Just curious about this. I see people saying they’re eligible for battery replacements, and I just don’t know much about that.
Any info would be appreciated.
Any info would be appreciated.
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How does the battery replacement thing work, and is it on all iPhones?
- Thread starter ssledoux
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Not really sure about the 'eligible' part. But, in general, if your battery health drops to 79% or less, Apple will replace your battery. If you're under AC+ that's either free or a reduced cost. Otherwise, they generally charge around $99 without AC+ and/or out of warranty. It may be more depending on your model.
If this happened within the first year the phone is sold, then it's a warranty issue and will be covered.
There is some confusion on whether Apple will replace a battery that has not fallen under 80% of health. Some say that you can pay Apple to replace the battery. Some say Apple will refuse. Some have been able to pay and have it done, others have not. It just depends on what store you go to and what genius you get.
In any case, if you're in-store, it takes about an hour to swap out.
If this happened within the first year the phone is sold, then it's a warranty issue and will be covered.
There is some confusion on whether Apple will replace a battery that has not fallen under 80% of health. Some say that you can pay Apple to replace the battery. Some say Apple will refuse. Some have been able to pay and have it done, others have not. It just depends on what store you go to and what genius you get.
In any case, if you're in-store, it takes about an hour to swap out.
For iPhone specifically, it depends on a combination of what kind of warranty coverage you have, what kind of battery health you have, what state your device is in, and also how old the device is
In the case of AppleCare plus, battery replacement is free as long as you still have AppleCare plus and the battery is below 80% health, or has the service recommended message showing in the battery health section, which will automatically show up below 80% anyways. This is also assuming that the phone has no signs of physical damage like a cracked screen or a cracked back, and no signs of liquid damage. If you have either physical damage or liquid damage, then they will bill you the respective fee depending on what it is, which will be either 29 US for just the screen or just the back, 58 US for the screen and the back if both are cracked on certain models, or 99 US in the case of more severe damage like liquid damage or the frame being severely bent or things like that. Basically they either do the battery and the necessary part for the fee, or replace the entire device in the case of liquid damage and some other damage types in which case there's no point replacing the battery anyways.
In the case of limited warranty, if your battery is below 80% health or has the servoce recommended message, and there is no signs of physical damage like above or liquid damage like above, then the battery replacement is free. If it has physical damage like it cracked screen or cracked back, or liquid damage, then you're gonna be subject to the out of warranty fee for whatever that work is. In the case of things that can be replaced on the device, like a broken screen alongside a bad battery, they will charge you the out of warranty cost for the screen but cover the battery for free, and in cases where it has to end up as a replacement phone like a liquid damage scenario, they're not gonna bother replacing the battery and will just charge you the out of warranty rate for a replacement iPhone since that's gonna include a battery as well as the rest of the phone anyways.
For out of warranty repairs, the replacement cost for the battery is either 69 US in the case of iPhones with a home button, 89 US for models between iPhone X through iPhone 13 Pro Max, and 99 US for iPhone 14 through 16 Pro Max. You can get the battery replaced technically at any time if the device is out of warranty, there is no requirement to actually be below 80% health/have the service recommended message, but if you go in when your battery health is like 94% and you request a replacement battery, you're still gonna get a lot of pushback from employees telling you that replacing the battery is a waste of time because that's exactly the case since whatever battery situation your ex experiencing is not going to be caused by the battery (but you can still request requested anyways even with all these warnings although it would be pointless with a high enough battery health). Much like limited warranty, if there are other issues that prevent battery replacement, like the screen being broken or the back being broken or liquid damage, they will charge you the cost of that service on top of the battery, or in cases where the device has to be replaced 100% of the time like liquid damage, you get charged the out of warranty price to replace the whole phone instead since they're not gonna waste your time replacing the battery on the phone they're gonna replace anyways
One other thing to mention. You can also request to replace the battery above 80% health for devices in warranty/AppleCare plus, but you will be charged the same out of warranty prices as you see in the out of warranty section, you will get the same pushback from employees if you come in wanting to replace your battery at a battery health that is still very obviously good, and you will still run into the exact same limitations with needing to make sure that there's no other signs of physical damage/liquid damage because those specific issues will still fall within their own limited warranty/AppleCare plus stuff. If you come in with an AppleCare plus phone that has 86% health and you request to swap the battery anyways and agree to the out of warranty cost, but your screen is broken, they will still charge you the 29 US fee to replace just the screen under AppleCare plus and then charge you the battery replacement cost on top since that's being done out of warranty.
As far as I'm aware, in countries with actually meaningful consumer protection law like most of Europe and Australia and New Zealand and the UK and similar, I don't know if battery going below 80% health is gonna be covered by this consumer protection law. I don't live there so you'll have to check with the Apple Store people directly about that if you qualify for that. Here in North America, we basically have no consumer protection law worth a **** so none of that really applies to us.
For really old iPhones, like an iPhone 5s for example, they're not gonna be able to do anything with them at this point because the device is considered obsolete which means there are no more parts available for it anywhere in the world and the only possible way you might be able to get a battery swapped officially would be through an Apple authorized service provider, and only if they still have stock left of 5S batteries, which is extremely unlikely but not zero. Also the cost of battery replacement for pretty much every single iPhone below the 11 family at this point is not gonna make sense considering the fact that those older models are either going end of life soon or are already end of life, coupled with the fact that the cost of battery replacement is going to be worth most of the value of the device if not more than the value of the device.
In the case of AppleCare plus, battery replacement is free as long as you still have AppleCare plus and the battery is below 80% health, or has the service recommended message showing in the battery health section, which will automatically show up below 80% anyways. This is also assuming that the phone has no signs of physical damage like a cracked screen or a cracked back, and no signs of liquid damage. If you have either physical damage or liquid damage, then they will bill you the respective fee depending on what it is, which will be either 29 US for just the screen or just the back, 58 US for the screen and the back if both are cracked on certain models, or 99 US in the case of more severe damage like liquid damage or the frame being severely bent or things like that. Basically they either do the battery and the necessary part for the fee, or replace the entire device in the case of liquid damage and some other damage types in which case there's no point replacing the battery anyways.
In the case of limited warranty, if your battery is below 80% health or has the servoce recommended message, and there is no signs of physical damage like above or liquid damage like above, then the battery replacement is free. If it has physical damage like it cracked screen or cracked back, or liquid damage, then you're gonna be subject to the out of warranty fee for whatever that work is. In the case of things that can be replaced on the device, like a broken screen alongside a bad battery, they will charge you the out of warranty cost for the screen but cover the battery for free, and in cases where it has to end up as a replacement phone like a liquid damage scenario, they're not gonna bother replacing the battery and will just charge you the out of warranty rate for a replacement iPhone since that's gonna include a battery as well as the rest of the phone anyways.
For out of warranty repairs, the replacement cost for the battery is either 69 US in the case of iPhones with a home button, 89 US for models between iPhone X through iPhone 13 Pro Max, and 99 US for iPhone 14 through 16 Pro Max. You can get the battery replaced technically at any time if the device is out of warranty, there is no requirement to actually be below 80% health/have the service recommended message, but if you go in when your battery health is like 94% and you request a replacement battery, you're still gonna get a lot of pushback from employees telling you that replacing the battery is a waste of time because that's exactly the case since whatever battery situation your ex experiencing is not going to be caused by the battery (but you can still request requested anyways even with all these warnings although it would be pointless with a high enough battery health). Much like limited warranty, if there are other issues that prevent battery replacement, like the screen being broken or the back being broken or liquid damage, they will charge you the cost of that service on top of the battery, or in cases where the device has to be replaced 100% of the time like liquid damage, you get charged the out of warranty price to replace the whole phone instead since they're not gonna waste your time replacing the battery on the phone they're gonna replace anyways
One other thing to mention. You can also request to replace the battery above 80% health for devices in warranty/AppleCare plus, but you will be charged the same out of warranty prices as you see in the out of warranty section, you will get the same pushback from employees if you come in wanting to replace your battery at a battery health that is still very obviously good, and you will still run into the exact same limitations with needing to make sure that there's no other signs of physical damage/liquid damage because those specific issues will still fall within their own limited warranty/AppleCare plus stuff. If you come in with an AppleCare plus phone that has 86% health and you request to swap the battery anyways and agree to the out of warranty cost, but your screen is broken, they will still charge you the 29 US fee to replace just the screen under AppleCare plus and then charge you the battery replacement cost on top since that's being done out of warranty.
As far as I'm aware, in countries with actually meaningful consumer protection law like most of Europe and Australia and New Zealand and the UK and similar, I don't know if battery going below 80% health is gonna be covered by this consumer protection law. I don't live there so you'll have to check with the Apple Store people directly about that if you qualify for that. Here in North America, we basically have no consumer protection law worth a **** so none of that really applies to us.
For really old iPhones, like an iPhone 5s for example, they're not gonna be able to do anything with them at this point because the device is considered obsolete which means there are no more parts available for it anywhere in the world and the only possible way you might be able to get a battery swapped officially would be through an Apple authorized service provider, and only if they still have stock left of 5S batteries, which is extremely unlikely but not zero. Also the cost of battery replacement for pretty much every single iPhone below the 11 family at this point is not gonna make sense considering the fact that those older models are either going end of life soon or are already end of life, coupled with the fact that the cost of battery replacement is going to be worth most of the value of the device if not more than the value of the device.