The battery in my wife's iPhone 11 was starting to die. A quick bit of research led me to ifixit.com. For $93 bucks (shipping included), I was able to buy the battery, tools, and a screen protector. They sell a basic tool kit with the battery, but here is what I know. Tools matter. The right tools save a lot of headache and bad words. Get the tools. So I did, and I'm glad.
I could not tell for sure that the basic tool kit included all of the driver bits I needed; plus I wanted a fancy little microwavable warming pouch that was included in a bigger tool kit, so I ended up ordering a tool kit that included that, had additional drivers, and also included tools that were redundant to those that came with the battery. I probably could have saved $18 and passed on this extra tool kit. However, I also ordered their "Anti-Clamp" tool and I've very glad I did. This thing helps a whole lot to get past the hurdle of separating the screen from the body of the phone. There are instructions on how to do this with an included single suction cup and a pick, but I just was able to get this phone to crack open with the Anti-Clamp. I used the microwavable iOpener to try to help heat the sealant/gasket/adhesive that holds the screen to the body, but I could not tell that it helped much at all. I ended up resorting to a hair dryer on high for several seconds. Between the hair dryer and cranking on the Anti-Clamp more than I really wanted to, "Mellon"... the screen and body separated. My .02, if you're gonna do this, skip the iOpener, but definitely get the Anti-Clamp (and have a Hair dryer handy). Also, it may be worth buying an extra gasket that adheres the screen to the body. It is kind of a pain in the buttocks to apply correctly and is really easy to mess up.
There are two other challenges that are likely present across other phones. The screws that are used inside the phone are super tiny. Think of a tiny straight pin with most of the pin part snipped off. The heads on these things are 1 millimeter or less across and the threaded part is in the 1MM range. Super tiny. Don't drop one. Which gets us to the next challenge. There are a variety of these tiny fasteners used; they have different heads and are varying lengths. Many are not interchangeable. I could not tell most of them apart by looking - even after they were out. You *must* devise a method of keeping straight which fastener goes in what hole. I did three things. One, when I got to a set of multiple unique screws holding one bracket, I used Sharpie markers and paint pens to color the head of the fastener and the adjacent metal. This worked okay. I also used the little trays molded into the tool packaging to keep the fasteners separate and put the screws in sequential trays as they were removed; then worked backwards for re-assembly. Looking back, it might have been smart to label the trays as to what sub-assembly the fasteners went with. Ifixit sells a magnetic mat that I would buy if I did this again. You can write on it like a whiteboard. I would place each screw in the same orientation as it was in the phone, and then put the corresponding bracket with them with the screw holes aligned with the appropriate fastener (if that makes sense). Again, in an effort to get the right screw back in the right hole. The differences between them are nearly too subtle for me to tell by looking - don't get them mixed up.
All told, the battery replacement took a little over two hours. I set up a dedicated, clean workspace for this and tried to minimize distractions. I used both the YouTube video, and the written instructions on the Ifixit website, as a guide. This was not really that hard, just super fiddly. And it was pretty satisfying to get it done. The upside is that now I should have most of what I need to replace the battery in my iPhone when it starts to die.
I had a good experience with Ifixit. Good (email) comms, decently fast shipping, and they sent a follow up email to make sure my stuff had arrived. If you look around the website a little, they seem to be true believers in the idea of minimizing waste and helping people stick it to the man by repairing their stuff. (I'm all about it!) The founder appeared on the Netflix show, Buy Now. Overall, pretty happy I did this myself.
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