Otley MAKER SPACE: Repair Café

Have you got stuff that needs repairing and don’t know where to start? Maybe the cost of a professional repair is going to be more than the item is worth, but you'd rather not throw it away. If so, our Repair Café is for you.

Repair Cafés are places where you can bring household items to be mended. We have extensive tool kits, fuses, wires, cables, buttons, etc and a team of able repairers. For items that we can’t fix immediately we can hopefully diagnose the problem and advise the best way forward. We aim to have a go at most things except white goods and bicycles, but if it's something very specialist or precious we may advise you to go elsewhere.

We try to run a Repair Café in the Otley Maker Space on the last Sunday of every month from 10am to 1pm, coinciding with the Courthouse's Designer Craft Fair and Otley Farmers Market. Please check the Calendar for Repair Café dates and also check Facebook and Instagram a few days before as we occasionally have to cancel when we don't have enough volunteers available to run the event.

We are about learning and therefore request that people stay with their item while it is being repaired. You will be asked to sign a disclaimer before we start work on your item, as we cannot guarantee success. See below for full terms and conditions of the Repair Café.

The Repair Café operates a pay as you feel policy.

Repair Café Terms & Conditions

1. All repairs carried out at the OMS Repair Café are performed at the visitor’s own risk. Any advice given and repairs carried out are by volunteers who are sharing their skills and time for free, but voluntary donations are welcome to cover expenses and wear and tear on tools. If we are able to provide the parts used in a repair (see 6 below), we will ask as a minimum for the cost of those parts to be reimbursed.

2. Visitors are expected to remain with the repairer while the repair is being carried out in order to see how it’s being done and to pick up new skills. Items should not be left with the repairer for collection later. We want you to go home feeling more confident about repairing things yourself.

3. Neither the organisers of OMS Repair Café nor the repairers are liable for any loss or injury that may result from any repair attempted or carried out, nor for any advice or instructions given and used at a later date.

4. Neither the organisers of OMS Repair Café nor the repairers are liable for any accidental damage that may occur to visitors, the items they bring for repair or any other belongings during their time at OMS.

5. Repairers offer no guarantee for any repairs carried out with or without their help and are not liable if any repaired items do not work properly once you get them home or break down again in the future.

6. If you happen to know what consumables / replacement parts (eg leads, plugs, fuses, zips, buttons, etc) might be needed to effect a repair, please bring them along. The repairers will have some bit and pieces, and they may be able to tell you which Otley shops are open on a Sunday and can supply what’s needed, but there is no guarantee that the things required will be available unless you bring them yourself.

7. After making an initial assessment of an item, the repairers are entitled to decline to repair it, and they are not obliged to reassemble appliances that cannot be repaired. Repairers may well refuse even to assess items that are excessively dirty.

8. Visitors are responsible for the tidy removal of all items that cannot be repaired.

9. If the Repair Café is busy, only one item per visitor will be examined / repaired initially. If a visitor has a second item in need of repair, they may join the back of the queue.

10. Parents are responsible for their children whilst attending the Repair Café. Minors should be closely supervised in view of the many potentially dangerous items of equipment in the Maker Space.