Aura H2O My Repair Story

[yorab]

I registered just so that I could add a bit more information to the ol' interwebs on the Kobo Aura H2O. I couldn't find much info, and what I did find, I found here so thanks to those who have posted.

My wife received the Kobo as a b-day gift. As it turns out, she had just purchased a bunch of paperback books that she wanted to read, so she put the Kobo away in a cabinet until she finished her books. Well, she forgot about the reader for about a year before pulling it back out. She couldn't get the Kobo to charge. There was also a line running left to right in about the middle of the screen. I'm certain that there was no rough treatment of the reader (good storage temperature, nothing stacked on it, never dropped, etc.) I tried the various reset methods, but nothing worked. Therefore, I decided to open it up to see what was up. Just before opening the unit, my brother-in-law noticed a peculiar issue that I'll talk about in a moment.

First off, I found conflicting info on the webz about the front bezel and the "scalloped edge" piece. Some say that the scalloped edge should come away from the unit along with the front bezel. With my wife's model, they were separate pieces. When I removed the bezel, the scalloped edge remained with the PCB/screen assembly.

Next, when I removed the PCB/screen from the back case, I immediately confirmed what the problem was: the battery was shot. It had swollen to about 2-3 times its original thickness. What my bro-in-law noticed was that there was a gap of some millimeters between the front bezel and the case. The battery was so fat that it forced the PCB/screen to push forward, separating the bezel. It also explained the horizontal line on the screen. I'm sorry that I forgot to take a pic of the battery while it was in this state. You can somewhat see the edge of the puffed battery in one of my pics, but it was even worse in the middle of the battery. A few of my pics are of the battery after I carried it around for a day in a plastic bag while I sought a replacement at some electronics stores. You can see the deflated, wrinkled cell pouch. I found a replacement battery and connected it. I also used silicone sealant to keep the battery in place on the PCB.

Then I cleaned off the old bezel adhesive with lab-grade isopropanol. That worked well. Next, I used clear silicone sealant on the bezel and stacked a few books on the unit for a day. Upon removing the weight, I realized that there was a gap between the bezel and the case on one side; the silicone sealant did not work. However, the reader was working perfectly again. I used my finger to sort of roll up the bits of sealant stuck to the bezel. That worked well. For the stubborn remaining sealant, I again used isopropanol and that did the trick.

Then I tried an adhesive called Aquaseal, made by McNett. It's used for wetsuits, waders, etc. It's completely waterproof and remains flexible. I stacked a few books on it for a day and when I removed them, I was super happy that the bezel was uniformly adhered to the case. But then I got the stupid "Is there water on the screen?" error message. D'oh! Nothing made that message go away. I must have gotten some adhesive somewhere that it shouldn't have been. Oy, I had to take the unit apart again.

Because of the flexiblity of the Aquaseal, it behaved similar to the original adhesive. I was able to use a credit card or some similar card to remove the bezel. Then I once again used isopropanol to remove the Aquaseal. It took a bit longer to remove Aquaseal than the silicone sealant, but not too long.

I then repeated the process again. This time, all worked out well. There was a very small amount of Aquaseal that had squeezed out in just a few spots. I used a combination of my fingernail and a paper towel soaked in, you guessed it, isopropanol to remove that excess.

It seems like a secure fix. I'd even bet that the water resistance is nearly as good as from the factory, though I don't want to piss off the wife by testing it. If it ever falls into the pool or ocean, I'll come back here to update this post with the results.

I'll try to post a bunch of pics that I took. Maybe somebody out there needs a pic of a certain component from a certain angle and these pics may help them.

[yorab]

Some pics:

[yorab]

...and more:

[yorab]

...a few more:

[yorab]

...and finally:

[boriar]

Thanks for your information and the pictures. Very useful for me.

Please, can you add some pictures of the bezel edge over the screen and the opposite (external side)? Thanks

[yorab]

boriar, I'm not completely sure what you are referring to. BTW, those are all of the pics that I have of the disassembled unit. Are you referring to pics of the disassembled unit, or the assembled unit? If assembled, then sure, I can snap some more pics once I understand exactly what you need.

[boriar]

@yorab
Yes, the assembled unit to see the bezel glued finished from the screen side and from external side. Thanks for your interest

[frostschutz]

First of all, glad you could replace the battery and give new life to this eReader.

There apparently are two ways to take the original H2O apart... when I did mine, the front bezel came off as one unit together with the IR layer. (here and here).

Now some other people (including a youtube video, and you) seperate front bezel and IR, and leave the IR part glued to the screen.

Now, I'm not sure what the right or wrong method is here. For me, the front came off so naturally (*cough*) that I never imagined these two parts could even be separated at all.

So when I first saw other people doing that my thought was THAT'S GOT TO BE WRONG, dammit.

Now I'm not sure anymore.

How much force was required to remove your front bezel the way you did? Cause if you lift off the IR part from the screen even just ever so slightly, water will get in at that point.

Well, you should never trust any waterproof reader near water anyway, so waterproofness is secondary I guess

[yorab]

Well, it was not too difficult to remove the bezel the first time, especially since the swollen battery separated in from the case. I used a card that held a new sim for a phone so it was a bit thinner than a credit card. There was a bit of forcing the card to "cut" through the adhesive but certainly not too much. Perhaps it's possible to push the card in between different layers of components and that is what determines if the IR layer comes off or remains?

boriar, are these pics what you need?

[yorab]

Pics:

[yorab]

More pics:

[boriar]

Yes, these are exactly what I asking for. Many thanks for it.

[mathil]

When I disassembled mine it looked exactly like the pics in frostschutz's post. It took several tries in the span of a couple of days, as I was terrified of breaking it but in the end I managed. It's held together now by the old glue, which means that there's an infinitesimal gap between the bezel and the body of the device, but it's hardly noticeable and I like that if needed, I can substitute both battery and internal SD without too much hassle (it's not even my main reader anymore, so). I'm not sure I plan on buying ereaders with screens bigger than 6" any time soon, so it better last