Q & A about Repair Cafes
What is a Repair Cafe?
A group of volunteer 'fixers' invites the public to bring in their
broken/damaged small household items to a pop-up event (usually once
a month) and while you wait, and watch, we fix the item keeping it out
of the landfill site. We do our best to fix the item but in some cases
we are unable - we don't have a replacement part or the item just isn't
repairable. At least you learn more about your item, possible causes of
failure, and in some cases you learn how to keep the item in use in
future.
There are over 2700 Repair Cafes around the world with international standards and regulations that we must follow. We are proud to offer a Repair Cafe in Burlington and would like to help establish other Repair Cafes in the region. This is all in an effort to REPAIR & REUSE. We also need to promote a Right to Repair, to encourage manufacturers to do more to make items easy to fix, find parts, stop using propritary screws and difficult to open design.
Is there
a cost?
Thanks to donations
and limited sponsorship we can supply a wide range of small parts for
free. Other unique parts, difficult to find parts, need to be ordered
from the manufacturer or from other sources online. We ask the customer
to purchase that item, bring it to the next event and our volunteers
will help replace the part. We can't supply every part for every item.
That's why it's best to email us ahead of time to determine if we can
do the repair and if we have a part on hand.
We work on mostly mechanical items - toasters, irons, hair dryers, lamps, vacuums (limited), toys, clocks, electrical cords, etc. (best to email us with your item to confirm at burlingtonrepaircafe@cogeco.ca
We also try to offer simple textile patches/rips/tears. (We always welcome anyone with sewing experience to join our volunteer team)
We do not work on electronics (anything with a circuit board) - stereos, tvs, computers, cell phones, microwaves, humidifiers.
We also do not work on items that others repair as part of their business (see above) and lawn mowers, snowblowers, larger appliances (fridges, dishwashers)
Where and When will the next Repair Cafe be?
We do not have a permanent home. We are volunteer run and rely on donations to fund insurance, parts and rent of facilities. Information is available at our Facebook page Burlington.Canada.Repair.Cafe if you can't find it here All events are free. We move around the city to be accessible throughout our area.
Interested in helping out?
Send us an email and come to our next event to introduce yourself and see us in action. Our volunteers are just a group of people with a few handy skills and a desire to help the community become more sustainable. burlingtonrepaircafe@cogeco.ca
And in case you didn't notice, we rely on generous donations from the public. Thank you.