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Podswap: Keep airpods alive and out of the landfill

thepodswap.com

111–120 of 191 posts

Re: Podswap: Keep airpods alive and out of the landfill

#111
post #3

I am pro refurbishing/reusing and having less waste but its hard to care about tiny airpods being tossed. Maybe they test the message and it resonated better than "Airpods should last longer than your last relationship" or "1 trick that Apple hates" etc.

Seriously, I never understand the "environmental waste" argument as applied to AirPods . The pair of buds weighs a third of a single disposable AA battery. There's less plastic than in an average Chinese takeout container. If you want to complain that they're expensive to replace then go ahead. But as soon as anyone brings up the environment , give me a break. We're not talking about a 65" television that weight 55 p…

It'd be interesting to know how much mass of stuff needs to be dug/refined/shipped/disposed of to produce four grams of airpod.

e.g. to produce 1 gram of some metal you might need to mine and process 100+ grams of ore

Re: Podswap: Keep airpods alive and out of the landfill

#112
post #2

As someone who gets a ridiculous amount of use out of their pods, I really hope this business pans out. I think the product is great, but batteries are consumable products. In fact, I would hope that one day it would be mandatory to offer battery replacements for all products you sell. (Do correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think Apple currently does this for pods?)

what's frustrating is that while batteries are consumable products they could last much longer if they stay between 80 and 20% capacity without overheating. (this is similar to what tesla does) I wish there was a "battery care" settings on all electronics that would respect limits like this so that I could get thousands of cycles out of my devices instead of only Apple has added a feature which tries to do this intel…

Ex EV battery engineer here. You’re right that the cycle life of a lithium battery typically doubles per 0.05V (‘tik’) undercharged from 4.15V (and on the other end of the scale as well, less so).

This typically corresponds to around 7-10% capacity per ‘tik’, so to effectively triple your battery cycle count would reduce the runtime by approximately 30%.

Interesting effect here.. the amount of power in each cycle is less because you’re undercharging the battery. And for each consecutive ‘tik’, 0.05V is approximately more power because the discharge curve becomes flatter (voltage != state of charge). It doesn’t scale like you’d think. Seriously diminishing returns!

Re: Podswap: Keep airpods alive and out of the landfill

#113
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what's frustrating is that while batteries are consumable products they could last much longer if they stay between 80 and 20% capacity without overheating. (this is similar to what tesla does) I wish there was a "battery care" settings on all electronics that would respect limits like this so that I could get thousands of cycles out of my devices instead of only Apple has added a feature which tries to do this intel…

Apple is the only laptop manufacturer that even gets close to 1000 cycles of great battery life.

Honestly, has anyone gotten 1000 out of a MacBook? Mine always goes to "service battery" around 300-400.

Re: Podswap: Keep airpods alive and out of the landfill

#115

Does it work for the Pros as well? All the pics seem to be the non-pro AirPods.

Their FAQ says:

> We currently accept AirPod Generation 1 & 2. If you would like AirPod Pros, you can join the waitlist here [http://eepurl.com/hqjLSr] and be notified when we offer that service is available.

Re: Podswap: Keep airpods alive and out of the landfill

#116
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously, I never understand the "environmental waste" argument as applied to AirPods . The pair of buds weighs a third of a single disposable AA battery. There's less plastic than in an average Chinese takeout container. If you want to complain that they're expensive to replace then go ahead. But as soon as anyone brings up the environment , give me a break. We're not talking about a 65" television that weight 55 p…

It'd be interesting to know how much mass of stuff needs to be dug/refined/shipped/disposed of to produce four grams of airpod. e.g. to produce 1 gram of some metal you might need to mine and process 100+ grams of ore

Welcome to manufacturing. How much ore do you think it takes to make a roll of aluminum foil that sells for $3?

Obviously it takes more than 4g of raw materials to produce AirPods. But it takes extra material to make pretty much everything. So comparison-wise, it's still a tiny, tiny amount next to your TV or even laptop.

Re: Podswap: Keep airpods alive and out of the landfill

#117
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. The parent comment is referring to waste in the environmental sense. Nature does not care how expensive the trash was--just the volume/composition 2. It's a big stretch to call AirPods "disposable" I (and many others) keep them for years. In the long run everything is rubbish; an expensive electronic device that lasts for years and years is not "disposable"

> Nature does not care how expensive the trash was No, but the price is often a stand-in for how much energy/carbon it took to make the product, which is what I always assumed was the case here. I'd love to be wrong...

The price is usually more indicative of how much value it creates for the buyer, with a lower bound being how much it costs the producer to produce.

Re: Podswap: Keep airpods alive and out of the landfill

#118

FYI Apple does this for $49 each, this website charges you $59.99 a pair. https://support.apple.com/airpods/repair/service#battery Edit: updated pricing thanks to comment by tanduv

If I read it right - that Apple support article says "$ 49 each"... meaning $49 per AirPod; while Podswap covers a pair for $59?

Re: Podswap: Keep airpods alive and out of the landfill

#119
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple is the only laptop manufacturer that even gets close to 1000 cycles of great battery life.

Honestly, has anyone gotten 1000 out of a MacBook? Mine always goes to "service battery" around 300-400.

I got that warning on my Macbook Pro from 2014 after ~820 cycles.

So, somewhat close at least?

Re: Podswap: Keep airpods alive and out of the landfill

#120
post #3

I am pro refurbishing/reusing and having less waste but its hard to care about tiny airpods being tossed. Maybe they test the message and it resonated better than "Airpods should last longer than your last relationship" or "1 trick that Apple hates" etc.

Seriously, I never understand the "environmental waste" argument as applied to AirPods . The pair of buds weighs a third of a single disposable AA battery. There's less plastic than in an average Chinese takeout container. If you want to complain that they're expensive to replace then go ahead. But as soon as anyone brings up the environment , give me a break. We're not talking about a 65" television that weight 55 p…

The airpods are compared to wired ear buds. Once Apple removed the jack port, they effectively created the added waste which was not there before.
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