Safely Remove Warranty Stickers
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
1,754 words · ~8 min read
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when it comes to my professional life I consider myself a little like Danny
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ocean and not just because of the you
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know World Travel fashion sense and uh flashy cars but because often in order
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to do what I do I need to be able to get in and out of a secure area with no one
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the wiser only instead of casinos and
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Banks my theater of operations is consumer electronics and instead of
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circumventing high Tech laser security systems and armed guards I carefully
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remove those warranty void stickers without damaging them so that they can
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be reapplied it's a wild ride living your
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life on the razor's Edge and you know what I'm going to be showing you guys
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how to do it
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today I by power and MSI's new lineup of
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gaming laptops feature Intel 7th generation core i7 processors check them
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out at the link below warranty
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stickers here's a question are those
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even legally binding let's check in with
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the lonus tech tips legal team for a brief primer oh hi now as you may or may
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not know a warranty included in the box with an electronic device like a gain
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console or smartphone is actually just a kind of contract now if one side breaks
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or breaches a contract the other side doesn't have to perform in this case
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that would mean that the manufacturer could void your warranty but there's an
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exception to this there's a US federal law called the Magnus and Moss Warranty
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Act of 1975 now this is a law that says
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a manufacturer can't make a tie-in sale
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a condition of a warranty well what's that well a tie in sale is when a
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warranty says that you can only get your device for repaired at an authorized
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dealer or use authorized replacement parts so this means if you decide to
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repair your device on your own or use an aftermarket part they can't void your
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warranty just based on that and that includes breaking those little warranty
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voided for move stickers so if the law covers these stickers why do
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manufacturers keep putting them on their products well the manufacturers know
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that the only way that they can be forced to provide warranty service is if
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somebody takes them to court and suit them over the sticker unfortunately the
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companies also know that the cost of hiring a lawyer and actually going
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through with this is usually going to be a lot higher than just getting the
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product repaired in the first place meaning these companies are more or less
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getting away with this and it'll probably take something like a class
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action lawsuit which is essentially a bunch of people suing one or more
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companies to end this Behavior the only time that either opening your device or
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performing a self-repair or taking it to a third- party repair shop can actually
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void your warranty is if they do an improper repair or an improper upgrade
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that actually causes the device to malfunction or break this simply means
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don't break your own stuff and you'll still be covered under a warranty it's
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against the law for these manufacturers to tell you that you don't have a right
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to try to repair your product on your own
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terms thanks John now let's get to what
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you all came to see legality aside what
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is the best way to remove and replace a
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warranty sticker so that an apathetic minimum wage employee can't tell you did
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it there are tons of tips online about
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this but we felt the need to test them
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for ourselves because as you guys know
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very well just because someone posts something online doesn't mean it's a
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good idea and you wouldn't believe the number of unqualified people posting up
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disreputable Tech advice these
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days the electrostatic bag and heat gun
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combo method wasn't a runaway success it
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actually did work modestly well on stickers that were already fairly loose
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or poorly applied in the first place but in tougher situations we often ended up
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tearing the sticker while the materials you need are very likely to be lying
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around and the non-stick properties of the bag are helpful it's also extremely
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unwieldly and hard to control so this
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one's a bit like using a medical glove as a condom sure it might work in
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certain situations but it should never be your go-to
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solution steam it works for letters so
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it should work for stickers right wrong
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your reservations about exposing your electronics to a jet of gaseous water
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aside the steam just ended up being far harder on the sticker itself than it was
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on the glue holding it while it did weaken the bond somewhat it also caused
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the sticker to fall apart like a twice used tissue so 10 out of 10 highly
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recommended IGN a straight utility or hobby knife
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probably seems like a bit of a dicey proposition and it is yes with
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sufficient care patience and luck
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it is possible to remove a sticker with minimal to no damage by this method but
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a simple slip of the hand or a little too much pressure at the wrong moment
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can easily lead to a cut or a tear that will give the game away or Worse put an
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unsightly scratch or scuff on your precious
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device next we found a guide online in
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which a fellow canak actually went through this process for building a
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Teflon knife for exactly this purpose
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but unfortunately sourcing the materials
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and Manufacturing this kind of tool is both
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costly and potentially dangerous without
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sufficient tools and training so our
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journey for a lowcost easy solution
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continued we eventually found ourselves deep in the darkest dankest
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and most dangerous parts of the internet
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a community of competitive Rubik's Cube
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enthusiasts and it was actually there that we found our Holy Grail a plastic
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razor specifically designed for peeling the stickers off toy puzzle cubes it
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removes warranty stickers just as easily as a metal razor but is a lot more
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forgiving in terms of avoiding damage to the product it was not only able to lift
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the warranty protection off a PS4 but it also managed to peel back the entire
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warranty label on a hard drive intact
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now both metal and plastic razors work
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much better with a little solvent to help them but you need to be careful
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about what you use you can find an almost inexhaustible list of household
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products that people claim will work to
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help remove adhesives but it's not always necessary or even advisable to
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encase your sticker in peanut butter freeze it overnight sprinkle it with
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ginger or rub it with the Dew of North
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facing leaves so we tried out the three most reasonable and easily accessible
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solvents that you're likely to have kicking around nail polish remover
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rubbing alcohol and vinegar nail polish
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remover was very effective at immediately removing the glue and
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dissolving most of the sticker as well
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vinegar fell on the opposite end of the spectrum even after leaving it to soak
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it barely made a dent in the adhesive and when we attempted to pry the sticker
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off there was significant tearing isopropyl alcohol hits the perfect Sweet
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Spot in terms of loosening the sticker enough that we could get a prying tool
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in without damaging it in the process
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now it is important to note that some stickers are designed to peel back and
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leave residue on the surface surface changing the appearance of the sticker
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to read void and prevent replacement if
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you come across this use a marker or a roller ball pen to color the reverse of
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the sticker as you lift it that should allow you to press the sticker back down
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and maintain the appearance that it hasn't been moved though it should be
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noted that this won't help in cases where the manufacturer would have to
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remove that sticker in order to perform whatever warranty repair is required now
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now in a perfect world none of this would matter because consumer protection
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laws but on planet Earth where I live
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anytime you open your device there's a very strong chance that if your
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manufacturer realizes it they will refuse to honor your warranty without a
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costly and potentially very timeconsuming legal battle so whether
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you want to make an upgrade to a pre-built computer change out a cooler
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on a graphics card or just poke around inside your gadgets because they belong
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to you out of principle do it carefully
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