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. On 395 of the models we track. Scored 1-10 from 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 2,183 products across 36 manufacturers on a 1-10 scale. These scores are manufacturer self-reported under French law, so we treat a low one as more meaningful than a high one
• 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. The average sits around 9.2 out of 10, so we read a low score as strong evidence and a high one as weak: under 5 counts against repair, 5 to 9 counts for it, and above 9 counts for it only slightly. The index feeds one part of the model, whether parts are actually gettable at a fair price. Where we also have iFixit or Amazon parts data for the same device, that carries 70% of that signal and the index 30%, because a teardown tells you about physical parts sourcing while the index tells you about the manufacturer's parts ecosystem. On devices iFixit has not torn down, the index is all we have.

💰 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. Prices are stored per market in that market's own currency: US rows in USD, CA rows in CAD, FR rows in EUR. A few figures only exist in US dollars, iFixit parts prices and the US price row that stands in when a device has no Canadian one, and those get converted at the day's rate with the source named alongside

📍 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 syncs from Keepa three times a day. Labour tiers change when we get new data from independent repair shops, not on a schedule
• Repairability scores. iFixit weekly, the Open Repair Alliance aggregates weekly, the French index monthly
• Repair shop listings. Re-synced from Google Places four times a month to keep ratings and availability current
• Product recommendations. Pricing from Keepa three times a day, and separately three times a day for renewed listings. Durability scores are set by hand after review, not on a schedule
• Environmental data. Updated annually when manufacturers release new sustainability reports, or as new academic studies are published
• What reaches the page. Guide and comparison pages rebuild on a weekly cycle. A price that syncs this morning can take up to a week to show up on one