battery desoldering advice

[Tony Duell]

> 
> I need to replace the battery in an item I have. It's the quartersized/style 
> one. The way it is attached to the board, is via a clip arrangement that 
> you'd swear makes the battery removable. However, it is in fact soldered or 
> spot welded into the clip somehow. As a result, I'd rather not just cut the 
> clip arms to replace the battery as I'd have trouble getting the new one in.

This sounds like a PCB-mounted lithium cell. You buy the replacement with 
the 'clip' spot-welded onto it (last one I got, I got from Farnell, I 
guess there are Stateside syppliers too). You desolder the whole thing 
from the PCB, then solder in the replacement. 

> 
> The only possibility I see is unsoldering the clip from the battery, but it 
> strikes me as a rather bad idea to put a soldering iron to a battery. 

I would not want to solder to a lithium cell. There is a very real risk 
of it exploding.

-tony