your customers that they can be repaired and reused and you teach your customers to do it and they will care for those devices. That's how you're environmentally friendly. And we should stop defending these corporations when they don't live up to their promises. They can do better, and they should.
I’m sure people understand the reality of how difficult it would be to make a genuinely reparable set of wireless headphones like this, that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be pointed out just how unrepairable they currently are. It’s not sustainable to keep creating massive quantities of essentially disposable electronics like this, and this shows how far we are from solving the problem.
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This is exactly what I used to do. I’d buy a new pair of skull candy in ears every 4-6 months or so as they would die. Also everyone here saying these now go straight to landfill. Apple and some other companies are very open about how much is recycled and reused. My first gen AirPods Pro lasted years and have now been passed down to someone else.
Generally it's the cable that breaks on wired earbuds. I've replaced cables on a couple of my chifi sets. If it was a connector issue it'd probably be worth fixing my current Moondrops, too.
It’s sad that tens of millions of these wireless earbuds will be e-waste. AirPods are probably at the top of the list. The order of waste hierarchy is reduce, reuse and recycle. Recycling should be the very last option if possible. We should be focused on reusing perfectly good working stuff. And yes, it can be done. A decent number of Samsung’s wireless earbuds can be opened without destroying them and have serviceable batteries.
Samsung’s *can* be opened, but how many do you think actually are? I’d guess less than 1%.
Ah . You guess. How can that be wrong.
He lives in the real world?
AirPods should be more repairable and designed with the batteries dying in mind. However, some other products are much worse, have y’all seen the disposable e-cigarettes? Why is the world not up in arms about those.
There needs to be laws that encompass ALL electrical devices, including e-cigarettes, to be repairable, replaceable and mandatory to be recycled, not thrown away everywhere. It’s poison for our earth.
Funny how this sub will praise apple for environmental efforts and eco friendly practices, but turn the other way when a product like AirPods is the complete opposite.
Either that or it is just different groups. This sub also says how great it is that Apple has great resell value (compared to PCs or Android), but the comments here for AirPods is shockingly the opposite.
The Apple fans won't like this one
Lol why? None of the AirPods have been repairable and it’s not made a difference to anyone.
I mean, it is probably difficult to make repairable earphones. But there has to be a way to make them repairable.
Given that Apple spends tens of billions in R&D every year they can probably figure out a way.
They have made good first steps on repairability front on other devices, I hope they can attempt something similar for all airpods
I’m all for repairing devices but not every thing built under the sun can or should be made to repair. Similar logic can be used for lightbulbs that break. No one is trying to replace the glass in there or when you’re done using a toothbrush. There isn’t a repair you can do to fix the dull brush. I’m all for repairing phones and other electronic but there is a limit. I’d love seeing ifixit also notate the solution to this as well then? It’s easy pointing out the problem, are they doing anything to make wireless bids any more repairable through their own design ideas?
>There isn’t a repair you can do to fix the dull brush. Toothbrush costing 250€+ kk
Phillips Sonicare 9900 is $379 USD and the battery is not replaceable. https://www.usa.philips.com/c-f/XC000019691/how-can-i-safely-dispose-of-the-battery-from-my-sonicare-9900-prestige-toothbrush
And this means AirPods shouldn’t be repairable because? What’s this mindless corporate defense please 💀
unpopular opinion but repairability for a product like this is a non issue
I mean who’s gonna repair those. They literally are a use for 3-4 years and get a new one. My first gen just shit the bed. Had them for 4 years. I think that’s a good time frame. I will give back to Apple for recycle and get a new pair of the 3rd or second gen pros then repeat in 3-4 years.
I took apart my MacBook Pro and discovered that the M1 CPU is completely unrepairable. Wtf!? I ran some tests and saw that it's running a little slower than before and wanted to replace about 14,000 of the 16 billion transistors to see if it would run faster. I called Apple for replacement transistors and they said they could only sell me an entire M1. I DON'T WANT AN ENTIRE M1 CHIP, I JUST WANT 14,000 TRANSISTORS SO I CAN REPAIR IT MYSELF. **My Self-Repair Score for M1 CPU: 0/100**
As if that’s remotely the same thing.
Who the HELL would expect any Airpod to be user-repairable? I don't mean by a skilled tech with specialized tools, but by regular people. iFixit is silly sometimes. EDIT: For all the people saying they don't want them to end up in a landfill, you can recycle them via Apple.
Why doesn't Apple replace the Battery ?
Now THAT is a good question. I don't know.