About Our Data

⚙️ The Repair Breakpoint

Our repair-vs-replace recommendation is powered by a weighted scoring model that evaluates five key factors to determine your Repair Breakpoint:

• Cost (40%). Compares estimated repair cost against replacement price, factoring in remaining device lifespan
• Lifespan (20%). How much useful life the device has left based on age, category averages, and known failure patterns
• Environmental impact (15%). CO₂ emissions saved by repairing vs. manufacturing a new device
• Parts availability (15%). Whether replacement parts are still manufactured and accessible for your device
• Repair success rate (10%). Historical success rates for this type of repair on similar devices

We offer four presets (Balanced, Budget-first, Eco-friendly, and Longevity) that adjust these weights to match your priorities. Each recommendation includes a confidence score reflecting how much data we have for that specific device and issue.

🔧 Repairability Data

Repairability scores tell you how easy or difficult a device is to fix. We draw from several sources:

• iFixit teardown scores. Covering 350+ devices on a 1-10 scale, based on physical teardowns that evaluate fastener types, adhesive use, modularity, and part availability
• French Indice de Réparabilité. Government-mandated repairability index from France's data.gouv.fr (Etalab open data), covering 2,109 products across 33 manufacturers on a 1-10 scale. These scores are manufacturer self-reported under French law. We blend them at 30% weight alongside iFixit's independent teardown scores, and apply asymmetric discounting for high scores to account for known optimism in self-assessment
• Open Repair Alliance. Over 305,000 community repair records sourced from openrepair.org, providing real-world repair outcomes across device categories
• Repair success rates. Aggregated by issue type (e.g., screen replacement, battery swap, motherboard repair) to give you realistic expectations for your specific problem

A note on the French scores: The Indice de Réparabilité scores are declared by manufacturers themselves, creating an incentive to rate products favourably. We apply an asymmetric correction: scores below 6 are taken at face value, while scores above 7.5 are discounted to reduce the weight of inflated high marks. The blended result (70% iFixit, 30% Indice de Réparabilité) gives a more balanced picture than either source alone, and extends our coverage to devices iFixit has not yet torn down.

💰 Repair Costs

Repair cost estimates use an additive model: parts cost plus a labour tier based on repair complexity.

• Parts pricing. Sourced from iFixit parts listings and Keepa pricing data, with a standard shop markup applied
• Labour tiers. Fixed by repair complexity (simple swap, screen removal, full rebuild), calibrated against real independent repair shop rates
• Currency. All prices stored in USD. Canadian dollar amounts are converted at display time based on your detected location

📍 Nearby Repair Shops

When you need a local repair option, Sundr shows nearby shops sourced from Google Places. Here's how it works:

• Google Places API. Shop listings are sourced from Google Places, including name, address, rating, review count, and contact info
• Regular refresh. Listings are re-synced weekly to keep ratings and availability current
• City coverage. Our repair cost pages for major cities include nearby shops. The public API also returns shops by your location

Shop listings are not curated or ranked by Sundr. They reflect what Google Places returns for repair-related searches in your area.

🛡️ Durable Products

When replacement is the better option, we recommend products built to last. Our durability data comes from:

• Community repair records. Durability scores are derived from Open Repair Alliance fix rates. A high fix rate means the product is repairable in practice, which correlates with longevity. Brands need 50+ repair records to qualify
• Repairability data. iFixit teardown scores and the French Indice de Réparabilité feed the repairability side. Products that are easy to repair tend to last longer because owners can fix them instead of replacing
• Replacement pricing. Current prices from Keepa so you can compare the cost of a durable alternative against repairing what you have
• Lifespan estimates. Based on category averages and real-world failure data from repair records

🌍 Environmental Impact

Environmental calculations help you understand the ecological cost of repair vs. replacement. Our data sources include:

• Manufacturer sustainability reports. Apple, Dell, and HP publish product-level carbon footprint data that we use for device-specific estimates
• EPA appliance data. Energy Star and EPA databases provide energy consumption and emissions data for home appliances
• Academic LCA studies. Peer-reviewed life cycle assessment research provides embodied carbon figures for device categories where manufacturer data is unavailable
• CO₂ equivalencies. We translate carbon savings into relatable equivalents (e.g., kilometres driven, trees planted) using EPA conversion factors

🔄 Data Freshness

Keeping data current is critical to providing accurate recommendations. Here's our refresh cadence:

• Repair costs. Parts pricing synced from Keepa (hourly). Labour tiers updated as we get new data from independent repair shops
• Repairability scores. Synced with iFixit and Open Repair Alliance data as new teardowns and records are published
• Repair shop listings. Re-synced weekly from Google Places to keep ratings and availability current
• Product recommendations. Pricing updated hourly via Keepa. Durability scores update when new ORDS repair data is published
• Environmental data. Updated annually when manufacturers release new sustainability reports, or as new academic studies are published