r/SteamDeckModded • u/MT42019 • Aug 28 '26
Hardware Mod Valve, there was a very simple solution for this, just saying...
Ultra thin velcro, 3 stripes, mirrored to the battery. MUCH easier to take off and replace than the semi-permanent adhesive they used 🫠 Had to throw away a perfectly fine battery but trying out the upgraded LCD battery so hopefully it would be worth it.
Currently doing an all around mod to my steam deck, will keep y'all posted! 🙏🏼
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u/Wormminator Aug 28 '26
Just holding it in place by friction and some soft pads would also work.
No reason to keep it in its EXACT position, down to the nano meter.
I never got why batteries are glued down these days.
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u/driftingpyros Aug 28 '26
A couple of squirts if glue are inevitably cheaper at scale
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u/Wormminator Aug 28 '26
Id rather spend 5 dollars more and not have glue.
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Aug 28 '26 edited Sep 04 '26
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u/Wormminator Aug 28 '26
Thats what I maint.
I would prefer to spend 5 dollars more for my steam deck if that meant it was easier to service.
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Aug 28 '26 edited Sep 04 '26
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u/MT42019 Aug 31 '26
You do also understand the cost of making a device is often significantly cheaper than selling it right?
It's about rights to repair and user convenience. Back in 2000s if your phones battery stopped working you would just pop off the back and replace it without any tools needed. It really used to be that simple.
I'm just trying to bring that simplicity to the steam deck. Batteries now are a bit more reliable (albeit more or less the same technology), but IF I need to swap the battery, I ain't taking whole components out and running around with a heat gun and ordering adhesive tapes. But that's just me 🤷🏻♂️.
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Aug 31 '26 edited Sep 04 '26
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u/MT42019 Aug 31 '26
First off apologies if you felt offended. All I'm doing is sharing what I found to be a simpler solution, Atleast for me velcro works as a reusable solution. I'm still not done and need to show results but the thing is if you go on ifixit right now, they literally say once you remove the battery, you have to say bye-bye to it, perfectly good battery because it's been physically tinkered with and you're not recommended to charge/discharge it anymore. Which is fair, considering how much wrestling you need to do to take it off. Regardless of heating/floss technique/etc etc. If you've opened your deck, you would know for a fact, the hardest thing adhered IS the battery. For no reason. There's even people here in the comments mentioning they rather friction hold it. I wasn't totally onboard with that but even that's a better solution than semi-permanent adhesive.
When I did this, I was like, the average user who wants to modify this shouldn't have to go through with this. Something about gluing a thing as delicate and more advanced as a battery as you said yourself just doesn't sit right with the modding community. And I hope you can see countless people have said this on literally every topic regardinv she'll swap of SD, so it's not just me.
Sure it's not as simple anymore, but that's the whole point. If this thing needs repair, I wanna quickly be able to change things about. I think that should be the case with any device but we're way too far away from that ideology now with modern tech. Switch is the same but the adhesive is a bit easier. This, took, hours.
Plus, something about heating a battery, even lightly just doesn't sit right to me. Nor does using prying tools, even though they're plastic. Add a spicy pillow scenario like some people have had on Reddit, then you better be doing it in a bunker and hazmat suit. And that's a risk that could happen. Which means it can happen.
I ain't trying to argue with no one, this is an idea I wanted to share and I'm gonna use my own SD to test if it works or not, so far from a physical and practical standpoint, it works. I ain't trying to condescending no one. Even though some opinionated bros seem to have very negative and hateful views on velcro without testing it right from the start for some reason lol.
Again, I really think Valve can come up with a better solution. As someone mentioned electrically adhered tape is a thing that Apple has experimented with. It all comes down to priorities and cost for corp/user. Imo, it's easier to allow people to order parts themselves and fix what is theirs rather than go through the hassle of sending/repair/shipping which costs companies and people more money and time for the consumer.
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u/SoaringElf Aug 28 '26
glueing is a cheap and effective way to keep the battery from moving and potentially chaffing against metal components inside a device.
Also many things that are a non issue in work flow for an individual are usually huge time/resource eaters in an industrial enviroment.
It's all a trade off
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u/BlackRedDead Hardware modder Aug 30 '26
most sane comment here - ppl forget that whatever method applied, needs to work out in scales of thousands to millions of units produced, with failing rates kept as low as possible - glue is indeed the easyest solution to a lot of problems, but i agree Valve could have designed it better, they are almost there already with the aluminium casing and a flexible cable as connector - the glue might have been the cheapest and most reliable solution to secure that battery, but not exactly the best - for heat dissipation it has active airflow over it and the aluminium casing - 2 strips of foam on the back would have been enough to secure it in place - might cost a bit more in manufacturing, needs QA, sure - but still doable.
I hope if they ever design a SD2, they rethink that and maybe even design a battery carry to be changeable from the outside - so that you can easily snooze, change the battery and resume - would add a bit of weight due to the needed material for the housing, and a lot more QA to ensure tolerances are good enough, but would make things so much easyer!
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u/MT42019 Aug 31 '26
Yes!! 🙌🏼
Atleast for the time being I'm trying to bring that changeability to the current SD. Especially if I need to test out different batteries. I won't need any tools other than a screw to take off the back shell.
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u/MT42019 Aug 28 '26
THIS! With the case on top you can even just put a thin layer of foam on the back shell and with friction it just holds it in place. Any company that glues the battery in 2026 is taking a huge step back! I had to throw away one of the batteries just because it was difficult to remove and even though it looked fine, ifixit says you must replace them battery when you take it out 🫠 this kind of e-waste could have easily been avoided.
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Aug 28 '26 edited Sep 04 '26
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u/julian_vdm Aug 28 '26
Or...Literally three screws like almost every laptop (aside from Apple) in the last decade.
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u/Tygronn Aug 30 '26
The, if I'm getting my models right, 2019 and 2020 MacBook Air's did both adhesives and screwed in the battery. I never understood the need for both in there, the screws seemed fine.
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u/MT42019 Aug 31 '26
I think either screw or another method. Adhesive/glue in 2026 is a step in the wrong direction. I think it's reasonable to use adhesive for any component that is least likely to break one day. A battery which basically goes through cycles every single day and is charged/discharged regularly needs to be monitored always and also needs to be repairable fairly easily.
The laptop batteries which were drop in with locks weren't great and were bulky af but I think atleast it was easy to change them!
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u/Tygronn Sep 02 '26
All of the laptops I repair at my current job are screwed in aside from one that has this neat little plastic tab that holds it in and just presses down easily to let the battery slide out. It slides in with a nice little click. I understand when you get down to phone and such sized that gets a little more complex but yea I don't really see anything wrong with screws in most cases. There has to be a better way than adhesives. Having to use a string to cut the other Macbook batteries out was sketchy at best and a fire hazard at worst. I never caused a fire but I heard of several. But the string method is actually the official Apple way.
On those Macbook Air's I had issues with the adhesives breaking while removing them. These were designed to be similar to Command Strips where you pull on the tab and they just kinda let go and everything's great. Except sometimes they break off halfway through (or sometimes just immediately) and now you have to get a tool in there and wedge the battery out. There was a thin metal sheet between the battery itself and the rest of the laptop so you weren't poking directly at the battery but you're still applying pressure in ways that aren't intended....... and if it's puffed it's certainly not good to apply pressure there.
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u/MT42019 Sep 03 '26 edited Sep 03 '26
Similarly, some people used the floss method to pry off the glue on the battery on steam deck but you're right, it's just a bit sketchy. The thing is, if a chassis is designed to accommodate a battery chassis to be screwed on to, it can almost have no downsides. Maybe just a 2-4mm size difference for the back shell. As it is the Steam deck is huge and heavy, so imo it's not a big trade off for aiming to make it even easier to repair. I think screens are harder to redesign as screwable in a chassis and I guess that's a fair trade off but batteries are more critical in my opinion incase something goes wrong or it starts to inflate and they need to be able to be quickly taken off.
Yeah that's the issue with pull tabs, sometimes when you pull them if they've been under alot of heating cycles they can lose their elasticity and break 😐.
I really hope Steam Deck 2 takes this into consideration!
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u/Erchevara Aug 31 '26
The ROG Ally is smaller and has screws on the battery, if you want a 1:1 comparison with the same form factor.
I hate Asus for their batteries, all my Asus devices had bad batteries, but the ROG Ally is great in that regard.
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u/MT42019 Aug 31 '26
If it's portable, it's gotta be easy to take apart or reliable enough not to need to (phones). That's just my opinion.
Portable devices go through the most wear and tear.
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u/MrAwsOs Aug 30 '26
4 square/round small size of double sided tape on every corner would make it safe and sound.
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u/Erchevara Aug 31 '26
Because they're sensitive. That thin foil might degrade in time and then it starts sizzling.
But glue is not the solution.
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u/astro143 Aug 28 '26
I approve of the easy to use pull tabs more companies have been using in phones over the last few years, and major props to apple for their electrically adhesive adhesive that debonds with electric current.
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u/MT42019 Aug 30 '26
If only those were reusable/versatile. It won't ever be used on a massive scale.
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u/FinallyStarborn Aug 28 '26
2 strips of velcro is probably about 30 times thicker than the strip of glue and far less stable. If you wanna do it, go nuts, I guess, but as production scale? naaahhhh
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u/MT42019 Aug 30 '26
30 times?? Where did you get that number from bruh? Lol This is THIN velcro. The hooks are thin and together they make around 2mm. Plus, I ain't gonna be wanting to need a heat gun ready everytime I wanna swap batteries, that's just me.
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u/kaned_84 Aug 29 '26
Użycie rzepów miało by tylko jeden jedyny plus - zapach steam decka po rozgrzaniu byłby jeszcze lepszy 😂
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u/Necessary-Way59 Aug 29 '26
I know they chose a really ass backwards way of keeping it in there but velcro is just impractical. The logical solution was having the battery live in a metal or plastic tray that gets screwed in kinda like how iPhone batteries live in a metal casing
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u/BlackRedDead Hardware modder Aug 30 '26
ehm, upgraded "LCD" battery? - have i missed something?
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u/HotSeatGamer Aug 31 '26
The SteamDeck LCD is the first version of the SteamDeck with an LCD screen. It has a lower capacity battery than the newer SteamDeck with the OLED screen. 40wh vs 50wh.
I think the upgrade is just putting the battery from a SteamDeck OLED into a SteamDeck LCD, but I'm not 100% positive, so please confirm before trying it.
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u/BlackRedDead Hardware modder Aug 31 '26
yea, i'm aware of that - but not about an "upgraded LCD Battery" - afaik the OLED 50Wh battery doesn't fit in size, as to why valve had to resize the frame and thus some parts are not interchangable between LCD&OLED due to changed dimensions.
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u/MT42019 Aug 31 '26
You think wrong unfortunately lol it's Decksight but I have to test everything first and will make a follow up!
I think OLED battery won't work with LCD battery but haven't checked it! Most OLED components are incompatible with LCD AFAIK.
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u/Awestenbeeragg Sep 01 '26
Yeah kinda confused on your wording. Making it sound like decksight also released an upgraded battery. I've got decksight installed in mine and running games at 1080 certainly annihilates the battery.
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u/MT42019 Sep 01 '26
Well this isnt really the post for my upgrades. Just wanted to show the battery attachment :)
Interesting, because he did say that the battery usage was not that bad! I'll need to test this!
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u/hellsing73 Aug 28 '26
Got a link to the upgraded battery? I think I might be needing to replace mine soon.
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u/MT42019 Aug 30 '26
This is from AliExpress 😬 Not sharing any links until I put it under the workload first and then I'll share it if it's any good!
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u/HenricusKunraht Aug 29 '26
How often are you removing the battery that you need to put velcro??
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u/MT42019 Aug 30 '26
As many times as I'll get a spicy pillow
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u/HenricusKunraht Aug 30 '26
How many times has it happened?
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u/MT42019 Aug 31 '26
I heard it selects it's victims at random and guess what, I ain't waiting around with a glued battery to find out 🏃🏻♂️.
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u/Muted_Government5143 Aug 29 '26
Velcro lol. I just used ultra thin double sided tape. So much better then fucking Velcro lol.
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u/Leon_XIII Aug 28 '26
The Velcro does seem smart but does it increase how much space is taken up?? I could be wrong but I hope this wouldn't mean it needs like a 3D printed back plate.
Also would any of the heat produced by the steam deck make the adhesive on the Velcro weak over time?
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u/MT42019 Aug 30 '26
I tried test fitting it with screws and also putting an eXtreme rate case and it closes, maybe a bit snug but works okay for me. If anything goes wrong it'll just be a matter of popping it out without any other components moving so that works for me!
I actually superglued the looped part of the velctro slightly on the corners to the metal chassis, to hopefully avoid pealing! Will report how it worked!
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u/Scrubslayer0104 Aug 29 '26
When you mention "upgraded lcd battery", it is exactly the same as the original or does it offer longer battery life?
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u/st-shenanigans Aug 30 '26
Battery adhesive pull tabs.
Velcro is either going to compress the battery or fill space meant for airflow
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u/MT42019 Aug 30 '26
I mean sure but then you have to replace them every single time you have to swap a battery.
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Aug 31 '26
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u/HotSeatGamer Aug 30 '26
I believe the adhesive acts as a thermal conductor to the metal frame. It's a small amount of thermal transfer but it's better than velcro. Reduced the potential for hotspots is good for the battery and helps it last longer.
It would be nice if it was easier to remove though. I love seeing the pull tabs on adhesive strips.
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u/MT42019 Aug 30 '26
If anything the velcro creates tiny space to dissipate heat better than a glue-on adhesive would.
Pull tabs are good but everytime you fix something you'd need new ones. I want to be able to take things apart and back together without running around for tools. Especially when I want to test things.
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u/HotSeatGamer Aug 31 '26
Air is so bad at transferring heat that it's basically an insulator, unless the air is flowing. I'm not sure if you'll get much air flow in that area, but I do know the air flows around the metal frame, cooling as it goes.
I'm not sure it's enough to make much of a difference, but if it were me I'd at least watch the temps during heavy gaming to see if there might be a problem.
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u/MT42019 Aug 31 '26
So, in a small device like this, what are we talking in terms of temperature difference? Is it 1 or 2 °C? Mind you anyhow there's a fan there and a case with ventilation holes. And normally you hold the device upright and heat always travels to the top. Doesn't sound like a trade off when you consider everything.
Last thing I want in a few years is a spicy pillow battery and then trying to figure out how to remove it with all kinds of tools and not risk a fire. Sounds like a fair way to avoid that.
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u/MT42019 Aug 31 '26
UPDATE:
Didn't know there were so many Velcro haters 😆😂 But damn. Thanks for everyone's input 💀🙏🏼.
Worry not, I'm gonna put my device to the tests to see how it does so we can all learn from this. Gonna check it when charging, using, general temperatures and longevity wise! At the end of the day this is a practical experiment on my own SD. Will make an update as soon as I finished putting it all back together!
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u/zTubeDogz Sep 01 '26
Velcro doesn’t meant to secure things in place just to “hold” them together. Also in manufacturing applying one layer of adhesive is much cheaper than building a line just to apply adhesive, place velcro on the battery and do the same with the case. It is like 4 extra steps and a hell lot of alignment issues. Tbh the best you could do is provably screws.
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u/Tricky_Wear_321GO Aug 28 '26
Im sure the multi-billion dollar company full of expert technicians who get paid insanely well and have insanely laxed work already considered this...
There is likely more than a few reasons 99.9% of things don't use velcro straps. Between the bulk they add in spacing. To the cost. To the unreliability.