TY - CONF A1 - Rückschloss, Jana A1 - Tochtrop, Christoph A1 - von Geibler, Justus A1 - Schlegel, Moritz-Caspar T1 - “Oh no, it’s broken!” – How product functionality limits lifespan N2 - Today a large variety of products with various features and designs are available for consumers. In addition to the main functions of a product, there are more and more additional functions, especially for electrical and electronic appliances. This means that looking for the right product may require extensive research by consumers and does not always lead to a sense of making an informed purchase decision. The wide variety of designs and functions can overwhelm consumers. This creates uncertainty and might lead to overrate products functionality and thus significantly shorten the service lifetime of appliances. Furthermore, the environmental impact of such functions is usually unclear, and can vary depending on the actual usage scenario. In this study, a survey was carried out in order to better understand consumers perceptions and experiences related to additional functions of products, with specific focus on domestic hobs, household refrigerating appliances and televisions. The results confirm the large number of additional functions and their overwhelming effect for consumers. Consumers purchase devices with more features than desired, or replaced them prematurely because an extra feature fails while the main function is still available. The findings of the study can be used to better inform consumers and support them to make environmentally sustainable purchasing decisions. T2 - 6th Product Lifetimes and the Environment Conference (PLATE2025) CY - Aalborg, Denmark DA - 02.07.2025 KW - Circular economy KW - Functionality KW - Durability KW - Purchase decision KW - Ecodesign PY - 2025 UR - https://journals.aau.dk/index.php/plate2025 SN - 97887-7642-060-4 DO - https://doi.org/10.54337/plate2025 SN - 2794-9540 SP - 666 EP - 674 AN - OPUS4-63823 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -