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What's the real reason that laptop batteries are made not-accessible?

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james_s:
I don't really get why people say the iPhone battery is non-replaceable. I've replaced batteries in a handful of them and it has never required any heroics. It isn't planned obsolescence, it's a simple matter of aesthetics. They want to make a thin, sleek device without any external hatches or doors. Whether that is desirable to a particular user is another matter but that's the reason they do it, and given how well these thin sleek devices are selling and the number of manufactures who follow, it seems to be a sound business decision.

Ben321:

--- Quote from: Stray Electron on December 03, 2021, 12:41:01 am ---  To answer the OP's question and not speculate as most here are doing; part of the reason for not making batteries accessible is planned obsolescence pure and simple. yeah, many of the people on this forum can open a cell phone or a laptop and replace the battery, but for 99% of the population once the battery dies, the owner's pitch them and replace them with a new one.  The manufacturers can also point to other issues such as warranties and that the user might injury themselves trying to replace a battery but like the old saying says, "Follow the money".

--- End quote ---

Planned obsolescence means what exactly? That the company has no incentive to make it last longer, so they make it cheaper instead, and that inevitably results in it being less reliable so that it fails sooner? Or does it mean that the company builds things with intentionally sub-optimal parts and components with the specific intent of making the equipment fail early?

And regarding batteries not being accessible, can't you just make the case as tight as possible around the battery, allowing the battery to still be removable but with a very tight fit? Why glue it in place so that it can't be removed? Sounds to me like computer manufacturers teaming up with law enforcement to make it harder for criminals to fully power off their device, and thus making it harder to hide any evidence that may have been present on that device which would be wiped out in the event of a full power off.

Also I don't know if it's considered planned obsolescence if it can still be replaced by a technician. Planned obsolescence is usually only if it's absolutely impossible to replace, forcing the person to buy a completely new computer.

Ben321:

--- Quote from: james_s on December 03, 2021, 02:37:30 am ---I don't really get why people say the iPhone battery is non-replaceable. I've replaced batteries in a handful of them and it has never required any heroics. It isn't planned obsolescence, it's a simple matter of aesthetics. They want to make a thin, sleek device without any external hatches or doors. Whether that is desirable to a particular user is another matter but that's the reason they do it, and given how well these thin sleek devices are selling and the number of manufactures who follow, it seems to be a sound business decision.

--- End quote ---

I also like slim devices, but I prefer it if those slim devices have a back that can be removed, so that the battery can be removed.

james_s:

--- Quote from: Ben321 on December 03, 2021, 02:40:02 am ---And regarding batteries not being accessible, can't you just make the case as tight as possible around the battery, allowing the battery to still be removable but with a very tight fit? Why glue it in place so that it can't be removed? Sounds to me like computer manufacturers teaming up with law enforcement to make it harder for criminals to fully power off their device, and thus making it harder to hide any evidence that may have been present on that device which would be wiped out in the event of a full power off.

Also I don't know if it's considered planned obsolescence if it can still be replaced by a technician. Planned obsolescence is usually only if it's absolutely impossible to replace, forcing the person to buy a completely new computer.

--- End quote ---

Can you give an example of even one computer or smartphone where replacing the battery is "absolutely impossible"? I'm not aware of one. Even devices that have the battery glued in it can still be replaced, even if you have to take it to a technician that is properly equipped. Some batteries are held in by adhesive, but they are not potted in epoxy, they can still be replaced. Most people who buy these sort of devices don't care if they can replace the battery themselves, there is no business reason to invest the engineering and materials in making a robust mechanism to make the battery easily accessible.

Ben321:

--- Quote from: james_s on December 03, 2021, 02:47:35 am ---
--- Quote from: Ben321 on December 03, 2021, 02:40:02 am ---And regarding batteries not being accessible, can't you just make the case as tight as possible around the battery, allowing the battery to still be removable but with a very tight fit? Why glue it in place so that it can't be removed? Sounds to me like computer manufacturers teaming up with law enforcement to make it harder for criminals to fully power off their device, and thus making it harder to hide any evidence that may have been present on that device which would be wiped out in the event of a full power off.

Also I don't know if it's considered planned obsolescence if it can still be replaced by a technician. Planned obsolescence is usually only if it's absolutely impossible to replace, forcing the person to buy a completely new computer.

--- End quote ---

Can you give an example of even one computer or smartphone where replacing the battery is "absolutely impossible"? I'm not aware of one. Even devices that have the battery glued in it can still be replaced, even if you have to take it to a technician that is properly equipped. Some batteries are held in by adhesive, but they are not potted in epoxy, they can still be replaced. Most people who buy these sort of devices don't care if they can replace the battery themselves, there is no business reason to invest the engineering and materials in making a robust mechanism to make the battery easily accessible.

--- End quote ---

Simplest design is to make sure that the farthest back component in the laptop's case (closest to the removable panel back panel of the case, so as to have direct access to it after the panel is removed) is the battery. How hard is that? Just make sure there are no PCBs between the battery and the removable panel. Not exactly a major engineering achievement. If it's NOT the closest thing to the removable panel, then you can be sure the companies are trying to deter the end user from trying to remove it.

Regarding your statement about epoxy, it doesn't even need to be fully potted in epoxy. Just glue it in place with epoxy (much harder to remove than even super-glue). Only a few drops of epoxy are needed to glue the battery to whatever it's supposed to be mounted up against, and it's not removable by any conventional means. You literally need either a heat gun or some special solvent to remove that epoxy. You can't just pull hard enough to remove the battery with epoxy. Whatever it's epoxied to will break long before the epoxy itself breaks, if you just try to pull it out by brute force.

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