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Comment by constantcrying | Hacker News Reader

Modern Iphones all contain a glue seal between the back plate and the rest of the body (See: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPhone+14+Battery+Replacement/1... if you do not believe me).

Phones contain these adhesives to use less screws and to keep them water tight. Batteries are behind that glue seal.

This is an engineering necessity and not something done to make them hard to repair.

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OK. We literally repair these for a living. You and I may have differing definitions of “glue”, but the water seal gasket is not what I would call glue. It is a sticky gasket that is peelable and removable. It can be replaced, and in fact we replace it when we do repairs. Think of it like double-sided tape.

If you watch videos of people doing iPhone screen replacements, you can watch them peel it off easily and then replace it when they put the new screen on.

I am a bit surprised that someone would want to argue with a person who runs shops that do this for a living, but maybe this explanation will help other folks understand.

Also, I can’t reply to your other comment, but the iPhone 14 that is sold in the United States does not have a SIM tray.

>It is a sticky gasket that is peelable and removable.

It is a gasket with a sticky substance to keep the back from falling off. This sticky substance is, as far as I am aware called "glue".

I do not know what your point is. If you want to say "phone backs are secured by sticky gaskets" instead of "phone backs are glued down", be my guest. Who cares? Still, it is done for a particular purpose and shouldn't be legislated away.

>If you watch videos of people doing iPhone screen replacements, you can watch them peel it off easily and then replace it when they put the new screen on.

I am aware.

Their point was that you were saying a thing confidently that was not true. I'm trying to figure out what your point is, other than pretending like you have inside information about the necessity of glue that isn't there.

What was I wrong about? What do you think the sticky substance on the gaskets is? Couldn't possibly be glue. My point is the phones are glued for a good engineering reason.

I suppose the point might be that if the speculation is that the phone is being “glued shut” to inhibit repairs, there are other glues and epoxies that would be far more effective at the task than the ones chosen for the waterproofing seal or battery mounting.

That definitely helps my understanding, and thank you for it. Based on my previous understanding, that the adhesive needs to be heated to release. Is this true of the newer models with the gasket, or only the older "glued" models?

When you say "we do replace it when we do repairs", do you mean that you place the original gasket back into location, or that the original gasket is replaced with a new gasket?

It definitely helps to heat the phone for a bit to loosen up the gasket. We have a blue heat mat that helps with this, as do most repair shops.

I had to go back and look since my knowledge dates back to around the iPhone 4/4S (we've been running our shops since 2014.) Only the original iPhone was glued together. The gaskets started with the iPhone 6s, to my memory. The original gasket is peelable, so it typically gets destroyed when you open the phone, but they are cheap and pretty easy to replace. If you buy a DIY replacement iPhone screen, it will usually come with it.

>I am a bit surprised that someone would want to argue with a person who runs shops that do this for a living, but maybe this explanation will help other folks understand.

By how many $ will this affect your 'living'? # serious question.

You mean the passing of Right to Repair? Completely unknown at this point. We're hoping it will be helpful to raise awareness of independent repair and offer more choice to people who want to get their devices repaired.

> This is an engineering necessity and not something done to make them hard to repair.

That's not entirely true. My Galaxy S8 has a user-removable SIM tray, and yet it's rated IP68.

Water has some viscosity, so it won't flow through tight gaps unless appropriate pressure is applied.

How is this relevant? Which phone does not have a "user removable SIM tray". Usually they are sealed as well. And in any case, how does this matter for the back of the phone?

He's pointing out that tight tolerances and/or non-adhesive gaskets exist. Glue/adhesive gaskets aren't strictly required to make a water-tight seal.

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