My first iOS device repair was a success!

Mijn probleem

Cracked glass and digitizer.

Mijn oplossing

It went very, very well. I started using the liquid-filled heating pad (which is an improvement over the first-gen non-liquid heating pad) but resorted to using a special hot air device we have here at work for re-flowing solder connections.

The tools that came with the kit were excellent and will be useful for future repairs. I was quite astonished at how comprehensive the kit was.

Mijn advies

The glass was shattered so using guitar picks or the plastic spudger (or similar tools) didn't work very well for removing the glass pieces that were stuck via adhesive tape. The pointing tweezers that came with the repair kit were perfect for this task.

I was repairing an iPad Mini 2 so the how-to photos weren't 100% identical but the instructions still applied, for the most part. The differences didn't cause any problems.

My biggest advice is this: when removing the paper backing on the adhesive that comes pre-attached to the new digitizer, be very careful to remove just the paper only. When I started peeling the paper off, I didn't realize that I was also pulling the transparent adhesive tape right off of the new digitizer. By the time I did realize it, it was too late and I couldn't straighten it out and put it back on. Fortunately, someone at work had some double-sided tape that worked just as well.