Apple uses water damaged boards in Apple refurbished devices | Hacker News Reader

Apple uses water damaged boards in Apple refurbished devices

youtube.com

9 pointsimaginenore7 comments

If water-damaged boards are not worthy of rework and repair, then what is? Crushed or shattered PCBs? Torched battery units?

I buy exclusively refurbished stuff from Apple. Never had to use the 1-year warranty (which comes free with every refurb), but I sleep better knowing it's there.

If a reworked unit doesn't crap out at Apple's bench test, and it doesn't crap out after a year of use, and you save 10-20% off retail, what exactly is the issue?

Water on a circuit board does not equal damage. Long ago I repaired two-way radios that where submerged in a flood. Clean up and they worked fine for years.

Not to mention that many boards use water-soluble solder flux and are cleaned by going through a dishwasher.

I imagine dropping a powered board into salt water has very different results to running an unpowered one through de-ionized water so water damage probably varies wildly depending on the circumstances.

It doesn't even have to be in salt water to suffer damage when near the ocean.

Water on a board while it is running so components are deformed due to heat from shorts does equal damage. Also removing material to replace a component and then not replacing the material means the device is not 'as new'.

Also, damage does not preclude repairs. If you merely cleaned radios after a flood and then they worked fine for years, you did not repair them, you cleaned them.

These problems can happen to any company but as Apple is doing its best to hinder the work of 'unauthorized' repair services they better be sure their authorized repair services is up to it.

Depends on who makes them. Motorola's are some tough radios. Only thing needed replacing were some diodes, then tuned up and out the door.

No Apple fan here (actually the opposite), but I'm with them on this.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com