Replacing the battery on a Barnes & Noble eInk Nook

The other day I fished my old nook out of deep storage - only to discover that the battery wasn't holding charge. More seriously, the back had swollen out and looked like it was about to burst. Uh-oh! Inflating batteries are dangerous batteries.

Taking apart the nook is incredibly simple, pop off the power button, use a Torx 5 screwdriver to undo the single screw, and then spludger your way around the edges. This is what I found in mine...

VERY BAD!

A replacement nook battery is less than a tenner from Amazon. It is developed by Cameron Sino who seem to specialise in making replacement batteries for all sorts of gadgets.

Fitting the battery was a little tricky, here's how it went...

There's a small port on the motherboard into which the battery cable is attached.

The cable only fits in one way - with the red wire at the bottom. This is the position which the battery will take when the nook is reassembled.

The battery came charged, so I was able to verify that everything worked as expected. Now's a good time to test charging it.

Once done, unplug the battery and prepare to reassemble!

The back case of the nook has a recessed area for the battery. There's just one tiny problem...

Yup! The battery doesn't fit!

Luckily, the casing for the battery is rather pliable and, with some gentle force, it's just about possible to squeeze it in.

A little bit of tape to secure it into place and we're good to go!

The cable on the battery is long enough to plug in while the back is detached.

Reassembling is somewhat tricky. You have to slide on the bottom, then re-clip everything, and slide up. Be careful not to apply too much pressure - it's really easy to damage the screen that way.

When all the plastic casings are done, it's a simple case of screwing in the T5.

And - that's it! A fairly easy device to replace parts on - no soldering, easy clips, one screw. Why can't all electronics be like this?

Replacement batteries for the nook and glolight are on Amazon for under £10.