Durability & Repair
Fasteners tell you what the designer expected you to open
How a product is held together is a statement of intent that anyone can read. Screws, clips, adhesive and heat stakes each carry a…
Deepa Mohan
Contributing writer, Best Pro Deals
Deepa writes about value and where the price curve stops meaning anything.
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17 articles
Durability & Repair
Corrosion happens where two metals meet
Rust on a single material is the familiar problem. The quicker and more surprising failures happen at joints between different…
Durability & Repair
A product that needs a server has an ending somebody else controls
When core functions depend on a manufacturer's infrastructure, the hardware's life is bounded by a commercial decision. That…
What You Pay For
Own-label goods and the factory behind the badge
A large share of retail goods are made by manufacturers who also supply competitors and sell under their own names. Working out who…
What You Pay For
The parts are the smallest part of what you pay
Buyers estimate a fair price by imagining what the materials cost. That estimate is wrong by a wide margin, and understanding why…
What You Pay For
A warranty's exclusions describe the product better than its length
The number of years is chosen by marketing. The list of things not covered is written by people who know exactly how the product…
What You Pay For
How to price an extended warranty for yourself
An extended warranty is an insurance product, and insurance can be priced. The arithmetic is straightforward and usually gives an…
What You Pay For
Refurbished grades describe a process, and the process varies
Refurbished, renewed, open box and graded stock are different things sold under similar words. What matters is who did the work and…
What You Pay For
The accessory is often the upgrade you were looking for
Replacing a whole product to fix one weakness is the expensive route. In many categories a component or accessory addresses the…
What You Pay For
Running costs are the part of the price you pay in instalments
Some categories cost most of their money after the purchase. Working out which ones, and where that money goes, changes what counts…
Durability & Repair
Parts availability is a company policy, not a property of the product
Whether a repairable design can actually be repaired depends on a commercial decision made elsewhere. That decision is knowable…
What You Pay For
When the cheaper model is the same hardware with something switched off
Manufacturing one platform and selling several products from it is standard practice. Knowing when you are looking at that…
What You Pay For
Some of what you pay for is the paperwork behind the product
Testing, documentation, traceability and liability cover are real costs carried by the seller. Products that skip them look…
What You Pay For
A warranty can be valid only in the country where it was sold
Cover is a contract with a territory attached. Buying across a border, or moving afterwards, can leave a perfectly genuine product…
What You Pay For
Repairs are priced by labour, and that decides what gets thrown away
Whether something is worth fixing has less to do with the broken part than with how long it takes to reach it and how confidently…
What You Pay For
Paying for lightness, and what the last few grams cost
Weight reduction follows a steep curve. The first savings come cheaply from sensible design, and the final ones are bought with…
What You Pay For
Quiet costs money, and you can see where it went
Noise reduction is not a feature added at the end. It is mass, damping, isolation and better rotating parts, and every one of those…