Designing for Safe Repairs—Identifying and Mitigating Repair Safety Risks in Washing Machines

Abstract

Non-professional repairs could contribute to an increase in repairs, supporting circular economy goals, yet they raise safety concerns. While recent regulatory actions promote repair, they focus mainly on advancing access to professional repair, rather than enabling repairs by non-professionals, such as consumers and volunteers. This study investigates how product design can mitigate repair safety risks and contribute to safe non-professional repairs. In this exploratory research, a washing machine and a washer-dryer combo were analyzed through repeated disassembly and reassembly to identify mechanical, electrical, thermal, and chemical risks occurring during and after repair, as well as risk-inducing and risk-preventing design features and product architecture. Identified risk-inducing features include exposed components, vulnerable electrical and water connections, lack of reassembly guidance, and differences between disassembly and reassembly sequences. Based on the analysis insights, we developed a first version of a method for identifying, assessing, and mitigating repair safety risks. The method provides elements to visualize repair safety risks as an additional layer on disassembly maps and preliminary design recommendations to mitigate risk. The repair-risk mapping method aims to support designers in analyzing and anticipating repair safety risks and identifying relevant risk-inducing design features. Our findings show that relatively small design interventions, such as visual guidance, reusable connectors, robust connections, and enforced disassembly and reassembly sequences, can reduce risks and make repairs more accessible to non-professionals. Our research suggests that product design plays a crucial role in expanding repair opportunities to a broader range of users while maintaining safety.