Vocations · Job Skills

Buy the one
you can fix.

Two products at nearly the same price can have very different lives: one opens with a screwdriver and sells its own batteries, the other is glued shut. Score each on six questions, add the price of the repair it will most likely need, and the scorecard totals the score and shows that repair as a share of the price.

Score a productWhat you get

Your products

The worked example is made up: two 13-inch laptops, $150 apart, one built for repair and one with a glued battery and a warranty sticker. Saved on this device only.

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What you get

Vocations · Job SkillsFree

What you finish with
A record per product: kind, price, the likely repair and its cost, any warranty-void claim, six scores from 1 to 5 and five checks. Totals the score out of 30, works out the repair as a share of the price and ranks the products; flags low scores, costly repairs, hard-to-replace batteries, short software support and warranty-void claims.
Who it is for
Students and families buying a laptop, phone or appliance, and teachers running consumer skills and sustainability lessons.
Format
Browser scorecard with a saved record per product. Prints one product, every product in a table or a blank sheet; downloads a spreadsheet (.csv); exports and imports a file.
Access
Free. No account, no sign-in and nothing to install. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Job Skills space in Caveat Vocations.
Support
Questions about access, an order or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. Add each product you are choosing between, with its price.
  2. Look up the likely repair and what it costs.
  3. Score the six questions from a teardown or repair guide.
  4. Compare the totals in the side panel.
  5. Ask a local repair shop before you decide.

Score a product

What makes things fixable

Six things that decide whether it gets fixedGetting inOpening it: screws, notglue.Tools: a commonscrewdriver, not aspecial bit.Getting partsSpare parts sold at fairprices, for years.A battery the owner canswap.Knowing howManuals and guides inpublic.Software updates longenough to keep it safe.Six things that decide whether it gets fixedGetting inOpening it: screws, not glue.Tools: a common screwdriver, not a specialbit.Getting partsSpare parts sold at fair prices, for years.A battery the owner can swap.Knowing howManuals and guides in public.Software updates long enough to keep itsafe.
The same six questions sit behind France’s repairability index and the EU’s repair class for phones and tablets.

Warranty stickers

The federal Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act generally bars a maker from conditioning a warranty on using its own parts or service unless it provides them free. The FTC has said “warranty void if removed” stickers are generally unlawful. A maker can still refuse to cover damage a repair caused.

Labels

France has rated the repairability of many electronics since 2021 and is moving some categories to a durability index; the EU energy label for phones and tablets has shown a repair class since June 2025. Where a rating exists, it is a good starting point for these scores.

Sources

  1. Federal Trade Commission (2021). Nixing the Fix: An FTC Report to Congress on Repair Restrictions; Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, 15 U.S.C. 2302(c).
  2. Federal Trade Commission. Warranties and statements on warranty-void stickers (ftc.gov).
  3. European Commission (2023). Regulation (EU) 2023/1669, energy labelling of smartphones and slate tablets, including the repairability class (applies from June 2025).
  4. French Ministry for the Ecological Transition. Indice de réparabilité and indice de durabilité (ecologie.gouv.fr).

The worked examples are made up and name no real brand. Scores are your own judgment from public guides; check the maker’s current parts and update policies before you buy. Nothing you type is sent to Caveat. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.