> I'm skeptical of the idea that some repairs are meant to be performed only by "experts"
If you're skeptical of this very banal notion than you are likely not qualified to be doing whatever work you're doing. Yes, tons of technology is needlessly complicated and the salesmen and their compatriots in the "no user serviceable parts inside" sticker division have spent a lot of time and effort to convince people that the inside of electronic devices is sacrosanct; however that has led to an IMHO dangerous notion that every instance of someone saying "hey, you really shouldn't take this apart on your home bench" is regarded with suspicion, or some notion of "they just want you to buy a new one!" and not that, sometimes things break and if they're designed well, they may well have a failure mode that prevents a much worse failure mode.
And it might be expertise that's the dividing line, but it could just as easily be a matter of the material itself: that sometimes, what's in there is pretty fucking dangerous actually and shouldn't be messed with by just any old guy, even a technical guy, who has a YouTube tutorial. It might be that the parts inside failed for a reason and replacing them, while it makes whatever thing work again, might not actually be a great idea depending on why the original ones failed and that if you don't know the answer to that question, blindly putting them back might be setting you up for something disastrous.
I'm 100% a believer in the right to repair, but I do not mean for that always to be myself. On the rare occasion I take something apart with lithium cells inside (which I avoid at all costs!), I handle them like live grenades and either re-connect them to whatever managing circuitry or, if whatever it is is beyond fixing, disposing of them safely. I don't do this because I don't understand them: I know intimately how they work. I do this because I understand them and respect the danger they pose, not unlike firearms or the parts of my car that I know I don't know enough and am not qualified to fix.
Being intelligent is, IMO, oftentimes more about knowing what you don't know and respecting that than knowing what you know.
And, as an aside just because it's related to this point I've articulated: do not take apart lithium batteries in an apartment. I don't give a shit what your qualifications are or how good your risk assessment might be, you do not have the right to take into your hands the safety of yourself and at the same time, every other person currently occupying the structure you inhabit. That is just not your risk to accept, full stop. You are not an island and all the high minded libertarian nonsense you can muster cannot get around the fact that if you make a mistake, no matter how benign in the moment, you could damn well set other people's homes on fire with zero warning for them.
The flip-side of this is that there are so many activities that people do all the time that carry risk. Plenty of them are not really necessary, and create some risk for other people, and yet they are perfectly acceptable.
A good analogy is the use of candles. They are pointless and fundamentally dangerous, but some people like them. People who like them even think they are calming, which is a very bad reaction to an open flame from a risk-assessment point-of view.
If i knew my neighbour liked candles, i would hope that they are being safe and accept that they have a right to take socially-acceptable amounts of risk, not berate them on the internet.
I don't see how repairing battery-containing electronics is any different. Both are unnecessary, and both could turn a small mistake into a fire.
So, I'm quite happy replacing my own phone battery with reasonable precautions, but no, friend, you may not charge your sketchy e-bike in my hallway.
The level of risk that is acceptable is socially defined, and far from the black-and-white view that some people seem to have.
> So, I'm quite happy replacing my own phone battery with reasonable precautions, but no, friend, you may not charge your sketchy e-bike in my hallway.
Having myself witnessed a cell phone's battery go up when it was nicked during a removal, I'll take the candle a thousand times over one of those. But you know what you know.
Personally I just wouldn't fuck with re-manufactured batteries at all. Batteries should be new, from licensed factories, and they should be recycled in a way akin to car batteries so we don't lose all the lithium inside that's still perfectly good for another go-round in a new battery.
Yeah, i know the risk, that was my point. Given the difference in frequency (say, ~every day vs. ~once a year) and level of attention, the risk to others is at least comparable.
Given how popular DIY phone battery replacement is, you'd expect there to be at least a few incidents reported if it was a major risk, but I just don't see them. On the other hand london fire brigade reports 200 candle fires a year...
If you're skeptical of this very banal notion than you are likely not qualified to be doing whatever work you're doing. Yes, tons of technology is needlessly complicated and the salesmen and their compatriots in the "no user serviceable parts inside" sticker division have spent a lot of time and effort to convince people that the inside of electronic devices is sacrosanct; however that has led to an IMHO dangerous notion that every instance of someone saying "hey, you really shouldn't take this apart on your home bench" is regarded with suspicion, or some notion of "they just want you to buy a new one!" and not that, sometimes things break and if they're designed well, they may well have a failure mode that prevents a much worse failure mode.
And it might be expertise that's the dividing line, but it could just as easily be a matter of the material itself: that sometimes, what's in there is pretty fucking dangerous actually and shouldn't be messed with by just any old guy, even a technical guy, who has a YouTube tutorial. It might be that the parts inside failed for a reason and replacing them, while it makes whatever thing work again, might not actually be a great idea depending on why the original ones failed and that if you don't know the answer to that question, blindly putting them back might be setting you up for something disastrous.
I'm 100% a believer in the right to repair, but I do not mean for that always to be myself. On the rare occasion I take something apart with lithium cells inside (which I avoid at all costs!), I handle them like live grenades and either re-connect them to whatever managing circuitry or, if whatever it is is beyond fixing, disposing of them safely. I don't do this because I don't understand them: I know intimately how they work. I do this because I understand them and respect the danger they pose, not unlike firearms or the parts of my car that I know I don't know enough and am not qualified to fix.
Being intelligent is, IMO, oftentimes more about knowing what you don't know and respecting that than knowing what you know.
And, as an aside just because it's related to this point I've articulated: do not take apart lithium batteries in an apartment. I don't give a shit what your qualifications are or how good your risk assessment might be, you do not have the right to take into your hands the safety of yourself and at the same time, every other person currently occupying the structure you inhabit. That is just not your risk to accept, full stop. You are not an island and all the high minded libertarian nonsense you can muster cannot get around the fact that if you make a mistake, no matter how benign in the moment, you could damn well set other people's homes on fire with zero warning for them.