iPhone 6 battery replacement - how difficult?

[MichaelAwkward]

Hi all,

Just bought a two year old iPhone 6 64GB from a colleague at work who upgraded to the 7. Battery life isn't great - just wondering how difficult it is to replace myself or whether it's best to leave to a third party or Apple themselves?

People are selling replacement kits with supposedly genuine batteries on eBay for £15 (and less!), and I found this site that offers replacement services for £39: https://www.lovefone.co.uk/ and of course there's Apple who will do it for £76.44.

Has anyone done used any of the above options?

Cheers,

 

[brendy]

Its pretty straight forward if you get the free cheapo tool kit with it. I have replaced a few for colleagues and work phones.
2 pentalobe screws on bottom, guitar pick or pry tool to get the screen off (use the sucker tool if possible, again comes in el cheapo tool kit), work from the bottom to the top on both sides but dont attmept to fully pull it away from the top as the screen cables etc will get damaged. The battery itself is stuck down and has 2 screws and a clip covering the connector. Remove them then heat the phone a little to get the battery adhesive softened then pry it up, dont perforate it!!!! Replacement then goes in and reversal of removal.

 

[Feek]

I know it's out of warranty so you probably don't care but they can claim genuine Apple parts as much as they like but it's a lie. Only Apple have genuine Apple parts.

 

[MagicBoy]

Apple will do it instore for £69...

That's what I'm going to do.

 

[brendy]

Ouch! You can buy plenty of aftermarket batteries for a tenner and shopping wisely using feedback you wont go wrong.

 

[MagicBoy]

It's not the easiest thing to fit though, there's always the risk you might damage an expensive phone...

I thought twice about it and I've happily cracked open classic iPods to change the batteries in those before.

 

[copycatuk]

Its easy enough to change but its hit and miss on quality as no aftermarket batteries are from Apple. If you are keeping the phone for a while i would go for Apple store fitting.

 

[MagicBoy]

Agreed. Not for nothing that lithium based battery quality appears to be very variable.The good quality one in my MacBook Pro just failed within warranty.

I plan on keeping the iPhone another couple of years, so it's worth doing it properly.

 

[Dr Delphi]

I have only ever had problems with aftermarket batteries when put into iphones, I would highly suggest going to apple and getting a new official battery, at least then you know it is what it is rated for, and will not have been used before!

 

[Deleted member 77746]

iPhone replacement parts from an iPhone 5 is pretty straight forward. Just make sure you take your time and be careful of the thin cables

 

[HAz]

its easy to an extent, for a newbie you will most likely tear the pull tab adhesive as you remove the battery which then means brute force and some heat to remove it. Which in turn could damage the phone.

 

[TS7]

I wouldn't really want to risk aftermarket battery where you have no idea as to where it's come from, who's made it etc, especially on something you have in your pocket, on your face, next to you in bed etc.

I went with my friend to get hers replaced from Apple about a month a go, it was £70 and done within half an hour.

 

[brendy]

Gentle heat from a typical room/desk heater and it peels out easily. Only ham fisted buffoons can damage a phone if they follow the instructions carefully. If uncertain about batteries, rainforest sites etc have feedback on items so its pretty easy to sift through the crud ones for the quality batteries.

 

[Tatsuki]

I replaced the phone in my 3G back in the day within a few months the phone had swelled up like a balloon, imho the saving is not worth the risk of getting a dud battery. The fee Apple charge isn't stupidly expensive and the piece of mind is worth it for something you will use every day.

 

[Feek]

I took Mrs. Feek's iPhone 6S in to the Lakeside Apple store for a new battery under the replacement programme that she was entitled to - The official cost was £57 although of course we got it for free but I'd rather pay £57 for a genuine battery from Apple than £15 for one of unknown quality.

 

[Deleted member 138126]

I've *never* in all my years had anything but failure with non-authentic batteries (e.g. Dell laptops). Good batteries are expensive to manufacture, and if you're paying a lot less than the official price for a battery, you are almost certainly getting a dud, potentially a dangerous dud.

 

[Mysterae_]

I took a chance and ordered a £15 replacement battery for my iphone 5s but didn't get a chance to try it. One of my dogs thought they'd do me a favour and open the parcel upon delivery. The battery only has a few nicks present but I'm not taking the chance, that's how the Samsung IED occurred. It could have been worse, it could have burst or exploded and burnt the house down. ******* dog.

 

[Jaaay]

I've *never* in all my years had anything but failure with non-authentic batteries (e.g. Dell laptops). Good batteries are expensive to manufacture, and if you're paying a lot less than the official price for a battery, you are almost certainly getting a dud, potentially a dangerous dud.

How much do you think batteries actually cost to produce? I'm guessing its nowhere near what Apple want to charge.

I replaced my girlfriend's battery with one from eBay it was around £15 with the tools required. I compared the original with the new one and they looked identical so it looked legit to me.

I followed a tutorial on youtube, took all of about 15 minutes! Just take your time pulling out the adhesive under the battery.

 

[Deleted member 138126]

How much do you think batteries actually cost to produce? I'm guessing its nowhere near what Apple want to charge.

I replaced my girlfriend's battery with one from eBay it was around £15 with the tools required. I compared the original with the new one and they looked identical so it looked legit to me.

I followed a tutorial on youtube, took all of about 15 minutes! Just take your time pulling out the adhesive under the battery.

Of course it's nowhere near what Apple charges, that's not the point. The point is that you will never know if the £15 battery is any good, and on the other hand, you can pretty confidently say that it's probably nowhere near a genuine Apple battery in terms of safety and quality. Given the number of fires we've had over the years, why risk it to save a few quid? And given it's unlikely to be as good as a genuine battery, you will probably have to replace it more often anyway, so the savings in the long run will be minimal.

 

[brendy]

Of course it's nowhere near what Apple charges, that's not the point. The point is that you will never know if the £15 battery is any good, and on the other hand, you can pretty confidently say that it's probably nowhere near a genuine Apple battery in terms of safety and quality. Given the number of fires we've had over the years, why risk it to save a few quid? And given it's unlikely to be as good as a genuine battery, you will probably have to replace it more often anyway, so the savings in the long run will be minimal.

Apple is no better than Samsung and look what happened to the Note 7 battery. Checking out feedback and not paying the absolute lowest price you can find is no guarantee but it goes a long way. I have yet to buy an exploding or dud battery via ebay trusted sellers.