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Podswap: Keep airpods alive and out of the landfill

thepodswap.com

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

#81

Post by crazygringo »

slg wrote: post #22
samatman wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just the Discourse in action. For whatever reason, AirPods, of all things, have become a go-to example of environmental waste and throwaway culture. It's bizarre to me. I'm fairly confident that for minutes of pleasure / embodied energy, AirPods score higher than almost anything else I own, certainly among things with a battery and chip. They also last multiples of the time I would get out of wired earphones, wh…

You can't just blame this on "the Discourse" or Apple haters. I have owned countless devices with batteries over my life. None has made me as acutely aware of its battery degrading as Airpods. Eventually I couldn't even make it through a full workout or work call on a single charge. They basically became worthless through nothing but normal usage. There was no visible physical damage. I treated them exactly how I was…

I don't own anything powered by li-ion where the battery lasts more than 2-3 years.

Both my MacBook and iPhones I've had the battery swapped after not being able to hold a charge for more than ~25% of original after 2-3 years. I'm still satisfied, but I absolutely had to get the battery swapped. Twice in one case.

AirPods are no worse in this regard. After all, why would they be -- li-ion chemistry is the same.

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

#82

Post by an_opabinia »

alisonkisk wrote: post #73
an_opabinia wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I own AirPods, I like them, but it sucks that they die when their battery dies, and they have to be thrown away for pretty much no good reason - just because that's how Apple designed it, and it could have many design priorities, and one of those priorities is to not throw nice shit away after two years. In the spirit of advancing curiosity, it was interesting to just see, is it possible to reduce environmentalism to…

The point is that the environmental focus on airpods is irrational. look at everything in your trash can this week . If you are upset that they are too expensive, don't buy them. The price isn't going to waste; it has an enormous profit margin over the BoM. (a lot, perhaps most, of the true cost is fixed overhead, so buying more airpods makes them more efficient!)

> look at everything in your trash can this week.

You’re just saying, “if it’s small it’s okay” again. It’s not that reductive. I agree that plastic is bad. I also think throwing away AirPods is bad, for a different reason than plastic is bad, but really, are they the same reason? It’s so much more interesting when it’s not as reductive as “small things are okay to throw away” or whatever like, really simplistic thought is going on here.

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

#84

Post by salamandersauce »

crazygringo wrote: post #81
slg wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't just blame this on "the Discourse" or Apple haters. I have owned countless devices with batteries over my life. None has made me as acutely aware of its battery degrading as Airpods. Eventually I couldn't even make it through a full workout or work call on a single charge. They basically became worthless through nothing but normal usage. There was no visible physical damage. I treated them exactly how I was…

I don't own anything powered by li-ion where the battery lasts more than 2-3 years. Both my MacBook and iPhones I've had the battery swapped after not being able to hold a charge for more than ~25% of original after 2-3 years. I'm still satisfied, but I absolutely had to get the battery swapped. Twice in one case. AirPods are no worse in this regard. After all, why would they be -- li-ion chemistry is the same.

Seriously? Nothing? I have a Game Boy SP with it's original battery. Still has a few hours runtime. Not as good as new but it's still usable. My Vita still holds a few hours too and it's almost 10 years old at this point. I've heard of people's airpods not holding any charge after a year or two. Mine still work but they are very degraded and can't handle a 1 hour phone call anymore.

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

#85

Post by slg »

crazygringo wrote: post #81
slg wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't just blame this on "the Discourse" or Apple haters. I have owned countless devices with batteries over my life. None has made me as acutely aware of its battery degrading as Airpods. Eventually I couldn't even make it through a full workout or work call on a single charge. They basically became worthless through nothing but normal usage. There was no visible physical damage. I treated them exactly how I was…

I don't own anything powered by li-ion where the battery lasts more than 2-3 years. Both my MacBook and iPhones I've had the battery swapped after not being able to hold a charge for more than ~25% of original after 2-3 years. I'm still satisfied, but I absolutely had to get the battery swapped. Twice in one case. AirPods are no worse in this regard. After all, why would they be -- li-ion chemistry is the same.

>Both my MacBook and iPhones I've had the battery swapped after not being able to hold a charge for more than ~25% of original after 2-3 years.

I have never experienced this with the laptops or phones I have owned. I am still rocking an iPhone X that is almost 4 years old and I just checked the battery health and it shows max capacity at 86%. That matches with my expectations as the degradation is barely noticeable and I still have no problem making it through an average day on a single charge.

Are you by chance leaving these devices charging for extended periods of time? That appears to be one of the primary problems with Airpods. The design choice of making the carrying case a charging case means that the individual Airpods spend almost all of their life at 100% charge. That degrades the battery quicker than normal usage. If you treat your laptop as a desktop and have it plugged in 24/7, you are doing a lot of unnecessary harm to your battery which might explain what you are experiencing.

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

#86

Post by crooked-v »

petespeed wrote: post #79
beckman466 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I agree with you that the airpod batteries (like the batteries in everything else) should have been replaceable in the first place. 100% agree, you can't unsee things like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mleQVO1Vd1I

Some thoughts: 1. Every new product designed should have a cost associated to it for proper disposal. Thus total cost of ownership is a "green cost" which is not just acquisition but also proper disposal. 2. Another option is to put burden of mandatory proper recycling back on the original manufacturer of the product using the same supply-chain that is used for sales. Thus consumers should be able to drop electronics…

Currently, "proper disposal" of most plastic producta means just dumping them in a landfill somewhere anyway.

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

#87

Post by slg »

alisonkisk wrote: post #75
slg wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't just blame this on "the Discourse" or Apple haters. I have owned countless devices with batteries over my life. None has made me as acutely aware of its battery degrading as Airpods. Eventually I couldn't even make it through a full workout or work call on a single charge. They basically became worthless through nothing but normal usage. There was no visible physical damage. I treated them exactly how I was…

The same degradation happens to my clothing, food, and wired headphones.

I am guessing your are just trolling by throwing food into that list, but I have had clothes and wired headphones last for over a decade with proper care. There is no way to properly care for Airpods that would extend the life of their batteries past a few years.

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

#88

Post by nomoreplease »

denimnerd42 wrote: post #6
Etheryte wrote: 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…

Why 80%? Is 100% dangerous?

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

#89

Post by nomoreplease »

tedunangst wrote: post #40
denimnerd42 wrote: post #6

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…

Alas, a product that lasts five hours for 100 cycles gets much better reviews than a product that lasts four hours for 1000 cycles.

I wonder if this was configurable, if that would get better reviews than both?

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

#90

Post by FredFS456 »

nomoreplease wrote: post #88
denimnerd42 wrote: post #6

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…

Why 80%? Is 100% dangerous?

Neither 0% nor 100% are dangerous, but lithium ion batteries wear out a lot faster if you cycle them all the way instead of only staying within 20-80%.
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