JBL Flip 3 Battery Replacement

Written By: College Student
  • Comments: 72
JBL Flip 3 Battery Replacement

Difficulty

Difficult

Steps

8

Time Required

35 - 40 minutes

Introduction

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    • Remove plastic outer housing using hands or a standard spudger.

    • Important! Note the three alignment pins on the inner part of the housing. When reassembling, take special care to line these up and insert the pins into the receivers on the chassis prior to snapping the edges into place.

    I used a two spudger method. I got one in and used it to keep the outer housing away while I got another one in. Much easier. However, hold off on prying one side away until you get the other side loose.

    wolfram.wow -

    warning this tutorial is majorly flawed read all comments b4 u go any further

    Adam Turner -

    Yes you Said that what i thought all the time onnthis forum

    BuFu -

    If your JBL Flip 3 is the same sub-model that I have, a lot of this tutorial and pics will be wrong: the battery comes out easily by removing the plastic housing that covers the buttons and lights. I found a good video that exactly described how to disassemble and replace the battery for my model here.

    JohnD -

    Found an even better video for my sub-model of the JBL Flip 3 (too much time had passed to edit my previous comment): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynOI-OMT...

    JohnD -

    If you destroy the protective cover in the process, here’s a fix:

    https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/645...

    Tmpx64 -

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    • Loosen the two screws on each side and then carefully remove the outer frame to expose the inner components of the speaker.

    • Depending on your model, you may need to remove more screws along the sides or the spine.

    Remove 2 screws on both sides first to be able to remove the frame.

    diffraction101 -

    Also, with my Flip 3, I had to remove 6 screws alongside the spine of the outer frame.

    Darrell Schmidt -

    I had this version/problem as well.

    wolfram.wow -

    I cannot remove the 6 screws along the spine :( They are stuck.

    Joel Cruz -

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    • Remove the 7 8.9mm Phillips #00 screws fastening the two side passive drivers. Then remove the side passive drivers themselves. Be sure to set them somewhere safe to ensure they aren’t lost.

    May be less than 7 screws.

    If you see the battery cable after removing one “side passive drive”, you may not need to remove the other. See Step 5.

    If you do remove both ends, look for them being keyed. In my case one had a slot and the other had a tiny button, both of which fit to the chassis.

    Darrell Schmidt -

    On my version, I found that a #0 Phillips worked better.

    wolfram.wow -

    I also used #0

    Daniel Birmingham -

    I also found that on my version I only needed to remove the passive driver from the end with the lanyard hole.

    wolfram.wow -

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    • Remove silicone button covers by peeling back the silicone covering. This will expose the circuit board. Disconnect the ribbon cable. Carefully pry out the circuit board and set aside. Use a heat gun to remove all adhesive so that the ribbon cable can freely slide out of the slot in a later step.

    In my case this was not necessary. I determined this by waiting until completely necessary, which it wasn’t.

    Darrell Schmidt -

    If your JBL Flip 3 is the same sub-model that I have, a lot of this tutorial and pics will be wrong: the battery comes out easily by removing the plastic housing that covers the buttons and lights. I found a good video that exactly described how to disassemble and replace the battery for my model here.

    JohnD -

    Found an even better video for my sub-model of the JBL Flip 3 (too much time had passed to edit my previous comment): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynOI-OMT...

    JohnD -

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    • Carefully remove the 5 pin connector from motherboard using your hands

    I needed a small sharp knife to cut out some of the glue that surrounded part of the connector.

    Martin Andersson -

    I found removing the plastic battery cover (the next step in this tutorial) allowed me to peel the glue off in one piece rather than cut and chip it off.

    Skeletwing -

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    • Unscrew the 2 8.9mm Phillips #00 screws holding the plastic battery cover. Carefully set them in a different safe spot to ensure that they are both not lost and not confused with the screws from step 2.

    • Remove the clear plastic battery cover.

    No such cover on my Flip 3. I skipped this step.

    Darrell Schmidt -

    Same for me

    Daniel Birmingham -

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    • Gently heat adhesive located at tip of powerchip to melt the plastic fastening the battery to the housing. Be careful not to melt the plastic housing during heating.

    • Heat gun safety: http://www.powertoolinstitute.com/pti_pd...

    before step 8(destroy your speaker), you should check this correct video for replacing battery

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf6I8Xd3...

    albertchang1217 -

    In my version the battery could not slide out sideways (e.g. direction of the passive drivers). I had to remove another 6 screws located on the panel where the 2 circuit boards visible in step 4 were glued on top of . Then the entire side of the speaker came off and I had easy access to the battery.

    Marcell Toth -

    This is the tutorial I’ve been looking for! There are no shortage of videos showing the other style of flip 3, and how to remove “6 screws” to access the battery.

    My flip 3 is this style too. If you can’t find those 6 screws this diy is for you too.

    Neal Chambers -

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    • Remove the ribbon holding the battery. When the ribbon is gently pulled until fully removed from the inner housing, the battery will be unfastened and removable.

    The ribbon was not in the way on my Flip 3. Instead, I had to remove six more screws, each near locations of the six screws removed for the outer frame, in order to lift the outer chassis (not outer frame, but chassis containing mini circuit boards) away from the rest of the assembly revealing the battery and allowing replacement.

    Darrell Schmidt -

    I had the same thing, 6 #0 screws to remove a panel with the power button circuit board. And I had to chisel/scrape away some soft black glue to release the battery cables.

    wolfram.wow -

    “Remove ribbon” seems to be a confusing statement. I removed the ribbon only to discover that this is a connector cable. I thought it was some kind of tape that had to be removed completely… The battery was still stuck by the way. It probably expanded and was very stuck. But since i “removed” (completely broke) the cable, my Flip 3 is useless now anyway…

    Some warning and rephrasing to “move out of the way, be careful not to break ribbon” in this step would be in place.

    Jonathan van Wijngaarden -

    (Edit, even though the connector cable is cut (lol) I can turn on the Flip 3. Will experiment more tomorrow, if I don’t write/answer, you know what happened. I also thought the ribbon cable was a piece of plastic around it, like a seal. My battery has also completely expanded, and I’m feeling pretty angry actually. So it turned out to be quite a waste of money. I have another Flip 3, however mine was glued so badly and it was a real pain in the ass to get to the actual battery. There is no way to fix this, right?

    marcelovhm -

    same thing happened to me. I had hope, but now the speaker’s REALLY gone. thanks ifixit.

    PhatTw0 -

    To remove the baterry, I followed the whole steps until the 8th step. But it is not that easy to remove the battery from the hollow it stays because of the black adhesive and the silicon and also if it is swollen it gets harder almost impossible to remove it. Mine had all these problems. The only solution I was able to think was to cut the upper side of the battery hollow carefully. I cut it from the edge to the end of the battery hollow carefully using a hand tool (similar to Dremel) with a very thin cutting circle blade. I just cut the plastic not so deep to the battery. It is extremely dangerous to cut the battery. Take safety precautions, use safety goggles, gloves and etc. Beside you have to be careful with the flex cable coming from the main board. After I cut the plastic I put a flet screwdriver in the crack and twisted it to open wide. Finally I managed to take the battery out. I hope this will work for you too.

    Vahap Karabulak -

    i had no ribbon,instead there was a plastic black plate i had to remove on top. i put a screwdriver underneath and removed it by applying pressure slowly and carefully.

    Niels van Tilburg -

    Couldn’t remove the battery, it was stuck fast and glued in….. had to throw my flip 3 after spending £20 on the battery.

    grow -

    Same problem, can't get the battery out as it seems to be welded into the casing. Just spent 4 hours trying with every tool to hand. MAKE SURE YOU CAN GET THE OLD BATTERY OUT BEFORE ORDERING A REPLACEMENT! Total waste of time and money

    runttycoon -

    My battery had swollen and I was unable to remove it. I'm very dissapointed that JBL didn't design this considering that the battery will need replacing after a year or two. The battery housing is just too tight. I can't even remove the battery for recycling. What the heck where they thinking?

    Kevin David Corpetti Vazquez -

    On the version sold in the middle East and Africa, the ribbon is the connector for the control board, you need to unlock the connector, remove the cable and board.

    Do NOT pull the ribbon as described in this guide if you have the MEA version, otherwise it will break and you will have a dead speaker.

    will -

    I was unable to get the battery out, it was stuck, as others here have said. I decided to use a Dremel to cut along the upper-left corner of the chamber (when looking down the end of the speaker at the battery slot) along its entire length. That way, the plastic can flex slightly, enough to free the battery. The battery was slightly bulging, which explains why it was hard to get it out. The plastic housing is quite rigid, so the cut didn’t affect the overall stiffness of the housing.

    After getting the battery out, I used a iMax B6 to measure the capacity of the old and new batteries. It turns out that the old one was not that degraded. I probably wouldn’t have attempted it if I had known that the new battery didn’t help that much.

    Definitely a difficult job. Thanks to iFixit, and the comments from users here, I was able to finish the job.

    John Pianezze -

    So if you break the ribbon cable as some of Us have it come be replaced? I too thought it was tape holding the battery in place

    Martin Hopkinson -

    Indeed this step is a major FAIL with regards to the black model that has no screws to uncover the battery chamber. It’s frankly, quite unthinkable, how the battery was placed with all said adhesive with it, to begin with, in such setting. It is however, just a fact that the inability to access the exposed battery directly, leaves the fixer at an impasse. Now it’s up to heating techniques and meddling, with very sloppy lines of action - if any.

    Uri -

    We managed to get the ribbon out by inserting two thin rope or some soft wire to gently wiggle it and eventually pull it out.. It will eequire a lot of patience and a lot of time because you also need to get all the glue out the way. The battery is the hard part, it seem to be stucked or glued as well.

    krae -

    This thing is a disaster! First there are two fundamentally different versions out there - hence all the confusion. The more complicated version is featured here.

    IT IS ESSENTIAL TO REMOVE THE BOARD FULLY in order to free the ribbon cable to the top control board. It is glued on the casing in a hidden position and if you remove the cable from the top you will not be able to put it back!

    Dirk Winning -

    This guide is wrong. It tells you to remove the battery by pulling the strip that holds the battery in place. What the picture shows is not the strip, but the top buttons' ribbon cable, and following the instructions will render your unit useless. There is no way to remove the battery following the steps described in this guide, especially if it is swollen, which happens to many LiPO batteries when they are worn out.

    flightlevel150 -

    For what it is worth... there are whole heap of variants of Flip 3 over time. Mine is one of those pain in the butt types which has a gallon of glue around the battery, and does have not the 6 screws to remove the panel - thus you have to follow this tutorial (which is correct for my model) and remove the main ribbon as it is looped around the top of the battery (madness). I could not get rid of the glue so I resorted to brute force and pliers, which worked, but I did not realise that the ribbon (though now disconnected and unlooped) had slipped under my pliers and I yanked it out with the battery, thus breaking it, I could cry ! Time to get a new flip 3, but I hope the newer ones have the screws so you can easily remove the panel and thus the battery without all the faff. I did try ! :-)

    Matt -

Conclusion

To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.

Author

College Student

Member since: 22/02/17

3479 Reputation

30 comments

where can I get replacement battery for Flip 3?

Gaurav Gupta -

You can get a replacement battery for the JBL flip 3 on AliExpress

Ezriel Greenman -

It is couple diffrent version of JBL Flip 3 speaker .

Dalibor Miljevic -

Yes, apparently the Flip 3 Stealth Edition looks slightly different. The procedure however is about the same, except screws are not covered by silicone covering.

johnnyheesterbeek -

my battery also went to !&&*!! anyone manage to get a replacement?? couldn't find one!

Oscar Motta -

Hi I want to know if i send to you to change battery how much is to fix my jbl flip 3 thanks

Marius -

In the same boat. Battery died and JBL doesn’t replace them outside of warranty. Can’t find a new one.

Bernie Johnsen -

try searching for “CS-JMF300SL”

in my country you can get replacement for something under 15€

Vladimír Kováč -

This battery replacement was far, far, far from user friendly. It’s on the verge of not being replaceable. But with several sessions I finally replaced the battery, but not without lingering issues. (1) Use of the heat gun caused me to have to rework on of the screw holes in the chassis. (2) Also, my attempt to lock down the battery cables with Gorilla glue cause buzzing sounds on one end after re-assembly, for which I had to whittle away some of the glue. After multiple disassembles and re-assemblies, I finally got it working again.

Darrell Schmidt -

Please how can i get replacement battery for my jbl flip 3 to Nigeria, email me elmeengo@gmail.com thanks.

Elameen Awal -

This did not work for me. In the last step you say remove the ribbon holding the battery in. I pulled on the ribbon and it ended up breaking, but got the battery out. Unfortunately THAT ribbon is a cable to power the controls and now my speaker is destroyed!! :(

Bill -

Seeing Bill. Its better i use it wall powered! Better to buy a new Speaker….

h.k30089 -

Magkano po yung battery ng jbl flip 3

Amado Alenain -

Available in Shopee for P2000. 00

dyik88 -

Step 8 basically shows you how to ruin your Flip 3. Thanks ifixit for turning all my hope of fixing my Flip 3 into utter despair knowing that now I have a brand new problem to worry about. I hope this ribbon is replaceable, otherwise you owe me a new JBL Flip 3.

PhatTw0 -

Thanks for this very helpful. My solution is to buy a power bank to make it portable. Battery replacement part is 1/3 the price of the speaker. Power bank of 30,000 mAH at the less than the replacement part and more juice.

dyik88 -

Do not attempt. On my unit there is way more glue on that battery than at the tip as shown in step 7, so much in fact that you’ll never be able to pull out the battery intact. After I maneged to rip out the entire front of the battery my next step is to simply drill it out. Cannot heat more than the tip which is a real issue. Trying to heat the entire internal space will no doubt cook the electronics and render then entire operation pointless. Thanks so much JBL for the purposefully bad design and manufacture to ensure this is a single use product….and then they say they care about the environment……

George -

I tried to remove the battery. Couldn’t remove it (didn’t use these instructions). So I put it all back together. But it won’t power up.

I can charge it and the led’s light up. Any suggestions?

I already bought a Flip 4.

Jack L -

Anyone have the power switch not turn the unit on? The button clicks, but the unit won’t turn on. It finally did, but now it won’t turn off. Going to just leave it plugged in all the time from now on.

Tom Clausen -

Any idea what businesses replace JBL Flip 3 batteries if I don’t want to do it? Likely labor cost? Or, better value to just buy another Flip 3 or even a later better model?

Ken Etchells -

I think it’s a better idea to buy the same speaker or a newer one , with labor costs and battery price, depending the reparator, the price may be the same of a new one (Flip 3) :) .

Mattéo -

I performed this battery replacement fix on my JBL Flip 3. Getting the battery out was really difficult, and getting the ribbon cable out of the way was impossible. I destroyed the ribbon cable in the process. I purchased a new ribbon cable (300 mm version) here:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/0-5mm-Pitch-13-...

And I purchased the replacement battery here:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XW8...

Both of these replacement items worked great and the speaker is back up and running.

William Sakran -

These instructions are incomplete at best. First issue was that the power / power display led board is removed as shown in later steps. Next, the ribbon was not noted as a control cable, it is trapped / glued in place, totally destroyed that. The last issue that I observed is that the battery was swollen, which made it near impossible to pull out. Eventually, I got the battery out. Time to go buy a ribbon cable…

Jesse Wills -

How did you manage to remove the battery?

Yusuf -

My JBL flip 3 had some screws on step 2. must have been a different version.

manage to replace the battery, the speaker works fine. The only thing that went wrong was when I try to close the outer housing, I broke the tabs and one side will never fully close again ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ you live and you learn

Javier Bianchi -

I try remove ribbon as your state above that ribbon is flexible wire and flip 3 total dead

philipyama -

If your JBL Flip 3 is the same sub-model that I have, a lot of this tutorial and pics will be wrong: the battery comes out easily by removing the plastic housing that covers the buttons and lights. I found a good video that exactly described how to disassemble and replace the battery for my model here.

JohnD -

Found an even better video for my sub-model of the JBL Flip 3 (too much time had passed to edit my previous comment): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynOI-OMT...

JohnD -

my jbl flip 3 wouldn't turn on if you unplugged the charger but the battery is fully charged. what possibly is the problem?

Miss D -

Hier ist ein Tipp zu unterschiedlichen JBL Flip-3-Versionen, was den passenden Akkutyp angeht.

Ich bin dran, die schwachen Akkus bei zwei Flip-3 zu erneuern und habe festgestellt, dass zumindest die Anschlüsse variieren. Das neuere Modell hat einen breiteren Stecker am Akku mit ca. 1,4 cm, das ältere 1,1 cm, die sonstigen Spezifikationen scheinen gleich zu sein.

Akku - Ältere Version Typ GSP872693

Akku neuere Version - im Shop unter Flip 4 gelistet Typ GSP872693 01

Noch ein Tipp: Der Akku hat sehr fest gesessen, ich konnte ihn erst entfernen, indem ich ihn mit einer Bleistiftrückseite von hinten herausgeschoben habe. Rütteln und Ziehen würde ich nicht empfehlen - und bitte vorsichtig sein!

Danke übrigens für die tollen Anleitungen bei ifixit!

Martin -