So Apple's going to hate me for making this
video.
[Music]
[Intro]
So we all know that the back glass on the
new Apple iPhones are nearly impossible to
repair. Even Apple themselves charge $550
to repair the back glass on an iPhone 10,
and $600 to repair the back glass on an iPhone
11 and 11 Pro. It's because the adhesive on
their back glass is permanent. Now, they are
the only manufacturer that does this. Most
manufactures have an adhesive that melts away
when it gets hot. And you can remove the back
glass and repair the whole phone for like
$20.
Removing the back glass is so hard and so
impractical, that's why Apple charges $600
to replace it on the iPhone 11. In order for
a third party to remove the glass, it has
to be subject to extreme temperatures. I've
even attempted to take the iPhones to the
opposite end of the temperature spectrum and
use liquid nitrogen. Today though, I think
we found something that's more practical,
more repairable, and takes the pain out of
removing the back glass. And it's all done
with lasers.
*laser sounds from the future*
So this guy right here is an all-in-one multifunctional
laser machine that separates the back glass
panel from the frame. Laser is an acronym
for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission
of Radiation. The red laser you see on top
of the glass right now is mostly just to figure
out where the phone is located so we don't
start lasering the metal frame of the phone.
The laser is strong enough that it will actually
etch the metal so we're trying to stay on
just the glass surface. Once we switch over
to the wide laser, that's where it'll immediately
start burning underneath the glass and separating
the glass from the metal frame which is exactly
what we're after...saving ourselves about
$500 or $600.
Apple, if you're watching, you can totally
buy one of these yourselves and drop your
prices just a little bit.
Now as the laser is pulverizing all the adhesive
underneath the glass, there is quite a lot
of fumes that come out, so this is a vacuum
that sucks up the fumes from the burning adhesive,
puts it through a filter and gets rid of the
burning adhesive smell.
So this setup is from a company called Rewa,
and the software they have included with it
works with most every major manufacturer.
But today we're mostly worried about the iPhones
because those are the hardest to repair. Each
design is already preprogrammed into the machine,
all the way from the iPhone 10, the XR, the
8. The laser can separate the bezel from the
screen as well as the back cover. And the
back cover on the X is what we're doing today.
Once I have the laser cutout selected, make
sure the phone's set in the right spot, and
then as soon as I hit “mark” the real
laser starts going.
All the lasering you see happening right now
is happening in real time. None of this footage
is sped up, and the whole process only takes
about 5 or 10 minutes. One pass with the laser
underneath the glass gets rid of the bulk
of the adhesive and we can do a second pass
just to remove any of the remaining. After
that, we can start removing the glass shards
from the frame.
A laser is a concentrated light beam, and
that concentrated light energy can be absorbed
by some objects but not others. The laser
would pass through the glass just fine, but
as soon as it hits the adhesive or the paint
on the back of the glass, the energy is converted
to heat and starts pulverizing that paint
and the adhesive and turns it to dust. The
high powered the laser beam, the more damage
it can do.
And that is it. The laser has removed the
paint from underneath the glass so now the
glass can fall away from the phone...for the
most part. So you can see here the laser design
is cutting out the black portions and that
same design left the space for the wireless
charging pad, as well as some sensitive bits
down here along the bottom. But those sensitive
bits don't have adhesive behind it holding
it to the glass panel so we're just fine.
So now that the laser has run it's course,
we can take a look at the phone and see exactly
what the laser has done. Taking a thin metal
pry tool inbetween the glass and the frame
of the phone, I can slowly wedge the pieces
of glass out away from the back. Now in a
perfect world, if the glass was completely
crack-less, the laser would have gone through
and disintegrated the layer of adhesive between
the glass and the metal frame. You can see
the pulverized paint and adhesive getting
on my fingers. The laser has literally burned
everything underneath the glass to ash. But
where cracks appear in the glass, the laser
refracts and doesn't quite burn away the adhesive.
So there is still some prying to do, but it's
still much easier than any method we've tried
so far like extreme heat or liquid nitrogen.
Now Apple has designed their phone in a way
where the glass panel sits underneath the
camera lens, which poses a slight problem
for removal because that camera lens is welded
to the frame and we want to leave that intact
to make it an easier repair. I'll slowly chisel
out the glass from underneath that welded
camera lens. Depending on what glass you buy
there are third party glasses that fit underneath
this camera lens. I would recommend though
that you buy a glass back that fits over the
camera lens. I'll show you what I mean in
a second. It just makes the repair much easier
cuz you don't have to deal with that lens.
So obviously I'm not a professional, I'm just
showing that the machine actually works. Someone
who does this on a regular basis would do
a much cleaner job. But the technology is
pretty fascinating. So now we have all the
glass shards away from the phone. The phone
itself is still working, still functional
even though the back glass is removed. And
now it's time to add the new glass. It'll
be as good as new.
So when it comes time to select a piece of
glass for your phone, there's a couple different
options. One is that you can get the glass
with logo or without the logo. Apple's been
pretty anti-repair from the beginning, so
the vendors that sell the glass with the logo
tend to disappear. If you're a business doing
this on a regular basis, you might want to
buy the glass without the logo, that way there's
no copyright issues. It's effectively de-branded
you could say.
The second thing to look out for is the cutout
of the glass. This white panel here you can
see has the exact same cutout as the original
piece of glass, meaning we'd have to unweld
the camera lens, put the glass down, and then
glue the camera lens back into place. Which
is a much more difficult repair. So I recommend
buying the piece of glass that has a cutout
large enough to slip over top of the camera
lens, and then sits down snugly inside of
the frame. It's a much easier repair and no
one's really going to notice the difference.
The adhesive I'm gong to use to adhere the
back glass to the phone is called E-8000.
It's a multi-purpose jewelry adhesive that
adheres glass and metal. I'll apply it to
the metal of the phone in basically the same
pattern that Apple used initially, and then
do a super thin bead around the edge of the
phone before I clamp the glass down into place.
There should be some seepage out around the
sides of the phone. This will help with water
resistance even though I would not trust the
phone to be water resistant. And before the
adhesive cures, which is about 4-10 minutes,
we'll use some isopropyl alcohol to clean
up the seepage from underneath the glass.
We want to make sure most of the overflow
goo is gone before it has time to dry. It's
easier to clean up when it's wet.
You might be asking yourself, what about water
resistance? Even though we've applied the
glue in the same pattern that Apple applied
the original adhesive, water resistance isn't
something that you want to trust in the first
place, much less after it's been broken and
repaired. You should keep your phone away
from water either way.
One thing to keep in mind though with this
laser machine is that the more cracks or the
more shattered your phone is, the harder it
is for the laser to get through the glass.
If your glass is pretty much obliterated,
the laser is going to go down and get refracted
all over the place and not burn through the
adhesive underneath the glass. So the less
cracked your back is, the easier it is for
this machine to work. Either way though, this
machine brings the repair to a much more practical
and sustainable level. It's doable.
So each of these back glass panels costs about
$20. Now granted we did have to buy a $2000
machine, but for a repair shop doing a lot
of these on a regular basis, it's a substantial
improvement. And I'm a huge fan of where the
technology is headed. Lasers are pretty cool.
So obviously this repair is a bit more complex
than your average teardown and requires some
pretty expensive equipment, but it's good
to know that the repair is possible and that
there are people out there doing it for much
cheaper than Apple. Repair is an option.
As much fun as playing with liquid nitrogen
with the King of Random was, using this laser
separator is much easier. I have a feeling
these machines are going to get real popular
real quick. I'll leave a link for these down
in the video description so you can check
out the current pricing. As with all technology,
I'm sure the price is going to go down as
time progresses.
If you have any questions leave them down
in the comments. Come hang out with me on
Instagram and Twitter. And thanks a ton for
watching. I'll see you around.
These right here are all Apple Watch displays.
Every single one of them. My buddy's done
so many Apple Watch repairs that he turns
them into artwork.
