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Spent $40 on a heat gun for phone repairs and it was a total waste | DIY Tech Fixes - nhfree.com

Spent $40 on a heat gun for phone repairs and it was a total waste

I thought a cheap heat gun would help me replace my old phone's battery, but it just melted the plastic frame and made things worse. Anyone else get burned by buying budget tools for delicate fixes?

3 comments

3 Comments

nathan_hill602mo ago

the_finley said "a few inches of distance does the same thing" but I gotta push back on that a little... distance helps for sure but it's not the same as a controlled low temp. Once you get too far away you're just heating the whole phone case and not the battery under the glass, which makes the glue take forever to soften. I wrecked a Samsung that way because I held it too far and ended up heating the plastic edges more than the battery area... Also with single temp guns they fluctuate a lot inside, so even with distance you can get hot spots if you stop moving for half a second. A variable temp gun set to 180 - 200 is way more forgiving even if you hold it still for a bit. Just my two cents from trying both ways...

spencer_hayes712mo ago

A variable temperature heat gun is the way to go if you try this again. I picked one up for around $30 that has a dial, and you really only need the low setting around 150-200 degrees for phone screens or batteries. Also get some good quality playing cards or plastic pry tools to slide under the battery once it's warm. The cheap single temp guns get way too hot too fast and melt everything. Your mileage may vary but that's been my experience after messing up a tablet screen the same way you described.

the_finley2mo ago

Nah @spencer_hayes71, I gotta disagree a bit. I've actually had better luck with a cheap single temp heat gun, just holding it further away and moving it around a lot. Dialing in exact temps feels overkill when a few inches of distance does the same thing without melting anything, lol.