Chosen Solution
Hi All I live in Australia so I cannot purchase the iFixit adhesive remover :-( Anyone got any tips for making battery removal on the retina MacBooks pros easier? Any alternatives to the iFixit adhesive remover that are available in Australia? Thanks in advance!
Warm the top case with a hair dryer. Careful not to melt the keys. Then squirt acetone between the battery pack and the housing and use a playing card to slice through the adhesive. Repeat for every battery pack. When you’re done removing the battery, let the housing cool down then use a chisel X-acto blade #17 to remove the adhesive from the housing. Wipe any residue with acetone and you’re ready to install the new battery.
The iFixit kit uses acetone. I use methanol. Either will work fine.
Check out aldon-chem website and search for sds, or google “aldon chem sds”. Chemical name “AA-0051”. The sds says it’s 99.8% acetone, 0.1% Cherry Almond Fragrance and 0.1% FD&C Blue #1 (C.I. No. 42090). It’s all public information.
BEHOLD, THE MAGIC SOLUTION. Take some Dental Floss, a Qtip, and GOO GONE. Position your dental floss behind the battery. Pull to one side. Wet the Qtip with Goo Gone generously, hard to get too much. Pull. Wet the other side of the floss with Goo Gone. Pull. Repeat this process for 30 minutes in this case. You’ll start to feel when that Goo Gone is getting in there nice and good. You sometimes need to use a little bit of force. WARNING: Do not pour the Goo Gone while the Mac is upside down — remember your LCD Monitor is delicately sitting underneath this all! I saw some pour soul report they melted their screen and had to buy a new Mac. I stood mine up on the side and flossed it. Great technique.
I just removed all 6 batteries from a Macbook Pro Retina in 10 minutes with nothing but a piece of twine! Tuck the twine under each battery starting at the top and “cut” the adhesive down to the bottom pulling back and forth in a sawing motion. I wrapped the twine’s ends around screwdrivers to make handles. Brilliant! (saw it on YouTube)
I used picture hanging wire, wrapped it around my fingers in gloves, got underneath the battery and bam, worked like a charm.
WD-40 or mineral spirits is the most effective adhesive remover I’ve ever used. It works better than acetone, since it doesn’t evaporate away. Just make sure you clean off any residual with alcohol or or nothing will stick to it.
i had to replace one of these and poked around the internet for easy ways to unstick the adhesive on the battery. i had a little hesitation to be honest, but had all of the solutions at the ready. tell you what, a $ .50 plastic putty scraper from the hardware store knocked it out in about 5 minutes. no heat, not chemicals, no wires “sawing” at it, just a bit of consistent wiggle and pressure with the scraper. crazy easy. highly recommended. i did use acetone and a razor blade to clean up the residue of the old adhesive. but nothing fancy to pull the battery at all. cheers.
Hi everyone, I had a spark while I was using a very thin metal spudger. If you make a hole or leak any battery it will start serious fire and burn the whole thing. Specifically two middle pieces are in very odd location to peel. I’m lucky that it was just a spark and smell with bit gas. Didn’t start fire. End up taking to local repair shop who has equipments to safely remove the battery.
