As I’m closing laptops getting ready to help with some chores for the holiday my son lets me know his humidifier https://a.co/d/78PLQta has stopped working. I’m thinking something minor, well what we have here is comical. Either the microchip (ic1) failed due to an overload by itself or the seal was compromised and water intrusion caused it to fail. Anyway it was purchased in June 2023 for 30 USD plus tax. The module itself WKP-015D https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806012533396.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2usa4itemAdapt is available on AliExpress for 12.72 USD plus shipping which is essentially 50% the cost of a new one with tax. The problem is the revision of board is the same so it’ll fail exactly the same way again which means it’s now trash. We could probably replace the individual microcontroller and other bits here and there but it’d be cheaper and quicker to just buy a new one. The real issue here is the poor design. I’d say it’s an Amazon problem but it’s getting worse and more prevalent everywhere. It’d probably be easier to get him a hot plate and have him boil water into the atmosphere than to try and go through all of the cheaply and poorly designed humidifiers online. Every year I feel like it gets even worse. Poorly designed and manufactured Chinese goods are doing 📈 and the rest of the worlds wallets are doing 📉 where is the bottom?!

#righttorepair #badmanufacturing #poordesign