4 ms·

It's not so much opening it, it's holding the back while you use heat and force to excavate the battery from the backshell. Apple appears to have fixed that is

It's not so much opening it, it's holding the back while you use heat and force to excavate the battery from the backshell. Apple appears to have fixed that issue with the iPhone 14.

_V_ 4y ago
iPhones had adhesive pull tabs for years now. You really did not need heat and force for that unless you ripped it. And even if you did rip those tabs IPA does much better job of un-adhering the battery as you really don't want to use excessive force on lithium pouch cells unless you like your repair job to get "fast & furious" :-)
- wrycoder 4y ago
  Well, I've done several, and one of the pull tabs generally breaks no matter how slow and careful you are. Then, it's on to reheating everything and dragging a monofilament under the battery. Without a vacuum hold-down stage, it is difficult and annoying. I don't recollect iFixit recommending IPA, does that work?
  - _V_ 4y ago
    I've found out that you really need to gut that thing like a fish before trying to pull on those :-) Unless you take out vibrator etc from the bottom you almost always break atleast one off. Yeah, IPA and thin plastic shim card. These are often sold in lockpicking shops for door shimming - costs few bucks. Or directly from iFixit site (/products/plastic-cards). Just snip it in half so it is not as wide (careful not to leave sharp corner that coud tear up that battery!). Then slip it under the battery and use it to guide few drops of IPA under there. Worked for me every time with almost no hassle. Just be careful because IPA is of course flammable. If you would puncture the battery or make it spark, you could end up having quite a bad day. But that probably applies for the monofilament-under-the-battery approach too.
    - jibe 4y ago
      Taking out the vibrator from the bottom is a key move.

4 ms·

It's not so much opening it, it's holding the back while you use heat and force to excavate the battery from the backshell. Apple appears to have fixed that is

by wrycoder 4y ago

It's not so much opening it, it's holding the back while you use heat and force to excavate the battery from the backshell. Apple appears to have fixed that issue with the iPhone 14.

_V_ 4y ago
iPhones had adhesive pull tabs for years now. You really did not need heat and force for that unless you ripped it. And even if you did rip those tabs IPA does much better job of un-adhering the battery as you really don't want to use excessive force on lithium pouch cells unless you like your repair job to get "fast & furious" :-)
- wrycoder 4y ago
  Well, I've done several, and one of the pull tabs generally breaks no matter how slow and careful you are. Then, it's on to reheating everything and dragging a monofilament under the battery. Without a vacuum hold-down stage, it is difficult and annoying. I don't recollect iFixit recommending IPA, does that work?
  - _V_ 4y ago
    I've found out that you really need to gut that thing like a fish before trying to pull on those :-) Unless you take out vibrator etc from the bottom you almost always break atleast one off. Yeah, IPA and thin plastic shim card. These are often sold in lockpicking shops for door shimming - costs few bucks. Or directly from iFixit site (/products/plastic-cards). Just snip it in half so it is not as wide (careful not to leave sharp corner that coud tear up that battery!). Then slip it under the battery and use it to guide few drops of IPA under there. Worked for me every time with almost no hassle. Just be careful because IPA is of course flammable. If you would puncture the battery or make it spark, you could end up having quite a bad day. But that probably applies for the monofilament-under-the-battery approach too.
    - jibe 4y ago
      Taking out the vibrator from the bottom is a key move.