[ipad] iPads out of warranty free repair?

[GuyJD]

Back in January 2017 I bought 18 iPad mini 2s, gathering them in this week to refresh them I've noticed 4 of them have swollen batteries to the point it has pushed the screen away from the body.

 

I'm about to contact Apple hoping that I can get these repaired for free instead of the £70 each their website is quoting as it seems to me that it must have been a faulty batch as they all came from the same purchase.

 

Has anyone here managed to get a free out of warranty repair out of Apple? What do you think my chances are?

[hallb15]

I'd expect zero chance of anything free from Apple. You might have more luck going through your supplier/reseller.

[elsiegee40]

If they had been bought for an individual you could have had a go under reasonable expectation of lifespan of the battery. It isn’t unreasonable to expect more than 23 months life out of a battery.

 

As these have been bought for the school, you don’t get the same protections. I would urge you to have a go, the worst they can say is no, but I suspect they’ll make you pay

[ICTDirect_Dave]

You're likely out of luck here. Though if you have to do t yourself it's relatively easy and cheap to do.

 

If there was anything known to be a fault with these devices then you'd expect to find it here: https://www.apple.com/uk/support/exchange_repair/

Nothing for iPads though I'm afraid.

[synaesthesia]

Apple admitting a design fault with some of their products? Heh!

[kidpressingbuttons]

Speak to your reseller- they may be able to help. Have the same issues here before.

 

I would expect the same of any company after the product has become out of warranty.

[bknaggs]

I spoke to our reseller about some of our iPad Mini 2s that did the same thing and got nowhere. I'm not sure if that is because we haven't bought anything from them since this purchase and moved our business elsewhere or not.

[jessica]

We had a couple of ipads batteries expand and the screens come away. Apple replaced the iPads free of charge as they were under 2 years old.

[GuyJD]

Still waiting to hear back from Apple and the re-seller is speaking to their supplier about it.

 

On further investigation I've found that the 4 iPads that have the issue are all from the same Kensington Sync and Charge cabinet, could it be that the cabinet is faulty and caused this if the charge controller is not shutting off the power to the iPad once it's charged?

 

https://technabob.com/blog/2013/01/03/kensington-charge-sync-ipad-cabinet/

[synaesthesia]

No, because the charging circuit is handled entirely internally, however the protection in Apple's charging circuits is woefully inadequate so it's possibly a faulty cable (less so the cab itself) or the USB connectors themselves, typically a short somewhere.

[dapaulio]

If it’s outside your warranty. Do it yourself. Changing a battery on an iPhone is relative straight forward so I can’t imagine an iPad being much harder.

[synaesthesia]

If it’s outside your warranty. Do it yourself. Changing a battery on an iPhone is relative straight forward so I can’t imagine an iPad being much harder.

 

It's near identical but the only gotcha is the screen; difficult to get them off in one piece. Lots of heat in the right places.

[GuyJD]

If it’s outside your warranty. Do it yourself. Changing a battery on an iPhone is relative straight forward so I can’t imagine an iPad being much harder.

I've become quite the expert at changing iPhone batteries and screens, being a father of 4 will do that to you but looking at how to's on changing the iPad mini battery it seems to be a lot of work with a high chance of breaking the glass so I think paying the £70 to Apple may be the best option.

 

I had a reply from Apple and they've said that there are no know faults with the batteries on these models and I'll have to pay for the out of warranty repair.

[HTCPCP]

The fact that there are 4 in one go usually implies there is an issue. Might be worth going into an apple store just before Christmas, and being a bit loud. Make it their problem, not yours. Batteries, no matter how old, should not swell!