- There's two things I want to talk about in this video.
One is planned obsolescence
and the second one is right to repair.
And I'm going to start by just telling you
a little bit of a story about my uncle.
So when he was first diagnosed with sleep apnea,
he went to the clinic
and bought himself a ResMed S8 Machine.
That was the best-selling brand at the time.
Top of the line, S8.
And to this very day,
my uncle is still using the ResMed S8.
He hasn't gone to the S9.
He hasn't gone to the AirSense 10.
As far as he's concerned, he's sleeping well,
machine's doing the job and he's happy.
But about three or four years into his therapy,
he noticed that the power button
on the machine just stopped working.
And his machine was out of warranty,
but he took it back to ResMed and said,
"I just need to buy the power button."
And they said,
"Unfortunately, you can't buy components of the machine,
but what we can do is we can send it away
and it's gonna cost $250 for the repair.
And if you wanna hire a machine, it's gonna cost you $100."
So it was like, okay, $350.
It was a lot of money.
And he calls me up and he says, you know,
"ResMed want to charge me $350.
Can you help me?"
I said,
"I can have a look at it for you."
So I jumped on some forums, had a bit of look around
and what I noticed was everyone
with these ResMed S8 machines was having the same problem.
After a few years, the power button just stopped working.
And I was like, that's a bit strange.
And then I read one guy who did a bit
of a fix where he took the power button out.
And he noticed that there were these two little prongs
that came out of place where the power button goes down
and he, you know bent them back in
and sure enough, it was working again.
Really simple fix, super simple.
And that's what I did.
I fixed it.
It took me about 10 minutes
and the machine's been working fine ever since
and no other problem.
So just a few weeks ago,
I put out a video talking about a potential fault
with the DreamStation One device.
Basically there's this foam inside it
and it could be breaking down
and causing a health risk.
And many of you just started commenting saying,
"This just seems too coincidental."
Like they've just released the DreamStation Two
and now there's a problem with the One?
Like is this their way
of trying to get people to buy the new machine?
And I don't know, but it did get me thinking
about the S8 machine, the ResMed machine.
Because I thought to myself
I wonder how many people had this power button issue?
And then they got told it was gonna be $350.
And they just went, nah, whatever.
I'll just buy the S9.
I don't want to throw money away on an old machine.
Now, when I did fix my uncle's machine, he was super happy.
And he said to me, you should start fixing CPAP machines.
And so I did.
It was about two months in,
things were going really well.
And I got a knock at the door
and it was a registered post from the postman,
opened it up.
And it's a legal letter from ResMed.
Basically saying, you need to take your website down.
You can't do this.
You can't do that.
I took it to a lawyer.
The lawyer said, it's all bullshit,
but if you want to fight it,
it's going to cost a lot of money.
And I just didn't have any money to fight it.
So I just closed the website, forgot all about it.
But I thought I'd bring it up today
because what I've realized is the manufacturers
really don't want you repairing, not even C-PAP, anyone.
They really don't want you repairing your equipment.
They want to make it so that you buy a new one.
So forget about fixing up your old S8
that's a bit noisy or got a broken button.
Go and get the S9.
And then when that heater plate breaks down or whatever
buy the AirSense 10
and you just keep sort of going through the motion.
And I'm sure many of you have already done this.
So guys, if you want to watch a really great video
on planned obsolescence,
just click in the top right-hand corner now.
It's a fascinating story about the light bulb,
the never ending light bulb,
and it's called
'Why We Can't Have Nice Things'.
And you wouldn't read about it,
but Phillips is actually one of the companies involved.
So go check that video.
But basically what it is is planned obsolescence
is companies really don't want things to last a long time.
They want you to sell you something and then it breaks
and then they say something more and then it breaks.
And then you keep upgrading your gear.
A really good example
of it is how Apple,
the phone I'm filming on right now,
introduce software that made their older phones
go really slow.
So that people were like,
"Oh, this is hard to use.
I may as well just get the new one."
And since forever,
companies have been planning
this sort of planned obsolescence
so that their equipment eventually sort of breaks down
and you have to upgrade to the new one.
And this is where right to repair comes in.
And I think it's a movement that's really gaining traction.
So right to repair is essentially
that when you buy something
like a C-PAP machine and it's out of warranty,
you have the right to buy the components essentially
and try and fix it yourself or have it fixed.
So these companies will let you fix the equipment
but they do it in a way that almost makes it not worth it.
And I'll give you an example.
So Phillips, I know I feel like
I'm picking on Phillips here,
but so Phillips in Australia have what they call
fixed price servicing.
So if you've got an old system, 60 series
or a dreamstation or whatever machine you've got,
if you've got a fault with it, after the warranty period
they're going to charge you $395, no matter what the issue.
If your button stops working, $395, you know.
If you spill a bit of water on it
or the screen stops working, or whatever
$395 across the board.
$395 is a huge amount of money to spend
repairing a C-PAP machine.
Especially when you look at it and you go,
Oh, it's a little bit old.
Maybe I should spend that $395 and upgrade to the new one.
It's almost at that price point
where it makes people buy the new machine
because it almost seems like a waste of money
to put $395 into an older device.
You know what I mean?
And they don't let you just buy the different components.
Same thing goes for ResMed
and some of the others as well.
Like ResMed charge a ridiculous amount per hour
to work on their CPAP machine.
So 150, something around that mark.
It's over a hundred dollars.
And the components themselves are insanely priced
in terms of replacing the components.
So when you get your quote back and you pick it up
and it's $500 to change a motor or, you know
$600 or whatever it is,
Straightaway you go.
"Nah, I'll just buy the next one
because it's just not worth it out."
If these machines were
like super high tech and really, really complex
and heaps of electrical components, all welded together,
I can understand that, you know, it's a tricky fix.
If you look at some of the Apple products
that they're quite tricky to fix.
But if you've ever opened up a CPAP machine,
there's really not a whole lot to them.
I've got some parts here.
You got your turbine.
It's an air pump.
It brings in air through one end,
pushes it out the other.
Okay. And it's got a little connector that you connect
to the circuit board.
Your PCB board, you know, your circuitry
just the little board.
All right, then you've got your little hater plate.
Once again, one little connection.
You take that out, plug that back in
you fixed your heater plate.
And this is just the little screen as well.
He just plugged that in.
It's done.
CPAP machines are super, super basic
in terms of their internal components.
There's not a whole lot to them.
And they're actually really, really easy to fix as well.
You know, if you, in terms of just taking
out a component and plugging it in
it's plug and play.
You literally take off the shelf,
you grabbed that pot, you plug it in and you fixed it.
But they don't want you fixing the machines.
I personally love the idea of rights to repair.
You know, wouldn't it be fantastic
if you could buy a C-PAP machine
and then know that no matter what happens in the future,
you have the ability to replace
any of the parts that break down.
So you can essentially have your CPAP forever.
I don't feel you should be pushed
to constantly buy and upgrade your C-PAP machine,
especially if they're not making dramatic improvements
in the technology or the features or the comfort.
But anyway, let me know what you think, guys.
I hope you have an awesome day wherever you are.
Thanks for all your support throughout the years.
It's incredible to know that, you know
the little channel that I started few years ago
now has 30,000 of you subscribed and loving it.
So big thumbs up to you all.
I really appreciate it.
And I'm also loving watching all
of you help each other out in the comment section.
If someone's got an issue or a question,
seeing other people answer those questions
is just fantastic.
And I really feel
like we're built a fantastic little community here.
So all the best.
I'm sorry if I've been a bit negative lately.
I'm going to try and put on my happy face
over the next few weeks
and talk about some more fun stop being so negative.
All right. Have a great night.
See you later. Bye.