Celebrating/talking about repairing stuff, the right to repair stuff, and the intersection of tech and solarpunk ideals.
What does it mean to use what we have, including technology, to try to build a better, more environmentally just world?
Unfortunately I have excessive battery drain in the left earbud of my Sony WF XM4 set. I really like these earbuds and I am going to at least try to fix them. Has anyone here done any thing like this before?
It makes sense, honestly, that the left runs down faster than the right, I use just the left at work all day everyday and only use the right at home maybe once a week. The left lasts 2.5 hours, the right lasts six or more.
Legend.
Eh, right place at the right time. Pay it forward.
iFixit to the rescue!
This is why my next pair of earbuds will be from FairPhone. But surprisingly my current ones have lasted me years already without the batteries suffering too much.
Just looked at these and the ethos seems great. If the audio is high quality I think these will be my next too.
I guess it depends what you mean by high quality. It's good quality for sure.
Looks like a solid choice, but they're really big. I'm not meant to be listening to music at work so I need to be able to hide them under my hat or hair.
Sounds like a very niche requirement. They are not big, but definitely bigger than others. You have to sacrifice some size if you're not glueing everything together like other brands do.
I had these and had the same battery problem. I ordered some replacement batteries and replaced the one that was having issues. They were great again for a while. Then the other one started having issues. Then I accidentally damaged the ribbon cable while taking that one apart. Now they're junk. I'm still pissed about it. It would have been so easy for them to make replacing the batteries easy.
Unfortunately they make obscene money selling these, and allowing the user to replace the batteries easily does not equal selling more sets. Your average user would likely just purchase a new set.
XM4 has button cell battery with leaf spring, so it should be easy to replace if you can get in and out without damaging it.
I had the same ones. reached out to Sony and they sent me a full refund about 3 years out of warranty. Worth a shot.
I'll see what Sony says, but they weren't bought from Sony so I'm not sure how receptive they'll be.
if you still have the receipt. mine were off Amazon and I was blown away by zero questions asked. Just a check.
I replaced the batteries in these exact buds and it made them brand new again. Highly recommend doing this. These are the ones I bought.
I don't use Amazon, but I found a set similar to this and ordered it. When it shows up, I'm gonna take the plunge!
Nice, I was very close to buying a new pair of headphones so happy that a $25 purchase and an hour of work brought them back.
I tried this on my XM5s and it's doable but very fiddly I find so I ended up breaking mine. Though if your more patient than I was doing it you'll probably be fine.
I've done phone batteries, controller batteries, stuff like that. Hopefully that gives me a leg up.
I've seen individual buds for sale on eBay
I prefer to repair when possible to avoid ewaste but the XM4s are a bit older and you can probably snag a replacement bud for around the cost of repair
I saw a junk one on eBay for like $9. I was thinking of practicing on a junk one before attempting on my still nice-ish ones!
Yeah if you get lucky between both of the parts youll be able to make one work
Be mindful though most of the time they are defective it is the battery. Take my word, ive literally got a box full of defective units...
That box is really sad, to be honest. Never to be used again. I'm determined to not add mine to such a box lol. Thanks for the help.
Tried and failed. Turns out the problem is often the contact that turns off the bud when back in the case. Not charging properly, discharging in the case etc. Bought some pixel buds and they are already lasting twice as long as the Sony ones did, at half the price and comparable quality. Never going back.
Interesting. I'll investigate that, but I know they're turning off.