“Repairable” is a property of the object. Whether you are legally entitled to the parts and manuals depends on your address.
Right-to-repair laws require manufacturers to make parts, tools, and manuals available to product owners and independent repair shops. As 2025 ended, five states had enacted consumer-electronics repair laws — New York, Minnesota, California, Oregon, and Colorado (two laws). Six more laws took effect January 1, 2026, including consumer-electronics laws in Colorado and Washington, bringing the share of Americans living under an enforceable right-to-repair law to 25.75 percent.
Colorado, the most recent to switch on
HB24-1121, effective January 1, 2026, extends the state’s right-to-repair law to digital electronic equipment including cell phones, computers, and televisions. Manufacturers may charge for physical tools but must provide software tools free of charge, and the law prohibits parts pairing — programming parts to work only with a specific unit, which locks owners out of independent repair.
More arrives during 2026. Connecticut’s right-to-repair elements of a consumer protection bill take effect in July 2026, and Texas’s consumer-electronics law takes effect in September 2026. More than 33 repair bills were introduced in 13 states in the first weeks of the year.
Two guardrails
First, each law’s scope differs — the state laws vary in which products they cover, so the statute name, not the headline, tells you whether your appliance is included. Second, independent of state law, federal warranty law already limits one tactic: under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, a company cannot condition warranty coverage on using its own branded parts or authorized service unless it provides those free or has an FTC waiver. A third-party part or independent repair does not void a warranty by itself; the company must show the part or service caused the failure.
What to do with this
If you live in a covered state, ask the manufacturer for the part and the manual in writing and cite the state law by name. If you do not, the buy-it-for-life test still applies before purchase: a screw instead of glue, a sold spare part, a published service manual — properties you can check with the object in your hands, no statute required.
Sources
- https://pirg.org/articles/more-than-one-quarter-of-americans-covered-by-right-to-repair-come-jan-1/
- https://www.cohousedems.com/news/right-to-repair-electronic-equipment-law-goes-into-effect
- https://www.wastedive.com/news/right-to-repair-bills-2026-electronics-automotbiles-wheelchairs/809993/
- https://www.findlaw.com/consumer/consumer-transactions/right-to-repair-laws.html
- https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/businesspersons-guide-federal-warranty-law