Re: iPhone battery replacement

On 6/2/2024 6:08 AM, Martin Brown wrote:

Yes, I figure there must be a relatively large market and most "customers"
are relatively unskilled in this sort of activity.  I had hoped, however,
that the batteries would be shit or the phones would look cosmetically
damaged (to give me an excuse not to undertake the activity  :<  )

 It is doable but be very careful separating the parts.

The case came apart easily as the battery had already "swelled" it apart.

Sharp tools and a moderate amount of force in exactly the right places is involved. Newer models tend to be much more difficult to dismantle reliably. You can sort of tell which are most difficult by looking at how much third party repairers charge for a battery swap.

The battery adhesive was the most troublesome.  There's no easy way to get
under it to scrape away at the adhesive (which essentially covers the entire
inner battery surface).
I opted for a slow application of isopropyl alcohol (91%) accompanied by a
persistent bit of gentle persuasion.  Setting the new battery (with fresh
adhesive) in place ON THE FIRST GO required a bit more forethought ("You
only get ONE chance to do this...")
Now, to see how well it holds a charge.  SWMBO is tickled to no longer
have to deal with that other, "huge" phone.
(it really is amusing to think people carry these things around with
them.  All to ensure their Pavlovian conditioning remains intact!)

My friend that does it a lot has a specially sharpened wallpaper scraper for applying the right amount of force over a long joint. Various YouTube videos show how to do it - there is scope to devaluing it if you break the glass or injuring yourself if you slip with a sharp blade.

I would have to consider if there might be value in such a tool for
prying the battery out.  This phone seemed to have a conformal "pocket"
that surrounded the battery so slipping something between the pocket
and the battery might be difficult.
[I've a really old putty knife -- back when they were designed to be
very thin and SHARP -- that might work in a future attempt.  (I'll
be pulling the battery out of an iPhone 8 as a spare for the 6 so
this will gie me an opportunity to refine my approach -- with nothing
at stake!)]