Terms of Use for OpenAppliance.io
Term of Use
OpenAppliance.io has a generous license. It is free. You can use the contents in commercial setting for training purposes even in a commercial setting for FREE DIRECT USE. We fully expect proper attribution, backlinks, and inclusion of our logos etc. However we draw the line at lifting content for the sake of making derivative/inspired works for reselling or free. More Details:
Our Intent
We know the boundaries between sharing, inspiration, and copying can be fuzzy. The purpose is to make the world better and sharing is necessary we're OK with that Use this to take your $1,000,000 company to a $1,00,000,000 billion dollar company we don't care. The core idea behind these rules is simple: use the information and insight you find here to improve your work and utility, but don’t repurpose our content itself as your own whether free or paid work. You'll notice even on this website we have a lot of logos from other companies here - that's necessary we get it we're not stealing from them we're actually promoting them and the goal here if our worker is used elsewhere transcending more than utility needs we need the attribution.
Examples Of What Within The Spirit Of OpenAppliance and Not.
1. Internal Training Decks
Your company creates a PowerPoint for weekly tech meetings that includes screenshots of our tool lists and diagnostic guides. ✅ Allowed — as long as our logo or URL is visible and you make clear the content is from OpenAppliance.io. ❌ Not allowed — if those slides become a standalone course or are distributed publicly under your company name for purposes beyond bettering your entity. Since Our content is frequently updated it's far better just to link back to the original website
2. Technician Handbook
You build an internal PDF guide for new hires and want to include our “Top 20 Tools” section. ✅ Allowed — if you link to our page or embed a screenshot with our logo visible. ✅Allowed — By chance you like all 20 of our tools on the list feel free to put that in your company's SOP of the 20 tools you choose ❌ Not allowed — if you copy the entire list into your handbook as create a Blog/Facebook Post saying "These the 20 Best Appliance Repair Tools"
3. Social Media Education Posts
You post a tip from one of our pages on LinkedIn or Facebook. ✅ Allowed — when you quote a sentence or two, or share a screenshot with our logo intact. ❌ Not allowed — if you post our full table or graphic without attribution or crop out our name.
4. Commercial Training
You run paid training sessions and want to use our diagrams and part sourcing lists as reference materials. ✅ Allowed — if it’s used as an example during a live session and attribution is clear. ❌ Not allowed — if the materials become your own course content, downloadable handouts, or slides for use outside your direct organization without visible credit.
5. Third-Party Apps or Databases
You build an internal tool or app that stores appliance part sources. ✅ Allowed — if you link directly to our supplier pages or reference our methodology. ❌ Not allowed — if you import our supplier database or curated lists into your system and present them as original data.
6. Content Paraphrasing
You like our strategies listed: ✅ Allowed — You adopt our warranty for your company. Your intent is to mirror our world class warranty, you copy the words virtually word for word, that is okay, This is this whole point of OpenAppliance that you can use it for your benefit. ❌ Not allowed — You present at an industry group as your own: "This is what ya'll should do for warranty its proven"
7. Big Company Using Our Methods
✅ Allowed: A national service company adopts our repair procedures and tools to improve their internal workflow. They make millions in efficiency gains — totally fine. That’s using the utility of our work. ❌ Not Allowed: A training brand (e.g., XYZ Training Systems) sells paid courses that include our step-by-step methods or materials. That’s repurposing our content, not applying its utility.
8. Internal Training vs. Public Course
✅Allowed: A local repair shop builds a PowerPoint using screenshots of our site to train their own employees, with our logo visible. ❌Not Allowed: That same repair shop packages those slides and markets them as a “Complete Appliance Repair Training Program.” Now it’s a derivative commercial product.
9. Supplier List Usage
✅Allowed: You include a hyperlink to our 50-supplier parts list in your company wiki or CRM so techs can find it directly. ❌Not Allowed: You copy and paste the entire supplier list into your internal guide or online course in part and full and call it "Your Final Guide to Suppliers Parts" That list was created from 100+ hours of calls — it’s not open for republication.
10. Consulting or Coaching
✅Allowed: A consultant references our framework when advising other repair businesses and gives credit (“We use the OpenAppliance.io workflow model”). ❌Not Allowed: The consultant rebrands our checklists and procedures as their proprietary “Tech Efficiency System” and sells it.
11. Trade School Integration
✅Allowed: A vocational school uses screenshots from our guides and directs students to read more on OpenAppliance.io. ❌Not Allowed: The same school copies full articles into its printed manuals or online learning system without our logo or link.
12. Software or Platform Integration
✅Allowed: A service platform integrates our process steps into an internal training checklist and cites “Adapted from OpenAppliance.io. ❌Not Allowed: A software company embeds our guides and data directly into their paid product without attribution.
13. Mass Training Products
✅Allowed: A company uses our methods to design its own internal training culture and becomes wildly successful using our insights. That’s the point — real-world impact. ❌Not Allowed: A business that sells training products uses our materials, lists, or visuals as their base content. That’s derivative commercialization, and it undermines our affiliate-supported model.
Examples Of What You Can’t Do
Remove our logo from an image and repost it elsewhere.
Create a “free” e‑book or website built from our tool lists. FREE or Paid
Copy and paste our entire supplier list—compiled over many hours—into your documentation if your intent is something other than the utility value. not the use value. It makes more sense to backlink anyway since our lists are regularly updated.
Use our text and images to build a product or course without attribution.
Sell or license any resource that contains substantial portions of our content.
Fuzzy Scenarios
This information is meant to be disseminated. However you offer your own mass and regular training. Is this a derivative normal use or mass repurposing of our work? Contact us for clarification
Trust but Verify
We do our best to keep the site accurate and current, but we can’t guarantee everything is perfect. Use your own judgment, and if you spot an error, please let us know. We do our best to keep the site accurate and current, but we can’t guarantee everything is perfect. Use your own judgment, and if you spot an error, please let us know.
Many of the procedures and setups shown here are re-engineered or field-tested. That means they make sense in context and are often what we personally use in real service work. However, we do not offer any official safety endorsement or guarantee of compatibility.
For example, in some sections we show how to substitute pumps or other components when original parts are chronically out of stock. These substitutions are based on informed testing and pattern matching, but they are not official manufacturer cross-references.
Every situation can differ—tolerances, wiring, fitting depth, flow rate, or supplier batch variations can all affect the results.
You should treat this information as advisory, not absolute. Verify everything yourself, test safely, and use your own judgment before applying any substitution or repair method. If something seems off, double-check with the OEM or a verified supplier before installation.
Attribution and Logos
Our logo serves as a citation and contains our URL. Use our official logo files—available on this site—whenever you include our visuals or excerpts.
Logos for Attribution
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