Smart Battery Case Teardown Confirms Battery is Difficult to Replace

[konqerror]

I can’t wait until the day you take your car for a cam belt change and they tell you that the engine is sealed and you need a new car.

That already has happened. Transaxle and bottom end engine work is not economical on FWD cars... for more than a decade. But FWD cars are cheaper to make and more fuel efficient.

Besides, its mostly Japanese cars that make you blow $2000 for a new timing belt every 100k miles. Everybody else uses chain or the new life-of-engine belts.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

In my mind, while I wouldn't necessary want to replace the battery myself, the reason that I would want it to be more easily replaceable is so that I know that professionals can replace the battery without destroying the case, thinking more from a reusability and a green point of view than a user serviceability point of view. If any time the battery dies you have to toss the entire thing, that is potentially a big waste.

How much do you think you're going to have to pay an expert to replace a battery? Likely as much or close to what the whole thing cost, especially 4 years from now when the battery needs to be replaced.

And do you really think you're still going to have your iPhone 6 then?

 

[dannyyankou]

I give it a 10/10 "repairability" score since the battery falls under Apple's new warranty and I won't need this case in less than a year anyway.

So you're giving it a "replicability" score.

 

[Luis Mazza]

Repairability is a thing of the past (as we meanwhile know it's close to 0). A durability and recyclability scale would be much more interesting..

Durability and recyclability are totally related to repairability as well.

 

[drewyboy]

Oh come on now. They rated an external battery pack? So where's the tear down of other battery packs? What's their repair-ability?

I like iFixit and buy from them occasionally to fix stuff, but this is getting sort of ridiculous. Waiting for the... never mind. I was going to make a joke about them tearing down the apple pencil but apparently they did and gave it a 1. Joke wasted. I guess I could say, what about the repair-ability of the headphones I get with my iPhone? Those are an accessory? I wanted better speakers in them.

 

[Studioman]

I can’t wait until the day you take your car for a cam belt change and they tell you that the engine is sealed and you need a new car.

BMW 7 series basically requires the dealer to access the engine.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

That already has happened. Transaxle and lower engine work is not economical on FWD cars... for more than a decade. But FWD cars are cheaper to make and more fuel efficient.

Only Japanese cars make you blow $2000 for a new timing belt every 100k miles. Everybody else uses chain or the new life-of-engine belts.

Which cars cost $2000 for a timing belt? I just paid less than $600 to have my timing belt, water pump, and water pump seal replaced. Spark plugs replaced, and valve cover gasket placed for the 105k service.

If you're paying $2000 to have a timing belt done, you're driving something far more exotic than a Japanese vehicle.

And plenty of car manufacturers still use belts that need to be replaced, including every single US car maker.

 

[gsmornot]

There is so much more inside of this thing than I thought there would be. I had it in mind it was a battery with a wire to a plug and all covered in silicone. Nothing more other than maybe a circuit to control the charge. The engineering here should not surprise me but it did.

 

[konqerror]

Which cars cost $2000 for a timing belt? I just paid less than $600 to have my timing belt, water pump, and water pump seal replaced. Spark plugs replaced, and valve cover gasket placed for the 105k service.

Three words: Made In China. Just looked up the OEM kit for a 2005 Honda Odyssey, $450. Internet price. Add dealer markup, that's maybe $600 in parts. Book time is 5 hours, $100/hr = $500. Spark plugs plus valve cover OEM is probably $100 in parts, plus an hour, so that's at least $200. On some cars, the oil pump is driven by the timing belt too, so that's an extra $200 too.

So you pay $1100 so you could save about 1/2 MPG over a timing chain. So going from 24 to 23.5 MPG over 100k miles is 90 gallons. At $3/gallon is $270. Proving that a whole-life design is cheaper.

 

[rdlink]

I can’t wait until the day you take your car for a cam belt change and they tell you that the engine is sealed and you need a new car.

A little apples and oranges, don't you think?

BMW 7 series basically requires the dealer to access the engine.

Me thinks that anyone who buys a Bimmer 7 series is likely not going to be working on their own car...

 

[2457282]

Love looking at the teardown. Surprised that they did not say anything about how well the battery is sealed in the case in terms of water protection. It looked to me like it was well sealed -- enough to survive a drop in a puddle (or toilet even). These are the kinds of things I would like to hear about. the final statement about repairability score is pointless as has already been covered in this thread. I do like some of the comments calling for recyclability score.

 

[diddl14]

Durability and recyclability are totally related to repairability as well.

Related yes, but total different measurements. Each one can score a 10 while the other 2 score 0.

 

[BellsWhistles]

I am not a fan of the look of this accessory. But, I don't hate iFixit for dissecting the device. After all, there is a side of me that is curious what makes things "tick". This allows me to see what's in it without destroying it myself. I guess some dissenters on this thread AREN'T curious.

 

[diddl14]

I can’t wait until the day you take your car for a cam belt change and they tell you that the engine is sealed and you need a new car.

If car engines would have evolved with the innovation speed of electronics devices, they wouldn't have a cam belt anymore. And for all I care could be sealed.

 

[gixxerfool]

I can’t wait until the day you take your car for a cam belt change and they tell you that the engine is sealed and you need a new car.

It's been like that for certain manufacturers on certain parts. Manufacturers will only sell a whole unit and not parts. This way they can extend a better warranty with that part since its bench tested before shipping, they can also recall the part for tear down and inspection on multi unit failures to determine a cause of failure.

 

[Jimmy James]

The Black Eyed Peas have the perfect song to market this product.

 

[ChrisLTD]

Put me down as happy that iFixit does these teardowns. It's cool to see what is packed into Apple devices and how it all fits together.

 

[gixxerfool]

If car engines would have evolved with the innovation speed of electronics devices, they wouldn't have a cam belt anymore. And for all I care could be sealed.

Some don't. They use direct drive gears. They tend to be very noisy. There's trade offs in everything.

 

[33man]

Can we use the battery to replace the one in the phone?

 

[konqerror]

If car engines would have evolved with the innovation speed of electronics devices, they wouldn't have a cam belt anymore. And for all I care could be sealed.

Hardly. The basic CMOS IC has been fundamentally the same since 1965. All we've done is make them smaller, and that's running out of steam. Lithium Ion batteries were first demonstrated in 1979. 36 years with all their limitations, and no practical advancement to date.

 

[naeS1Sean]

The entire site is a rating on whether or not they can sell you a kit. Here's a link: https://www.ifixit.com/

Perfect comeback to an extremely rude, yet typical comment.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

Three words: Made In China. Just looked up the OEM kit for a 2005 Honda Odyssey, $450. Internet price. Add dealer markup, that's maybe $600 in parts. Book time is 5 hours, $100/hr = $500. Spark plugs plus valve cover OEM is probably $100 in parts, plus an hour, so that's at least $200. On some cars, the oil pump is driven by the timing belt too, so that's an extra $200 too.

So you pay $1100 so you could save about 1/2 MPG over a timing chain. So going from 24 to 23.5 MPG over 100k miles is 90 gallons. At $3/gallon is $270. Proving that a whole-life design is cheaper.

And chains wear and stretch over time so they aren't perfect either. There are plenty of issues there. As I said, every single vehicle manufacture uses belts. Chains are only used on a small number of vehicles.

And it all matters less and less. The average American keeps their car for 10 years or less. With the average driver going 12,000 miles a year that's 120,000 miles so right about the time they need that service which is why most sell them and don't bother doing any of it.

Good job going off on an irrelevant tangent.

 

[whidbeyben]

As an engineer, I appreciate seeing what's inside anything. It appeals to my morbid curiosity. I'm sure no-one anticipates repairing an accessory (although I have personally repaired a Mophie case). I appreciate iFixit tearing apart all Apple's latest and sharing it with the world.

 

[ignatius345]

I wonder when iFixit will start to include a recyclability score to their product teardowns.

Again, another Apple release, another ifixit complaint piece about how they can't sell kits.

I've use ifixit guides several times to extend the life of Macs. I consult them when making a new purchase to see whether I'm going to be able to upgrade the RAM and hard drive on a machine myself down the road. What exactly is your problem with that? That they also sell tools? So ***** what. They're useful tools.

I appreciate that I can go to someone like iFixit or OWC and get parts and instructions to keep my stuff running. I put an SSD into my 2011 Mac Mini and made it vastly quicker and extended its useful life by probably 2 years. I used an iFixit guide to do that.

Or is your problem that you think they're "Apple bashing" because they're holding them accountable for unnecessarily locking down their products to keep you buying their very expensive upgrades at the time or purchase, or buying a new computer every two years?

 

[ignatius345]

How much do you think you're going to have to pay an expert to replace a battery? Likely as much or close to what the whole thing cost, especially 4 years from now when the battery needs to be replaced.

And why would it cost so much to replace the battery? Oh right, because it's built that way intentionally.