Frequently Asked Questions

Not all Repair Cafés necessarily have a team of volunteers who can provide all of the workshops listed below. If you want to be sure that a competent repairer for your object will be present, you can contact the organisers of the Repair Café you wish to visit.

You will find all the Repair Cafés classified by province in the List of Repair Cafés List of Repair Cafés.

• Sewing : pockets with holes, zippers (provided you bring a suitable replacement), undone seams, torn buttons, etc., on various garments (sweaters, jeans, shirts, etc.).
  
• Computers : desktop and laptop computers, inkjet / laser / needle printers, viruses / system cleanup, data recovery, etc.
  
• Electro / Electronics / Electricity :  hair dryers, razors, mixers, toasters, waffle irons, video game consoles, scales, radios, alarm clocks, telephones, coffee machines, DVD players, electronic toys, hi-fi systems, clocks, lamps, etc.
  
• Wood / various DIY items :chairs, old toys, trinkets, etc.
• Bicycle mechanics :  your bike of course! Regular maintenance often helps you get back in shape !
  

Warning !

For safety reasons, microwave ovens, old TVs, short-circuited appliances or appliances that have been smoking are not accepted. The repair of bulky items such as large electrical household appliances is not covered either.

Before going to the Repair Café, we advise you to check a few things and take note of the Repair Café's regulations. This will make your visit all the more enjoyable and will increase the likelihood of your object being repaired !

• Check that your object is no longer under warranty. Most objects benefit from a two-year warranty from the date of purchase, sometimes more. The simple fact of dismantling the object voids the warranty.
• Check the devices' power supply : batteries, power cords, etc.
• Check whether your device has been properly maintained : has the filter of your vacuum cleaner been emptied ? Has your coffee machine been descaled ?
• If you identify a faulty part, try to find a replacement part before coming, as Repair Cafés do not keep them in stock. There are specialty shops that sell spare parts: Mister Pièces, Handyman, Elak, Veritas, etc. or even computer shops, sewing shops, shoemakers, bicycle shops. Consult our Repair Directory to find the right address ! 

Don't hesitate to browse through sites such as Comment-réparer, IFixit, or self-help forums, which can also provide valuable information on common breakdowns and how to fix them.  If you have checked all these things and haven't found the source of the problem or you don't know how to fix it yourself, come to a Repair Café !

Take the following things with you before coming :

• All the accessories of the object that needs repairing (power supply, charger, installation CD, user manual, etc.)
• Everything needed for a thorough check to ensure the object is properly repaired (CD, video cassette, light bulb, etc.)
• A spare part if you have already identified a faulty part (Repair Cafés do not have a stock)

When you arrive, you will have to register at the reception desk, fill out a registration form and take a number. Each person can register only one object at a time to give each visitor the opportunity of having their object repaired. By registering you acknowledge that you have read and accepted the conditions of participation in the Repair Café. As soon as a repairer is available to take care of your object, you will be asked to sit next to him/her. The repair is then done together: you will be invited to handle certain steps, depending on what you are interested in and feel capable of. At the end of the repair, your repairer will write down on the registration form whether or not the intervention was successful. These statistics are used to support our actions and our appeals to politicians and manufacturers; we also use them to better inform citizens about makes and models that are easier to repair than others. Sometimes photos are taken at Repair Cafés; they sometimes also attract journalists, bloggers, etc. Visitors are therefore likely to be photographed/filmed during the event. The photos we take will mainly be used on this site.

Repair Cafés are citizen initiatives by and for citizens. They are not supported by any political party or economic group, but may accept aid to promote their operation and development. Would you like to join a Repair Café to help out as a volunteer ? Please contact-us specifying :

• The kind of help you can offer (organisation, reception, repair, etc.)
• Your town, village, municipality
• Your contact details

You can also make a donation to the Repair Café you visit. The money raised allows the organisers to cover the costs of organisation, catering for the volunteers, purchase of materials and tools, etc. You can also help us by sharing our information and actions with your network!

Everybody can ! The Repair Café is open to everyone, because it is not only a place to repair together, but also a friendly place to meet people, learn and share knowledge.

A Repair Café is usually a monthly event, but the frequency varies according to the availability of the volunteers, the premises used, the time of year, etc. There are currently more than 150 Repair Cafés in Wallonia and Brussels.

• Would you like to find the nearest Repair Café ? Take a look at the List of Repair Cafés indexing all addresses, dates and contact persons.
• Would you like to find out when the next Repair Cafés will be held ? Browse our Calendar !

A Repair Café relies entirely on volunteers and covers its organisational and management costs through the voluntary contribution of visitors. That's why at the end of the repair, you will be invited to make a donation in the money box provided for this purpose. It is up to you to assess which amount you want to give, according to your means, the repair that was done, your degree of satisfaction, etc.

The Repair Cafés' repairers only volunteer at the specific venue of the event and are only insured at this venue while the event takes place. Home repairs are therefore outside the scope of Repair Cafés.

Moreover, the Repair Café is based on the principle of repairing together. Results cannot be guaranteed and the Repair Café is not a service of expertise, but a helping hand between neighbours. Visitors are therefore invited to bring their object during a session so they can repair it together with the volunteers.

We cannot guarantee any repairs: this depends on the diagnosis that will be made during the Repair Café session. Our volunteers are amateur repairers and are not always the same ones from one session to another. Everyone also has their own area of expertise.In practice, approximately 60% of the objects that are brought in get repaired.

If you want to be sure that a repairer will be able to repair your object, we advise you to contact in advance the organisers of the Repair Café you plan to go to.

No, visitors are invited to the repair tables in order of arrival. Queues for certain workshops can sometimes be long, so the team may stop registrations even though it's not yet closing time. This allows the repairs in progress to be completed within the allotted time of the session. Be sure to come at the start of the session if you want your object to be examined on time.

In compliance with the regulations, given the success of the Repair Cafés, and so as not to penalise other visitors, each visitor will register one object at a time. This does not mean that you cannot queue again at the registration to register another object after your first object has been handled.