Lets see how long it takes this time until someone shows up and calls the EU a nanny state.
It's 5am in New York, not even the most dedicated anti EU Americans are up yet.
EU mandates replaceable batteries by 2027 (2023)
21–30 of 198 posts
Re: EU mandates replaceable batteries by 2027 (2023)
#22[deleted]
Re: EU mandates replaceable batteries by 2027 (2023)
#23It’s not clear to me from this, but I hope that the “removability” component of this means the end of “disposable” vapes with a fixed lithium battery installed. I can’t even count the number of these I’ve seen littering the roadside. Ideally this raises the cost of that business model enough to also eliminate some vendors from that product category (“disposable” vapes), which is primarily aimed at/used by children an…
I would argue that under WEEE disposable vapes were never legal, it's just that nobody cares and EU directives rely on self-enforcement.
Next time you see one, look for the "no bin" symbol)
Re: EU mandates replaceable batteries by 2027 (2023)
#24Are they going to have an exception for waterproof phones? Seems like it would be challenging to implement replaceable batteries while maintaining waterproofing. Are there any waterproof phones on the market with removable batteries?
Re: EU mandates replaceable batteries by 2027 (2023)
#25Are they going to have an exception for waterproof phones? Seems like it would be challenging to implement replaceable batteries while maintaining waterproofing. Are there any waterproof phones on the market with removable batteries?
I Can change the battery on my waterproof watch just fine
Re: EU mandates replaceable batteries by 2027 (2023)
#26I have been maintaining this chart of phones with replaceable batteries available in the USA for 10 years now: https://www.productchart.com/smartphones/removable_battery Man, is it empty these days. The chart used to be pretty full. Now it only has about 1% of all phones that are in the Product Chart database. As the other 99% have fixed batteries. I'm looking forward to see if the EU decision will push some companie…
The EU directive doesn't even compel them to have those kinds of removable batteries in the EU, because being removable with commercially available tools is considered compliant [0]. The topic has been too obfuscated with hype pieces. Still, it would be nice to not have to break glass and melt glue to open up phones.
[0] https://repair.eu/news/making-batteries-removable-and-replac...
Re: EU mandates replaceable batteries by 2027 (2023)
#27It’s not clear to me from this, but I hope that the “removability” component of this means the end of “disposable” vapes with a fixed lithium battery installed. I can’t even count the number of these I’ve seen littering the roadside. Ideally this raises the cost of that business model enough to also eliminate some vendors from that product category (“disposable” vapes), which is primarily aimed at/used by children an…
The UK banned disposable vapes, the suppliers now add a charging port and the ability to put in refills. The refills cost as much or more than the vapes so now people throw away the "reusable" vapes as if they were disposable.
Re: EU mandates replaceable batteries by 2027 (2023)
#28The EU is displaying exactly the kind of political leadership we need in this topic: pro-consumer, pro-environment, and firmly against planned obsolescence. Removable batteries were the industry standard in the early days of mobile phones, and it worked perfectly. We only lost that standard when Apple’s 'walled garden' mindset infected the rest of the industry. The amount of avoidable e-waste generated since then is…
This is the role we need governments to take. If you want your government to work like a corporation for some reason, why not go to a country where the govnment is weak and corporations bribe it instead? Would give you some good image how well that works.
But I get it. This ideology has more to do with how much money these types can then extract from a government and if implemented fully you would have some sort of neo-feudalism where everybody needs to pay them to even exist. But that is not a real utopian vision of something that moves humanity forward (quite literally the opposite).
Re: EU mandates replaceable batteries by 2027 (2023)
#29As someone who does electronic repairs I welcome this. There are too many devices where the battery is the first point of failure and it is glued in. The number of batteries I could only remove with hot air and heat due to the battery being glued in is too damn high. Heat for removal works but is always like defusing a inextinguishable bomb and takes much more time than it should. I also have rarely seen a design whe…
Gluing batteries solved the old issue where you would drop your phone and it would shut down.
How big an issue was that really? Pick it up and put it back together and it turns on again.
Re: EU mandates replaceable batteries by 2027 (2023)
#30iPhone batteries are already replaceable, albeit most people have to pay Apple to do it. Does this count as replaceable under this mandate, or is there an expectation that batteries must be replaceable by end-consumers on their own? Any requirements for what level of skill and tooling end-consumers are expected to have access to, such as specialized screwdrivers and re-waterproofing adhesives?