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Comment by dalke | Hacker News Reader

Oops, I didn't explain that part.

One of the joys of the iPod was that I didn't really have to worry about charging it on a regular schedule. It would hold its charge for a long time. Eg, I took it bike camping and listened to Hardcore History's multi-part episode on Genghis Khan over a couple of days, with no need to charge up.

That's no longer the case. The battery life has gotten worse over the last couple of years, likely from age. It now doesn't hold a charge for more than a couple of days. I suspect that if I buy another old iPod then its battery will also be 10 years old and not in good shape.

If I don't find a good option for new hardware, then used is definitely a backup alternative!

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Apple does show they will do battery service on a 5g nano for $59, so it might be worth checking. Ifixit has a detailed guide, you might find a third party iphone repair shop willing to do the work.

https://support.apple.com/ipod/repair/service/pricing

Nicely spotted (re: Apple battery service)!

I saw the iFixit rating of "very difficult" and its need for specialized tools I don't have (at https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPod+Nano+5th+Generation+Batter... ) and say "nope!"

There's nothing specialist there, you can get a small kit for a few dollars that has a set of small screwdriver heads and a spludger. That's all you need.

Give it a go, what's the worst that can happen (ok the worst is that you puncture the battery, don't do that).

That process requires softening adhesive with a heat gun, de-soldering and re-soldering the battery connections, and many very delicate steps.

If that's not a specialist battery replacement, I don't know what is.

It looks like it deserves the "very difficult" rating.

It's totally worthwhile to attempt your own repairs on stuff like this, but not everyone is motivated enough to do it. More importantly, it really does takes practice.

If you're not familiar with spudgers, loosening adhesive with heat, tiny parts/tools, the risk of failure and frustration are very high for a "one-off" project.

The small places that repair phones and laptop computers should have those tools, plus someone who knows how to use them, and should be able to replace the battery on an iPod.

I've used one to have the battery on an Android phone replaced.

I also agree on that.

You can easy convince them to look on iFixit and do it, because we (customers) just doesn't have working experience on repairs and right instruments.

A couple of years ago my wife's laptop died. I opened it up. One of the mounts pins for the switch broke. It's a simple switch mounted directly on the board (yech). Not hard to fix with a bit of solder, a steady hand, and a good light source.

I took it to a nearby fixit place. The immediate feedback I got was that since I opened it up they weren't going to take a look at it or even talk to me about it. Sort of an angry "why did you so dumb as to do that?" sort of thing. So that's not a place I plan to visit again, and it looked to be the best provisioned place in town, with an actual room above an TV/gadgets/etc. store and not a mall desk.

I ended up using superglue, borrowing a soldering iron from a friend's dad, and doing it myself. It was a crappy iron likely decades old. Good enough for 6-month fix for an near EOL laptop. Not for fixing an iPod.

So I've resigned to the fact that there probably isn't a decent fixit place in town. For that I'll have to visit the big city (pop. here is 60K people). Which means factoring in travel costs.

A local certified Apple repair shop would likely be able to do this for you. I'd recommend calling ahead to ask, and volunteering to order the battery yourself possibly. They will have the tools, expertise, and time.

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