1. Most of the time, you don’t need fancy tools.
You’ve heard the saying “All the Gear, and No Idea”... And this certainly also extends to Repair Cafes. Many of the fixes are down to a keen sense of what could have gone wrong, and an ability to verify that. Usually, the fix is not that complex - it’s the time to diagnose/disassemble it that is usually the most intensive part.
This is not to say that you don’t need a set of Security Screwdrivers - you do. But not one per fixer, (a few sets per Repair Cafe will do). This is because these screws are often on the outside of the appliance, as the ‘gatekeepers’ for safety, but once you quickly remove these handful of screws, the rest of the internal findings are usually ‘philips’ (+).
Image: These are two ‘archetypal Repair Cafe’ photos, I would say: There is a set of Security Screws, which has been used for about 30 seconds to ‘open up’ the appliance to access the ‘guts’. After that, it’s down to ‘good old classic’ tools like Phillips (+) Screwdrivers, some Spudgers, Pliers, Multimeter, PVC Insulation Tape, a Torch, a Brush to remove dust and debris…all stuff that is pretty basic.
My point being, in a Repair Cafe you need a few ‘specialist’ tools like Security sets, but way more ‘basic’ tools, but of as good quality as you can afford. There is nothing worse than stripping a screw because the screwdriver was not quite the right ‘fit’. So, having lots of these long-handled’ standard screwdrivers is essential.
Indeed, the ‘long shaft’ of the screwdrivers is often what is lacking in the ‘compact’ security sets. And God help you if someone has made a Security Pentalobe and put it at the bottom of a 3-inch boss hole (there is a special place in Hell reserved for those people). Even the GHD Hairdryer above didn’t go that far!
2. The New Kid On The Block: Digital Component Tester.
This may sound like a contradiction to the above, but having spoken to numerous folks in Hong Kong, I kept seeing these things casually called “Smart Tweezers”. My hunch is it’s one of those things which emerged in China and might make it over to Western shores in no time.
Image: Smart Tweezers, (Amazon). And Kevin from Vessel Repair Hong Kong who first introduced me to them whilst visiting Repair Cafes.
Interestingly, I think this is where a cultural sensibility imbues an innovative tool like the FNIRSI LCR-ST1 Mini Smart Tweezers (link), in so much as it feels like it was borne out of a need to rapidly check PCBs fresh off the production line, as well as being a rapid diagnostic tool for repair cafes.
For the ‘purists’ out there, this does not beat the finest Fluke Multimeter, a benchtop Oscilloscope and any other gear a ‘serious’ Electronic Engineer would have to hand in their Laboratory. However, with those items easily exceeding hundreds, and thousands of pounds, respectively - the LCR-ST1 shows up on the Repair Scene at a compelling ~£20-£25 (or as little as the equivalent of £15 I’m told, if you buy it in China).
The USP is that the LCR-ST1 can test isolated components just like a Multimeter, but unlike a cheap (sub £100) multimeter, it can also test directly ‘in circuit’ or ‘on PCB’ - meaning to check a Capacitor (very common fault in DeHumidifiers in Hong Kong for example) one does not need to desolder the Capacitor to check it. The tweezers nicely probe the legs of the capacitor and can give a quick ‘health check’.
As Engineers, we’re familiar with the concept of the ‘Pareto Rule’ - whereby 80% of the gains come from 20% of the effort. And the LCR-TS1 is just that - it will not replace an expert lab setup costing thousands of pounds, but for the price of a Take Away dinner, you can have a gizmo that fits in your pocket and will alert you to the most likely fault with relative ease.
Lastly, multimeters have probes with cables, which are of course useful for reading distant points on a PCB or device… The ‘Tweezer’ form-factor is not, therefore, perfect for every test, but I would also argue that for rapid checking of multiple PCB components, single-handed, I might add, it really makes sense in a busy situation. And to my earlier point, one can see how in China, this is a great tool for hectic production lines or being out on a service/maintenance call-out, where again, time is of the essence.
3. Good Repair Cafes Post Repair Successes (And Failures) on Social Media.
Jacky at Repair Cafe, Hong Kong, doesn't just post to brag about the fixes, he realises it’s a way to inform people what is possible, and to increase awareness that Repair Cafes are accessible and convenient (and have a good fix rate!). Often, in the Instagram/Facebook Comments which follow a fixed Fan, Dehumidifier, or other such appliance - someone new to Repair Cafes will often exclaim, “I have the same one [broken] - I didn’t know you could fix it - can I bring it in?”.
Trusting that the algorithms of Social Media platforms are now so sophisticated that, frankly, if you *like* a few fixes, by way of a sort of ‘Karma’, you’ll likely see a few more similar posts. Perhaps you have a similar appliance. Let’s say you own a rice cooker in Hong Kong, chances are, your profile may be similar to those who own a similar model. There are many issues with this sort of ‘targeted’ marketing, but I feel Repair Cafes are surely a silver lining, where it’s clearly working as ‘Tech for Good’ to recruit and remind people of what is possible to fix.
I often like to say “You are what you click”, and if you are interested in Fixing, either as a volunteer, or someone who needs some help, then ‘like-away’ on places like Repair Cafe posts, and this helps them do more good, as of course like any brand or company, they are trying to expand their reach and connection to society.
Check Out:
Repair Cafe HK: https://www.instagram.com/repaircafe_hk/
Vessel Repair HK: https://www.instagram.com/vessel_repair/
Haringey Fixers: https://www.instagram.com/haringeyfixers/
4. Always Be Knolling - It May Even Get You A Sponsorship Deal!
Repair Cafe HK has an expertly curated wall of tools, equipment, and consumables. As they say in the US, “one should always be knolling”, and one might think that this only happens in new workshops, often ‘just for show’ and either has been curated by someone who is in Marketing, (and not an engineer), or there is no workshop manager to keep order and re-stock, and the whole thing is half empty in a year’s time. Neither of the above is the case in Repair Cafe Hong Kong. Tools have a credible amount of dirt and wear on them, and are not so perfectly in place, hence look like they have actually been used! Having run workshops at Dyson and helped design Labs from scratch at Sugru, it was only at LEGO, did I see sorting racks of bricks with more tool and equipment organisation than this place. Hats off to Jacky and the team for getting the balance just right.
Indeed, their workshop clearly impressed Henry Chemicals, distributors of WD40 (124-7168) - who now 'sponsor-in-kind' the Repair Cafe with all the WD40 it can use. I think it's a terrific example of brands 'showing up where appropriate' and contributing to something meaningful, which is most likely also very insightful to their future R&D efforts, also by understanding user needs in new places.
All Engineers love a ‘workshop tour’, and I was certainly taking notes on the use of magnetic kitchen knife strips - something I feel is an underrated reappropriation of a great tool to a new environment. I worked in kitchens when young and saw this as obvious when I moved to engineering. I would not be surprised if given Hong Kong's close proximity to restaurants that this was a similarly ‘obvious’ use of a magnetic strip.
Indeed, what Engineers call ‘Knolling’, a chef would call ‘Mise en Place’. I’m quite certain chefs got there first with this magnetic knife/tool holder, and I think we often forget to ‘take inspiration’ (steal!) from other professions who have figured out a nice technique or system. The same applies to other cultures - which of course is part of the reason I wanted to visit Repair Cafes in HK, whilst visiting family also. You never know what you’ll learn and who you’ll meet!
5. Pop-Up Shops Are A Great Way to Spread The Word.
One of the major attractions of travelling for work or tourism is to observe the ‘import’ and ‘export’ not just goods and services, but also ideas and inspiration. Pop-up shops are not new, but this was the first I’ve seen of a Repair Cafe Pop-up in a fancy shopping mall. I’m sure it’s been done in the UK (even if I’ve not been aware of it), but I mention it as it seems a mutual win for Repair Cafe and Shopping Mall alike… Perhaps you should try this with your Repair Cafe also?
The main office of Repair Cafe HK is in a tower block in an industrial area, so unless you search online, you’d not realise it was there. Their pop-up shop is in a mall that is near multiple major transport routes, so people can bring along a broken appliance with relative ease. High-level football also makes it a great place to spread the word.
Above: Emilie (who curated the Pop-up area, and works for the owner of Airside Mall) and Jacky (from Repair Cafe HK) discuss the mutual win of doing this partnership.
I noted that the ‘toolkit’ is somewhat reduced in the Pop-Up Shop, for obvious reasons, but to my earlier point, most of the time, it’s just the ‘basics’ that are needed. A ‘buggy’ or ‘kids-style-wagon’ was used to bring the essentials to and from the place (or presumably those that were too risky to leave unattended overnight).
Stanley (bottom left) was fixing a Jeweller’s Bench Drill, which ironically came from a store nearby, with someone walking past that day. This is the power of serendipity and being ‘out there’ for people to chance upon it. From that, they are more likely to make the trip to their main repair shop in an industrial building for future repairs.
6. The Global Market for Parts Will Enable Repair Shops To Thrive.
One of the things that struck me about Hong Kong when I first visited it in 2007, as an intern at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, was how you would walk down any given street and often find that there were ‘clusters’ around a theme.
The example below was of a car repair near where I was living in Easter 2025.
However, it can just as easily be for themes like Fruit, where in an area the size of a football pitch, there must be close to 100 vendors - all selling really incredibly high-quality fruit. My Aunt took us there, simply to shop (unaware of my Repair Shop narration), and often there are ‘special streets’ which certainly do/sell things better and hence are worth the trip. Similarly, just a couple of streets from this, there was a street - both sides had nothing but Kitchen Utensils. But why is this relevant to Repair…well, read on.
I used to visit Sham Shui Po - an area in Hong Kong famous for Electronics Hardware, from microchips to computers. In 2007, I would go shopping for anything from switches to LEDs to magnets. It would be very common to see a street vendor selling one category of thing - with a wide range of quality, size, specification, and price to match. You really could get anything you could think of.
However, times have changed, and since 2007, with the rise of online shopping, TaoBao and AliExpress have certainly changed the market of such places. I didn’t see anyone selling ‘basic’ electronic components like Capacitors, Resistors, etc. - which in 2007 were in abundance.
The reasons are twofold. Firstly, some legislations have changed, arguably for the better. For example, you cannot buy LiPo Batteries in the street, and in fairness, there would be a guy sitting with about 20-30 kg of LiPos in stacks, and to say this was a bit of a fire hazard would be an understatement. Secondly, and this is clearly more the issue, the online sellers have dominated the market for selling ‘direct from source’ on things like switches, capacitors, etc., and arguably with comparatively greater choices. What remains are more ‘kits’ such as Solar Panel kits, and other things which are new and interesting, but which you really want to inspect before you buy. Hong Kong has always been a place of rapid responses to the shifting sands of economics and commerce. Sham Shui Po and Mong Kok may look somewhat ramshackle to the uninitiated, but I’ve regularly seen things here before they are available in the West, such as eScooters, Balance Boards, and well - the LCR ST1 Component Tester ironically enough!
The above video (places to buy electronic components and new products) and the below video (the repair and recycling workshops) - are literally adjacent to each other. In 2 mins walk, you go from New Product to Recycled Product. From out of the box, to broken down into crates to dispatch to recycling facilities similar to that I visited in the UK (link).
To return to my first point about cultural nuances and observations. I feel that this is a very quintessentially Hong Kong thing - a remarkably dense aggregation of a given skill, product or service, which makes it very efficient, competitive and overall high quality. Yet at the same time, consumerism and eCommerce have, even in 17 years, changed things significantly.
7. When to Go Bargain vs When to Go Pro?
In real terms, this online model means Repair Shops (globally) can purchase units of 10s or 100s of components with ease, direct from Chinese distributors, through platforms like TaoBao, AliExpress and more. For just a few hundred pounds you can equip a Repair Cafe with basic components such as Switches, Capacitors, Diodes, and Resistors - which, even if a bit on the ‘economy’ side, will likely be ok for most Repair Cafes. The likely failure of these is pretty low, so even most engineers know that if a capacitor or resistor ‘reads correct’ on a Multimeter or Component Tester, it’s likely ok for a couple of years' use in a product which is near to the overall end of its life anyway. Besides, it must be said that Repair Cafes are doing this in a not-for-profit capacity, so one needs to be pragmatic about where ‘good enough’ components are sufficient, and save money for the ‘critical’ stuff.
Full disclosure, I am of course writing this and being paid by RS DesignSpark, but I hope that by being ‘honest’ about where you can ‘get away’ with a cheap component here and there, I have genuinely found that anything that involves ‘switching’ or ‘high frequency’ - namely Transistors, MOSFETs, Linear Regulators - each of these I have purchased on Amazon, eBay, AliExpress - and have genuinely had issues with reliability! I have since worked with seasoned Electronic Engineers and have learned the hard way of when to ‘go pro/legit’ and pay the extra for quality components with vendors like RS where the price is higher, but the company has policies in place for the high quality to be guaranteed.
This is not to troll AliExpress and the like, it would be hypocritical for a Creative Technologist such as myself to not see the merit in such platforms which stock new listings in a matter of hours, but that haste comes at a price and one needs to accept that ‘you get what you pay for’ holds true, and sometimes ‘if it sounds too good to be true - it probably is!’ There are Bargains for sure (I’ve had many), but there are Blunders to beware of also!
The fact is that Repair Cafes likely have a budget of a few hundred pounds for components, and I would honestly reasonably say that not all components are equally susceptible to failure, so some carefully considered economies should be made. Would I trust a pack of balloons from PoundLand/DollarStore - sure (how bad can a burst balloon get!)… but do I really expect their DIY tools, kitchen utensils, and other such items to ‘last a lifetime’ - of course not. So the same applies with Electronic Components - and it makes sense to learn from someone who’s worked in the industry at both the highest level, as well as the ‘good enough’ levels of hacking and quick-and-dirty prototyping, to tell the difference of when quality is critical.
Image: RS Component examples of ‘switching’ components, like Transistors and MOSFETs - perhaps 10x the price of some vendors, but in my experience 100x more reliable. So it comes down to ‘how much does it cost to risk it?’ and ‘is the small economy of 80p vs 0.8p worth the time you may lose with it failing early?.
If you can afford to buy from a reputable vendor like RS Online, it likely is better to do so in my personal opinion - although it’s an interesting provocation to the general public if they’d like a ‘good enough’ service or a ‘best possible’ service, but of course to be fair, their donation should be commensurate with the fact that they are getting the ‘probably ok’ cheap components or the ‘for sure okay’ pro components. If you’re fixing a £300 DeHumidifier in Hong Kong, I’d put a proper Capacitor in there. If a £20 remote control car needs a couple of new LEDs on the headlights, it really is fine to go economy, as it’s cheap, non-essential, and has no real health risk.
When you consider how much time it takes to bring something to the repair cafe, open it, diagnose it, close it, do a Portable Appliance Test (PAT), and take it home - perhaps donating a couple of pounds more to ‘go pro’ suddenly seems fair and reasonable. Personally, that was the conclusion I arrived at with my work in my early career, that the time I’d spend trying to diagnose a problematic prototype, when it was not my soldering, but a cheapo component that caused the fault… With 2-3 hours ‘wasted’, I didn’t really need telling twice by the Electronic Engineer I worked with!
The choice, as they say, is yours. But that comes with responsibility…
As mentioned, I think one can be ‘smart’ about when to economise and when not to, based on the nature of the fix, and the priorities of the person asking for the repair assistance. I personally feel ‘if in doubt - do it right’ is worth living by, as in a Repair Cafe you’re effectively part of a global movement, but this would be a shame to damage the brand through an injury (or worse) occurring that makes headlines and is detrimental to the whole effort. Having worked at places like LEGO, which is often voted ‘most trusted/reputable brand’, you appreciate why the trust in a brand is hard-won, and easily lost.
Worth reflecting on when selecting what tools and consumables, as well as procedures and training, you implement at your Repair Cafe, as part of this global brand in the making.
8. Safety - Unexpected Dangers.
One of the reasons I’ve posted this series here on DesignSpark is that as a community of engineers and designers, I suspect I’m in good company of folks being safety conscious. However, part of the reason I think Repair Cafes are an intelligent use of professionals - is because they allow people to be trained up, and hopefully avoid ‘rookie mistakes’ either to less experienced engineers, or to the general public who have no idea of the hidden dangers in the first place.
Image Credits: (Left, Right). Some examples of how a seemingly ‘harmless’ 35mm disposable Camera can have a pretty hefty capacitor in it, which if the + and - are shorted - packs a pretty powerful discharge, anywhere in the range of 350-500v, albeit at lower current than mains electricity, but as the comment on Reddit said it’s pretty painful.
The comment “I nearly sh*t myself” (on YouTube) is not an exaggeration: And as a 11 year old I did indeed disassemble a camera like this and was thrown backwards off my desk chair and across my room with the force of the convulsion, hitting my head on the chest of drawers some 3 meters or so away from the desk.
As fun as this story is to tell now, one has to remember that these stories are told by the ‘lucky ones’, and I didn’t break my neck on the drawers, or have serious burns to my eyes or face from the explosion, or get blinded by the involuntary reflex of my arm holding a screwdriver. If you factor in that in a Repair Cafe, this is no joke. There is serious liability if anyone was hurt through negligent or reckless behaviour. Having run a lab at Dyson, responsible for the Health and Safety of some 20 engineers in the lab, I was lucky there were no serious incidents on my watch, but I have heard horror stories from other companies who’ll not be named. Often it’s the most unlikely, unpredictable stuff that catches people out - from using blunt tools, to not expecting a chain of events to flick superglue into someone’s eye.
Repair Cafes at the moment have a wonderfully open and relaxed culture, this is highly desirable, but not at the expense of good Health and Safety. Even in a voluntary ‘grassroots' effort, we still need to be responsible with what people are safe to investigate, fix, and indeed, ‘sign off’ as being safe for the user to take home. What works in the Repair Cafe needs to be safe when at home, left unattended, around kids, etc. So PAT tests, and ‘double checking’ your work with someone else are all best practice, which as far as I’ve seen are performed in the places I’ve visited, but if you are looking to participate or set up a Repair Cafe, please ensure you have someone who oversees things, and the level of risk is appropriately matched to the level of competence of that person responsible.
9. Training Is Critical for the Reputation of Repair Cafes.
As much as I love ‘grassroots’ community initiatives, not all are equal in terms of risk assessment. The fact remains that repairing household appliances is not a trivial matter regarding the risk of electric shock, and should not be attempted by those without appropriate experience. It only takes one headline of ‘Death by Repair Cafe Mistake’ and the brand would fall into question. At the time of writing, I was unable to find any such headlines, so let’s all continue to keep it that way.
Young and keen, these two undergraduate engineers are encouraged to apply their skills, but still have appropriate oversight with more experienced members, before ‘approving’ products to go home with their owners. In many ways the same as at work, but especially important that this standard is maintained for the safety of the public and the good standing of Repair Cafes.
Image: Annis showed me Vessel Repair HK’s Portable Appliance Test (PAT) equipment, used for checking electrical safety of mains electricity appliances (FTY - Hong Kong is the same as the UK system, plug, voltage, etc.), with Master Fixer (or ‘Shifu’) William using it.
At some Repair Cafes, they had appropriate Public and Employers Liability insurance - but this is only possible if appropriately skilled people are overseeing the repairs. However, some Repair Cafés are not well-enough resourced to take too many risks, so they impose the ‘at your own risk’ condition to protect themselves against as many negative consequences as possible.
For example, if someone is fixing a strap on a wrist watch, this is pretty unlikely to go wrong. If it’s a USB device, it may not have the ability to electrocute, but it may have a LiPo battery which, if mishandled in the repair, could later cause a fire at home. Mains electricity is of course dangerous, and care must be taken to ensure all wires are replaced carefully and a Portable Appliance Test (PAT) is done as due diligence to detect the most likely faults. (Example of PAT gear online - link)
However, even a PAT unit does not guarantee 100% safety, as for example a wire/screw/bezel could ‘pass’ the test in the Repair Cafe, but perhaps may work loose over time- touching something it shouldn’t and causing a shock and/or fire risk. This is where professional experience is essential, and usually this is found in someone having been through a technical training, either because they are a practising engineer, or a retired one, or have undergone special training just for Repair Cafes.
So Repair Cafés ask the person bringing the stuff to accept that, whatever might happen, damage caused by a repair is not something they can be liable for.
Image: One of the tutors teaching new members at Vessel Repair Hong Kong, on a Training Day. Which has around 20 sessions all in, so is clearly very comprehensive, and nice to be done in groups as a social activity also.
Image: Example of the 250+ page Training Handbook of Repair, produced by Vessel. I especially loved that it contained so many ‘real world’ examples of failures and mistakes, to bring home the importance of safety, and gently remind people that a simple oversight could have profound consequences for the public.
10. Repair and Kids.
This is perhaps one of my favourite pictures, and ironically, it was a fix that wasn’t fixable (on the day). The mother is a designer and brought along her son to fix his Toy RC Car at UCL’s Repair Cafe open day. What ensued was an involved discussion to find the fault. It was informative and not jargon-heavy or patronising. It was somewhere between visiting a really good doctor and a great school teacher in action - teaching problem solving, applied to sustainability.
It turns out the battery was the issue, and Junaid said he’d take a look at it later and do a more involved fix when he got home (you have to be quite careful when repairing batteries), and they could collect it later. Rather than the young boy being disappointed, he was engaged and curious, and appreciated that some things are not always straightforward, and need a rethink.
Image: Junaid (right) from SarasFix. Left Parent and Child attending UCL’s Repair Cafe open day, 21 Feb 2025.
I also imagine he was enthralled by the whole event, and watching Junaid work: He had a whole range of clever hacks and techniques, such as carefully ‘burning’ the wires of broken headphones with a lighter, (to remove the plastic coating) so they can be resoldered. He had a ‘Minority Report’-style glove with lights on his fingers to see in tiny corners, and a nice magnifying-lamp (ok, perhaps I found those the most cool). But really, it was seeing Junaid’s calm, modest and engaging personality do some impressive things. At the risk of sounding gushy, I really do think these are the role models we need. I do not wish to speculate as to what career the young boy will go into, but I feel these are formative experiences to refute the idea that when something is ‘broken’ it is automatically destined for ‘trash’.
11. Utilise Both Primary and Secondary Repair Centres.
Whilst writing, I often fact-check, and some of that extends to idle curiosity. Occasionally, it pays off, and I was bemused to find that the local repair shop, in the town I grew up near, is still going. Bakewell’s Sound and Vision.
Images: Left - Flagship Store. Mostly New Sales. Right - Backstreet Store (mostly Repairs). Image Credits: https://www.bakewells.net/
One can perhaps tell from the slightly dated signage that the one on the right is the original, and the one on the left is the ‘newer’ of the two. They came to function as ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’, where the newer shop was in prime location and mostly sold new goods, but any repairs were taken to the older shop, in a backstreet. I mention this not purely for romantic nostalgia, (although I did buy my first Mini Disc player from Bakewell, and took it back 2 or 3 times for - you guessed it - repairs!) but because this duality has a possibly interesting importance for the growth of Repair Cafes.
As shown with Repair Cafe HK, the ‘Head Quarters’ is in one unit on the 9th floor of an industrial building. It’s used for drop-off, collection, as well as admin, complex repairs, tool storage, and of course holding items repaired / to be repaired. The Pop-up Shop in the Airside Mall has a tiny fraction of the tools, and does much less ‘fixes per day’, but it is nonetheless a clever way to ‘spread the word’, and still gives out flyers to encourage people to visit the HQ for more involved fixes.
12. Why Einstein Played Violin, and You Should Repair Other People's Stuff.
Image: Einstein, when not being a genius, but still rather good. Image Credit: WFMT. (link)
It’s fairly well known that when Albert got stuck working on his world-changing equations, he went and played a bit of Violin. Perhaps reassuringly for us, he was not also a world genius of music, but that interestingly is the point: He played firstly because it allowed him a pleasing way to relax and ‘change gear’ (we all know that feeling of getting an ‘a-hah’ moment in the shower, doing the dishes or walking in the park), but secondly, it’s fair to speculate from various accounts that to him, the appeal of playing music, which at its most reductionist level, is highly mathematical, certainly helped him reframe his ideas in maths.
I think we can all take a leaf out of Albert’s book, and although I think music has some similar appeal to Engineering, I also personally do not know how to play an instrument (despite listening to a lot of music!). Anyway, Repair Cafes have become a nice way to ‘loosen up’ and ‘get inspiration’, and this was a post I enthusiastically (somewhat evangelically) wrote soon after visiting my first Repair Cafe, in Tottenham, London.
I described not only the benefit of meeting fellow technically minded people, but also the fun in sharing a moment of fixing something together and all learning. Although there were numerous nice interactions - the one with Boyd, and ex-Surgeon, stood out…
We were trying to fix a pair of eye glasses, and the arm came out of the socket. I proposed a nice hack I knew of winding cotton around the metal insert, pushing that back in the hole (which had worn to be too large) and adding a drop of super glue - this was a makeshift ‘fibreglass’ and bridged the metal and plastic interface better than glue alone. Boyd hadn’t heard of this ‘hack’, and was intrigued. However, seeing me fumble the wrapping of the cotton, he politely offered to help - I realised later his surgical precision made him the ideal fixer for this, and he deftly ‘whipped’ the cotton (as one would a fishing fly lure) and together we did a better fix than if we’d been going solo. I’ve since casually kept in touch with Boyd, and he’s been a continued source of wisdom and kindness in various WhatsApp messages.
I feel this is this sort thing is what I’ve noticed over the years - that although it’s tempting to hang out with your ‘peers’ of similar age, background, etc. often it’s when we expand our frames of reference to encompass other lived experience, we grow as people also, and the experience is often mutual. It’s a common misconception that always ‘the old teach the young’, but increasingly I see myself (now in my 40’s) being both appreciative of those 5, 10, 20 years above and below me in experience. I really think this is one of the real pleasures of social gatherings around a common purpose, like Repair. Although I am now in gainful employment, I feel if I were starting out again, the old ‘it’s who you know not what you know’ rings true, and not to name-drop, but some of the people in Repair Cafe, although retired, are infinitely more connected than any 20 year old, and likely have kids and relatives in some of the companies you’d like to work - but more than the ‘hustle’ (which I don’t advise doing single-mindedly), they often have the ability to ‘see into you’, and ask questions you perhaps have not really given enough thought to. Often it’s that perceptiveness that you’re lacking most in youth, and it can save you years of ‘wrong turns’ in ill-suited jobs, just because you chased the glory or cash alone. Similarly, I think mid-level or older people should pay more attention to the opinions of younger people. They often sound idealistic, naive, or plain weird - but like it or not, they will be a CEO in no time and their views will be the status quo, so better, as Bob Dylan urged: ‘don’t criticise what you don’t understand’ - note - he didn’t say ‘can’t understand’...so we should also try to better understand, be it human or machine!
Image: I’ve been lucky to have such positive experiences with all of the people I’ve met in the past few months, since joining a Repair Cafe locally, and visiting others in Hong Kong.
Engineers can often feel a bit isolated at times, perhaps a bit misunderstood and awkward as a result. It’s perplexing, as often our value and peculiarities are two sides of the same coin! As much as I’m aware, I may seem like an ‘extrovert’, (I do YouTube Video and Keynotes) but actually, my default is very much ‘introvert’: I feel I have to ‘become extroverted’ to do my work better, and get better work. But I still am happiest when alone with basic materials, repetitive EDM music, and fall into a near meditative or ‘flow’ state of working with my hands. My fascination with people arguably comes from feeling an outsider most of my life, and for better and often worse, behaving differently as a kid! Having been tested as Dyslexic at 25 years old, I consider it’s been a benefit to understand I’m not ‘stupid’, but also not to use it as a ‘crutch’ as my psychologist urged me after giving me the results. It’s pithy advice, but was compassionate as it was pragmatic.
With estimates of Design/Engineering/Tech employees being 40-50% neurodivergent - link, perhaps this is neurodiversity, personality, or the nature of the work - I don’t know, but ‘finding your tribe’ is a part of the ‘Ikigai’ philosophy where I began this blog series, and I think meeting with others who are at various stages of their career in technical disciplines is a nice way to reflect and reevaluate ourselves in a positive light, even if, like the fixes themselves - some things always remain a mystery, but half the success in life is showing up and giving it a go. Sometimes the repairs are easier ‘fixes’ than the stuff in your personal life, and of course, the irony is knowing when to not try to ‘fix everything’, but that’s another story for another day…
So I hope you’ll give it a go also. It truly seems to be a hidden gem of being able to geek out and make a difference to many people, whilst honing your skills and sharing knowledge along the way, with great people.
https://www.repaircafe.org/en/visit/
Conclusion.
Cultural Observations: Repair as a Profession.
I was struck by what UK and HK repair cafes have in common: both deeply care about reuse and repair. Both have a similar ‘type’ of curious, dedicated and patient personalities who are kind and generous. As mentioned, all take safety very seriously and clearly go the extra mile whenever possible.
Each time I visited Hong Kong to see my wife’s family, I would come across someone repairing something, and I’ve often been roped in to fix washing machines, lights, kitchen units, HiFis, TVs and more - all with a matter-of-factness I’ve not seen in my own family from the UK. My wife mentioned how she grew up with her Mom and Dad running a mini assembly line of electronic parts in their living room, soldering PCBs in the 1980s, and this was not uncommon in the city’s manufacturing boom. Some of this is attributable to economics, but if you’ve visited Hong Kong, you’re never far from a repair happening, whether personal or a business activity.
I was therefore tempted to take my personal experiences of Hong Kong - being close to Mainland China - as being indicative of it perhaps having a higher electronic ‘competence’ with its general population, because it had a recent history of being a manufacturing hub, and in recent years being on the doorstep of where so many electronics are made.
However, without a detailed survey, this remains an unverified hypothesis and I wouldn’t be able to tell you if more HK fixers come from industrial background than UK fixers, (although I would happily predict this to be the case), but in some ways I’m not sure what it helps with, beyond passing intellectual curiosity. These observations are by no means conclusive or sweeping statements on cultures, but a few ‘travellers notes’ are perhaps fair to note…
Comparing the London and Hong Kong repair shops I visited, both have a similar demographic of over-indexing on men. Not to make excuses, but as the engineering profession is at best 20% women (link), this is not out of line with the ‘supply’ - and I would guess (if such a report exists, do let me know) that it may be closer to 30% women, as it seems a genuinely non-toxic place as mentioned already.
One might reasonably point out that Hong Kong is an ex-colony of Britain, so their sensibilities towards engineering are perhaps undeniably intertwined, and this may explain the ease at which I could relate to the workshops, which I suspect may feel different than if I’d visited say Brazil or Iceland or Africa (I’ll be sure to visit a repair cafe as part of any other work itinerary if I can sneak it in there! Indeed, I may be in Pretoria, South Africa, in September 2025 so we’ll see!).
Naturally, I asked my wife if there was a meaningful comment on cultural differences, and I think it’s fair to say that people transported goods on public transport more than I’ve observed in the UK, (and often this was at the behest of a grandparent who had asked a grandchild or child to run such an errand), and this has an interesting effect of people buying devices which you can put on a 2 wheeled shopping trolley, however, I’m not sure this has a huge bearing on the nature of fixes, just the size and weight perhaps.
However, I think one thing that did seem to be a fair hypothesis (as mentioned by Jacky in the video) would be that Hong Kong tends to see things in a more ‘economic’ frame of mind - that Repair is a serious profession, perhaps more so than in the UK. I am not sure one can say that Hong Kongers are any more ‘environmentally aware’ as although many of the population are thrifty and have experienced real poverty only a few decades ago, there are also those who have certainly adopted fast-fashion consumerism and buy things without much thought to repair.
The one thing that did seem to be a consistent pattern was the types of things being repaired, and the frequency of their occurrence. Both Vessel Repair HK and Repair Cafe HK both said they effectively ‘sort’ or ‘triage’ goods before accepting them. This is not to imply they flat-out refuse to try to repair something, but if it has a high degree of familiarity like a Fan, DeHumidifier, Rice Cooker, etc. - they would likely have a high (say 70%+) chance of fixing it, as they know the usual faults and have the likely replacement parts. However, if you bring in an antique typewriter, although repairable in principle, it may take considerable skills and patience because of its rarity and hence unfamiliarity to the fixer (unless you’re lucky, they repair typewriters for a living!). They also have certain types of electrical appliances that they do not fix, in order to ‘specialise’ in other types that do not have much uncertainty in being able to be repaired.
Also, because of this triage system, the fixes are carried out in batches, and that customers would have scheduled drop-offs and pick-ups. Customers typically arrived to see a quick demo of the device working before leaving, but did not stay to observe or discuss the fixes - consequently, there seemed to be a lack of coffee, tea or biscuits shared at these repair ‘cafes’! (Hong Kong being a crowded city also means that repair cafes do not have the budget to hire a spacious hall for customers to also ‘stay and fix’).
However, their advantage of having fixed premises (which costs more either in rent or location sponsorship), means they can ‘set up shop’ and get things how they like it. Whereas Haringey Fixers, in London, it was a communal space, and the Repair ‘event’ needed to be packed up and taken away each time, meaning it had its own limitations to consider also. I personally think both ‘permanent’ and ‘pop-up’ modes of Repair Cafe work, it just depends on the culture, financial situation, and local community. My hunch is that a fixed location is really beneficial for ‘complex fixes’, but having a ‘pop-up’ or ‘roaming’ capacity means one can spread the word better.
The two UK Repair Cafes I visited in Tottenham I believe still had a degree of ‘triage’ or ‘pre-selection’ going on, as you fill in an online request form, but there was a more ‘random’ or ‘eclectic’ mix of things to my eyes, from toys, glass lamps, and so on - which I’d consider a ‘wild card’ for most Repair Cafes. It may be that, therefore, their Repair Rates are slightly lower, but this is due to taking a wider spectrum of fixes.
My point is not to fixate on the numbers, but rather to say that a Repair Cafe with a low ‘fix rate’ might be taking on weird and wonderful fixes, which, when they do succeed, are extraordinary and worthy of TV Shows like The Repair Shop. However, there is also something ‘sustainable’ about the pragmatism of Hong Kong (and I’m sure other) repair cafes being a bit selective about what they do well, and politely passing on what looks a very low chance of success. After all, saying ‘yes’ to something that is probably unfixable and asking someone to transport it across town also carries an environmental cost.
What I do hope is a good provocation from Jacky, in Hong Kong, is that globally, councils and communities alike consider repair not just a voluntary act, but also a profession worth investing in… or should I say re-investing in. As of course anyone old enough to have lived in the 1980s or before, will remember Repair Shops (often Computer, TV and Radio in my home town in Cumbria) were the norm, not the exception (and it would be fair to say, objectively things were simpler, electronically and mechanically speaking in those days - today repair on tiny electronics is much more difficult or impossible for a Repair Cafe).
However, the 1980s version of Repair was also not a social community-based activity. It was usually just one guy in a back room, as part of a shop selling new and used goods, and repair was an extra facet of the business. What I like about the evolution of Repair Cafes, and hopefully the resurgence of Repair as a Profession, is that it is only likely to be needed more as our sustainability goals increase, and incentives like the Repair Vouchers Scheme in my area of North London are expanded.
It is of course not to say Repair Cafes will single handedly solve the climate crisis, but I do hope you agree that they are about more than just a ‘metric’ of tonnes of eWaste not gone to Landfill or Recycling - but are a reason for people to learn, enhance their careers, give back to society, and just enjoy doing something meaningful with their time. A repair is not just a money-saving goal, it is an opportunity for a rather quirky, yet talented bunch of people to engage in something they're innately good at, and that really is deeply appreciated by the general public. I think there is something rather exciting about not just Repair Cafes inspiring people to fix their stuff, but also to be curious enough to consider how it should be better designed in the first place. With that sort of ‘pause’ on the impulse to just replace with new, we might begin to every so slightly curb our lust for consumerism.
It feels a stretch to say Repair Cafes are the spark to light a bigger social revolution, but in a world of epic uncertainty, chaos and frustration, it’s one of the few places you can arguably ‘fix’ something today.
It’s not fixing that broken toaster that will change the world, but the mindset that thinks it's worth trying to fix, that will.
Perhaps when we feel broken ourselves, mentally, spiritually, and physically - and really, there is no quick fix other than time and slow steady healing, it’s sometimes the ‘quick fix’ of a repair for someone who appreciates it that helps us redress our own self worth and rebuild our value and hope in ourselves and others. It is a small step anyone can take, amongst messages from the marketing machines telling us to constantly buy more and more.
It’s this that excites me most about Repair Cafes, and I hope you’ll consider trying it also - whether as someone who has a thing that needs fixing, or as someone (you know who you are!) who is good at fixing things. In consideration of the next generation, if trying to fix your appliance is leaving a message on their growing mind - a message not to take the planet’s resources for granted, a message that they will hopefully take into the future as they become adults who make decisions that will impact our environment.
Contents:
Part 1: Repair Like Your Life (and Career) Depends On It! (link)
Part 2: Why Engineers and Designers Love Volunteering at Repair Cafes. (link)
Part 3: Five Design Issues, Every Engineer Should Know About. (link)
Part 4: Twelve Things I Learned At Repair Cafes. (This article)
Part 5: How Did We Get Here? (link)
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