Repair Hero of the Year Contest!
Contests

Repair Hero of the Year Contest!

Article by: @krisrodriguez

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Captain Planet—actually it’s the iFixit Repair Hero of the Year!

In 2021, the World Economic Forum estimated that about 63.4 million tons of e-waste will be discarded. That’s a lot of trash and there’s only so much space in our landfills. And to make matters worse, even if you can get your old devices to the junkyard, only 17% ever gets formally recycled. Think about that! 

Repair comes in all shapes and sizes, but whether you are mending your beloved old jeans or replacing the battery in your phone: you are not only protecting precious resources, but also cutting down on living expenses.
Plus it’s a great thing to do together—as a family, with friends, or with friends to be.

If the massive impact on the planet wasn’t enough to motivate you, choosing repair over replacement can save a family an average of $330 per year. During this economic downturn it can be prudent to be a Scrooge McDuck, every coin counts! So here’s our ask.

With 2022 at its end and 2023 beginning, we think it’s the perfect time to set a challenge for yourself that helps both the planet and your wallet. 

Start the year off right by pledging to repair. 

With repair, everybody wins

Begin with an attainable goal: for some people that’s only three repairs a year, while for others, it could be 300. There will be a grand prize for making the most repairs, along with prizes for winning any of the other categories we list below.

The truth is, this isn’t about skill level or quantity of devices you can repair. This is really about building confidence in yourself by learning how your stuff works (or in this case, doesn’t work). The prizes are just our good-hearted attempt to get you to experience the world of repair for yourself. 

Shared repair lasts twice as long!

You can use this time to bond with your friends or family, and if you’re feeling really fixy, even consider starting a community event where you get to know new folks who are also interested in repair. 

This isn’t just a contest to win a prize. It’s a pledge that opens your world up to the possibility that you can do your part to thwart our environmentally costly consumption habits. And not to feed a fed horse, but, another perk of taking this pledge is that you’re one step closer to reducing your dependency on manufacturers. Right to repair laws are gaining traction, New York State just adopted its first right-to-repair bill, which means it’s only a matter of time before other states do too. 

Don’t you want to be ahead of the curve when your favorite device maker starts selling the parts and tools you need to fix your thing? Wouldn’t this be better than having to buy into costly warranty programs that limit how many times you can break your device or even if the way you broke it is covered?

This pledge guarantees all the above and much more. 

Take the plunge and take the pledge

So, here it is. Join the thousands of other iFixiters who took our pledge so far:

Whatever the reason, be it your motivation, the planet, your pocketbook, or fighting the big companies who produce our stuff—we won’t judge, we just want you to give it a try. And to encourage you along the way, here’s what and how you can win.

Contest Awards: Read Below

The fixer who fixes the most things in 2023 will win our grand prize of a Pro Tech Toolkit and all of our best swag. The runner up in each of the 13 categories below will get all of our best swag and a gift card to our store. 

Whether big or small: things break—and anybody can learn to fix them.
  1. Most Creative Repair: think outside the box
  2. Best Teamwork: longest Answers forum troubleshooting (include the thread in your entry!)
  3. The Long Haul: many tiny repairs to fix a major thing
  4. iFixit Feature: best photos or video of the repair using iFixit tools
  5. Best bloopers: self-explanatory
  6. The Revive Award: bringing the most “destroyed” device back to life
  7. Most Savage Repair: fixing something that really wasn’t designed to be opened (we’re looking at you OG Surface)
  8. Most Non-Electronic Repairs: clothes, doors, dog houses, etc…
  9. Hard to Reach: most awkward/difficult location for a repair
  10. It Takes A Village: Most people involved in a repair (show us the group effort!)
  11. Oldest Tool Used: honestly, we just love old/antique tools and want to see yours
  12. Best Novice Repairer: show us your new skills using iFixit manuals, tools, or parts
  13. Best Assistant Helper: a shameless plug for kids and pets (assistants will receive their own prize, too!)

How to enter the contest

To enter, you’ll need to take the pledge. After that, follow the next steps for each item you fix. Here’s the TLDR:

  1. Take the pledge. (You only need to do this once.)
  2. Click “Give the author +30 points!” on the related repair guide.
  3. Prove it. For every repair. (Below are some of the ways you can provide evidence of your repair.) 

You can enter the contest by leaving a comment on this post or by sending us an email at community@ifixit.com. Don’t forget to tag us on social media using #iFixitRepairHero, if that’s your thing. 

You can:

We’re open to all forms of proof! 

But as I mentioned above, anyone who takes the pledge is a winner, the long term benefits of learning to repair are so vast that they will outlast our lifetime warranty-backed prizes.

Note: While we would love to be able to send prizes to every corner of the planet, shipping restrictions prevent us from delivering to places unsupported by our US and EU warehouses. But don’t be afraid to send your entry our way, we’re more than happy to give you a shout out—bragging rights aren’t a cool toolkit, but they’ll help you promote your fixing super powers and connect you with the global repair community.

Best of luck repairers!

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