Lifespan Of A LEGO Brick: Geeky Stress Test Shows How Long They Last

Have you ever wondered about the lifespan of LEGO bricks? Have you ever wanted to know how long they last? If we’re talking about the bricks themselves, the lifespan is probably longer than ours, but I’m referring to how many times you can put LEGO bricks together, then take them apart, then put them back together again. How many times can that happen before they start to malfunction? Thanks to this stress test, which uses an Arduino, I have the exact answer for you (based on a 3×3 LEGO brick).

The answer is 37,112. So the next time your kids ask you to buy them new LEGO bricks because theirs are getting old, you can inform them about how long they last. Just ask them if they’ve put them together 37,112 times yet. The answer will most likely be no, which could save you some big bucks.

LEGO geek Phillipe Cantin built this rather simple contraption (which you can see in the video below) that puts together and then takes apart two LEGO bricks over and over. It logs each time that happens where the LEGO bricks stay attached. When it happens so many times that they don’t stay attached anymore, which means they’ve lost their clutch power, it stops.

His gadget ran for 10 days straight before the LEGO bricks could no longer stay connected, and it stopped after the 37,112th time. Now that you know how long they last, do you think that is long enough? I wouldn’t have expected them to last that long. You can see the physical damage on the bricks below. I suppose they do get old after a while. That’s a lot of LEGO build though! No wonder people keep them forever.

LEGO Bricks: Stress Test Shows How Long They Last

Via: [Hack A Day] [reddit] Header Image Credit: [The Art Grist]